Youtube-dl Batch Tools, or YBT is a small collection of related MS-DOS style batch files to ease the use of the popular command-line media ripper script youtube-dl.
The v1 collection includes 3 batch files:
- ybt.bat (ytp – simple download helper)
- ybtp.bat (ytp p – playlist/user/channel download helper)
- ybtb.bat (ytp b – bulk download helper)
You should put the batch files in the same directory as youtube-dl.exe. You can use Total Commander's command prompt or Windows' Run... function or cmd.exe to use them. Having ffmpeg.exe or avconv.exe in the same directory is not mandatory, but recommended for youtube-dl to be able to download higher quality videos with muxing.
Syntax:
ybt YT_video_URL
ybtp YT_playlist_URL
ybtb text_file_with_URLs
All three will ask for a format code, enter it according to youtube-dl expectations or just press Enter for a default choice. The default will try the following options:
regular 1080p DASH video [format 137] / best mp4 video equal to or under 1080p / regular 720p DASH video [format 136] / best mp4 video equal to under 720p
and
regular AAC (m4a) sound [format 140] / best AAC (m4a) sound / best sound
These batch files are intended to work with youtube-dl.exe, so they don't need neither Python nor the youtube-dl Python script. I tried to make these scripts run on anything from Windows XP to Windows 10, so they use only built-in commands and more-or-less universal batch tricks.
ybtp and ybtb will generate archive checklist files (playlist.checklist.txt or (text_file).checklist.txt), these are required for youtube-dl's archive skip function, so it will skip already downloaded videos. If you find a small bell file in the working directory when aborting/killing a batch job, you can delete it.
I know that these could be done in one single batch file and it could accept multiple parameters/take more user input, but I'm lazy to do it that way right now.
Enjoy.