pytube 6.0.1

A simple, yet versatile Python library (and command-line) for downloading YouTube videos.

pytube is a lightweight, dependency-free Python library (and cli) for downloading YouTube Videos.

Description

Downloading videos from YouTube shouldn’t require some bloated library, it’s unusual to have to do so in the first place. So I present to you, PyTube!

Requirements

• Python 2.6+ (2.7 or 3.4 recommended)

• PIP (for some installation methods)

• GIT (for some installation methods)

Installation

If you are on Mac OS X or Linux, chances are that one of the following two commands will work for you:

Using PIP via PyPI

pip install pytube

Using PIP via Github

pip install git+git://github.com/nficano/pytube#egg=pytube

Adding to your requirements.txt file (run pip install -r requirements.txt afterwards)

git+ssh://[e-mail]/nficano/pytube#egg=pytube

Manually via GIT

git clone git://github.com/NFicano/pytube pytube
cd pytube
python setup.py install

Command-Line Usage

You can download a video by simply passing the -e (or --extension=) switch and setting it to the desired filetype:

$ pytube -e mp4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik-RsDGPI5Y

Same thing for specifying a resolution:

$ pytube -r 720p http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik-RsDGPI5Y

You can also specify a download file path (-p or --path=):

$ pytube -e mp4 -p ~/Downloads/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik-RsDGPI5Y

and/or optionally choose the filename (-f or --filename=):

$ pytube -e mp4 -f Dancing Scene from Pulp Fiction http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik-RsDGPI5Y

Library Usage

from pytube import YouTube

# not necessary, just for demo purposes
from pprint import pprint

yt = YouTube("http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik-RsDGPI5Y")

# Once set, you can see all the codec and quality options YouTube has made
# available for the perticular video by printing videos.

pprint(yt.get_videos())

# [<Video: MPEG-4 Visual (.3gp) - 144p>,
#  <Video: MPEG-4 Visual (.3gp) - 240p>,
#  <Video: Sorenson H.263 (.flv) - 240p>,
#  <Video: H.264 (.flv) - 360p>,
#  <Video: H.264 (.flv) - 480p>,
#  <Video: H.264 (.mp4) - 360p>,
#  <Video: H.264 (.mp4) - 720p>,
#  <Video: VP8 (.webm) - 360p>,
#  <Video: VP8 (.webm) - 480p>]

# The filename is automatically generated based on the video title.  You
# can override this by manually setting the filename.

# view the auto generated filename:
print(yt.filename)

# Pulp Fiction - Dancing Scene [HD]

# set the filename:
yt.set_filename('Dancing Scene from Pulp Fiction')

# You can also filter the criteria by filetype.
pprint(yt.filter('flv'))

# [<Video: Sorenson H.263 (.flv) - 240p>,
#  <Video: H.264 (.flv) - 360p>,
#  <Video: H.264 (.flv) - 480p>]

# Notice that the list is ordered by lowest resolution to highest. If you
# wanted the highest resolution available for a specific file type, you
# can simply do:
print(yt.filter('mp4')[-1])
# <Video: H.264 (.mp4) - 720p>

# You can also get all videos for a given resolution
pprint(yt.filter(resolution='480p'))

# [<Video: H.264 (.flv) - 480p>,
# <Video: VP8 (.webm) - 480p>]

# To select a video by a specific resolution and filetype you can use the get
# method.

video = yt.get('mp4', '720p')

# NOTE: get() can only be used if and only if one object matches your criteria.
# for example:

pprint(yt.videos)

#[<Video: MPEG-4 Visual (.3gp) - 144p>,
# <Video: MPEG-4 Visual (.3gp) - 240p>,
# <Video: Sorenson H.263 (.flv) - 240p>,
# <Video: H.264 (.flv) - 360p>,
# <Video: H.264 (.flv) - 480p>,
# <Video: H.264 (.mp4) - 360p>,
# <Video: H.264 (.mp4) - 720p>,
# <Video: VP8 (.webm) - 360p>,
# <Video: VP8 (.webm) - 480p>]

# Notice we have two H.264 (.mp4) available to us... now if we try to call get()
# on mp4...

video = yt.get('mp4')
# MultipleObjectsReturned: 2 videos met criteria.

# In this case, we'll need to specify both the codec (mp4) and resolution
# (either 360p or 720p).

# Okay, let's download it!
video.download()

# Note: If you wanted to choose the output directory, simply pass it as an
# argument to the download method.
video.download('/tmp/')