youtube - vods

notes

• due to youtube frequently updating their service, yt-dlp will occasionally stop working. if you ever encounter issues when attempting to download a video, make sure to update yt-dlp to the latest version and try again. this will fix the problem 99% of the time.
• yt-dlp works on many more sites than just youtube and should always be your first go-to when attempting to download videos that aren't protected by drm encryption

requirements

• yt-dlp

method

1. create a yt-dlp config file in the appropriate location and add the following options to it

--output "[%(upload_date)s] %(title).200B [%(id)s].%(ext)s"
--ignore-errors
--no-playlist
--embed-metadata
--embed-subs
--sub-langs "en.*"
--alias premium  "--extractor-args 'youtube:player_client=default,ios;formats=missing_pot'"

note: while these are some sensible defaults that I highly recommend, using a config file is entirely optional

2. copy the page url and use it in the following command to begin downloading

yt-dlp <url>

or for 1080p videos with enhanced bitrate quality

yt-dlp --premium <url>

and if downloading premium videos results in a 403 error, try this

yt-dlp --premium -f '616+251-1' <url>