youtube-dl

Download videos from youtube in node.js using youtube-dl.

I also made a pure Javascript youtube downloading module. The reason I'm maintaining this one is because it supports a lot more video sites besides youtube. But if you're only interested in downloading from youtube, you should consider using the better module. It's better in that it doesn't have to spawn a child process, so it uses less memory and it's faster. And you get direct access to the download stream, meaning you can pipe it or pause it or whatever with it.

Usage

Downloading videos

var youtubedl = require('youtube-dl');
var dl = youtubedl.download('http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90AiXO1pAiA',
  './videos',
  // optional arguments passed to youtube-dl
  ['--max-quality=18']);

// will be called when the download starts
dl.on('download', function(data) {
  console.log('Download started');
  console.log('filename: ' + data.filename);
  console.log('size: ' + data.size);
});

// will be called during download progress of a video
dl.on('progress', function(data) {
  process.stdout.write(data.eta + ' ' + data.percent + '% at ' + data.speed + '\r');
});

// catches any errors
dl.on('error', function(err) {
  throw err;
});

// called when youtube-dl finishes
dl.on('end', function(data) {
  console.log('\nDownload finished!');
  console.log('ID:', data.id);
  console.log('Filename:', data.filename);
  console.log('Size:', data.size);
  console.log('Time Taken:', data.timeTaken);
  console.log('Time Taken in ms:', + data.timeTakenms);
  console.log('Average Speed:', data.averageSpeed);
  console.log('Average Speed in Bytes:', data.averageSpeedBytes);
});

This example can be found in the example folder, and will produce an output that looks like the following when ran.

Download started
filename: lol-90AiXO1pAiA.mp4
size: 918.57KiB

00:00 100.0% at 2.00MiB/s

Download finished!
ID: 90AiXO1pAiA
Filename: lol-90AiXO1pAiA.mp4
Size: 918.57KiB
Time Taken: 2 seconds, 178 ms
Time Taken in ms: 2178
Average Speed: 211.24B/s
Average Speed in Bytes: 211.24

Getting video information

var youtubedl = require('youtube-dl');
var url = 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKsjaOqDXgg';
// optional arguments passed to youtube-dl
var options = ['--username=user', '--password=hunter2'];
youtubedl.getInfo(url, options, function(err, info) {
  if (err) throw err;

  console.log('id:', info.id);
  console.log('title:', info.title);
  console.log('url:', info.url);
  console.log('thumbnail:', info.thumbnail);
  console.log('description:', info.description);
  console.log('filename:', info.filename);
  console.log('itag:', info.itag);
  console.log('resolution:', info.resolution);
});

Running that will produce something like

id: WKsjaOqDXgg
title: Ace Rimmer to the Rescue
url: http://r5---sn-p5qlsn7e.c.youtube.com/videoplayback?ms=au&ip=160.79.125.18&cp=U0hWTFVQVl9FTENONl9NSlpDOjgtU1VsODlkVmRH&id=58ab2368ea835e08&source=youtube&expire=1377558202&factor=1.25&key=yt1&ipbits=8&mt=1377534150&itag=34&sver=3&upn=-rGWz2vYpN4&fexp=912306%2C927900%2C919395%2C926518%2C936203%2C913819%2C929117%2C929121%2C929906%2C929907%2C929922%2C929127%2C929129%2C929131%2C929930%2C925726%2C925720%2C925722%2C925718%2C929917%2C906945%2C929919%2C929933%2C912521%2C932306%2C913428%2C904830%2C919373%2C930803%2C908536%2C904122%2C938701%2C936308%2C909549%2C900816%2C912711%2C904494%2C904497%2C900375%2C906001&sparams=algorithm%2Cburst%2Ccp%2Cfactor%2Cid%2Cip%2Cipbits%2Citag%2Csource%2Cupn%2Cexpire&mv=m&burst=40&algorithm=throttle-factor&signature=ABD3A847684AD9B39331E567568D3FA0DCFA4776.7895521E130A042FB3625A17242CE3C02A4460B7&ratebypass=yes
thumbnail: https://i1.ytimg.com/vi/WKsjaOqDXgg/hqdefault.jpg
description: An old Red Dwarf eposide where Ace Rimmer saves the Princess Bonjella.
filename: Ace Rimmer to the Rescue-WKsjaOqDXgg.flv
itag: 34
resolution: 360x640

Getting available formats

var youtubedl = require('youtube-dl');
var url = 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKsjaOqDXgg';
youtubedl.getFormats(url, function(err, formats) {
  if (err) throw er;

  formats.forEach(function(format) {
    console.log(format);
  });
});

Will print something like

{ itag: 34, filetype: 'flv', resolution: '360x640' }
{ itag: 18, filetype: 'mp4', resolution: '360x640' }
{ itag: 43, filetype: 'webm', resolution: '360x640' }
{ itag: 5, filetype: 'flv', resolution: '240x400' }
{ itag: 17, filetype: 'mp4', resolution: '144x176' }

For more usage info on youtube-dl and the arguments you can pass to it, do youtube-dl -h or go to the youtube-dl documentation.

Install

npm install youtube-dl

Use the -g option if you want npm to add a symlink to youtube-dl so it can be used in command line.

Tests

Tests are written with vows

npm test

Issues and the Future

I haven't tested this with playlists yet because I haven't needed to use them. But my guess is they probably work with the download function but not the info function.

License

MIT

btmdave / node-youtube-dl