ytchapters2json

ytchapters2json is a Python command-line tool that converts YouTube chapter timestamps to a chapters.json file in the application/json+chapters format for Podcasting 2.0.

Features

• Converts chapters from a text file or stdin.
• Supports specifying an image URL per chapter using ; in the input file.
• Allows specifying a default image URL with --image for chapters without an image.
• Generates a chapters.json file compatible with Podcasting 2.0.

Installation

Ensure you have Python 3 installed.

Clone the repository or download the ytchapters2json script.

git clone https://github.com/jooray/ytchapters2json.git
cd ytchapters2json

Usage

./ytchapters2json [options] <input_file> <output_file>

Positional Arguments

• input_file: Input file containing chapters in the format hh:mm:ss Title (use - for stdin).
• output_file: Output JSON file.

Optional Arguments

• --image: Default image URL to apply to chapters without a specified image.

Example

./ytchapters2json --image "https://example.com/default_image.jpg" chapters.txt chapters.json

Help

./ytchapters2json --help

Input Format

The input file should contain chapters in the following format:

hh:mm:ss Chapter Title [;Image URL]

• Use ; to separate the chapter title and an optional image URL.

Example Input

00:00:00 Introduction
00:05:30 Topic 1 ; https://example.com/image1.jpg
00:15:45 Topic 2

In this example:

• The first chapter has the title "Introduction" and no image URL.
• The second chapter has the title "Topic 1" and the image URL https://example.com/image1.jpg.
• The third chapter has the title "Topic 2" and no image URL.

Output

The script generates a chapters.json file in the application/json+chapters format.

Example Output

{
  "version": "1.2.0",
  "chapters": [
    {
      "startTime": 0,
      "title": "Introduction",
      "image": "https://example.com/default_image.jpg"
    },
    {
      "startTime": 330,
      "title": "Topic 1",
      "image": "https://example.com/image1.jpg"
    },
    {
      "startTime": 945,
      "title": "Topic 2",
      "image": "https://example.com/default_image.jpg"
    }
  ]
}

In this example, the --image option was used with the value https://example.com/default_image.jpg.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.