youtube-dl replacement

jr_bob_dobbs · 10-29-2016, 05:27 PM

Can someone recommend a replacement for youtube-dl? In years gone by it was the standard for fetching youtube videos but nowadays more often than not it fails.

So far, my researches have revealed that every program that claims to be a youtube-downloader ends up being merely a front-end for youtube-dl. Specific example: LXer. Does anyone know of a working program that shares no code with youtube-dl?

Thank you in advance.

tux111 · 10-29-2016, 05:57 PM

youtube-dl is still working without any issues here. Do you use the most recent versions? Why is it failing?

robertdaleweir · 10-29-2016, 06:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jr_bob_dobbs

Can someone recommend a replacement for youtube-dl? In years gone by it was the standard for fetching youtube videos but nowadays more often than not it fails.

So far, my researches have revealed that every program that claims to be a youtube-downloader ends up being merely a front-end for youtube-dl. Specific example: LXer. Does anyone know of a working program that shares no code with youtube-dl?

Thank you in advance.

Hi jr_bob_dobbs
I use 'Download Youtube Videos as MP4' extension/add-on under Firefox 49. It provides a 'download' clickable underneath any video that you queue up. It gives you a choice of quality. Just nice and simple. See attached picture.

Sefyir · 10-29-2016, 11:19 PM

youtube-dl works great. Can you provide the error message and ensure it is updated?

replica9000 · 10-30-2016, 07:19 AM

What about livestreamer? Downloads live and non-live videos from various websites.

Code:

livestreamer "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsmVwOq4mIA" best -o "Eisbrecher - Ozean.mp4"
[cli][info] Found matching plugin youtube for URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsmVwOq4mIA
[cli][info] Available streams: 144p (worst), 240p, 360p, 720p (best), audio_mp4, audio_webm
[cli][info] Opening stream: 720p (http)
[download][Eisbrecher - Ozean.mp4] Written 3.5 MB (0s @ 7.0 MB/s)
[cli][info] Stream ended

However, it currently does not work with Youtube's protected videos:

Code:

livestreamer "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1mU6h4Xdxc/" best -o "Rihanna - Disturbia.mp4"
[cli][info] Found matching plugin youtube for URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1mU6h4Xdxc/
error: This plugin does not support protected videos, try youtube-dl instead

pressman57 · 10-30-2016, 11:49 AM

I'm on Arch and an update seems to come out for youtube-dl every couple of days.

rokytnji · 10-30-2016, 04:19 PM

Code:

~$ cclive https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdV1Zc_PFdg
Checking ... ........ ...... MARILYN MANSON THIRD DAY OF A SEVEN DAY BINGE.  0.00M  []
[--------------------------------------------------]    3.8M  71.4K/s  -00:00:53

YMMV from mine though. Kinda like replica9000 mentioned.

jr_bob_dobbs · 10-30-2016, 06:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sefyir

youtube-dl works great. Can you provide the error message and ensure it is updated?

Sure.

Code:

$ youtube-dl --no-mtime -t --restrict-filenames "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_tORtmKIjE"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_tORtmKIjE"
[youtube] u_tORtmKIjE: Downloading webpage
[youtube] u_tORtmKIjE: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] u_tORtmKIjE: Extracting video information
[youtube] u_tORtmKIjE: Downloading js player en_US-vflG26Hhi
ERROR: Signature extraction failed: Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/bob/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/extractor/youtube.py", line 1005, in _decrypt_signature
    video_id, player_url, s
  File "/home/bob/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/extractor/youtube.py", line 919, in _extract_signature_function
    errnote='Download of %s failed' % player_url)
  File "/home/bob/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 516, in _download_webpage
    res = self._download_webpage_handle(url_or_request, video_id, note, errnote, fatal, encoding=encoding, data=data, headers=headers, query=query)
  File "/home/bob/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 423, in _download_webpage_handle
    urlh = self._request_webpage(url_or_request, video_id, note, errnote, fatal, data=data, headers=headers, query=query)
  File "/home/bob/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 412, in _request_webpage
    raise ExtractorError(errmsg, sys.exc_info()[2], cause=err)
ExtractorError: Download of https://s.ytimg.com/yts/jsbin/player-en_US-vflG26Hhi/base.js failed: <urlopen error [Errno 111] Connection refused> (caused by URLError(error(111, 'Connection refused'),))
 (caused by ExtractorError(u"Download of https://s.ytimg.com/yts/jsbin/player-en_US-vflG26Hhi/base.js failed: <urlopen error [Errno 111] Connection refused> (caused by URLError(error(111, 'Connection refused'),))",)); please report this issue on https://yt-dl.org/bug . Make sure you are using the latest version; type  youtube-dl -U  to update. Be sure to call youtube-dl with the --verbose flag and include its complete output.
$

When youtube-dl fails, it's always the same error.

Every few days I use the

Code:

youtube-dl --update

method of update.

Getting back on topic:

@replica9000: thanks for the suggestion for livestreamer.
@rokytnji: thanks for the suggestion for cclive.
I will be giving those a try.

Sefyir · 10-30-2016, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Sure.

Thanks
Worked fine here (see bottom of post). Based on what I'm reading - it seems like it's not updated, even though you say you're updating it. Check the current installed version with youtube --version? As of this post, it should be 2016.10.31
Feel free to search for alternatives, but I don't think

Quote:

In years gone by it was the standard for fetching youtube videos but nowadays more often than not it fails."

applies just yet for everyone. I've yet to have youtube-dl fail for any reason after ensuring I updated and I use it very frequently for a wide variety of sites.
If you're interested in trying to get it fixed, feel free to report it as a issue by running the command with --verbose and copying the output there
https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues
Good luck!

Code:

$ youtube-dl --version
2016.10.21.1
$ youtube-dl --no-mtime -t --restrict-filenames "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_tORtmKIjE"
[youtube] u_tORtmKIjE: Downloading webpage
[youtube] u_tORtmKIjE: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] u_tORtmKIjE: Extracting video information
[download] Destination: The_Bard_s_Song_Studio-u_tORtmKIjE.f243.webm
[download] 100% of 5.77MiB in 00:03
[download] Destination: The_Bard_s_Song_Studio-u_tORtmKIjE.f251.webm
[download] 100% of 3.50MiB in 00:01
[ffmpeg] Merging formats into "The_Bard_s_Song_Studio-u_tORtmKIjE.webm"
Deleting original file The_Bard_s_Song_Studio-u_tORtmKIjE.f243.webm (pass -k to keep)
Deleting original file The_Bard_s_Song_Studio-u_tORtmKIjE.f251.webm (pass -k to keep)

rokytnji · 10-30-2016, 08:25 PM

Going by your posting profile

http://bedrocklinux.org/

I just did this in a ubuntu based distro. The update instructions seem to me to be universal in linux

Code:

harry@harry-Latitude-XT2:~$ sudo curl -L https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
[sudo] password for harry: 
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
  0     3    0     0    0     0      0      0 --:--:--  0:00:06 --:--:--     0
  0     3    0     0    0     0      0      0 --:--:--  0:00:07 --:--:--     0
  0     0    0   582    0     0     72      0 --:--:--  0:00:08 --:--:--  1841
100 1357k  100 1357k    0     0   107k      0  0:00:12  0:00:12 --:--:--  333k
harry@harry-Latitude-XT2:~$ sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
harry@harry-Latitude-XT2:~$ apt-cache policy youtube-dl
youtube-dl:
  Installed: 2014.02.17-1
  Candidate: 2014.02.17-1
  Version table:
 *** 2014.02.17-1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/universe i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
harry@harry-Latitude-XT2:~$ youtube-dl --version
2016.10.31
harry@harry-Latitude-XT2:~$

My package manager shows the older 2014 version. But after I ran the the commands from here.
https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html

You can see my version is now showing newer in youtube-dl --version.

Just showing this in case it helps in Bedrock linux.

rokytnji · 10-30-2016, 08:35 PM

Funny, it is complaining about my avconvert version now. But the video file made it into my /home/username OK.

Code:

harry@harry-Latitude-XT2:~$ youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrxePKps87k
[youtube] RrxePKps87k: Downloading webpage
[youtube] RrxePKps87k: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] RrxePKps87k: Extracting video information
[youtube] RrxePKps87k: Downloading js player en_US-vflG26Hhi
WARNING: Your copy of avconv is outdated and unable to properly mux separate video and audio files, youtube-dl will download single file media. Update avconv to version 10-0 or newer to fix this.
[download] Destination: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Red Right Hand-RrxePKps87k.webm
[download] 100% of 16.72MiB in 01:1

BW-userx · 10-31-2016, 08:03 AM

I just use a firefox add-on and when I see a you tube vid I like I click on that and download it.

bat999 · 10-31-2016, 09:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rokytnji

Funny, it is complaining about my avconvert version now...
WARNING: Your copy of avconv is outdated and unable to properly mux separate video and audio files, youtube-dl will download single file media. Update avconv to version 10-0 or newer to fix this.

You can probably cure that with...

Code:

--prefer-ffmpeg --ffmpeg-location PATH

There are static versions of FFmpeg at https://johnvansickle.com/ffmpeg/

RadicalDreamer · 10-31-2016, 12:41 PM

There is the Ant Video add on for Firefox!

BW-userx · 10-31-2016, 01:39 PM

Just go into your add-on page type in "download" in the search bar text box and hit enter and their are LOADS of add ons for downloading yourtube vids