ytpb 2026.1.18

A playback for YouTube live streams

A playback for YouTube live streams.

Project page Documentation Contributing

Rewind to past moments in live streams and download or play excerpts

Ytpb is a playback for YouTube live streams written in Python. It lets you go back to past moments beyond the limits of the web player. You can keep selected moments by downloading excerpts or play them instantly in your video player via MPEG-DASH.

Check out also mpv-ytpb to play and rewind live streams interactively without leaving a player.

Features

• Command line interface (CLI) and Python library

• Rewind live streams far beyond the limits of the web player

• Download audio and/or video excerpts

  • Save excerpts in different available audio and video formats

  • Precisely cut to exact moments without slow re-encoding

• Play and rewind instantly via MPEG-DASH

  • Compose DASH manifests to play it in your favorite player

  • Transcode/download excerpts into local files with FFmpeg

• Capture a single frame or create time-lapse images

• Makes use of yt-dlp to reliably extract information about videos (optionally)

Demos

• Downloading a live stream excerpt (link)

• Composing an MPEG-DASH MPD and transcoding it to MP4 (link)

• Creating a time-lapse of a live stream excerpt (link)

Installation

Ytpb requires Python 3.12 or higher and has been tested on Linux, macOS, and Windows. Also, it needs the recent version of FFmpeg to be installed.

Installing from PyPI

When you have all required dependencies, you can install Ytpb via pipx:

$ pipx install ytpb

To upgrade to the newer version, do:

$ pipx upgrade ytpb

Windows binaries

For Windows, pre-built binaries are available: check releases on GitHub. Make sure to add the ffmpeg.exe file to your system path or place it in the folder next to the Ytpb binary. Now you’re ready to use Ytpb in Terminal: type commands, not double-click.

Further reading

After installing, check out the documentation. The Why Ytpb? page explains why the project exists. For main usage scenarios, see Quick start. The Command line application page goes deeper into the usage. Reference provides some general aspects and terms. See Questions for answers to the most anticipated questions. Cookbook contains some useful examples. Have any issues, suggestions, or want to contribute code? Contributing tells how to participate in the project.

Similar projects

• Kethsar/ytarchive — archive streams from the start

• rytsikau/ee.Yrewind — rewind and save streams

• yt-dlp/yt-dlp#6498 — brings rewind range selection to yt-dlp

License

Ytpb is licensed under the MIT license. See LICENSE for details.