Attempt to archive a given Youtube livestream from the start. This is most useful for streams that have already started and you want to download, but can also be used to wait for a scheduled stream and start downloading as soon as it starts. If you want to download a VOD, I recommend yt-dlp, which is an actively maintained fork of youtube-dl with more features.
Download the latest pre-release from the releases page
Alternatively, if you have Go properly installed and set up, run go install github.com/Kethsar/ytarchive@dev
usage: ytarchive [OPTIONS] [url] [quality]
[url] is a youtube livestream URL. If not provided, you will be
prompted to enter one.
[quality] is a slash-delimited list of video qualities you want
to be selected for download, from most to least wanted. If not
provided, you will be prompted for one, with a list of available
qualities to choose from. The following values are valid:
audio_only, 144p, 240p, 360p, 480p, 720p, 720p60, 1080p, 1080p60, 1440p, 1440p60, 2160p, 2160p60, best
Options:
-h
--help
Show this help message.
-4
--ipv4
Make all connections using IPv4.
-6
--ipv6
Make all connections using IPv6.
--add-metadata
Write some basic metadata information to the final file.
--audio-url GOOGLEVIDEO_URL
Pass in the given url as the audio fragment url. Must be a
Google Video url with an itag parameter of 140.
-c
--cookies COOKIES_FILE
Give a cookies.txt file that has your youtube cookies. Allows
the script to access members-only content if you are a member
for the given stream's user. Must be netscape cookie format.
--debug
Print a lot of extra information.
--disable-save-state
Disable saving state for resumable downloads. Useful if you are
archiving the same stream multiple times in the same directory
for some reason.
-dp
--directory-permissions PERMISSIONS
Set the filesystem permissions for created directories. Uses unix
numeric notation. Be aware of umask settings for your directory.
Default is 0755.
--error
Print only errors and general information.
--ffmpeg-path FFMPEG_PATH
Set a specific ffmpeg location, including program name.
e.g. "C:\ffmpeg\ffmpeg.exe" or "/opt/ffmpeg/ffmpeg"
-fp
--file-permissions PERMISSIONS
Set the filesystem permissions for created files. Uses unix
numeric notation. Be aware of umask settings for your directory.
Default is 0644.
--h264
Only download h264 video, skipping VP9 if it would have been used.
-k
--keep-ts-files
Keep the final stream audio and video files after muxing them
instead of deleting them.
--members-only
Only download members-only streams. Can only be used with channel URLs
such as /live, /streams, etc, and requires cookies.
Useful when monitoring channels and you only want membership streams.
--merge
Automatically run the ffmpeg command for the downloaded streams
when manually cancelling the download. You will be prompted otherwise.
--metadata KEY=VALUE
If writing metadata, overwrite/add metadata key-value entry.
KEY is a metadata key that ffmpeg recognizes. If invalid, ffmpeg may ignore it or error.
VALUE is a format template. If empty string (''), omit writing metadata for the key.
See FORMAT TEMPLATE OPTIONS below for a list of available format keys.
Can be used multiple times.
--mkv
Mux the final file into an mkv container instead of an mp4 container.
Ignored when downloading audio only.
--monitor-channel
Continually monitor a channel for streams. Requires using a /live URL.
This will go back to checking for a stream after it finishes downloading
the current one. Implies '-r 60 --merge' unless set separately. Minimum
30 second wait time, 60 or more recommended. Using 'best' for quality or
setting a decently exhaustive list recommended to prevent waiting for
input if selected quality is not available for certain streams.
Be careful to monitor your disk usage when using this to avoid filling
your drive while away.
--newline
Print every message to a new line, instead of some messages reusing one
line.
--no-audio
Do not download the audio stream
--no-frag-files
Keep fragment data in memory instead of writing to an intermediate file.
This has the possibility to drastically increase RAM usage if a fragment
downloads particularly slowly as more fragments after it finish first.
This is only an issue when --threads >1
Highly recommended if you don't have strict RAM limitations. Especially
on Wangblows, which has caused issues with file locking when trying to
delete fragment files.
--no-merge
Do not run the ffmpeg command for the downloaded streams
when manually cancelling the download. You will be prompted otherwise.
--no-save
Do not save any downloaded data and files if not having ffmpeg
run when manually cancelling the download. You will be prompted otherwise.
Does nothing if --merge is set.
--no-save-state
Do not leave files required for resuming downloads when manually
cancelling the download. You will be prompted otherwise.
Does nothing if --merge or --save are set.
--no-video
If a googlevideo url is given or passed with --audio-url, do not
prompt for a video url. If a video url is given with --video-url
then this is effectively ignored.
-n
--no-wait
Do not wait for a livestream if it's a future scheduled stream.
-o
--output FILENAME_FORMAT
Set the output file name EXCLUDING THE EXTENSION. Can include
formatting similar to youtube-dl, albeit much more limited.
See FORMAT OPTIONS below for a list of available format keys.
Default is '%(title)s-%(id)s'
--proxy <SCHEME>://[<USER>:<PASS>@]<HOST>:<PORT>
Specify a proxy to use for downloading. e.g.
- socks5://127.0.0.1:1080
- http://192.168.1.1:8080
- http://user:password@proxy.example.com:8080
HTTP, HTTPS and SOCKS5 proxy servers are supported.
-q
--quiet
Print nothing to the console except information relevant for user input.
--retry-frags ATTEMPTS
Set the number of attempts to make when downloading a stream fragment.
Set to 0 to retry indefinitely, or until we are completely unable to.
Default is 10.
-r
--retry-stream SECONDS
If waiting for a scheduled livestream, re-check if the stream is
up every SECONDS instead of waiting for the initial scheduled time.
If SECONDS is less than the poll delay youtube gives (typically
15 seconds), then this will be set to the value youtube provides.
--save
Automatically save any downloaded data and files if not having
ffmpeg run when manually cancelling the download. You will be prompted
otherwise. Does nothing if --merge is set.
--save-state
Automatically leave files alone and do not delete anything when manually
cancelling the download, allowing for resuming a download later when
possible. You will be prompted otherwise.
Resuming requires the stream be available to download as normal.
Does nothing if --merge or --save are set.
--separate-audio
Save the audio to a separate file, similar to when downloading
audio_only, alongside the final muxed file. This includes embedding
metadata and the thumbnail if set.
-td
--temporary-dir DIRECTORY
Set the working directory for the download. This is where the
temporary files will be stored. If not set, the output directory
will be used.
--threads THREAD_COUNT
Set the number of threads to use for downloading audio and video
fragments. The total number of threads running will be
THREAD_COUNT * 2 + 3. Main thread, a thread for each audio and
video download, and THREAD_COUNT number of fragment downloaders
for both audio and video.
Setting this to a large number has a chance at causing the download
to start failing with HTTP 401. Restarting the download with a smaller
thread count until you no longer get 401s should work. Default is 1.
-t
--thumbnail
Download and embed the stream thumbnail in the finished file.
Whether the thumbnail shows properly depends on your file browser.
Windows' seems to work. Nemo on Linux seemingly does not.
--trace
Print just about any information that might have reason to be printed.
Very spammy, do not use this unless you have good reason.
-v
--verbose
Print extra information.
-V
--version
Print the version number and exit.
--video-url GOOGLEVIDEO_URL
Pass in the given url as the video fragment url. Must be a
Google Video url with an itag parameter that is not 140.
--vp9
If there is a VP9 version of your selected video quality,
download that instead of the usual h264.
-w
--wait
Wait for a livestream if it's a future scheduled stream.
If this option is not used when a scheduled stream is provided,
you will be asked if you want to wait or not.
--warn
Print warning, errors, and general information. This is the default log
level.
--write-description
Write the video description to a separate .description file.
--write-mux-file
Write the ffmpeg command that would mux audio and video or put audio
into an mp4 container instead of running the command automatically.
Useful if you want to tweak the command, want a higher log level, etc.
--write-thumbnail
Write the thumbnail to a separate file.
Examples:
ytarchive -w
Waits for a stream. Will prompt for a URL and quality.
ytarchive -w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnWDmKx9cQQ 1080p60/best
Waits for the given stream URL. Will prioritize downloading in 1080p60.
If 1080p60 is not an available quality, it will choose the best of what
is available.
ytarchive --threads 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK1GXnz-1Lw best
Downloads the given stream with 3 threads in the best available quality.
Will ask if you want to wait if the stream is scheduled but not started.
ytarchive -r 30 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZlDXzGoo7d44bwdNObFacg/live best
Will wait for a livestream at the given URL, checking every 30 seconds.
ytarchive -c cookies-youtube-com.txt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_touw1GND-M best
Loads the given cookies file and attempts to download the given stream.
Will ask if you want to wait.
ytarchive --no-wait --add-metadata https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvaTdHTWBGv3MKj3KVqJVCw/live best
Attempts to download the given stream, and will add metadata to the
final muxed file. Will not wait if there is no stream or if it has not
started.
ytarchive -o '%(channel)s/%(upload_date)s_%(title)s' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxV9UAMN12o best
Download the given stream to a directory with the channel name, and a
file that will have the upload date and stream title. Will prompt to
wait.
ytarchive -w -k -t --vp9 --merge --no-frag-files https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE8V5iNemBA best
Waits, keeps the final .ts files, embeds the stream thumbnail, merges
the downloaded files if download is stopped manually, and keeps
fragments in memory instead of writing to intermediate files.
Downloads the stream video in VP9 if available. This set of flags will
not require any extra user input if something goes wrong.
ytarchive -k -t --vp9 --monitor-channel --no-frag-files https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvaTdHTWBGv3MKj3KVqJVCw/live best
Same as above, but waits for a stream on the given channel, and will
repeat the cycle after downloading each stream.
ytarchive --proxy http://127.0.0.1:9050 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aIdHTuyYMA best
Downloads the given stream with a local HTTP proxy.
FORMAT TEMPLATE OPTIONS
Format template keys provided are made to be the same as they would be for
youtube-dl. See https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#output-template
For file names, each template substitution is sanitized by replacing invalid file name
characters with underscore (_).
id (string): Video identifier
url (string): Video URL
title (string): Video title
channel_id (string): ID of the channel
channel (string): Full name of the channel the livestream is on
upload_date (string: YYYYMMDD): Technically stream start date, UTC timezone - see note below
start_date (string: YYYYMMDD): Stream start date, UTC timezone
publish_date (string: YYYYMMDD): Stream publish date, UTC timezone
description (string): Video description [disallowed for file name format template]
Note on upload_date: rather than the actual upload date, stream start date is used to
provide a better default date for youtube-dl output templates that use upload_date.
To get the actual upload date, publish date seems to be the same as upload date for streams.