YouTube Playlist Downloader

This repository provides a script for downloading YouTube playlists, channels, or individual videos as high-quality video files. The script utilizes yt-dlp and ffmpeg to download and merge video and audio files into a single, unified file.

Table of Contents

• Features
• Motivation
• Installation
  • Prerequisites
  • Clone the Repository
  • Install Required Dependencies
  • Download and Set Up Tools
• Usage
• Backlog (User Stories)
• License

Features

• Download YouTube playlists, individual videos, or all videos from a channel.
• Download videos in high-quality (up to 1080p).
• Automatically merge video and audio using ffmpeg.
• Show download progress in the terminal with an easy-to-read progress bar.

Motivation

I created this script because I needed to download some educational courses from YouTube for offline viewing. Specifically, I wanted to download:

1. A YouTube playlist containing AWS courses: AWS Course Playlist.
2. Another English course by Mr. Ihab Ramzi, available on his channel: Ihab Ramzi's Channel.

This script allows you to provide a link to an individual video, a playlist, or even the entire videos page of a channel, such as Ihab Ramzi's Videos, and it can download all the videos efficiently.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Node.js: Download and install Node.js from the official Node.js website.
• Python: yt-dlp requires Python. Install it from the official Python website and add it to your system PATH.

To verify the installations, open a terminal and run:

node -v
npm -v
python --version

Clone the Repository

Clone the repository to your local machine and navigate into the project directory:

git clone https://github.com/AmirHaytham/youtube_playlist_downloader.git
cd youtube_playlist_downloader

Install Required Dependencies

Install the required Node.js packages:

npm install progress

Download and Set Up Tools

• Download yt-dlp:

  • Visit the yt-dlp releases page and download the yt-dlp.exe file.
  • Save yt-dlp.exe in a directory, such as C:\yt-dlp\.

• Download ffmpeg:

  • Visit the ffmpeg download page, and download a Windows build (e.g., from gyan.dev).
  • Extract the downloaded ZIP file and locate ffmpeg.exe in the bin folder.
  • Move ffmpeg.exe to a directory, such as C:\ffmpeg\bin\.

Add yt-dlp and ffmpeg to Your Script

Update the script file (downloadPlaylist.js) with the correct paths to yt-dlp and ffmpeg:

// Paths to yt-dlp and ffmpeg executables
const ytDlpPath = 'C:\\yt-dlp\\yt-dlp.exe'; // Update to the actual path where yt-dlp.exe is located
const ffmpegPath = 'C:\\ffmpeg\\bin\\ffmpeg.exe'; // Update to the actual path where ffmpeg.exe is located

Usage

1. Set the desired playlist, video, or channel URL in the playlistUrl variable within the script.

   Example URLs:

   • Playlist URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3nLSHQtLes&list=PLOoZRfEtk6kWSM_l9xMjDh-_MJXl03-pf
   • Channel videos page: https://www.youtube.com/@IhabRamziyallaspeak/videos

2. Run the script to start downloading videos:

   node downloadPlaylist.js

   This command will start the download process, showing progress for each video in the terminal.

Backlog (User Stories)

• Add functionality to download video and audio from YouTube playlists.
• Integrate yt-dlp for high-quality video downloads.
• Integrate ffmpeg to merge audio and video files.
• Add a progress bar to show download status.
• Add functionality to download all videos from a channel.
• Create a setup script for easier installation.
• Add error handling for unsupported formats or unavailable videos.