YouTube Clippy (ytclip)

A fast and efficient YouTube video clip downloader that extracts specific time segments without downloading entire videos.

Features

• Stream-based clipping - Downloads only the specified segment, not the entire video
• Timestamp support - Specify exact start and end times
• Speed adjustment - Change playback speed (0.5x to 4x)
• QuickTime compatible - Outputs H.264/AAC MP4 files
• Minimal dependencies - Just needs yt-dlp and ffmpeg

Installation

Prerequisites

You need to have ffmpeg installed on your system:

macOS:

brew install ffmpeg

Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ffmpeg

Windows: Download from ffmpeg.org and add to PATH

Install from PyPI

pip install youtube-clippy

Install from source

git clone https://github.com/eden-chan/youtube-clippy.git
cd youtube-clippy
pip install -e .

Usage

Basic Usage

Download a clip from a YouTube video:

ytclip "https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID" START_TIME END_TIME

Examples

Extract clip from 1:30 to 2:45:

ytclip "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ" 1:30 2:45

Extract with custom output filename:

ytclip "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ" 1:30 2:45 -o my_clip.mp4

Extract at 1.5x speed:

ytclip "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ" 1:30 2:45 --speed 1.5

Extract from timestamp in HH:MM:SS format:

ytclip "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ" 1:23:45 1:24:30

Command Line Options

positional arguments:
  url                   YouTube video URL
  start                 Start time (MM:SS or HH:MM:SS)
  end                   End time (MM:SS or HH:MM:SS)

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            Show help message and exit
  -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT
                        Output filename (default: auto-generated)
  -s SPEED, --speed SPEED
                        Playback speed (e.g., 1.5 for 1.5x speed, 0.5 for half speed)
                        Range: 0.25 to 4.0 (default: 1.0)
  -v, --version         Show version number

How It Works

Unlike traditional YouTube downloaders that fetch entire videos, ytclip uses ffmpeg's seeking capability to stream only the required segment. This means:

• Faster downloads - Only downloads what you need
• Less bandwidth - Saves data by not downloading unnecessary content
• Less storage - No temporary full-video files

The tool:

1. Extracts video metadata using yt-dlp
2. Calculates the exact byte range needed
3. Uses ffmpeg to stream and transcode only that segment
4. Outputs a properly formatted MP4 file

Output Format

All clips are encoded as:

• Video: H.264 (libx264) with yuv420p pixel format
• Audio: AAC
• Container: MP4 with faststart flag (optimized for streaming)

This ensures compatibility with all modern video players including:

• QuickTime Player
• VLC
• Windows Media Player
• Web browsers
• Mobile devices

Speed Adjustment

The speed option maintains pitch correction for natural-sounding audio:

• 0.25x - 0.5x: Slow motion with preserved audio pitch
• 0.5x - 2.0x: Standard speed adjustment
• 2.0x - 4.0x: Fast playback with intelligible audio

Note: Extreme speed changes may affect video quality.

Troubleshooting

"ffmpeg not found" error

Make sure ffmpeg is installed and in your system PATH:

ffmpeg -version

"Video unavailable" error

• Check if the video is public and not geo-restricted
• Try updating yt-dlp: pip install --upgrade yt-dlp

QuickTime compatibility issues

The tool automatically encodes to H.264/AAC which should work in QuickTime. If you still have issues, try:

ytclip "URL" START END -o clip.mp4

Development

Running from source

python -m ytclip.cli "URL" START END

Running tests

python -m pytest tests/

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Credits

Built with:

• yt-dlp - YouTube video extractor
• FFmpeg - Video processing

Links

• GitHub: https://github.com/eden-chan/youtube-clippy
• PyPI: https://pypi.org/project/youtube-clippy/
• Issues: https://github.com/eden-chan/youtube-clippy/issues

Changelog

v1.0.0 (2024-01-09)

• Initial release
• Stream-based clip extraction
• Speed adjustment support
• QuickTime compatible output