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Settings

Jelle Glebbeek edited this page May 19, 2021 · 6 revisions

This page is contains an overview and explanation of all the settings in youtube-dl-gui v2.1.2

Index

Performance:

Appearance:

Auto-update:

Output:

Advanced:

Download size calculation

Default value: click to calculate

Values: click to calculate, automatically calculate

This setting changes the way the size of videos gets calculated. When click to calculate is selected the user has to click on a load button to view the size. When automatically calculate is selected the app will automatically show the size. The default value is click to calculate because automatic querying increases the amount of requests by 200%.

Calculate total download size

Default value: checked

Values: checked, unchecked

By default the app will calculate the sum of all videos in the queue and display it. Unchecking this setting will disable this.

Max concurrent jobs

Default value: the amount of processor threads divided by 2

Values: 1 - 32

This setting is quite important. It sets the maximum amount of ytdl processes that may run at any given time. Increasing this value will make downloading multiple videos/playlists faster. But beware, setting this value higher than the default value may result in the processor being used 100% when downloading videos.

Theme

Default value: dark

Values: dark, light

This setting allows the user to choose between the dark and light theme. Because I personally prefer dark theme I have set this as the default theme.

Auto-update ytdl binary

Default value: checked

Values: checked, unchecked

This setting enables/disables the automatic updating of the ytdl binary. It is recommended to leave this setting enabled since ytdl breaks very often and updating it is necessary in those cases.

Auto-update app

Default value: checked

Values: checked, unchecked

This setting enables/disables the automatic updating of this app.

Attempt to use output format

Default value: auto

Values: auto, mp4, mkv

With this setting the output format can be specified. The default value is auto, this value lets ytdl decide what format it will use. The other options are mp4 and mkv. These options will not always work because some services only host mp4 files or the other way around.

Filename format

Default value: title + quality

Values: title + quality, title, custom

This setting has 3 options as described above. The first option will give downloaded videos a name with the title and quality (1080p60) in them. The second option will only put the title of the video in the filename. The third option allows the user to specify a custom format. This custom format can be made by using python format strings. More info on how to create custom filename formats can be found in the output-template section of the youtube-dl documentation.

Save metadata

Default value: checked

Values: checked, unchecked

When this settings is checked (default) ytdl adds metadata from the video to the downloaded file. It really differs per service what metadata gets saved but usually it is stuff like artist and song name.

Save thumbnail as file

Default value: unchecked

Values: checked, unchecked

When this setting is checked, ytdl will save the thumbnail of downloaded videos as an image file.

Download auto-generated subtitles

Default value: checked

Values: checked, unchecked

If this setting is checked it will download all auto-generated subtitles on YouTube when the user has enabled subtitle downloading. Meaning all auto-generated languages will get downloaded and embedded into the video. This may take quite some time, and the download may appear stuck on Downloading audio - 100%.

Keep unmerged files

Default value: unchecked

Values: checked, unchecked

When this setting is checked, ytdl will keep the unmerged files in your directory. When ytdl downloads videos the audio and video are often separated, this is why ytdl then merges the files into one. This option will keep the unmerged files as well.

Restore the queue after a restart

Default value: checked

Values: checked, unchecked

This setting enables queue saving and restoration. This means that when you close the app, it will save all the videos in the queue/tasklist. When the app is started again it will then ask you if you want to restore the previous queue.

Spoof user-agent

Default value: checked

Values: checked, unchecked

This setting enables user-agent spoofing. This means that for every call ytdl makes, a different user-agent will be used, making it harder for services to track and block the user (if they happen to get greedy and download too much).

Validate HTTPS certificates

Default value: unchecked

Values: checked, unchecked

This setting disables HTTPS certificate checking by default by adding the --no-check-certificate flag. This could be insecure in theory, but disabling this check will mitigate a lot of HTTPS errors that will otherwise prevent the user from downloading videos. It is recommended to keep this option unchecked and to only use it when you must use HTTPS validation.

Split playlists into separate videos

Default value: less than 50 videos

Values: never, less than 50 videos, less than 100 videos, less than 150 videos, less than 200 videos

As long as the playlist is smaller than 50 videos, the app will show them as separate videos in the queue. When a playlist is bigger than this all the videos will slow down the UI significantly, so they are squashed into one playlist card in the UI. This setting enables the user to change the threshold for squashing/splitting playlists.