Downloading from YouTube

Downloading from YouTube

Installation

1. Download youtube-dl from https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html
2. Download ffmpeg from https://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/
	* ffmpeg.exe is located in the bin folder of the archive
3. Place youtube-dl.exe & ffmpeg.exe in your C:\Users\[Username]\ directory (windows key + R, "C:\Users\[your username here]", enter)

Use

1. Run Command Prompt (windows key + R "cmd", enter)
2. Type "youtube-dl -f bestvideo+bestaudio [URL]"
	* this will download video and audio files seperately and then merge them into an mkv container with ffmpeg

[Optional]

Configuration file
	* https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/README.md#configuration

1. Navigate to your roaming folder (windows key + R, "C:\Users\[your username here]\AppData\Roaming", enter)
2. Create a new folder called youtube-dl
3. Inside of that folder create a txt file called config.txt
4. Input one option per line and save

	Recommended options

	-o 'C:/path/to/downloads/%(uploader)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s'
		* https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/README.md#output-template
	--add-metadata
    --ignore-errors
	--download-archive C:\Users\[your username]\AppData\Roaming\youtube-dl\downloaded.txt
		* this will keep a list of urls you downloaded and skip them
	-f bestvideo+bestaudio

		Examples

		30FPS MAX IN MP4 CONTAINER
		-f bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]

		60FPS IN WEBM CONTAINTER
		-f 315+bestaudio --merge-output-format webm

[Advanced]

Create an alias for youtube-dl

1. Navigate to C:\Users\[your username]\
2. Create a text file and name it aliases.cmd
3. Add the following lines and save
		@echo off
        DOSKEY ydl=youtube-dl $*
4. Run Command Prompt (windows key + R "cmd", enter)
5. Input the following string
	reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor" /v AutoRun ^ /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d "%"USERPROFILE"%\aliases.cmd" /f
		* this will make your aliases load when you launch cmd
		* to delete it: reg delete "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor" /v AutoRun

Now you can simply type "ydl [URL]" to download videos with whatever options you have set in your config.
 * Sometimes you may not want whatever options are set in your config so it is useful to set more than one alias as seen below

	Examples

	 Download audio as mp3
		DOSKEY ydla=youtube-dl -f bestaudio -x --audio-format mp3 --embed-thumbnail $* -o "C:\path\to\folder\%%(uploader)s - %%(title)s.%%(ext)s"

	 Download only video
		DOSKEY ydlv=youtube-dl -f bestvideo $* -o "C:\path\to\folder\%%(uploader)s - %%(title)s.%%(ext)s"


Convert to mp4 (for programs that don't support mkv/webm formats)

	MKV to MP4 without reencoding (assuming the mkv contains mp4 compatible codecs)

	ffmpeg -i "C:/path/to/input.mkv" -codec copy "C:/path/to/output.mp4"
		* just drag+drop the file onto command prompt to print the file path

	Any format to mp4

	ffmpeg -i "C:/path/to/input.ts" -vcodec libx264 -acodec aac -preset slow "C:/path/to/output.mp4"

Notes

Youtube-dl wiki
https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/README.md#readme
	* list of supported sites located here

Helpful ffmpeg+youtube-dl commands
https://pastebin.com/z8npUD1X

ffmpeg VP8 encoding
https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Encode/VP8