pafy 0.3.38

Python API for YouTube, query and download YouTube content

Features

• Retreive metadata such as viewcount, duration, rating, author, thumbnail, keywords

• Download video or audio at requested resolution / bitrate / format / filesize

• Command line tool (ytdl) for downloading directly from the command line

• Retrieve the URL to stream the video in a player such as vlc or mplayer

• Works with age-restricted videos and non-embeddable videos

• Small, standalone, single importable module file (pafy.py)

• Select highest quality stream for download or streaming

• Download audio only (no video) in ogg or m4a format

• Download video only (no audio) in m4v format

• Works with Python 2.7 and 3.x

• No dependencies

Documentation

Full documentation is available at http://pythonhosted.org/Pafy

Usage Examples

Here is how to use the module in your own python code. For command line tool (ytdl) instructions, see further below

>>> import pafy

create a video instance from a YouTube url:

>>> url = "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyMHZVT91Dw"
>>> video = pafy.new(url)

get certain attributes:

>>> video.title
u'Rick Astley Sings Live - Never Gonna Give You Up - This Morning'

>>> video.rating
4.93608852755

>>> video.length
355

display video metadata:

>>> print video

Title: Rick Astley Sings Live - Never Gonna Give You Up - This Morning
Author: Ryan915
ID: cyMHZVT91Dw
Duration: 00:05:55
Rating: 4.93608852755
Views: 672583
Thumbnail: https://i1.ytimg.com/vi/cyMHZVT91Dw/default.jpg
Keywords: Rick, Astley, Sings, Live, on, This, Morning, Never, Gonna, You...

list available streams for a video:

>>> streams = video.streams
>>> for s in streams:
>>>     print(s)

normal:webm@640x360
normal:mp4@640x360
normal:flv@320x240
normal:3gp@320x240
normal:3gp@176x144

show all formats, file-sizes and their download url:

>>> for s in streams:
>>>     print s.resolution, s.extension, s.get_filesize(), s.url

('640x360', 'webm', 34775366, 'http://r20---sn-aiglln7e.googlevideo.com/v..
('640x360', 'mp4', 25027697, 'http://r20---sn-aiglln7e.googlevideo.com/v..
('320x240', 'flv', 15363436, 'http://r20---sn-aiglln7e.googlevideo.com/v..
('320x240', '3gp', 10097332, 'http://r20---sn-aiglln7e.googlevideo.com/v..
('176x144', '3gp', 3659867, 'http://r20---sn-aiglln7e.googlevideo.com/v..

get best resolution regardless of file format:

>>> best = video.getbest()
>>> best.resolution, best.extension

('480x854', 'webm')

get best resolution for a particular file format: (mp4, webm, flv or 3gp)

>>> best = video.getbest(preftype="mp4")
>>> best.resolution, best.extension

('360x640', 'mp4')

get url, for download or streaming in mplayer / vlc etc:

>>> best.url

'http://r12---sn-aig7kner.c.youtube.com/videoplayback?expire=1369...

Download video and show progress:

>>> best.download(quiet=False)
-Downloading 'Rick Astley Sings Live - Never Gonna Give You Up - This Morning.webm' [56,858,674 Bytes]

  56,858,674 Bytes [100.00%] received. Rate: [ 720 kbps].  ETA: [0 secs]
Done

Download video, use specific filepath:

>>> myfilename = "/tmp/" + best.title + "." + best.extension
>>> best.download(filepath=myfilename)

Get audio-only streams (m4a and/or ogg vorbis):

>>> audiostreams = video.audiostreams
>>> for a in audiostreams:
>>>     print(a.bitrate, a.extension, a.get_filesize())

('48k', 'm4a', 2109164)
('128k', 'm4a', 5630839)

Download the 2nd audio stream from the above list:

>>> audiostreams[1].download()

Get the best quality audio stream:

>>> bestaudio = video.getbestaudio()
>>> bestaudio.bitrate

'256k'

Download the best quality audio file:

>>> bestaudio.download()

show ALL formats for a video (video+audio, video-only and audio-only):

>>> allstreams = video.allstreams
>>> for s in allstreams:
>>>     print(s.mediatype, s.extension, s.quality)

('normal', 'webm', '640x360')
('normal', 'mp4', '640x360')
('normal', 'flv', '320x240')
('normal', '3gp', '320x240')
('normal', '3gp', '176x144')
('video', 'm4v', '854x480')
('video', 'm4v', '640x360')
('video', 'm4v', '426x240')
('video', 'm4v', '256x144')
('audio', 'm4a', '48k')
('audio', 'm4a', '128k')

Installation

Pafy can be installed using pip:

$ sudo pip install pafy

or use a virtualenv if you don’t want to install it system-wide:

$ virtualenv venv
$ source venv/bin/activate
$ pip install pafy

Alternatively you can just grab the pafy.py file and import it in your python code:

wget https://raw.github.com/np1/pafy/master/pafy.py

Command Line Tool (ytdl) Usage

usage: ytdl [-h] [-i] [-s]
            [-t {audio,video,normal,all} [{audio,video,normal,all} ...]]
            [-n N] [-b] [-a]
            url

YouTube Download Tool

positional arguments:
  url                   YouTube video URL to download

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -i                    Display vid info
  -s                    Display available streams
  -t {audio,video,normal,all} [{audio,video,normal,all} ...]
                        Stream types to display
  -n N                  Specify stream to download by stream number (use -s to
                        list available streams)
  -b                    Download the best quality video (ignores -n)
  -a                    Download the best quality audio (ignores -n)

ytdl Examples

Download best available resolution (-b):

$ ytdl -b "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyMHZVT91Dw"

Download best available audio stream (-a) (note; the full url is not required, just the video id will suffice):

$ ytdl -a cyMHZVT91Dw

get video info (-i):

$ ytdl -i cyMHZVT91Dw

list available dowload streams:

$ ytdl cyMHZVT91Dw

Stream Type    Format Quality         Size
------ ----    ------ -------         ----
1      normal  webm   [640x360]       33 MB
2      normal  mp4    [640x360]       24 MB
3      normal  flv    [320x240]       13 MB
4      normal  3gp    [320x240]       10 MB
5      normal  3gp    [176x144]        3 MB
6      audio   m4a    [48k]            2 MB
7      audio   m4a    [128k]           5 MB
8      audio   m4a    [256k]          10 MB

Download mp4 640x360 (ie. stream number 2):

$ ytdl -n2 cyMHZVT91Dw

Download m4a audio stream at 256k bitrate:

$ ytdl -n8 cyMHZVT91Dw