From 020c1e77489b772f854bb3288b9c8d2818a6bf9d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: EuAndreh Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2025 02:17:12 -0300 Subject: git mv src/content/* src/content/en/ --- src/content/en/blog/2018/12/21/ytdl-subs.adoc | 279 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 279 insertions(+) create mode 100644 src/content/en/blog/2018/12/21/ytdl-subs.adoc (limited to 'src/content/en/blog/2018/12/21/ytdl-subs.adoc') diff --git a/src/content/en/blog/2018/12/21/ytdl-subs.adoc b/src/content/en/blog/2018/12/21/ytdl-subs.adoc new file mode 100644 index 0000000..10afbf6 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/en/blog/2018/12/21/ytdl-subs.adoc @@ -0,0 +1,279 @@ += Using "youtube-dl" to manage YouTube subscriptions + +:ytsm-ann: https://old.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/9sg8q5/i_built_a_selfhosted_youtube_subscription_manager/ +:ytsm-code: https://github.com/chibicitiberiu/ytsm +:ytdl: https://youtube-dl.org/ + +I've recently read the {ytsm-ann}[announcement] of a very nice +{ytsm-code}[self-hosted YouTube subscription manager]. I haven't used YouTube's +built-in subscriptions for a while now, and haven't missed it at all. When I +saw the announcement, I considered writing about the solution I've built on top +of {ytdl}[youtube-dl]. + +== Background: the problem with YouTube + +:net-giants: https://staltz.com/what-happens-when-you-block-internet-giants.html + +In many ways, I agree with {net-giants}[André Staltz's view on data ownership +and privacy]: + +____ +I started with the basic premise that "I want to be in control of my data". +Sometimes that meant choosing when to interact with an internet giant and how +much I feel like revealing to them. Most of times it meant not interacting with +them at all. I don't want to let them be in full control of how much they can +know about me. I don't want to be in autopilot mode. (...) Which leads us to +YouTube. While I was able to find alternatives to Gmail (Fastmail), Calendar +(Fastmail), Translate (Yandex Translate), _etc._ YouTube remains as the most +indispensable Google-owned web service. It is really really hard to avoid +consuming YouTube content. It was probably the smartest startup acquisition +ever. My privacy-oriented alternative is to watch YouTube videos through Tor, +which is technically feasible but not polite to use the Tor bandwidth for these +purposes. I'm still scratching my head with this issue. +____ + +Even though I don't use most alternative services he mentions, I do watch videos +from YouTube. But I also feel uncomfortable logging in to YouTube with a Google +account, watching videos, creating playlists and similar things. + +Using the mobile app is worse: you can't even block ads in there. You're in +less control on what you share with YouTube and Google. + +== youtube-dl + +:other-sites: https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/supportedsites.html + +youtube-dl is a command-line tool for downloading videos, from YouTube and +{other-sites}[many other sites]: + +[source,sh] +---- +$ youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnMYZnY3uLA +[youtube] rnMYZnY3uLA: Downloading webpage +[youtube] rnMYZnY3uLA: Downloading video info webpage +[download] Destination: A Origem da Vida _ Nerdologia-rnMYZnY3uLA.mp4 +[download] 100% of 32.11MiB in 00:12 +---- + +It can be used to download individual videos as showed above, but it also has +some interesting flags that we can use: + +* `--output`: use a custom template to create the name of the downloaded file; +* `--download-archive`: use a text file for recording and remembering which + videos were already downloaded; +* `--prefer-free-formats`: prefer free video formats, like `webm`, `ogv` and + Matroska `mkv`; +* `--playlist-end`: how many videos to download from a "playlist" (a channel, a + user or an actual playlist); +* `--write-description`: write the video description to a `.description` file, + useful for accessing links and extra content. + +Putting it all together: + +[source,sh] +---- +$ youtube-dl "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClu474HMt895mVxZdlIHXEA" \ + --download-archive ~/Nextcloud/cache/youtube-dl-seen.conf \ + --prefer-free-formats \ + --playlist-end 20 \ + --write-description \ + --output "~/Downloads/yt-dl/%(uploader)s/%(upload_date)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" +---- + +This will download the latest 20 videos from the selected channel, and write +down the video IDs in the `youtube-dl-seen.conf` file. Running it immediately +after one more time won't have any effect. + +If the channel posts one more video, running the same command again will +download only the last video, since the other 19 were already downloaded. + +With this basic setup you have a minimal subscription system at work, and you +can create some functions to help you manage that: + +[source,sh] +---- +#!/bin/sh + +export DEFAULT_PLAYLIST_END=15 + +download() { + youtube-dl "$1" \ + --download-archive ~/Nextcloud/cache/youtube-dl-seen.conf \ + --prefer-free-formats \ + --playlist-end "$2" \ + --write-description \ + --output "~/Downloads/yt-dl/%(uploader)s/%(upload_date)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" +} +export -f download + + +download_user() { + download "https://www.youtube.com/user/$1" "${2-$DEFAULT_PLAYLIST_END}" +} +export -f download_user + + +download_channel() { + download "https://www.youtube.com/channel/$1" "${2-$DEFAULT_PLAYLIST_END}" +} +export -f download_channel + + +download_playlist() { + download "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=$1" "${2-$DEFAULT_PLAYLIST_END}" +} +export -f download_playlist +---- + +With these functions, you now can have a subscription fetching script to +download the latest videos from your favorite channels: + +[source,sh] +---- +#!/bin/sh + +download_user ClojureTV 15 +download_channel 'UCmEClzCBDx-vrt0GuSKBd9g' 100 +download_playlist 'PLqG7fA3EaMRPzL5jzd83tWcjCUH9ZUsbX' 15 +---- + +Now, whenever you want to watch the latest videos, just run the above script +and you'll get all of them in your local machine. + +== Tradeoffs + +=== I've made it for myself, with my use case in mind + + +[qanda] +Offline:: +My internet speed it somewhat +reasonable{empty}footnote:internet-speed[ + Considering how expensive it is and the many ways it could be better, but also + how much it has improved over the last years, I say it's reasonable. +], but it is really unstable. Either at work or at home, it's not uncommon to +loose internet access for 2 minutes 3~5 times every day, and stay completely +offline for a couple of hours once every week. ++ +Working through the hassle of keeping a playlist on disk has payed off many, +many times. Sometimes I even not notice when the connection drops for some +minutes, because I'm watching a video and working on some document, all on my +local computer. ++ +There's also no quality adjustment for YouTube's web player, I always pick the +higher quality and it doesn't change during the video. For some types of +content, like a podcast with some tiny visual resources, this doesn't change +much. For other types of content, like a keynote presentation with text written +on the slides, watching on 144p isn't really an option. ++ +If the internet connection drops during the video download, youtube-dl will +resume from where it stopped. ++ +This is an offline first benefit that I really like, and works well for me. + + +Sync the "seen" file:: +I already have a running instance of Nextcloud, so just dumping the +`youtube-dl-seen.conf` file inside Nextcloud was a no-brainer. ++ +You could try putting it in a dedicated git repository, and wrap the script with +an autocommit after every run. If you ever had a merge conflict, you'd simply +accept all changes and then run the following to tidy up the file: ++ +[source,sh] +---- +$ uniq youtube-dl-seen.conf > youtube-dl-seen.conf +---- + + +Doesn't work on mobile:: +My primary device that I use everyday is my laptop, not my phone. It works well +for me this way. ++ +Also, it's harder to add ad-blockers to mobile phones, and most mobile software +still depends on Google's and Apple's blessing. ++ +If you wish, you can sync the videos to the SD card periodically, but that's a +bit of extra manual work. + + +=== The Good + + +[qanda] +Better privacy:: +We don't even have to configure the ad-blocker to keep ads and trackers away! ++ +YouTube still has your IP address, so using a VPN is always a good idea. +However, a timing analysis would be able to identify you (considering the +current implementation). + + +No need to self-host:: +There's no host that needs maintenance. Everything runs locally. ++ +As long as you keep youtube-dl itself up to date and sync your "seen" file, +there's little extra work to do. + + +Track your subscriptions with git:: +After creating a `subscriptions.sh` executable that downloads all the videos, +you can add it to git and use it to track metadata about your subscriptions. + + +=== The Bad + + +[qanda] +Maximum playlist size is your disk size:: +This is a good thing for getting a realistic view on your actual "watch later" +list. However I've run out of disk space many times, and now I need to be more +aware of how much is left. + + +=== The Ugly + +We can only avoid all the bad parts of YouTube with youtube-dl as long as +YouTube keeps the videos public and programmatically accessible. If YouTube +ever blocks that we'd loose the ability to consume content this way, but also +loose confidence on considering YouTube a healthy repository of videos on the +internet. + + +== Going beyond + +Since you're running everything locally, here are some possibilities to be +explored: + + +=== A playlist that is too long for being downloaded all at once + +You can wrap the `download_playlist` function (let's call the wrapper +`inc_download`) and instead of passing it a fixed number to the `--playlist-end` +parameter, you can store the `$n` in a folder (something like +`$HOME/.yt-db/$PLAYLIST_ID`) and increment it by `$step` every time you run +`inc_download`. + +This way you can incrementally download videos from a huge playlist without +filling your disk with gigabytes of content all at once. + + +=== Multiple computer scenario + +The `download_playlist` function could be aware of the specific machine that it +is running on and apply specific policies depending on the machine: always +download everything; only download videos that aren't present anywhere else; +_etc._ + + +== Conclusion + +youtube-dl is a great tool to keep at hand. It covers a really large range of +video websites and works robustly. + +Feel free to copy and modify this code, and send me suggestions of improvements +or related content. + +== _Edit_ + +2019-05-22: Fix spelling. -- cgit v1.2.3