undefined | Better HN

0 pointsbigbubba5y ago0 comments

The point is that youtube-dl does more than just download videos. It can also be used for downloading metadata. I use -J to download metadata formatted as JSON.

0 comments

lostcolony5y ago

Is that metadata protected by some sort of mechanism? Or is it just not queried by default using one's browser? I.e., is youtube-dl calling a public, unsecured API, or is it circumventing some sort of copy protection?

Because if it's just querying for metadata that anyone can already query for...your point seems immaterial as to the legality of the tool?

robertlagrant5y ago

They're saying that sure, the name youtube-dl might well imply it's specifically for downloading things from YouTube, but that doesn't mean it's specifically for downloading video from YouTube.

boogies5y ago

How much of that metadata is not normally downloaded alongside the video?

bigbubbaOP5y ago

Plenty of it? I regularly download the metadata and subtitles of entire channels or playlists so that I can search for specific words or phrases in thousands of hours of video. I know of no other way to accomplish this.

boogies5y ago

Subtitles are a perfect example of data that any normal browser downloads if you click CC, and can even be ^F'd if you click ‘Show Transcript’ on YouTube, but just happen to be orders of magnitude more useful if you control where they download to. I think you’re proving globular-toast’s point.

bigbubbaOP5y ago

Subtitles are not video, so no. And I'd like to see you visit a thousand video pages with an RIAA approved browser and ^F on each of them. Nice joke!

1 more reply

cosmie5y ago

Thank you so much for writing this comment!

I've been in several situations where this would have been incredibly handy, but never realized it was possible.

bigbubbaOP5y ago

`youtube-dl --write-sub --write-auto-sub --sub-lang en --skip-download [URL]` (Then just use grep)

There's all kinds of cool stuff you can do with youtube-dl. For example 'ytsearch20:kittens' will get a playlist of the first 20 search results for 'kittens'.

andrei_says_5y ago

This sounds incredibly powerful. Wondering if c-span is on youtube and properly close captioned.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

lostcolony5y ago

Because if it's just querying for metadata that anyone can already query for...your point seems immaterial as to the legality of the tool?

robertlagrant5y ago

They're saying that sure, the name youtube-dl might well imply it's specifically for downloading things from YouTube, but that doesn't mean it's specifically for downloading video from YouTube.

boogies5y ago

How much of that metadata is not normally downloaded alongside the video?

bigbubbaOP5y ago

boogies5y ago

bigbubbaOP5y ago

Subtitles are not video, so no. And I'd like to see you visit a thousand video pages with an RIAA approved browser and ^F on each of them. Nice joke!

1 more reply

cosmie5y ago

Thank you so much for writing this comment!

I've been in several situations where this would have been incredibly handy, but never realized it was possible.

bigbubbaOP5y ago

`youtube-dl --write-sub --write-auto-sub --sub-lang en --skip-download [URL]` (Then just use grep)

There's all kinds of cool stuff you can do with youtube-dl. For example 'ytsearch20:kittens' will get a playlist of the first 20 search results for 'kittens'.

andrei_says_5y ago

This sounds incredibly powerful. Wondering if c-span is on youtube and properly close captioned.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse