ytdl

ytdl provides a library to integrate a Youtube Downloader for Node.js projects, and a CLI to download content from Youtube.

Contents

• Installation
  • Library
  • CLI
• API
• CLI

Installation

Library

Via npm

npm install @ytdl/ytdl

CLI

Via npm

npm install @ytdl/ytdl -g

Via curl

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ytdl-node/ytdl/master/bin/install)"

Via wget

sh -c "$(wget -O- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ytdl-node/ytdl/master/bin/install)"

Via commands

git clone https://github.com/ytdl-node/ytdl.git
cd ytdl
npm install
./bin/ytdl -h

API

Example

const ytdl = require('@ytdl/ytdl').default;
ytdl('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ', '480p', 'ytdl.mp4');

OR

const ytdl = require('@ytdl/ytdl');
ytdl.ytdl('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ', '480p', 'ytdl.mp4');

ytdl.ytdl(url, quality, path[, options])

Note: ytdl.ytdl(...) is also the default export (ytdl.default(...)).

const ytdl = require('@ytdl/ytdl');

ytdl.ytdl('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ', '720p', 'video.mp4');

• This function first searches for a stream which has both audio and video in it. If it doesn't find it, it will search for a separate audio and video stream and combine it using ffmpeg.

Currently ytdl uses the fluent-ffmpeg package which requires ffmpeg to be installed on the computer.

options:

• audioOnly: true | false
• videoOnly: true | false

audioOnly (Download only audio stream)

const ytdl = require('@ytdl/ytdl');

ytdl.ytdl('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ', 'medium', 'audio.mp3', { audioOnly: true });

// quality: 'low', 'medium', 'high', 'any'

videoOnly (Download only video stream)

Note: There will be no sound in the video.

const ytdl = require('@ytdl/ytdl');

ytdl.ytdl('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ', '360p', 'video.mp4', { videoOnly: true });

// quality: '144p', '360p', '480p', '720p', '1080p'

ytdl.downloadByItag(url, itag, path)

const ytdl = require('@ytdl/ytdl');

ytdl.downloadByItag('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ', 396, 'video.mp4');

ytdl.info(link)

const ytdl = require('@ytdl/ytdl');

async function getInfo (link) {
  const {
    videoDescription,
    videoId,
    videoTime,
    videoTitle,
    videoInfo,
  } = await ytdl.info(link);

  // To log the time
  console.log(`Video time is: ${videoTime}`); 

}

getInfo('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ');

• This may be written without using async-await:

const ytdl = require('@ytdl/ytdl');

ytdl.info('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ')
  .then((info) => {
    const {
      videoDescription,
      videoId,
      videoTime,
      videoTitle,
      videoInfo,
    } = info;

    // To log the time
    console.log(`Video time is: ${videoTime}`); 
  });

CLI (ytdl)

Example

ytdl -d https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ -fn rhapsody.mp3 -ao

Usage

Usage: ytdl [options]

Options:
  -V, --version               output the version number
  -i, --info <url>            info about YouTube link
  -d, --download <url>        download from YouTube link
  -fn, --filename <filename>  filename of downloaded content
  -q, --quality <quality>     quality of downloaded content
  -dj, --dump-json <url>      dump json into file
  -ao, --audio-only           download only audio stream
  -vo, --video-only           download only video stream
  -h, --help                  display help for command

Contributing

Contributing guidelines have been established here.

License

MIT