YouTube Downloader

Downloads single videos and complete playlists, either as audio or as video. No credentials required, this downloader works out of the box.

Interface

Compared to the Spotify window there is an extra row with a toggle:

Type  [ Audio ][ Video ]        Format [MP3 (256 kbps)]
Save to [.......................] [Browse]        [Download]

The toggle decides which format list appears in the dropdown. Both states remember their last selected format separately (yt_format_audio and yt_format_video), so switching between audio and video does not lose either choice.

Window size and position are stored in yt_win_geo.

Supported URLs

Type	Example	Behavior
Single video	`https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID`	One entry
Short link	`https://youtu.be/ID`	One entry
Playlist	`https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=ID`	All videos are queued
Video inside a playlist	`.../watch?v=ID&list=...`	Only that one video

The last case is deliberate: if the URL contains both watch?v= and list=, the app strips the list and index parameters and downloads only the intended video. To get the whole playlist, use the plain playlist?list= URL.

Audio mode

bestaudio/best is downloaded and then converted with FFmpeg to the selected format. Available are MP3 in four bitrates, AAC, OGG Vorbis and WAV, see Formats and Quality.

With "Embed Thumbnail" enabled the video thumbnail is fetched and written into the audio file as cover art.

Video mode

Format	Resolution	yt-dlp selector (shortened)
MP4 (1080p)	up to 1080p	`bestvideo[height<=1080][ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]`
MP4 (720p)	up to 720p	`bestvideo[height<=720][ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]`
MP4 (480p)	up to 480p	`bestvideo[height<=480][ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]`
MP4 (360p)	up to 360p	`bestvideo[height<=360][ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]`
MKV (Best)	highest available	`bestvideo+bestaudio/best`
WebM (Best)	highest available	`bestvideo[ext=webm]+bestaudio[ext=webm]`

These values are upper bounds. If a video only offers 720p, the 1080p choice also yields 720p. Every selector has a fallback chain in case the preferred combination does not exist.

MKV (Best) simply takes the best available video plus the best audio track, so possibly 1440p or 2160p as well.

Extra features

SponsorBlock

With the option enabled, segments of these categories are removed automatically:

Category	What it covers
`sponsor`	Paid advertising
`selfpromo`	The channel promoting itself
`interaction`	Calls to subscribe, like and hit the bell
`intro`	Intro animation without content
`outro`	End cards and closing credits

The data comes from the SponsorBlock community database. Videos without entries are left untouched. Technically the SponsorBlock and ModifyChapters postprocessors are used, so the segments are genuinely cut out of the file.

Subtitles

With "Download & Embed Subtitles" enabled, yt-dlp fetches subtitles in the languages given under "Languages" and embeds them via FFmpegEmbedSubtitle. The language field accepts a comma separated list, for example de, en. When the option is off, the field is greyed out.

The embedding step needs FFmpeg. For audio formats subtitle embedding is of limited use, the option targets video mode.

Speed limit

Selection	Value
No limit	no throttling
1 MB/s	1,048,576 bytes per second
5 MB/s	5,242,880 bytes per second
10 MB/s	10,485,760 bytes per second
50 MB/s	52,428,800 bytes per second

Useful when you are working or streaming at the same time and the download should not consume the whole connection. The limit applies per download, so with two parallel downloads the total is twice the value.