Do you have a fool-proof method?

Test link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMeWsh7H6RI

  • I have Internet Download Manager and it has browser integration. But the programmer can be very annoying. It stopped working 100% of the time. And I guess he's not going to fix it. And I bet he won't even make the link available so I can grab it with another app.

  • I also use yt5s.com. It used to be golden but starting yesterday it's gives me 403 error sometimes.

  • At deturl.com - I tried all the download links to other sites but it seems the site was abandoned. The links are dead and the sites that work - also generated 403 yesterday. I'm about to try right now but I expect 403s again.

  • chickentendrils [any, comrade/them]
    ·
    2 months ago

    yt-dlp (a fork of youtube-dl) is the best option in my opinion, probably IDM just pulls its python package in but then doesn't get updated until IDM gets updated. There are free/open source GUI front ends for it too, I'm not familiar with them myself.

    Sometimes it breaks when Youtube update something, and there is probably a battle over ads/3rd party addons for Youtube that may come to a head next year.

    I've used it for a decade and a half at this point, based on the earliest stuff in my video archive folder.

    • Chronicon [they/them]
      ·
      2 months ago

      yeah yt-dlp is the goat for sure. Does a lot of sites besides youtube too. I use it for any old m3u8 video embed I find too, plus twitch vods, etc etc. Not the most user friendly for those that don't like CLI but there are GUI frontends

  • CarbonScored [any]
    ·
    2 months ago

    youtube-dl is as fool-proof as it gets. I typically just google around for youtube video download websites, then try about 20 before landing on one that works.

  • EllenKelly [comrade/them]
    ·
    2 months ago

    Whenever I need clips now I use a screenrecorder and crop out the free trial logo in a video editor, because I can also get the captions

    but I also use yt-dl or similar to the other commenter

    • EllenKelly [comrade/them]
      ·
      2 months ago

      Theres also telegram bots that are real clunky but can be useful if youre unable to use a significant amount of download data, I think a lot of them send the video back to you as a message you can download later

      I have a concerning amount of stuff backed up on telegram in private chats

  • citrussy_capybara [ze/hir]
    ·
    2 months ago

    https://cobalt.tools/
    yt-dlp
    jdownloader2
    freetube
    some of the invidious sites have downloading but youtube is hitting them hard

  • LanyrdSkynrd [comrade/them, any]
    ·
    2 months ago

    I use metube, which is a web based front end for yt-dpl/youtube-dl. It's useful if you run a Plex server or a host-your-own-music server(like subsonic). I can log in to the front end, paste in a video/playlist link, and it downloads it into a folder that Plex can pick up.

    It's probably overkill unless you self-host a media server, though.