fent / node-ytdl

Command line youtube video downloader.

node-ytdl

A youtube downloader written in Javascript. To be used with the command line. If you're looking to use it in your node program, check out ytdl-core.

Usage

Streams to stdout by default

ytdl "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HSylqgVYQI" | mpv -

To save to a file

ytdl "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HSylqgVYQI" > myvideo.mp4

or

ytdl -o "{author.name} - {title}" "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HSylqgVYQI"

Download video and convert to mp3 (Requires ffmpeg)

ytdl http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HSylqgVYQI | ffmpeg -i pipe:0 -b:a 192K -vn myfile.mp3

Supported options

Usage: ytdl <url> [options]

url     URL to the video.

Options:
   -v, --version                  Print program version.
   -q ITAG, --quality ITAG        Video quality to download, default: highest
   -r INT-INT, --range INT-INT    Byte range to download, ie 10355705-12452856
   -b INT, --begin INT            Time to begin video, format by 1:30.123 and 1m30s
   -o FILE, --output FILE         Save to file, template by {prop}, default: stdout
   --filter STR                   Can be video, videoonly, audio, audioonly
   --filter-container REGEXP      Filter in format container
   --unfilter-container REGEXP    Filter out format container
   --filter-resolution REGEXP     Filter in format resolution
   --unfilter-resolution REGEXP   Filter out format resolution
   --filter-encoding REGEXP       Filter in format encoding
   --unfilter-encoding REGEXP     Filter out format encoding
   -i, --info                     Print video info without downloading
   -j, --info-json                Print video info as JSON without downloading
   --print-url                    Print direct download URL
   --no-cache                     Skip file cache for html5player
   --debug                        Print debug information

Install

npm -g install ytdl

Tests

Tests are written with mocha

npm test

node-ytdl's Issues

your caching addition gives errors

I see there was an update for caching, last month, but ytdl does no longer work for me now :(

$ytdl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCxQ3hYHrZk -o yacht_pearl_white.mp4

gives me:

  var cachefile = path.resolve(os.homedir(), '.ytdl-cache.json');
                                  ^
TypeError: Object #<Object> has no method 'homedir'
    at Object.<anonymous> (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/ytdl/bin/ytdl.js:101:35)
    at Module._compile (module.js:449:26)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:467:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:349:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:305:12)
    at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:490:10)
    at startup (node.js:123:16)
    at node.js:1030:3

downgrading to 0.3.5 (before the cache update) now gives me a key error:

3074569936:error:0607907F:digital envelope routines:EVP_PKEY_get1_RSA:expecting an rsa key:../deps/openssl/openssl/crypto/evp/p_lib.c:288:

I've tried it both on windows 10 and linux (Debian 6.0.10)

( could be that I'm missing something blatantly obvious )

Verbose output

Great script, working fine for me and really easy to get started. Any chance a --verbose mode could be include to see what's going on behind the scenes?

how to use it behind proxy

Hi
if the option can set tunnel for proxy purpose ,that's great.
var tunnel = require('tunnel');
var ytdl = require('ytdl');
var tunnelingAgent = tunnel.httpOverHttp({
proxy : {
host : 'ip',
port : port
}
});

Automatic Signature Deciphering

Looking at the code, it appears you do not employ a sort of dynamic signature deciphering. What I did (in php) was read the html5player.js and figure out how they transform the signature into the 81 character working signature. I suggest you do the same and your code won't require as much updating.

cli broken

~/Downloads ❯ ytdl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEcN8PJDLJA -o xfiles.mp4

title: The X-Files Theme Song
author: HorrorSoundtrack
average rating: 5.0
view count: 10420
length: 3:26
container: mp4
resolution: 720p
encoding: H.264
size: 12.54MB
output: xfiles.mp4


/usr/local/lib/node_modules/ytdl/bin/ytdl.js:221
    ytdl.cache.die();
               ^
TypeError: Cannot call method 'die' of undefined
    at PassThrough.<anonymous> (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/ytdl/bin/ytdl.js:221:16)
    at PassThrough.emit (events.js:98:17)
    at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/ytdl/node_modules/ytdl-core/lib/index.js:35:14
    at Request.<anonymous> (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/ytdl/node_modules/ytdl-core/lib/index.js:72:5)
    at Request.emit (events.js:95:17)
    at Request.onResponse (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/ytdl/node_modules/ytdl-core/node_modules/request/request.js:924:10)
    at ClientRequest.g (events.js:180:16)
    at ClientRequest.emit (events.js:95:17)
    at HTTPParser.parserOnIncomingClient [as onIncoming] (http.js:1688:21)
    at HTTPParser.parserOnHeadersComplete [as onHeadersComplete] (http.js:121:23)

Tests failing and format metadata not found

I noticed that some of the tests have been failing recently.

  26 passing (15s)
  5 failing

Error: could not extract signature deciphering actions

I guess youtube have updated something on their side. The good news is that youtube-dl is still working so there is a fix.

Default quality is not really highest

Given a 4k video, for example (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9nqQuu4lmQ)

executing ytdl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9nqQuu4lmQ -o video.mp4

does not yield the highest available itag setting for this particular video

throw er; // Unhandled 'error' event

Now it seems some error are not catched :

No format metadata for itag 242 found

events.js:72
        throw er; // Unhandled 'error' event
              ^
Error: status code 403
    at Request.<anonymous> (/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/gabrielstuff/Sources/node/easy-youtube/node_modules/ytdl/lib/index.js:48:30)```

vevo links

hi

i try to decode howto get valid liks for vevo videos but no success

if you can look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJk0p-98Xzc

for exemple

we have all the infos but in the params array the link to the video video does not content the signature (we have a s: and the key in the json) if i add it manually it doesn t work neither...

trying el=vevo in your code does not change anything (it used to in another software i made...)

to resume when we have use_cipher_signature: "True" in the videos infos it s bad..

someone made a patch for this but don t understand...

https://gist.github.com/anonymous/e40cb4a1ba3c71f16c05#file-updated-the-algorithm-for-ytcenter-utils-signaturedecipher-function-patch

since today downloading seems harder too...

thanks

++

format.size ?

How to get format.size ? Please provide some example ..

Video download failed on signature extraction

Trying with this youtube link :

• The Perishers - Nothing like you and I
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EuVr5t9Sq8
• Tom Odell - Another Love
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwpMEbgC7DA
• TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCjsWpM9zFU

The result is all the same :

Error: could not extract signature deciphering actions
    at /Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/gabrielstuff/Sources/node/easy-youtube/node_modules/ytdl/lib/sig.js:39:13
    at Request._callback (/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/gabrielstuff/Sources/node/easy-youtube/node_modules/ytdl/lib/crequest.js:33:7)
    at Request.self.callback (/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/gabrielstuff/Sources/node/easy-youtube/node_modules/ytdl/node_modules/request/request.js:123:22)
    at Request.EventEmitter.emit (events.js:98:17)
    at Request.<anonymous> (/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/gabrielstuff/Sources/node/easy-youtube/node_modules/ytdl/node_modules/request/request.js:893:14)
    at Request.EventEmitter.emit (events.js:117:20)
    at IncomingMessage.<anonymous> (/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/gabrielstuff/Sources/node/easy-youtube/node_modules/ytdl/node_modules/request/request.js:844:12)
    at IncomingMessage.EventEmitter.emit (events.js:117:20)
    at _stream_readable.js:920:16
    at process._tickCallback (node.js:415:13)

Any hints ?

please help: Unhandled stream error in pipe.

way 1:

 var fs = require('fs');
 var ytdl = require('ytdl');
 ytdl('http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iQCLlu1dko')
      .pipe(fs.createWriteStream('video.flv'));

or way 2:

 ytdl http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iQCLlu1dko > cat.flv

i want to download this video , but both way don't work, error threwed :

stream.js:94
throw er; // Unhandled stream error in pipe.
^

And can you tell me how ytdl works ?
I read the ytdl code , i guess maybe parse the file download http://www.youtube.com/get_video_info?video_id=0iQCLlu1dko , then get urls from url_encoded_fmt_stream_map , but the urls can't download the video , chrome shows Access to the webpage was denied

Youtube changed urls?

How to make a website like this http://www.10youtube.com/ ? I mean get all the possible url with formats .......

Everything is webm now

It used to be able to grab mp4s for every video, then only some, now none. Probably outside of the scope of the library but you could leverage a ffmpeg binding to transcode on the fly so what YT provides doesn't matter.

how do you stream mp4 or webm formats?

Not all videos have info.video_verticals and it throws TypeError

Dirty fix:

index.js:258

    if (info.video_verticals) {
      info.video_verticals = info.video_verticals
        .slice(1, -1)
        .split(', ')
        .filter(function(val) { return val !== ''; })
        .map(function(val) { return parseInt(val, 10); })
        ;
    } else {
      info.video_verticals = null;
    }

Can you provide me the simple one page example.

Hello,
I want a example of that please help me.
Thanks

I need a little help

I'm trying to make the same thing on php, but I cant access to VEVO videos. How does this downloader work with that type of videos? Is there any solutions?

Can't download a video from a list

Dear fent,

I try to download a video with this url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmE6SWE6c_A&list=PL1A2CSdiySGJ6oZe6XB-TTCFuHc5Fs1PO&index=2, but it failed. The output file has 0 byte.

Highest resolution

Hi there,
I hope you can help. I seem to have a problem getting the highest quality of a video.
In my script I don't specify the quality which should default to the highest quality.

Here's an example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwK-AM08g2M
when I download it using the above url I get the 360p version not 480p

Also
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7FIvfx5J10
a 720p version is saved instead of 1080p

I am calling the download like this:
ytdl(url)
.pipe(fs.createWriteStream(savefilename));

consider separating the cli into a separate module

I'm packaging up node-ytdl for Debian and to do that I must first package all of its dependencies. I think that if this module was separated into just the library code and a separate command line process it would save me from having to package up all of these dependencies:

├─ ytdl (^0.2.8)
│  ├─ progress-bar (~0.1.1)
│  ├─ nomnom (~1.6.1)
│  │  ├─ colors (0.5.x)
│  │  └─ underscore (~1.4.4)
│  ├─ colors (~0.6.0-1)
│  └─ cliff (~0.1.8)
│     ├─ colors (0.x.x)
│     ├─ winston (0.6.x)
│     │  ├─ eyes (0.1.x)
│     │  ├─ pkginfo (0.3.x)
│     │  ├─ request (2.16.x)
│     │  ├─ colors (0.6.x)
│     │  ├─ async (0.2.x)
│     │  ├─ stack-trace (0.0.x)
│     │  └─ cycle (1.0.x)
│     └─ eyes (0.1.x)

It seems that the code has stopped working

Changed

Actually, the error I get, when calling ytdl from my own code is:

Video not found

I checked res.statusCode and it shows 402

Maybe it's related to making too many requests ?

could not extract signature deciphering actions

$ ./node_modules/.bin/ytdl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlScw_XCHak
could not extract signature deciphering actions

Video mediainfo

Hi again,

Is it possible to have the video's mediainfo stored in the file?
Its pretty hard to do something with the video's without it.

I don't know if this is a bug or just not build in, so i'm not sure if this is a issue or a surgestion.

But it would be nice if that works :)

Progress info ?

How to get progress info when downloading a video ? Or notification when download finished ?

Allow audio download option

I am working on a music player built with node.js, and one feature I would love to add is an 'add from youtube' button, that allowed the user to download a song from a youtube link into their library.

Would it be possible to add support for downloading of mp3 files?

Thanks for the awesome library!

Signature error (was 403)

Updated to 0.2.2

Instead of 403 I'm not getting this:

# ytdl https://youtu.be/7eVK8ZIFx0k
could not extract signature deciphering actions

Callback on Download completion?

Hi. Sorry if this is not the correct way to request this, but I am using this package and it does everything I need great, however, I had a need to issue a callback when the video download actually completed, and had to modify the source to support this functionality.

Is this something you would be willing to put into future versions?

url argument not found in fish

$ ytdl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeXDl4bVDRw -o file.mp4
No matches for wildcard 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeXDl4bVDRw'.
fish: ytdl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeXDl4bVDRw -o file.mp4
           ^

url argument is required

Usage: ytdl <url> [options]

url     URL to the video.

Options:
   -v, --version                  Print program version.
   -q ITAG, --quality ITAG        Video quality to download, Default: highest
   -r INT-INT, --range INT-INT    Byte range to download, ie 10355705-12452856
   -o FILE, --output FILE         Where to write the file to, Default: stdout
   --filter-container REGEXP      Filter in format container
   --unfilter-container REGEXP    Filter out format container
   --filter-resolution REGEXP     Filter in format resolution
   --unfilter-resolution REGEXP   Filter out format resolution
   --filter-encoding REGEXP       Filter in format encoding
   --unfilter-encoding REGEXP     Filter out format encoding
   -i, --info                     Print video info without downloading
   --print-url        ~                                                                                                                                                           $ ytdl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6fSEf6tnG4 -o file.mp4
No matches for wildcard 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6fSEf6tnG4'.
fish: ytdl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6fSEf6tnG4 -o file.mp4
           ^

url argument is required

Usage: ytdl <url> [options]

url     URL to the video.

Options:
   -v, --version                  Print program version.
   -q ITAG, --quality ITAG        Video quality to download, Default: highest
   -r INT-INT, --range INT-INT    Byte range to download, ie 10355705-12452856
   -o FILE, --output FILE         Where to write the file to, Default: stdout
   --filter-container REGEXP      Filter in format container
   --unfilter-container REGEXP    Filter out format container
   --filter-resolution REGEXP     Filter in format resolution
   --unfilter-resolution REGEXP   Filter out format resolution
   --filter-encoding REGEXP       Filter in format encoding
   --unfilter-encoding REGEXP     Filter out format encoding
   -i, --info                     Print video info without downloading
   --print-url

While in bash I get this output:

bash-4.3$ ytdl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6fSEf6tnG4 -o file.mp4

title: Dukes of Hazzard Season 1 intro and credits
author: PaulIsDeadMissHim
average rating: 4.87545776367
view count: 165916
length: 1:32
container: mp4
resolution: 360p
encoding: H.264
size: 5.84MB (6127973 bytes)
output: file.mp4

[##################################################] 100%

Not working for some videos

Ex:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ31INpjXX0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvuqS0nxFvA

Error: could not parse 'ytplayer.config' : Unexpected token ;

sig.js line 29

video causing error: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KSOMA3QBU0

Start time ignored

Not sure if I'm doing something wrong, but when I try downloading a video and specifying the start time both from code and from the command line the parameter is ignored. I've tested this on 10 different video urls I grabbed at random.

2 of the 6 tests are failing, start being one of them:

machine:ytdl geuis$ npm test

[email protected] test /usr/local/apps/tacktile/giffer/node_modules/ytdl
mocha -R spec test/*-test.js

ytdl.getInfo()
✓ Returns correct video metainfo (86ms)

ytdl.getInfo() from a non-existant video
✓ Should give an error

download
1) Should be pipeable and data equal to stored file

download with start
2) Should be pipeable and data equal to stored file

util.parseTime()
✓ Returns milliseconds if given numbers
✓ Works with minutes and seconds
✓ And even only hours and milliseconds

util.signatureDecipher()
✓ Returns the correct signature

6 passing (4s)
2 failing

1. download Should be pipeable and data equal to stored file:
   Error: timeout of 2000ms exceeded
   at Object. (/usr/local/share/npm/lib/node_modules/mocha/lib/runnable.js:165:14)
   at Timer.list.ontimeout (timers.js:101:19)

2. download with start Should be pipeable and data equal to stored file:
   Error: timeout of 2000ms exceeded
   at Object. (/usr/local/share/npm/lib/node_modules/mocha/lib/runnable.js:165:14)
   at Timer.list.ontimeout (timers.js:101:19)

get youtube video as avi

Hi,
can we get video as avi file?

ytdl('http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asdfasdf')
.pipe(fs.createWriteStream('video9.avi'));

this created an avi file, but the content is not.

Automatically generate filename and appropriate container extension for a given quality

Feature request

a --save/-s param or -o without any strings could/should generate automatically a filename from the video's title, and the appropriate container extension for the given itag like .mp4 or .webm

Is there a way to get the download progress as with youtube-dl?

Invalid url?

I feel this is like a stupid question but how do I know if a url is valid or not?

I've tried:

    ytdl.getInfo(link, function(err, info) {
        if(err) return console.log(err);
        else return console.log(info);
    });

This code still gives me a 500 error code saying "No video id found". Am I missing something really easy here?

Thank you in advance.

EDIT:
I've tried surrounding the function with try/catch and catch the error there, which lets me catch the error. I guess I'm looking for a more callback error approach. Is there anything like this in this module?

Error using this plugin

Hello,

I followed the instructions for downloading a video and ended up with an error that resulted in:

1;2c1;2c1;2c1;2c1;2c1;2c1;2c1;2c1;2c1;2c;1;1;112;112;1;0x1;2c1;2c1;2c1;2c1;2c1;2c1;2c1;2c1;2c1;2c1;2c1;2c1;2c1;2c1;2c1;2c1;2c1;2c1;2c1;2c1;2c1;2c1;

The video never actually downloaded. Not sure if this is something on my end, but I figured I'd mention this.

flv files created are only few KB

Example on this video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRvrq9lKZlQ

ytdl https://www.youtube.com/watch\?v\=QRvrq9lKZlQ > test.flv => resulting file is 36KB.

• ytdl 0.3.14
• node v6.7.0
• macOS 10.12

--print-url doesn't work in some videos

I have this problem with a couple of videos

ytdl --print-url https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-MvdWzYr_4 -q 22

The printed url returns a 403 error

but this command works

ytdl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-MvdWzYr_4 -q 22 > test.mp4

Since the download option takes the same url, I don't know why it's not working

Thanks

Not related please close this issue

Create corrupted mp3 file?

What is the correct way to save the video as a .mp3 file?

Try this one:
ytdl ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GQW7jqezqA > test.mp3 --filter audioonly

The output of this command is a corrupted mp3 file. But if I do, > test.mp4 --filter audio it's perfect

Error code 150 - not available in your country strange behavor

node-ytdl and ytdl-core seem to be failing at fetching youtube videos that are available in the server's country and can be successfully downloaded using youtube-dl

Tested with:

ytdl v2AC41dglnM

Which failed with error code: Code 150: The uploader has not made this video available in your country.

While testing youtube-dl

youtube-dl -v v2AC41dglnM

Resulted in no issues.

Valid Url throws TypeError

Hi, thank you for this great library.
I found a strange bug for this url, which is working in the browser, but when trying to get infos it throws

ytdl -i 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YntYV3ty-UU'

TypeError: Parameter 'url' must be a string, not undefined
at Url.parse (url.js:107:11)
at Object.urlParse as parse
at /usr/local/share/npm/lib/node_modules/ytdl/lib/index.js:213:31
at Array.map (native)
at Request._callback (/usr/local/share/npm/lib/node_modules/ytdl/lib/index.js:211:10)
at Request.self.callback (/usr/local/share/npm/lib/node_modules/ytdl/node_modules/request/main.js:120:22)
at Request.EventEmitter.emit (events.js:98:17)
at Request. (/usr/local/share/npm/lib/node_modules/ytdl/node_modules/request/main.js:555:16)
at Request.EventEmitter.emit (events.js:95:17)
at IncomingMessage. (/usr/local/share/npm/lib/node_modules/ytdl/node_modules/request/main.js:517:14)

The last working version is: v0.1.16 which gives this error:
[Error: No such format for itag 78 found]

Thank you

When using 'range' option the output video is unreadable

When I run the following, I get a functioning mp4 video that lasts for 2 seconds then freezes for the remaining 5 seconds (original YT video is 7 seconds, 300kb):

ytdl(url, { filter: function(format) { return format.container === 'mp4'; }, range:"0-85714", quality:
"highest" })
  .pipe(fs.createWriteStream('video.mp4'));

When I run this:

ytdl(url, { filter: function(format) { return format.container === 'mp4'; }, range:"42857-85714", quality:
"highest" })
  .pipe(fs.createWriteStream('video.mp4'));

I would expect to get an mp4 with 1 second duration starting from the offset of 1 second. The files size looks correct in that it is returning the appropriate number of bytes, but I believe the video is not getting its duration / dimension meta data and is not playable.

Am I doing something wrong?

status code 403

$ ./ytdl.js http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgOS64BF2eU

Error: status code 403
at Request. (/var/www/nytd.us/music/download/node_modules/ytdl/lib/index.js:125:35)
at Request.EventEmitter.emit (events.js:95:17)
at Request.onResponse (/var/www/nytd.us/music/download/node_modules/ytdl/node_modules/request/request.js:812:10)
at ClientRequest.g (events.js:175:14)
at ClientRequest.EventEmitter.emit (events.js:95:17)
at HTTPParser.parserOnIncomingClient as onIncoming
at HTTPParser.parserOnHeadersComplete as onHeadersComplete
at Socket.socketOnData as ondata
at TCP.onread (net.js:525:27)

Access Denied On Live Server

First of all great work and contribution. Your script works great if i run it on my local machine , but the moment i upload it on a live node Js server , the generated link for youtube returns with access denied.

1 possibility i found is the generated URL contains IP address of the server, whereas some other popular services over the web creates download link with user IP address.

Also you can get a live demo http://voulmepunch.ap01.aws.af.cm/video/VhQK-6iI7cI , you can check network console to see the download link returned via ajax.

Allow passing basic video/audio filters

ytdl-core has filters for video, videoonly, audio, audioonly. Would be cool to be able to use those in ytdl too.

options quality wihtout effect

options.quality = 'highest';

overrides any quality option

[Error: could not extract signature deciphering actions]

Hi fent,

I noticed the bug coming up recently which was resolved by you guys before. In addition, there are five related tests failed in node-ytdl-core. If you want to give it a try, you can use this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m65jhGwtWrg&feature=youtube_gdata

[Error: could not extract signature deciphering actions]

Hope this information helps, thanks

could not extract signature deciphering actions (again)

hello,
got another "could not extract signature deciphering actions" on this url
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV0p2FpYZ74

audio download creates files with twice the duration

Hi

I tried the audio d/l and it creates a file with twice the duration and the second half is just empty. Tried it with http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HSylqgVYQI

thanks

Thomas