🎥 YouTube to Markdown Converter 📝

This project provides both a web-based (Streamlit) and two command-line (CLI) tools to convert YouTube video transcripts into easily readable Markdown, Plain Text, or JSON formats.

🌟 Features

• 🔗 Support for YouTube video URLs, IDs, and Playlists (batch processing CLI).
• 🌍 Multiple language support for transcripts.
• 📊 Export options: Markdown, Plain Text, and JSON.
• 📁 Batch processing from a file containing a list of URLs/IDs (batch_processing_yt.py).
• 🎨 Dark mode toggle for better user experience (Streamlit app).
• 📑 Automatic paragraph formatting for improved readability.
• 👁️ Transcript preview functionality (Streamlit app).
• 📂 User-specified output directory.
• ✅ Automatic, sanitized filename generation based on video title.

🛠️ Installation (Both Web App and CLIs)

Recommended Setup

1. Create and activate a virtual environment:

   # Using conda (recommended)
   conda create -n youtube-md python=3.10
   conda activate youtube-md
   
   # OR using venv
   python -m venv .venv
   source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate

2. Install UV (recommended for faster package installation):

   pip install uv

3. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/ZeroXClem/YouTube-to-Markdown.git

4. Navigate to the project directory:

   cd YouTube-to-Markdown

5. Install dependencies (choose one method): Note: requirements may be slightly different for each tool. If you encounter issues, try installing youtube-transcript-api, yt-dlp, and requests individually.

   # Using UV (recommended)
   uv pip install -r requirements.txt
   
   # OR using pip
   pip install -r requirements.txt

🚀 Usage (Web App)

1. Run the Streamlit app:

   streamlit run youtube-transcript-downloader2.py

2. Open your web browser and go to the provided local URL (usually http://localhost:8501).

3. Enter a YouTube video URL or ID.

4. Select your preferred options (language, export format).

5. Click "Download Transcript".

🖥️ Usage (Easiest CLI Version - Interactive)

The original CLI, youtube_cli.py, provides a step-by-step interactive experience for downloading single transcripts.

1. Run the CLI:

   python youtube_cli.py

2. Follow the on-screen prompts to enter the video URL/ID, select the language, choose the export format, and specify the output directory.

🖥️ Usage (CLI Version - Batch Processing)

The batch_processing_yt.py CLI offers batch processing capabilities, using command-line arguments for a more streamlined workflow.

1. Run the CLI version with the desired options:

   python batch_processing_yt.py <input> [-l language] [-f format] [-o output_directory]

2. Arguments:

   • input: This is a required argument. It can be:

     • A single YouTube video URL or ID.
     • A YouTube playlist URL.
     • The path to a text file containing a list of video URLs/IDs (one per line). The file can also contain playlist URLs, which will be expanded.

   • -l or --language: The transcript language code (e.g., en, fr, es). Defaults to en.

   • -f or --format: The output format (txt, md, or json). Defaults to txt.

   • -o or --output: The output directory. Defaults to the current directory (.).

3. Examples:

   • Single Video:

     python batch_processing_yt.py https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ -l en -f md -o my_transcripts

   • Playlist:

     python batch_processing_yt.py https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQVvvaa0QuDfKTOs3Keq_kaG2P55YRn5v -l en -f json -o playlist_transcripts

   • File with URLs/IDs:

     Create a file named video_list.txt with the following content (or any list of URLs/IDs):

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
     another_video_id
     https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQVvvaa0QuDfKTOs3Keq_kaG2P55YRn5v
     

     Then run:

     python batch_processing_yt.py video_list.txt -l fr -f md -o my_transcripts

   • Help:

     python batch_processing_yt.py --help

📁 Project Structure

├── .git/
├── requirements.txt
├── transcript_helper.py
├── versions/
├── batch_processing_yt.py      <-- Batch processing CLI
├── youtube_cli.py   <-- Interactive CLI
└── youtube-transcript-downloader2.py  <-- Streamlit app

• requirements.txt: List of Python packages required for the project.
• transcript_helper.py: Helper functions for transcript processing and formatting.
• versions/: Directory containing different versions of the script (optional).
• batch_processing_yt.py: Command-line interface for batch processing.
• youtube_cli.py: Command-line interface for interactive single downloads.
• youtube-transcript-downloader2.py: Main Streamlit application script.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions, issues, and feature requests are welcome! Feel free to check issues page.

📜 License

This project is MIT licensed.

👏 Acknowledgements

• Streamlit for the awesome web app framework.
• youtube-transcript-api for making transcript retrieval easy.
• yt-dlp A fork of youtube-dl for reliable video and playlist information extraction.

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Made with ❤️ by [ZeroXClem]