A small note, I do not think Stacher is actually open-source yet, I can find threads from the author stating he plans to release the source-code as open source, but that's dating back 2 years.
Loved this one! I hadn't ever thought about youtube downloaders this deeply before, but I did start to wonder about them recently when I found that a couple of old user-friendly ones had gone offline - and most others I came across were awfully sketchy.
Fantastic dive into the' why's here Chris. Looking forward to the next issue!
Actually, cobalt can be self hosted, and therefore there are community instances of it out there like cobalt.meowing.de that still allow YouTube downloads!
Well, this is the one that took me from "Free" to "Paid"... great, honest article about YouTube downloaders, and all the dirty little secrets that no one talks about in using one. TOTALLY agree with your perspective. Keep up the great tips and tricks - and writing about what others won't (or can't)! We're out here reading...
I used to download music videos but had to stop when they started to get blocked, bummer! Thanks for sharing. Hope you & yours have a wonderful weekend. On a side note, no tax for tips applies to creators.
I use VideoProc Converter. I bought a Family license with Lifetime updates more than 5 years ago. At that time, the Family license was normally $120, but I got it for $40. Now the Family license is normally $160, but hopefully with Black Friday or certain times of the year it is much cheaper than that. They do sell single PC licenses too, but I would wait for a deep discount sale.
VideoProc Converter has a ton of features, but I primarily use it for downloading videos. It supports 1000+ regular sites and 2000+ niche sites. I've had good success with YouTube, Vimeo, and others.
I use an app named SmartTube. It is designed Android-based set-top boxes and tv. It skips YouTube ads. It is open source.
yt-dlp has been the only one that consistently works for me. Most others break way too often.
Definitely. All the other high-quality tools seem to use yt-dlp as a backend!
A small note, I do not think Stacher is actually open-source yet, I can find threads from the author stating he plans to release the source-code as open source, but that's dating back 2 years.
I'd also like to throw: https://grayjay.app/ into the mix.
Oh wow, I could swear it was! I remember seeing discussion about it. Good catch - I will tweak the piece.
Great article!
Loved this one! I hadn't ever thought about youtube downloaders this deeply before, but I did start to wonder about them recently when I found that a couple of old user-friendly ones had gone offline - and most others I came across were awfully sketchy.
Fantastic dive into the' why's here Chris. Looking forward to the next issue!
Hey, thanks! Good to see you here. This is an underdiscussed topic, but it was well-understood how things worked back in the day.
For example, look at this old Anandtech forum thread from 10+ years ago: https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/google-product-abuse-discussion-ban-a-slippery-slope.2411640/
Actually, cobalt can be self hosted, and therefore there are community instances of it out there like cobalt.meowing.de that still allow YouTube downloads!
Oh wow - thank you for that comment! That's incredibly useful. (I've added a link to your comment right into the post -- thanks!)
Is there an app or script to get Facebook videos? The are historical videos I’d like and
I haven't needed to do this myself, but Cobalt says it supports Facebook videos, too! ( see https://cobalt.tools/ )
Stacher, afaik, is currently not open source. The github pages at the bottom of the linked website are for yt-dlp.
Thanks for catching that -- I've updated the piece. The author promised to make it open-source, but that hasn't happened.
Stacher is proprietary freeware, not open-source software.
Thanks for catching that - the author promised to open-source it, but that hasn't happened yet.
yt-dlp + ffmpeg are amazing.
I just found out it can download youtube, tiktok and instagram reels too.
Finally I can watch the tiktok's of cats a family member sent me and not have tiktok <3
I remember the net send! This is awesome. Also, YouTube downloaders: for years, I have had to find one every once in a while! Thank you!
Glad you appreciated that! I'm having fun with the retro nostalgia.
> Google could lock down YouTube harder. Services like Netflix use DRM-protected streams
small funfact: some specific youtube clients (used to? currently don't know if that's still ongoing) serve drm-protected content: https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/12563
Interesting!
Hi Chris,
Well, this is the one that took me from "Free" to "Paid"... great, honest article about YouTube downloaders, and all the dirty little secrets that no one talks about in using one. TOTALLY agree with your perspective. Keep up the great tips and tricks - and writing about what others won't (or can't)! We're out here reading...
Thank you, Bill! That means a lot to me -- I appreciate it.
This reminds me a lot of what it felt like writing for How-To Geek in the early days -- not thinking about SEO or advertisers, just the audience.
I used to download music videos but had to stop when they started to get blocked, bummer! Thanks for sharing. Hope you & yours have a wonderful weekend. On a side note, no tax for tips applies to creators.
I'm keeping an eye on that -- no one seems to know exactly what will count as a "tip" for digital creators just yet. Interesting times.
I use VideoProc Converter. I bought a Family license with Lifetime updates more than 5 years ago. At that time, the Family license was normally $120, but I got it for $40. Now the Family license is normally $160, but hopefully with Black Friday or certain times of the year it is much cheaper than that. They do sell single PC licenses too, but I would wait for a deep discount sale.
VideoProc Converter has a ton of features, but I primarily use it for downloading videos. It supports 1000+ regular sites and 2000+ niche sites. I've had good success with YouTube, Vimeo, and others.
The fastest way to download videos & mp3s from YouTube is to insert "pp" after the word 'youtube' in the address bar/link & hit Enter.
Example: https://www.youtubepp.com/watch?v=VuNIsY6Jd
This doesn't work EVERY time, but I have had success in the past.