YoutubeExplode

YoutubeExplode is a library that provides an interface to query metadata of YouTube videos, playlists and channels, as well as to resolve and download video streams and closed caption tracks. Behind a layer of abstraction, the library parses raw page content and uses reverse-engineered AJAX requests to retrieve information. As it doesn't use the official API, there's also no need for an API key and there are no usage quotas.

Download

NuGet: Install-Package YoutubeExplode
Continuous integration

Features

Retrieves information about videos, playlists, channels, media streams and closed caption tracks
Handles all types of videos, including legacy, signed, restricted, non-embeddable and unlisted videos
Works with media streams of all types -- muxed, embedded adaptive, dash adaptive
Downloads videos by exposing their media content as a stream
Supports media stream seeking and segmentation to circumvent throttling
Parses and downloads closed caption tracks
All metadata properties are exposed using strong types and enums
Provides static methods to validate IDs and to parse IDs from URLs
Fully asynchronous API
Targets .NET Framework 4.5+, .NET Core 1.0+ and .NET Standard 1.1+
No need for an API key and no usage quotas

Screenshots

Usage

YoutubeExplode has a single entry point, the YoutubeClient class -- all available integration API can be accessed by calling methods of this class.

A lot of helper methods are provided as extensions for models, make sure to include corresponding using statements to see them.

Media streams come in 3 forms -- Muxed (video & audio), Audio (audio only) and Video (video only). Highest qualities are not available in muxed streams so you'll have to download separate streams and multiplex them yourself using tools like ffmpeg.

You can also use YoutubeExplode.Converter to take care of multiplexing for you.

Parse ID from URL

var url = "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnsUkE8i0tU";
var id = YoutubeClient.ParseVideoId(url); // "bnsUkE8i0tU"

Get video info

var client = new YoutubeClient();
var video = await client.GetVideoAsync("bnsUkE8i0tU");

var title = video.Title; // "Infected Mushroom - Spitfire [Monstercat Release]"
var author = video.Author; // "Monstercat"
var duration = video.Duration; // 00:07:14

Download video

var client = new YoutubeClient();
var streamInfoSet = await client.GetVideoMediaStreamInfosAsync("bnsUkE8i0tU");

var streamInfo = streamInfoSet.Muxed.WithHighestVideoQuality();
var ext = streamInfo.Container.GetFileExtension();
await client.DownloadMediaStreamAsync(streamInfo, $"downloaded_video.{ext}");

Extract closed captions

var client = new YoutubeClient();
var trackInfos = await client.GetVideoClosedCaptionTrackInfosAsync("_QdPW8JrYzQ");

var trackInfo = trackInfos.First(t => t.Language.Code == "en");
var track = await client.GetClosedCaptionTrackAsync(trackInfo);

var caption = track.GetByTime(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(61));
var text = caption.Text; // "And the game was afoot."

Get playlist info

var client = new YoutubeClient();
var playlist = await client.GetPlaylistAsync("PLQLqnnnfa_fAkUmMFw5xh8Kv0S5voEjC9");

var title = playlist.Title; // "Igorrr - Hallelujah"
var author = playlist.Author; // "randomusername604"

var video = playlist.Videos.First();
var videoTitle = video.Title; // "Igorrr - Tout Petit Moineau"
var videoAuthor = video.Author; // "Igorrr Official"

radiaku / YoutubeExplode