I use yt-dlp in the linux command line environment to download a playlist of thousands of videos of retro video game music. I can have it download the audio, convert to mp3, and only process the stuff that I haven't downloaded (if I update the playlist and add new stuff). It's very powerful.
this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2025
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do you use a WSL? do u think it would be fine doing it in windows command line like terminal or powershell?
If you have more experience with Linux CLI over powershell, I'd go with that. There are a few options: WSL2, MSYS2, Cygwin.
I never felt the need to use a GUI for it, it's very easy to use.
I used to, as I wasn't comfortable with CLI.
Then yeah I realized how easy it was to use lmao, CLI all day now.
wait, there's GUIs available for yt-dlp??
Multiple, though yt-dlg hasn't been updated for years.
For the most common scenarios I personally find CLI very easy to use: I go to the destination folder, right-click "Open in Terminal" and then type yt-dlp linkcopypastedhere. That's all, multiple sites I used it with didn't require any extra params. Maybe if you want to customize something, like make your own file naming convention, etc, GUI could be handy.
Maybe if you want to customize something, like make your own file naming convention, etc, GUI could be handy.
Even then, it's probably worth learning the CLI commands and setting up a config file with any desired settings. Once that's setup, you're back to yt-dlp url again.
do you use a WSL or powershell? windows terminal is inferior to linux terminal imo
windows terminal is inferior
Note that there is an application called Windows Terminal and that's a terminal, not a shell. You can run any shell in it (including alternative or WSL shells).
I primarily use native Nushell via Windows Terminal.
You're not stuck with PowerShell or batch on Windows.
Until you pointed this out I never realized that windows terminal and command prompt are entirely different applications lol
I use PowerShell for damn near everything. But I'm pretty sure when you're just typing yt-dlp, space, then pasting the url, then any terminal is as good as any other.
good point, i did not know that you could change the configuration file instead of adding all the -cookies and -mp3 tags to the yt-dlp url ... command
I find that preparing config files for each type of media is mighty useful for sustained use of the cli program. This makes it so that downloads all get specced identically. Then you prepare batch/bash scripts or aliases that point to those config files and place them in one of the paths in the environment variable %path% / ${PATH}. then you just call that batch file with the URLs you want to download.
Up to your preference. I do suggest making an alias for it so it automatically downloads to a specific directory.
Stacher is pretty handy. I don't think there are any drawbacks.
the cli is very simple to use as @hisao mentioned here, for any specific options I find that llms like Claude are very helpful for giving me the commands I need. "a yt-dlp command to download 720p with no audio" for example will give you the correct command to paste in
i have Total Commander open anyway and have a button on the button bar pointing to the yt-dlp.exe with the parameters below, the "?" makes it do a popup and I just insert the link at the end, it will create a new directory where you are located.
?--config-locations "locationofmy\yt-dlp.config" --output "%P%%(extractor_key)s/%%(uploader)s/%%(title)s-%%(id)s.%%(ext)s"
sorry to comment off-topic. But why would you use total commander? I know of maybe two people who use it and I don't understand why. The UI is very outdated, the function keys are hard to press, and it forces two windows. I'm genuinely asking what are it's upsides that anyone would choose to use it?
It has a superset of features compared to the Explorer - Meaning it can do all the things that the explorer can do plus more.
I'm simply used to the two window layout since the old ages of Norton Commander ( Yes, Norton used to create useful products back then.). For me it is about hotkeys for functions ( Select, Filter, Copy, paste, move, delete). A multi rename tool. A search for file contents. A copy queue.
I do not use it for everything, but sometimes it's simply better than the standard windows tools.
This, I also come from the dos era, i'm accustomed to the split window. This was the "main look" of my PC before windows.
Similarly I cannot understand people who use explorer or anything to manage files, tc makes it so easy.
I'd say the CLI is perfectly fine, I have a config in the same folder so all I have to do is input the URL. I just switch between output directories for episode vs playlist by '#' commenting out the other.
FWIW I use the tartube gui in windows as it'll dl full playlists, even monitor channels and update with new released episodes.
To make the CLI even easier, just set up an alias in you bashrc file for it. I made it so I just need to type "yt" instead of "yt-dlp". Small change, but helpful imo.