[L0aD1nG]

Downloading youtube videos via terminal

Hello [username], this will be a simple tutorial about how to install youtube-dl and simply use it.The youtube-dl package provides you a terminal Youtube Downloader, and the best part of it is that the speed is the maximum DL speed you can achieve.All the code is tested on Debian 7.6!

Requirements : python (>= 2.7), python-pkg-resources

START

Check if python-pkg-resources is installed.

The python (>= 2.7) requirement would probably be satisfied in a modern distro.So we check of the the second one.

Code:

aptitude search python-pkg-resources

If its not installed

Spoiler:

Code:

aptitude install python-pkg-resources

Install youtube-dl.

Go here choose the mirror you prefer and download the youtube-dl_2014.07.15-1_all.deb package.

Then install it.

Code:

dpkg -i youtube-dl_2014.07.15-1_all.deb

Now you are ready to download.

Simplest way to do it is use to use the script and pass it the youtube video url paste as an argument.

Code:

youtube-dl <paste youtube video url>

For whole playlist downloading you should add a "http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=" prefix and then copy and paste the list="..." part from the playlist url.

Spoiler: For Example

Code:

youtube-dl http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTlJK3kwZIbQQmXSnDpiVtrhpiyl7b53T

This will get you some nice videos from Motherboard channel.

Finding out formats(resolutions) available for download

You can find out the available resolutions to download the video on.

Code:

youtube-dl -F <paste youtube video url>

This will show you all about formats available for the video nicely documented.

Download Example with specified format

Spoiler: Click to view example

For example to download the Iron Man 3 official trailer on 1280x720 resolution you will go like this:

Find out what the number of the format is from the format column of -F parameter.

Code:

youtube-dl -F https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CzoSeClcw0

And then of course use the number to pick the resolution you want.

Code:

youtube-dl -f 22 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CzoSeClcw0

this will download it on 1280x720 resolution, same thing goes on for playlists.

NOTE : Take care avoid the music only, and video only resolutions.Except if its about a song or you want a muted video. orly

Take a look on man page...its awesome documented.

For more advanced stuff you can always check out the manual.

Code:

man youtube-dl

END

At last i should mention that you must either specify a folder with parameter usage or cd to the path you would like to download the files.
You can also find recommended packages for that package here.I hope this helped out, I personally like this tool and believe its
something very handy for everyday terminal users.As always I hope the english wasn't extremely hard to read.

Thanks for reading this!
Sincerely,
L0ad1ng.