"Safe" Downloader for YouTube Videos

stearman65

I recently changed from W7 to W10 & lost the downloader I have used for a couple of years. I've been looking around for a replacement & accidentally downloaded Y2mate .com which I found out was just a scam to hack your download system & infect it with nasties. After much clearing out, I think I've got rid of it. Does anyone have a safe YouTube download programme?
BTW YT say it is against their rules to download videos from the site.

dosdan

Safest way is to use open-source software (youtube-dl) to d/l a YT video yourself.

If you just want to d/l individual episodes, no need for a fancy downloader. It's quite easy to do it manually.

I've got a folder on my Win 10 desktop called "Video Downloads". It contains 2 shortcut icons:
Get to Youtube_dlYoutube-dl Videos
"Get to Youtube_dl" shortcut. This gets to where I keep youtube-dl and the videos. Its destination is d:\youtube_dl
Shortcut Target (one line): C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /k d:\youtube_dl\Get_to_youtube_dl.bat

In d:\youtube-dl, I have youtube-dl.exe and Get_to_youtube_dl.bat. You could also place here ffmpeg.exe (I've got it in my path), and probably youtube-dl.conf (a text file containing your default YTD options).

Get_to_youtube_dl.bat contains:
                                        Code:                                @echo offd:cd\youtube_dlmode con cols=120 lines=60        In my user directory I have the YTD configuration text file:
"C:\Users\Dan\youtube-dl.conf"

It contains just 1 line:
-o D:/youtube_dl/Videos/%(title)s.%(ext)s

This ensures that YTD puts my d/ls into the D:\youtube_dl\Videos sub-directory and appropriately titles them.

I use the "Youtube-dl Videos" folder shortcut to conveniently inspect the contents of the Videos sub-directory.

Steps to d/l a clip from YT:
Highlight the URL  of the YT video you wish to d/l in your browser's address bar.R.click and select "Copy" (or use the Ctrl-C hotkey) to copy it to your clipboard. I'll use the excellent Veritasium episode about understanding the black hole image. Its copied address is https://www.you tube.com/watch?v=zUyH3XhpLTo   (I've had to put a space in "youtube" to stop this website showing the clip instead. So remove the space to get the correct URL.)Open the Video Downloads folder on your desktopDouble-click on Get_to_youtube_dl. This opens a command prompt in the correct location and expands the command console window size. My prompt of "D:\youtube_dl>" indicates where I'm located and operating from.From here I just type Y and press the Tab-key. The command processor immediately looks for a filename-beginning-with match in the current directory and offers youtube-dl.exeI leave a space after this and then press Ctrl-V to paste the copied URL. The command line looks like:
youtube-dl.exe https://www.you tube.com/watch?v=zUyH3XhpLToPress Enter and the d/l starts:                                        Code:                                d:\YouTube_dl>youtube-dl.exe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUyH3XhpLTo[youtube] zUyH3XhpLTo: Downloading webpage[youtube] zUyH3XhpLTo: Downloading video info webpageWARNING: Requested formats are incompatible for merge and will be merged into mkv.[download] Destination: D:\youtube_dl\NA\How_to_Understand_the_Black_Hole_Image.f137.mp4[download] 100% of 90.64MiB in 00:19[download] Destination: D:\youtube_dl\NA\How_to_Understand_the_Black_Hole_Image.f251.webm[download] 100% of 7.26MiB in 00:01[ffmpeg] Merging formats into "D:\youtube_dl\NA\How_to_Understand_the_Black_Hole_Image.mkv"Deleting original file D:\youtube_dl\NA\How_to_Understand_the_Black_Hole_Image.f137.mp4 (pass -k to keep)Deleting original file D:\youtube_dl\NA\How_to_Understand_the_Black_Hole_Image.f251.webm (pass -k to keep)       
Notice that two d/ls are performed, the MP4 (containing only the video stream which has been compressed using the AVC codec), and the webm (containing the audio stream which is compressed using the Opus codec). Notice that FFMPEG is called to merge (multiplex or "mux") these two streams. After the merge the original webm & MP4 files are deleted. Now, the new MKV contains both tracks.

YT now favours webm/Opus. The MP4 container format won't accept Opus audio, but the more-flexible MKV container format has no such problems. This is fine if you're using a software media player on a PC, but hardware media players will have trouble with MKV and OPUS.

In that case, you'll need to specifically choose the M4A audio format. To do this, first use "-F" (YTD options are case-sensitive) to see the list of formats available for downloading:

                                        Code:                                d:\YouTube_dl>youtube-dl.exe -F https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUyH3XhpLTo[youtube] zUyH3XhpLTo: Downloading webpage[youtube] zUyH3XhpLTo: Downloading video info webpage[info] Available formats for zUyH3XhpLTo:format code  extension  resolution note249          webm       audio only DASH audio   59k , opus @ 50k, 3.38MiB250          webm       audio only DASH audio   76k , opus @ 70k, 4.00MiB171          webm       audio only DASH audio  107k , [email protected], 6.55MiB140          m4a        audio only DASH audio  130k , m4a_dash container, [email protected], 8.62MiB251          webm       audio only DASH audio  146k , opus @160k, 7.26MiB394          mp4        256x144    144p   85k , av01.0.05M.08, 30fps, video only, 4.65MiB160          mp4        256x144    144p   91k , avc1.4d400c, 30fps, video only, 2.91MiB278          webm       256x144    144p  129k , webm container, vp9, 30fps, video only, 6.31MiB395          mp4        426x240    240p  177k , av01.0.05M.08, 30fps, video only, 7.36MiB242          webm       426x240    240p  180k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 6.80MiB133          mp4        426x240    240p  214k , avc1.4d4015, 30fps, video only, 5.50MiB243          webm       640x360    360p  298k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 11.70MiB396          mp4        640x360    360p  313k , av01.0.05M.08, 30fps, video only, 13.57MiB134          mp4        640x360    360p  384k , avc1.4d401e, 30fps, video only, 10.00MiB244          webm       854x480    480p  430k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 17.31MiB397          mp4        854x480    480p  533k , av01.0.05M.08, 30fps, video only, 24.47MiB135          mp4        854x480    480p  551k , avc1.4d401f, 30fps, video only, 14.49MiB247          webm       1280x720   720p  732k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 30.07MiB136          mp4        1280x720   720p  771k , avc1.4d401f, 30fps, video only, 24.39MiB248          webm       1920x1080  1080p 2288k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 104.15MiB137          mp4        1920x1080  1080p 2617k , avc1.640028, 30fps, video only, 90.64MiB18           mp4        640x360    medium , avc1.42001E, [email protected] 96k, 25.49MiB43           webm       640x360    medium , vp8.0, [email protected], 42.85MiB22           mp4        1280x720   hd720 , avc1.64001F, [email protected] (best)        Suitable formats here are "-f137 140" (Full HD AVC video and a separate M4A audio, with the " " telling YTD to call FFMPEG to combine them, after downloading, into a MP4 container) or "-f22" (HD AVC video with M4A audio already combined in a MP4). I'll use  "-f137 140"
                                        Code:                                d:\YouTube_dl>youtube-dl.exe -f137 140 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUyH3XhpLTo[youtube] zUyH3XhpLTo: Downloading webpage[youtube] zUyH3XhpLTo: Downloading video info webpage[download] Destination: D:\youtube_dl\NA\How_to_Understand_the_Black_Hole_Image.f137.mp4[download] 100% of 90.64MiB in 00:17[download] Destination: D:\youtube_dl\NA\How_to_Understand_the_Black_Hole_Image.f140.m4a[download] 100% of 8.62MiB in 00:01[ffmpeg] Merging formats into "D:\youtube_dl\NA\How_to_Understand_the_Black_Hole_Image.mp4"Deleting original file D:\youtube_dl\NA\How_to_Understand_the_Black_Hole_Image.f137.mp4 (pass -k to keep)Deleting original file D:\youtube_dl\NA\How_to_Understand_the_Black_Hole_Image.f140.m4a (pass -k to keep)       
BTW, to upgrade YTD at any time use the "-U" option (you'll need to press Enter afterwards to return to the command prompt):

                                        Code:                                d:\YouTube_dl>youtube-dl.exe -UUpdating to version 2019.07.02 ...d:\YouTube_dl>Waiting for file handle to be closed ...Updated youtube-dl to version 2019.07.02. [I pressed Enter now]d:\YouTube_dl>        When finished operating at the command prompt type Exit and press Enter to close the window.

Dan.

stearman65

Hi Dan
Thanks for the comprehensive instructions on downloading YT videos. I read it on the email first & thought it was too advanced for my knowledge level. I will copy it & re-read it to see if I can follow it after a few reads. Thanks once again.
Regards Eric.

John7

Firefox can download video from YT by installing the download helper extension/app

JabbaNut

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stearman65

I've downloaded many of the so called "free" YT downloaders. All those tried recently contained malware even from Firefox & it was the devils own job to get rid of them, my advise use a screen copier such as Camtasia, it takes longer but you are in control.