10 ms·

I don't understand one thing...why do you need to host it on a server? It can be just a standalone app on windows/Linux/mac. I recently just started using yt-dl

I don't understand one thing...why do you need to host it on a server? It can be just a standalone app on windows/Linux/mac. I recently just started using yt-dlp and have thought of making a simple app. Should I though? Are there any alternatives in existence of this kind?

loloquwowndueo 2y ago
What, like Stacher? https://stacher.io/ https://stacher.io/
- sva_ 2y ago
  Or Seal for Android: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.junkfood.seal/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.junkfood.seal/
  - siddheshgunjal 2y ago
    This is a very neat implementation! Exactly what I was thinking. I'm gonna try it out. Thanks for the suggestion!
- dspillett 2y ago
  > Stacher is a Desktop App Come Back on your PC/Laptop! That is terrible UX. I can't even read about it on a mobile device? Maybe I'll check back next time I'm at a desk, likely I won't.
- siddheshgunjal 2y ago
  This looks like a good implementation. But I have to go to my desktop to explore more
grey_earthling 2y ago
Celluloid streams using yt-dlp automatically if you ask it to open a supported URL. Parabolic is a purpose-made downloader that uses yt-dlp. https://flathub.org/apps/details/io.github.celluloid_player.Celluloid https://flathub.org/apps/details/io.github.celluloid_player.... https://flathub.org/apps/org.nickvision.tubeconverter https://flathub.org/apps/org.nickvision.tubeconverter
- Sincere6066 2y ago
  flathub I ain't clickin' that
gradschool 2y ago
Freetube is another one. https://freetubeapp.io/ https://freetubeapp.io/
fragmede 2y ago
you host it on the server which has a raid array and is/gets backedup vs a laptop that could get stolen or lost. the point is to have a copy of the videos that can't be deleted/lost so having that on a loseable laptop wouldn't satisfy that requirement
- sebtron 2y ago
  Can't you just sync / backup your files?
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- codetrotter 2y ago
  You don’t back up the data from your laptop to external media? :S
  - grep_name 2y ago
    Not the GP but for me personally, no, never. I only sync a couple of text files which I update and reference regularly enough to need them to be synced across machines constantly. I don't really understand HN's seeming aversion to having a headless server that handles centralized tasks like downloading, storing, and serving files. It's a great model for personal computing with a ton of upsides. As far as I'm concerned all storage on my laptop is totally disposable, and I should be able to wipe and reinstall everything quickly without loss of important data.
    - mpweiher 2y ago
      I back up the data on my laptop daily to rotating backup disks + there's a local server for git and some other stuff. So yeah, storage on my laptop is disposable. Which I test whenever I get a new one: restore from backup. Works.
  - fragmede 2y ago
    Where to? Some sort of server? where you could run some sort of software that would organizeand catalogue your files in a more readily usable format than digging into a laptop backup archive?
ysofunny 2y ago
you can ask that about so many things nowadays why must the majority of software be provided as-a-Service? whatever happened to good old fashioned products??
- downrightmike 2y ago
  shareware model didn't really work out, or did you finally buy winrar?
- hashslingingsha 2y ago
  [flagged]
davidbanham 2y ago
A server is just a computer. You could run this software on the computer in front of you, or a computer in a datacentre. Either is fine.
- amelius 2y ago
  Yeah, but why mess with port numbers when you can just run it as a standalone process?
  - wkat4242 2y ago
    Because you might want to share it with other people or even your own other devices on the same network
    - amelius 2y ago
      Well, you can do so by using e.g. VNC. One nice part is that you can use the same setup for everything and you don't have to play the sysadmin role all the time for every app.
- freehorse 2y ago
  The question then becomes why not just ssh into that computer or whatever and just use yt-dlp on a terminal on it instead of a javascript wrapper around it.
1vuio0pswjnm7 2y ago
yt-dlp is not even necessary. If just downloading videos from YouTube this can be done with much less code and complexity. I use a tiny C program to do it. Tiny shell scripts work just as well. What no one is discussing is that yt-dlp can no longer download itag 22 and itag 18 is now throttled.^1 This means yt-dlp has to download an audio file and a video file and use ffmpeg to merge the two. YouTube ad revenue just missed consensus estimates. Perhaps the accessibility of videos on YouTube is going to get even worse. 1. One will not likely notice this unless one is in the habit of specifically choosing format. For example, some folks have used itag 18 and 22 exclusively for many years.
- dspillett 2y ago
  > yt-dlp can no longer download itag 22 and itag 18 is now throttled. This means yt-dlp has to download an audio file and a video file and use ffmpeg to merge the two. I found yt-dlp did that more often than not anyway, if left to its own devices on choosing which formats to pick. Though I had noticed it doing that pretty much always recently. > Perhaps the accessibility of videos on YouTube is going to get even worse. I think that has started to happen. I've had a few occurrences recently where it tries to get a particular format and fails, so I've had to manually request something else. They also seem to have started screening non-residential/office/similar connections more aggressively too, two external hosts of mine now get a message to the effect "login to prove you aren't a bot" when yt-dlp tries to pick something up, and I've seen people note that they have trouble with YouTube proper (without logging in) over some VPN services.
  - _0ffh 2y ago
    >I found yt-dlp did that more often than not anyway Yes, the default setting is to d/l and mux the highest available quality video and audio.
- siddheshgunjal 2y ago
  I also realised the same thing yesterday. I tried using a specific tag quality, for a playlist and many of the videos failed to download. So, I just set it to download the best available quality for video and audio.
dspillett 2y ago
> why do you need to host it on a server? It can be just a standalone app Your Windows/Linux/OSX device, or a VM or container on it, can be the server if you wish. This way the creators don't need to make two UXs (web for the server, native for the other). A lot of people run thier self-hosted apps on an external server or home lab (or mix/multiple) with those resources being "properly" setup as infrastructure with backups and such, using their PCs/laptops/tablets/phones as relatively dumb clients/caches that can be easily replaced (pulling local content back from the server the old devices synced to) if lost/damaged. This is one reason self-housing that way is popular. > using yt-dlp and have thought of making a simple app I've seen a few desktop apps that seem to be wrappers around yt-dlp (and/or other similar utilities). I've not used any of them so can't comment on their stability/reliability/other, but I'd do a search before writing your own from scratch (unless you want to do that for fun anyway!) as you might find what you want already exists.
- jagermo 2y ago
  it also neatly integrates into easy-to-use things like runtipi. I have it on my spare home server, running a tandoor instance, invidious and metube for watching stuff later/offline.
andix 2y ago
You might want to download the videos to a NAS or home server and store them there, instead on the device you're on at the moment. A dockerized web app is also much easier to build and maintain, than desktop clients for Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Linux, and so on.
- hashslingingsha 2y ago
  yt-dlp already exists, though, and conveniently, someone else packages and builds it for you already. Why are we boiling the ocean to download videos?

loloquwowndueo 2y ago

What, like Stacher? https://stacher.io/ https://stacher.io/

sva_ 2y ago
Or Seal for Android: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.junkfood.seal/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.junkfood.seal/
- siddheshgunjal 2y ago
  This is a very neat implementation! Exactly what I was thinking. I'm gonna try it out. Thanks for the suggestion!
dspillett 2y ago
> Stacher is a Desktop App Come Back on your PC/Laptop! That is terrible UX. I can't even read about it on a mobile device? Maybe I'll check back next time I'm at a desk, likely I won't.
siddheshgunjal 2y ago
This looks like a good implementation. But I have to go to my desktop to explore more

grey_earthling 2y ago

Celluloid streams using yt-dlp automatically if you ask it to open a supported URL. Parabolic is a purpose-made downloader that uses yt-dlp. https://flathub.org/apps/details/io.github.celluloid_player.Celluloid https://flathub.org/apps/details/io.github.celluloid_player.... https://flathub.org/apps/org.nickvision.tubeconverter https://flathub.org/apps/org.nickvision.tubeconverter

Sincere6066 2y ago
flathub I ain't clickin' that

gradschool 2y ago

Freetube is another one. https://freetubeapp.io/ https://freetubeapp.io/

fragmede 2y ago

you host it on the server which has a raid array and is/gets backedup vs a laptop that could get stolen or lost. the point is to have a copy of the videos that can't be deleted/lost so having that on a loseable laptop wouldn't satisfy that requirement

sebtron 2y ago
Can't you just sync / backup your files?
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
codetrotter 2y ago
You don’t back up the data from your laptop to external media? :S
- grep_name 2y ago
  Not the GP but for me personally, no, never. I only sync a couple of text files which I update and reference regularly enough to need them to be synced across machines constantly. I don't really understand HN's seeming aversion to having a headless server that handles centralized tasks like downloading, storing, and serving files. It's a great model for personal computing with a ton of upsides. As far as I'm concerned all storage on my laptop is totally disposable, and I should be able to wipe and reinstall everything quickly without loss of important data.
  - mpweiher 2y ago
    I back up the data on my laptop daily to rotating backup disks + there's a local server for git and some other stuff. So yeah, storage on my laptop is disposable. Which I test whenever I get a new one: restore from backup. Works.
- fragmede 2y ago
  Where to? Some sort of server? where you could run some sort of software that would organizeand catalogue your files in a more readily usable format than digging into a laptop backup archive?

ysofunny 2y ago

you can ask that about so many things nowadays why must the majority of software be provided as-a-Service? whatever happened to good old fashioned products??

downrightmike 2y ago
shareware model didn't really work out, or did you finally buy winrar?
hashslingingsha 2y ago
[flagged]

davidbanham 2y ago

A server is just a computer. You could run this software on the computer in front of you, or a computer in a datacentre. Either is fine.

amelius 2y ago
Yeah, but why mess with port numbers when you can just run it as a standalone process?
- wkat4242 2y ago
  Because you might want to share it with other people or even your own other devices on the same network
  - amelius 2y ago
    Well, you can do so by using e.g. VNC. One nice part is that you can use the same setup for everything and you don't have to play the sysadmin role all the time for every app.
freehorse 2y ago
The question then becomes why not just ssh into that computer or whatever and just use yt-dlp on a terminal on it instead of a javascript wrapper around it.

1vuio0pswjnm7 2y ago

yt-dlp is not even necessary. If just downloading videos from YouTube this can be done with much less code and complexity. I use a tiny C program to do it. Tiny shell scripts work just as well. What no one is discussing is that yt-dlp can no longer download itag 22 and itag 18 is now throttled.^1 This means yt-dlp has to download an audio file and a video file and use ffmpeg to merge the two. YouTube ad revenue just missed consensus estimates. Perhaps the accessibility of videos on YouTube is going to get even worse. 1. One will not likely notice this unless one is in the habit of specifically choosing format. For example, some folks have used itag 18 and 22 exclusively for many years.

dspillett 2y ago
> yt-dlp can no longer download itag 22 and itag 18 is now throttled. This means yt-dlp has to download an audio file and a video file and use ffmpeg to merge the two. I found yt-dlp did that more often than not anyway, if left to its own devices on choosing which formats to pick. Though I had noticed it doing that pretty much always recently. > Perhaps the accessibility of videos on YouTube is going to get even worse. I think that has started to happen. I've had a few occurrences recently where it tries to get a particular format and fails, so I've had to manually request something else. They also seem to have started screening non-residential/office/similar connections more aggressively too, two external hosts of mine now get a message to the effect "login to prove you aren't a bot" when yt-dlp tries to pick something up, and I've seen people note that they have trouble with YouTube proper (without logging in) over some VPN services.
- _0ffh 2y ago
  >I found yt-dlp did that more often than not anyway Yes, the default setting is to d/l and mux the highest available quality video and audio.
siddheshgunjal 2y ago
I also realised the same thing yesterday. I tried using a specific tag quality, for a playlist and many of the videos failed to download. So, I just set it to download the best available quality for video and audio.

dspillett 2y ago

> why do you need to host it on a server? It can be just a standalone app Your Windows/Linux/OSX device, or a VM or container on it, can be the server if you wish. This way the creators don't need to make two UXs (web for the server, native for the other). A lot of people run thier self-hosted apps on an external server or home lab (or mix/multiple) with those resources being "properly" setup as infrastructure with backups and such, using their PCs/laptops/tablets/phones as relatively dumb clients/caches that can be easily replaced (pulling local content back from the server the old devices synced to) if lost/damaged. This is one reason self-housing that way is popular. > using yt-dlp and have thought of making a simple app I've seen a few desktop apps that seem to be wrappers around yt-dlp (and/or other similar utilities). I've not used any of them so can't comment on their stability/reliability/other, but I'd do a search before writing your own from scratch (unless you want to do that for fun anyway!) as you might find what you want already exists.

jagermo 2y ago
it also neatly integrates into easy-to-use things like runtipi. I have it on my spare home server, running a tandoor instance, invidious and metube for watching stuff later/offline.

andix 2y ago

You might want to download the videos to a NAS or home server and store them there, instead on the device you're on at the moment. A dockerized web app is also much easier to build and maintain, than desktop clients for Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Linux, and so on.

hashslingingsha 2y ago
yt-dlp already exists, though, and conveniently, someone else packages and builds it for you already. Why are we boiling the ocean to download videos?