Anon tries to download videos from youtube

The fundamental issue is that he's looking for someone to provide a free service instead of for someone to provide free software.
The latter happens so much more often because it doesn't create ongoing costs for the developer.
- What's the best free software?
  
  Yt-dlp
  
  I haven't tried enough of the options to tell you that.
  Personally I use Smooth Video Project anyway, so it's conveniet to also use their SVPtube tool. It just wraps youtube-dl and provides a little GUI for it.
  There are a bunch of other GUIs for youtube-dl too

If you are into docker use tubearchivist as it lets you host the videos as well.

This was legit me untill I learnt about yt-dlp. I remember I used some random ass website for downloading yt vids, since I didn't have mobile data back then, and I wanted to listen to some tunes while I was going to school. The site would completely mess up file names every single time. Yt-dlp is the reason that pushed me to use cli apps more.
Yt-dlp my beloved
- Yeah yt-dlp is an amazing software, unfortunately it no longer works for nsfw without cookies.

yt-dlp
- I was surprised at how well it works but anything command line is not for normies
  
  Anyone who’s done “/gamemode creative” is smart enough to figure out “yt-dlp
  <url>
  ”. Seriously people need to stop acting like typing the most basic commands that you can find tutorials about is some kinda level 9 magic
  
  Thats why I run it in docker with a web ui (On my server behind a reverse proxy, so I could get HTTPS working)
  Shut up, im not a nerd
  
  If you are on an android phone you should check the F-Droid pages for Seal. No commandline, a nice GUI, works great.
  
  Nah I'm sorry. There is a point where it's unreasonable to expect someone to learn something, but that isn't it.
  Using yt-dlp is extremely straightforward.
  Being ignorant and proud of it is a horrid personality trait. The average person knows how to drive a car, how to call others using their phone and how to use an ATM.
  Typing 7 characters and copy-pasting a link is well within their abilities.
  
  You can use the OpenWith extensions to add it as a right click option.
  I have this setup for my non-technical family members, so they just right click on the page choose open with -> ytdlp and it saves it to their downloads folder.
  You can set up different options for example video or audio only.
  In Firefox install: https://webextension.org/listing/external-application-button.html
  In the Extension options, add an application
  Name it something like "Open in YT-DLP: mp4"
  Set the exe name to the path of a local copy of yt-dlp
  Set the arguments to be -S res,ext:mp4:m4a --recode mp4 [HREF]
  Under the Placement options -> Context Menu -> select "All Contexts"
  You should now be able to right click on a YouTube page and choose "External Application launcher -> Open in YT-DLP: mp4"
  If you want audio only, add another application in the extension settings and use the arguments -f ba[ext=m4a] [HREF] for m4a files.
  
  There's GUIs for it though. Obviously not for everyone, but I made my own.
  That it can download virtually from any site is pretty useful, assuming you know what to give it.
  
  Normies don't deserve joy.
- You can add it as a right-click option to Firefox:
  Install: https://webextension.org/listing/external-application-button.html
  In the Extension options, add an application
  Name it something like “Open in YT-DLP: mp4”
  Set the exe name to the path of a local copy of yt-dlp
  Set the arguments to be -S res,ext:mp4:m4a --recode mp4 [HREF]
  Under the Placement options -> Context Menu -> select “All Contexts”
  You should now be able to right click on a YouTube page and choose “External Application launcher -> Open in YT-DLP: mp4”
  If you want audio only, add another application in the extension settings and use the arguments -f ba[ext=m4a] [HREF] for m4a files.
  
  I love you
- Do you type that in the windows finder bar?
  
  Its a package, so it gets delivered in the mail
- Grayjay works too, and they have a desktop client now (at least for Linux, and probably windows).
- Youtube seems to be blocking that for me
  
  Might need an update. Just fixed mine by grabbing the latest release from 2 weeks ago.
  
  It shouldn't. When I first set it up the commands I was entering were creating an unreadable file. Double check the format you're outputting too and dont listen to the people in this thread saying its easy. Its pretty complex.

Pro tip to teach people to fish instead of giving them a fish:
Whenever you're looking for a new software tool to do something, especially something "sketchy" like this, add something like "GPL" or "open source" to the end of your search string. It might not be quite enough to raise the official site of the best tool all the way to the first search result, but it cuts way, way down on the scam sites.
Or perhaps even better yet, go straight to checking AlternativeTo.net.
- Or add "reddit" and check what people recommend Though you would have to use Google or perhaps Startpage
  
  This worked a few years ago, but half of reddit is just bots and guerilla marketers now :(
  
  Yes, but eww.
  
  How dare you.
  
  May as well walk into an AA meeting and tell people they can just keep drinking
- site:github.com
  
  I've seen github malware before, so, beware

jdownloader includes yt-dlp and is generally good if you want to download things that you might or might not be supposed to download

!piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com has a list ;)
- Also, I'm just gonna leave this here: https://github.com/jely2002/youtube-dl-gui
  
  Thats what I use now. Got it through scoop.sh.

yt-dlp

cobalt.tools
- Nice!

The screenshot is an old version of MacOS. Either install yt-dlp (at the command line) or, and this is better by far, get the Downie app. I've been downloading videos all morning.
- yes yt-dlp,
  no to random app that’s probably just a wrapper for yt-dlp with spyware and ads bundled in
  
  There are no ads and not everyone can utilize the command line (I actually taught someone that they could double-click to do something super basic that you'd think everyone knows by now just last week). The developer (Charlie Monroe) makes quality software and I gladly paid for a license. Don't shit on things you haven't investigated.
  
  Minitool ™ Youtube © Downloadtooler®
  
  On a mac, this works too: https://github.com/jely2002/youtube-dl-gui

If on Android, use Seal, a FOSS app that uses yt-dlp and allows you to download the video in a shit ton of format and stuff. Apparently can even embed subtitles and metadata into the files, although I never do that.
- I really like Seal. Clean UI, FOSS, transparent about the fact that it's "just" a yt-dlp frontend
- EDM mixes, downloaded as audio only, split by YouTube chapters, thumbnail embedded as cover and the single parts named by the chapter names, 5/5. I usually do an extra step where I embed fideo name and file name splits as Album, Artist and Track and then they're good to go into my Jellyfin instance.

Cobalt.tools

Jdownloader 2 is the most straightforward.
- It's an unholy Java monster

yt-dlp

If you’re technically inclined, you can selfhost metube for your friends/family
- Is that just a yt-dlp front end? Was hoping it would also do the streaming which is what I currently have been thinking of setting up. Probably yt-dlp to download all latest videos and then stream that over UPNP so any device with VLC can watch over the LAN.
  
  That's what I do! Just save everything to my media server, better that way.
- This is a really nice front end, thanks.for the recommendation.

Same thing when I use to want to download photos from instagram for... uh... personal research.

VLC still works right?
- Yeah, last time I checked anyway. I think it's been about a year since I last used it for that though.

Parabolic is super easy to use and allows you to download either a single video or entire playlist/channel. Also if you download playlists, it makes separate folders for them and embeds all the metadata you may need.
Open-source (GPL-licensed), available for Windows and Linux.

On firefox: shift + right click -> save video as
Some say there’s an allow right click extension needed to bring it back for YouTube
Alternatively yt-dlp
- The save as option is greyed out for me. I've even inspected the element, removed a class="nodownload", but no dice

I haven't had to do this in awhile so I can't recommend the best downloader for this job... But I will say that this is the sort of thing where you absolutely need to have a good adblocker
- yt-dlp. Works right from the command line, no sketchy sites, on linux you can probably install it from your package manager
  
  Well damn, guess I'm still windows-brained, never thought that there'd be a package for that!

If anyone looking for Android app. It's flkay for sites other than youtube, but do give it a try
https://sealapk.net/
- https://ytdlnis.org/ also exists
- I checked soundcloud is working.

Actually one of the steps is always offering downlaoder EXE to get the fucking video...

Clip Grab
No bullshit. No log in. Works on multiple sites. Free.
- This might not be bullshit, but after hitting 3 separate download buttons and not starting a download, I can say without a doubt that this link is an offender.
  
  I just tried it on 3 separate browsers and it worked fine.
  I can say without a doubt this app works great. I have been using it for almost 10 years.