ytlist is a python script to get a YouTube user's playlists and save to a text file for use with Youtube-DL. This program is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0.
- You need a Youtube API key, you can get one here. If you keep getting a 400 error when running, it probably means you didn't enter an API key
Running the script is simple, all you need to do is run it with python3:
python3 ytlist.py
Once ran, it prompts for a YouTube channel ID (Channel IDs are 24 characters long beginning with UC) or a channel username. If playlists are found, the script saves them to a text file called playlists.txt with the following formatting:
#Build Logs
PL8mG-RkN2uTy5zBlQstuTnIUEQPe5rDHx
The first line contains the actual text name of the playlist below as a comment that will not interfere with Youtube-DL. Playlists with ASCII characters or emoji in them are supported. Below it is the aformentioned playlist's alphanumeric ID.
The way I intended this program to be used is in conjunction with the custom Youtube-DL commands that I've found after doing some previous research.
Below are the two commands I use when archiving channels.
youtube-dl -ciw -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s_%(title)s_%(id)s.%(ext)s' -f "bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/bestvideo+bestaudio' --merge-output-format mkv" --yes-playlist --download-archive archive.txt -R 10000 -a playlists.txt
This one downloads the best quality video and audio into the corresponding playlist folder and uses ffmpeg to merge them into an MKV file.
youtube-dl -ciw --extract-audio --audio-format mp3 -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s_%(title)s_%(id)s.%(ext)s' --download-archive archive.txt --yes-playlist --embed-thumbnail -R 10000 -a playlists.txt
This one extracts the video audio, converts it to MP3, embeds the thumbnail of the video into the MP3 file and also puts the files into the corresponding playlist folders.