This script is made to make usage of YT-DLP easier. It is based on version 1, which required a much more difficult setup, and had fewer options. This new version is much easier to set up and use as it requires no configuration of the run.bat file, along with the new music option, and better compatibility with editing software by using more common codecs and formats.
The supported sites aren't anything that I have control over, but please check here to see which sites YT-DLP can download from. (May contain names of mature and NSFW/L websites)
If you prefer video instructions over text (like me), you should watch my tutorial video on it!
- Create a folder and name it whatever you want, this is where all the files will be. (From now on, I'll call it the main folder)
- Download the run.bat file and place it in the main folder. The link auto-downloads the latest Windows version. If you get a SmartScreen warning; check the wiki!
- Run the run.bat file. You will see that the script has created five folders, EXE, Downloads and Audio, Video & Music in the Downloads folder. If you get a SmartScreen warning; check the wiki!
- Download the VARS.txt file from the latest release and place it in your EXE folder. The link auto-downloads the latest Windows version
- Download the latest YT-DLP FFmpeg build and the latest YT-DLP versions. These links auto-download the latest Windows versions
- Unzip the FFmpeg ZIP file, then go into bin and move the three files to the EXE folder. Now you can delete the FFmpeg folder and the ZIP that you downloaded (The one named ffmpeg-master-latest-win64-gpl).
- Move the yt-dlp.exe file to the EXE folder that the script created earlier.
- Make sure that your folders and files match the photos below (Ignore log.txt as it gets created automatically after the first download):
^^ Main folder
^^ EXE folder
^^ Downloads folder
- Done, now you can try it out!
- Run the script.
- Input the URL of the video or audio that you wish to download.
- Select either audio (mp3) with “a”, video (mp4) with “v”, or music (FLAC) with “m”.
- The script should now start downloading the video or audio.
- If you want to download more, type “y”, otherwise type “n”.
- If you wanted to download more, the script will restart, and you will be prompted for the URL. If you didn't want to download more, the script will shut down and the folder that your latest download type was will open.
- If you want to update YT-DLP and run.bat; download the update.bat file and place it in your EXE folder, then run it whenever you feel like updating (not guaranteed that an update will have been released though). The link auto-downloads the latest Windows version
- Audio downloads (mp3) (see photo below)
- Video downloads (mp4) (see photo below)
- Music downloads (FLAC) (see photo below)
- Semi-automatic setup (automatic creation of folders and log file) (see photo below)
- Detection of missing dependencies (see photo below)
- Detection of invalid URL format & Detection of invalid user inputs
- Easy customization with YT-DLP CLI args in VARS.txt see below
- Easy updates with update.bat
NOTE: The FLAC files that get downloaded with this script are most likely not going to be “true" FLACs, since they get re-encoded from (most likely) M4A or OPUS. It does however sound marginally better than the regular mp3 file that you get from the script, but that may just be a placebo.
If you want to customize the script (mainly by changing the codecs & adding custom args), you can edit the VARS.txt file. There you will see these variables:
- set acodec=mp3
- set vcodec=h264
- set mcodec=flac
- set aargs=--embed-chapters
- set vargs=--embed-chapters
- set margs=
The first three are for the codecs the script uses when downloading the content. The last three are extra args for YT-DLP to use when downloading the content. Please only change these if you know what you are doing! I cannot guarantee that I will be able to give support if something goes wrong and you've changed these.
I will also give limited support to you if you have changed anything in run.bat.
If you're having problems; please check the wiki!
When I first started using YT-DLP, I found it a bit cumbersome, as manually entering all the details every time I wanted to use it was annoying and time-consuming. This project was originally developed for my private use, but I decided to release it to the public because I hadn’t come across anything like it. (Though I didn't look very hard :P)
The initial public version (version 1), although better than the bare-bones YT-DLP experience, was difficult to set up, and was easy to mess up as well as being a bit “featureless” in my eyes.
I therefore created version 2 to make the setup process easier and to provide a more streamlined and easy-to-use experience.
This script is a wrapper for YT-DLP, a command-line tool for downloading videos. What you do with the downloaded content is up to you, but please use it responsibly and legally. Downloading copyrighted content without permission is illegal. This script is intended for personal use, and for downloading content that is freely available online. I am not responsible for any misuse of this script or the downloaded content. The script itself is also unable to actually download the videos, that part is made possible by YT-DLP. This script is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind.
This script is licensed under the Unlicense license, so I don't expect you to follow this. But for moral reasons; please don't turn the script into malware or anything like that. Though, as the license states, you are free to do whatever you want with it.
- Usage of %~dp0 in the script - AUTOMATIC1111 Stable Diffusion web UI
- Loading the VARS.txt file in to the run.bat file - https://stackoverflow.com/a/66714820
- Most of the args used for the music command - YTDLnis
- URL check - Google Gemini
- Improved dependency check - Google Gemini
- Help with troubleshooting VARS.txt not loading properly - Microsoft Copilot
- Discovery that lead to a bug being fixed - FrostyMangg