Overview

This tool knows how to poll for changes to playlist(s) and to then download the physical videos for the new items automatically (using youtube-dl).

Features

• More than one playlist can be provided.
• The state is recorded for each playlist during each call. This is how the differences are calculated.
• Uses python-googleautoauth for authentication.
• Will gracefully accommodate multiple instances being run concurrently.

Installation

$ pip install youtube-autodownloader

Usage

The first time you run, you will have to build new credentials. The automatic-authentication flow will automatically run and open a browser window. To specifically run just the authorization, run:

$ ytad_autoauth

This works best in a desktop environment. Manual-authorization helper scripts are also provided to support console-only environment.

Since YouTube does not enforce uniqueness for playlist names, you are required to provide playlist IDs rather than names.

Example of finding a playlist ID using a playlist name:

$ ytad_search_playlists Animals
PLxaR7YEkaI0xxxxxxxxxxxxxxacWvmEih

$ ytad_search_playlists Special
PLxaR7YEkaI0xxxxxxxxxxxxxxr1gs86gE

Example of checking for and downloading new videos ("-p" is a playlist-ID, "-dp" is the download-path):

$ ytad_autodownload -p PLxaR7YEkaI0xxxxxxxxxxxxxxr1gs86gE -dp "/storage/videos/$(date '+\%Y')/Special"
Lion Vs Mongoose: Mongoose Fends Off Four Lions
- Playlist: Special
- ID: 1TPn1-SJqVM
- Download time: 9s
- Filename: 20140902 - Lion Vs Mongoose - Mongoose Fends Off Four Lions (1TPn1-SJqVM).mp4
- Size: 22.1M

Slow loris loves getting tickled http://bit.ly/14qLq8x
- Playlist: Special
- ID: PZ5ACLVjYwM
- Download time: 3s
- Filename: 20090426 - Slow loris loves getting tickled http -_bit.ly_14qLq8x (PZ5ACLVjYwM).webm
- Size: 3.1M

Once everything is working, you may scheduled it to be regularly executed (e.g. cron).

Testing

To run the tests:

$ ./test.sh

The tests will require user interaction with the browser.

Notes

• If you do not wish to download the videos the first time that you run this command, omit the download-path parameter. This will just build the local database. Otherwise, all videos from the playlist will download. This might not be desireable for your use-case.