YouTube downloader that grabs all videos of a channel?

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bzl333
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Joined: Wed Jan 12, 2011 3:11 pm

YouTube downloader that grabs all videos of a channel?

#1 Post by bzl333 »

Hi,
just wondering if there was a YouTube downloader that would slowly and automatically
grab all the videos from a particular channel? Kind of a set it and forget program that worked in the background without any user oversight.

btw, i notice GPodder but seems like many feeds don't have all the available downloads only the latest episodes (true for audio podcasts anyway - not sure about YouTube) and GPodder gives up and says "fail" if you lose the internet connection, which i often do.

Specular
Posts: 443
Joined: Sun Feb 16, 2014 10:54 pm

Re: YouTube downloader that grabs all videos of a channel?

#2 Post by Specular »

Use youtube-dl. (site). It's the best Youtube and general video downloader around and easy to use even for a command-line program. There's a front-end, but it's aimed more towards single video/playlist downloads and only supports Youtube afaik.

For example downloading a Comedy Central video is as simple as:

Code: Select all

<pathtoappfolder> youtube-dl http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/rysfr5/stephen-colbert-says-goodbye
And away it starts downloading the highest quality version of the video to the user directory. Not sure what the default quality setting of Youtube downloads are but you can check the docs for parameters (I usually use the GUI for Youtube videos and command-line for other sites).
Last edited by Specular on Fri Jan 09, 2015 4:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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joby_toss
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Location: Romania
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Re: YouTube downloader that grabs all videos of a channel?

#3 Post by joby_toss »

3D YouTube Downloader

http://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=2634

http://yd.3dyd.com/home
Other program advantages:
  • 20 supported sites including Vimeo, Dailymotion, Metacafe and others
    downloading subtitles from Youtube and Dailymotion
    support for Youtube Adaptive Streams
    support for 3D videos on Youtube and Dailymotion
    support for Youtube and Dailymotion feeds (playlists, channels etc)
    search on Youtube within the program
    it is fast (using multipart downloading for files and HTTP compression for pages)
    multi language support
    quite nice Aero UI

Specular
Posts: 443
Joined: Sun Feb 16, 2014 10:54 pm

Re: YouTube downloader that grabs all videos of a channel?

#4 Post by Specular »

So just checked the docs and ran a couple tests. The default quality is 720p. So for 1080p / best video and audio, combined with downloading an entire channel the command is:

Code: Select all

youtube-dl -f bestvideo+bestaudio --restrict-filenames --download-archive VideoIDs http://youtube.com/discordgames
The above will download the entire channel (here seen as Discord Games) at 1080p (or whatever the best quality is) to the folder the youtube-dl.exe is located, and add an archive file 'VideoIDs' in the same folder that keeps a record of which videos have already been saved, to prevent duplicate downloads in the future if the command is run more than once. Also added the --restrict-filenames which removes unicode characters from the filename that can cause issues when muxing (combining the video+audio files required for the 1080p quality).

So the steps:
  • Download youtube-dl to a folder
  • Shift+Right-click an empty space in the folder and select 'Open command window here' from the context menu.
  • Paste the above code into the window and change the Youtube channel name as wanted
How it looks in my location:

Image

bzl333
Posts: 167
Joined: Wed Jan 12, 2011 3:11 pm

Re: YouTube downloader that grabs all videos of a channel?

#5 Post by bzl333 »

joby_toss wrote:3D YouTube Downloader

http://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?id=2634

http://yd.3dyd.com/home
Other program advantages:


support for Youtube and Dailymotion feeds (playlists, channels etc)
Thanks. This is my go to YouTube downloader and i didnt even know this was available.


Specular wrote:So just checked the docs and ran a couple tests. The default quality is 720p. So for 1080p / best video and audio, combined with downloading an entire channel the command is:

Code: Select all

youtube-dl -f bestvideo+bestaudio --restrict-filenames --download-archive VideoIDs http://youtube.com/discordgames
The above will download the entire channel (here seen as Discord Games) at 1080p (or whatever the best quality is) to the folder the youtube-dl.exe is located, and add an archive file 'VideoIDs' in the same folder that keeps a record of which videos have already been saved, to prevent duplicate downloads in the future if the command is run more than once. Also added the --restrict-filenames which removes unicode characters from the filename that can cause issues when muxing (combining the video+audio files required for the 1080p quality).

So the steps:
  • Download youtube-dl to a folder
  • Shift+Right-click an empty space in the folder and select 'Open command window here' from the context menu.
  • Paste the above code into the window and change the Youtube channel name as wanted
Thanks. i usually rather stay away from command line stuff but this one might be worth spending the time to learn.
Last edited by bzl333 on Fri Jan 09, 2015 5:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Userfriendly
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Re: YouTube downloader that grabs all videos of a channel?

#6 Post by Userfriendly »

Specular wrote:

Code: Select all

youtube-dl -f bestvideo+bestaudio --restrict-filenames --download-archive VideoIDs http://youtube.com/discordgames
You can also change the it to a playlist url instead to download playlist videos.

3DYTD can scan and list a channels videos but you can't actually batch download with it. Only manually download one at a time.
bzl333 wrote:Thanks. i usually rather stay away from command line stuff but this one might be worth spending the time to learn.
You can just copy and paste the commands into a batch file and just change the url for different channels.

bzl333
Posts: 167
Joined: Wed Jan 12, 2011 3:11 pm

Re: YouTube downloader that grabs all videos of a channel?

#7 Post by bzl333 »

Userfriendly wrote:
bzl333 wrote:Thanks. i usually rather stay away from command line stuff but this one might be worth spending the time to learn.
You can just copy and paste the commands into a batch file and just change the url for different channels.
yeah, i see that now.

i have limited bandwidth, about 60 GB/month so i was looking at a way to get the 360p videos mostly. do you guys know how to specify that? i see codes in the FAQ section like 136, 137 but no definitions. (i dont really care whether its webm or mp4.)

Specular
Posts: 443
Joined: Sun Feb 16, 2014 10:54 pm

Re: YouTube downloader that grabs all videos of a channel?

#8 Post by Specular »

bzl333 wrote:yeah, i see that now.

i have limited bandwidth, about 60 GB/month so i was looking at a way to get the 360p videos mostly. do you guys know how to specify that? i see codes in the FAQ section like 136, 137 but no definitions. (i dont really care whether its webm or mp4.)
Sure, the -f option selects the quality and according to this table the 360p version is quality 18. So it would be:

Code: Select all

youtube-dl -f 18 --restrict-filenames --download-archive VideoIDs http://youtube.com/discordgames
Just change the channel name and paste that into the cmd.exe window opened at the youtube-dl.exe folder location and away it will run.

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webfork
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Re: YouTube downloader that grabs all videos of a channel?

#9 Post by webfork »

I've had pretty good luck with TEncoder, which is a nice frontend for youtube-dl. Supports playlists as well as channels

Also gPodder works remarkably well, although you may have to tweak it a bit to get all the videos from a channel rather than just the top 15-20.

nubiai
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Location: Hungary

Re: YouTube downloader that grabs all videos of a channel?

#10 Post by nubiai »

4K Video Downloader
There is a portable version in download section. Unfortunately the freeware version can download from channel and playlist only 25 videos.
How to Download YouTube Channel with 4K Video Downloader

bzl333
Posts: 167
Joined: Wed Jan 12, 2011 3:11 pm

Re: YouTube downloader that grabs all videos of a channel?

#11 Post by bzl333 »

Specular wrote:
bzl333 wrote:yeah, i see that now.

i have limited bandwidth, about 60 GB/month so i was looking at a way to get the 360p videos mostly. do you guys know how to specify that? i see codes in the FAQ section like 136, 137 but no definitions. (i dont really care whether its webm or mp4.)
Sure, the -f option selects the quality and according to this table the 360p version is quality 18. So it would be:

Code: Select all

youtube-dl -f 18 --restrict-filenames --download-archive VideoIDs http://youtube.com/discordgames
Just change the channel name and paste that into the cmd.exe window opened at the youtube-dl.exe folder location and away it will run.
Thanks, works great now.

Also ty webfork and nubiai.

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I am Baas
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Joined: Thu Aug 07, 2008 4:51 am

Re: YouTube downloader that grabs all videos of a channel?

#12 Post by I am Baas »

nubiai wrote:4K Video Downloader
There is a portable version in download section. Unfortunately the freeware version can download from channel and playlist only 25 videos.
How to Download YouTube Channel with 4K Video Downloader

See http://www.portablefreeware.com/forums/ ... 20&t=20303

freakazoid
Posts: 1212
Joined: Wed Jul 18, 2007 5:45 pm

Re: YouTube downloader that grabs all videos of a channel?

#13 Post by freakazoid »

Specular wrote:So just checked the docs and ran a couple tests. The default quality is 720p. So for 1080p / best video and audio, combined with downloading an entire channel the command is:

Code: Select all

youtube-dl -f bestvideo+bestaudio --restrict-filenames --download-archive VideoIDs http://youtube.com/discordgames
The above will download the entire channel (here seen as Discord Games) at 1080p (or whatever the best quality is) to the folder the youtube-dl.exe is located, and add an archive file 'VideoIDs' in the same folder that keeps a record of which videos have already been saved, to prevent duplicate downloads in the future if the command is run more than once. Also added the --restrict-filenames which removes unicode characters from the filename that can cause issues when muxing (combining the video+audio files required for the 1080p quality).

So the steps:
  • Download youtube-dl to a folder
  • Shift+Right-click an empty space in the folder and select 'Open command window here' from the context menu.
  • Paste the above code into the window and change the Youtube channel name as wanted
How it looks in my location:

Image
Great post, Specular!

I was using youtube-dl before for other sites, but didn't know you could download in mass and just audio as well! Great stuff!

If you're grabbing just the .m4a audio, you also have to demux it before it plays properly:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/423508/c ... 061_423510
is it stealth? ;)

Specular
Posts: 443
Joined: Sun Feb 16, 2014 10:54 pm

Re: YouTube downloader that grabs all videos of a channel?

#14 Post by Specular »

bzl333 wrote:Thanks, works great now. Also ty webfork and nubiai.
No probs, glad it was useful :)
freakazoid wrote:Great post, Specular!

I was using youtube-dl before for other sites, but didn't know you could download in mass and just audio as well! Great stuff!

If you're grabbing just the .m4a audio, you also have to demux it before it plays properly:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/423508/c ... 061_423510
Yeah, I can remember downloading DASH audio before and needing to remux it. Pretty sure I also used ffmpeg like the comment on that answer as I couldn't get anything else to recognize it (I think PotPlayer could play it).

freakazoid
Posts: 1212
Joined: Wed Jul 18, 2007 5:45 pm

Re: YouTube downloader that grabs all videos of a channel?

#15 Post by freakazoid »

youtube-dl has an 'exec' command that you can use to process the item after downloading. I'm using that right now to process the file to .m4a. I'm using ffmpeg for the processing at the moment, but might switch to MP4box.exe as it's way smaller than ffmpeg.exe.
is it stealth? ;)

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