meltdl 1.0.2

Modern YouTube downloader CLI with subtitle cleaning, parallel downloads, SponsorBlock, and sound notifications

MelT — Modern YouTube Downloader CLI

Download video, audio, and subtitles from YouTube with a modern CLI. Supports playlists, parallel downloads, thumbnail/subtitle embedding, SponsorBlock, and more.

Quick Start

Download from Releases (recommended):

https://github.com/Agaroth0x1e/melt/releases

• melt.exe — Windows (standalone, ffmpeg bundled)
• melt — Linux (standalone, ffmpeg bundled)

Install via pip (PyPI):

pip install meltdl

Or install direct wheel (no PyPI):

pip install https://github.com/Agaroth0x1e/melt/releases/download/v1.0.2/melt-1.0.2-py3-none-any.whl

From source:

pip install -r requirements.txt
python main.py

Termux (Android): See BUILD.md#termux-android for full setup guide.

Pre-built binaries bundle ffmpeg. Source mode requires ffmpeg in PATH (scoop install ffmpeg / brew install ffmpeg / sudo apt install ffmpeg).

Features

• Single video & playlist downloads
• Multi-URL support (paste space-separated URLs)
• Batch file loading (@file.txt)
• Video (mp4) or Audio (m4a) with thumbnail embedding
• Subtitle download with roll-up caption cleaning
• Subtitle embedding into video/audio
• Parallel downloads (configurable threads)
• SponsorBlock integration (auto-skip sponsored segments)
• Dry-run mode to preview before downloading
• Download queue persistence (resume crashes with --resume)
• Rate limiting, cookies file support, archive dedup
• Standalone .exe with bundled ffmpeg

Usage

python main.py                    # Interactive mode
python main.py --resume           # Resume interrupted queue
python main.py --help             # Show help
python main.py --version          # Show version

Multi-URL

Enter YouTube URL: https://youtu.be/A https://youtube.com/playlist?list=XYZ

Batch file

Enter YouTube URL: @videos.txt

File format (one URL per line, # for comments):

https://youtu.be/A
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=XYZ
# This line is ignored

Configuration

Edit config/config.json:

Key	Default	Description
max_threads	3	Parallel downloads
default_format	"video"	"video" or "audio"
clear_temp	true	Delete temp files after download
numbering	false	Prepend index to filenames
duplicate_action	"skip"	"skip", "overwrite", or "keep"
sponsorblock	true	Skip sponsored segments
dry_run	false	Preview without downloading
exit_on_complete	false	Exit after download (false = loop back)
reverse_playlist	false	Process newest-first
rate_limit	""	e.g. "5M", empty = unlimited
cookies_file	""	Path to cookies.txt
playlist_folder_template	"%(playlist_title)s"	Subfolder naming for playlists
timeout_seconds	5	Seconds before auto-confirm prompts
video.preferred_format	"mp4"	"mp4", "mkv", or "webm"
video.quality_priority	["480","360","720"]	Preferred resolutions
video.preferred_codec	"h264"	"h264", "h265", or "vp9"
audio.preferred_format	"m4a"	"m4a", "mp3", or "opus"
audio.quality_priority	["128","192","264"]	Preferred bitrates
audio.default_quality	128	Fallback bitrate
subtitle.prefer_human	true	Prefer human subs over auto
subtitle.language	"en"	Language code
subtitle.preferred_format	"srt"	"srt", "vtt", or "ass"

Build from Source

See BUILD.md for platform-specific build instructions.

Requirements

• Python 3.8+
• ffmpeg (bundled in .exe, system install for source)
• Node.js (optional, 2x yt-dlp speed)