I want to download a couple of videos from creators I like, to keep them in case they are ever lost later (whether due to censorship or drama, etc). What is the best method to use for getting files from youtube? bonus points especially if they result in file types that I can burn to a dvd.
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I download youtube videos in .mp3 format very often, both for music and to listen to as podcasts. I don’t know if it’s the best method but this is how i do it:
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Use the MultiSelect extension to select multiple videos and put them in a playlist, which i name Download. This playlist has to be public.
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Use Open Video Downloader to download this playlist, making sure that it writes the metadata in tags. If necessary, it can also download age-restricted videos by importing cookies from your browser, i’ve done it a couple of times but it’s not convenient.
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I pretty much leave it at that, but you could use a media tagger to add further information to the files.
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I like Tube Archivist
thank you!
If you don’t feel confortable with CLI tools their is graphical front-ends for yt-dlp such as Open Video Downloader or stacher but using yt-dlp is always better
is there a reason to be uncomfortable? I’m noob
No. With Unix-style tools, bare terminal is always more powerful than any GUI. It’s just that a lot of people don’t want to invest their time into reading manuals and actually understanding how it all works.
Consider uploading them to a peertube instance, so others can also see them
I just use grayjay :)
You can use Invidious or Piped as a frontend, and there will be a link you can click to download, no need to install anything.
What file types can’t you burn to a DVD? Or in case you mean a file format that can be played natively on a DVD player, just get an authoring tool like dvdstyler that will convert any format into something you can play directly.
On the other hand most DVD players newer than 10 years will also just play mp4 without any issues.
Beware it will not last like a factory made DVD or Bluray. Home burned optical media is more volatile, so not a great solution for decades-long backups.
To add on to this, you’d need archival grade discs for this. Last time I looked, they were around $4/$5 per disc in a spindle for blurays, with a 50yr min lifespan.
mp4 is not really a video format. Depending on how recent they are they’ll play a broader or narrower range of MP4 files, depending on codec selection.
