Bulk Video Downloader

A cross-platform GUI application for downloading videos from YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter/X, Reddit, and 1800+ sites using yt-dlp.

Works on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

---

Features

• Bulk download — Add multiple URLs and download them all in one click
• 7 download modes — Best quality, audio-only (MP3/native), video-only, 720p/1080p/4K caps
• Per-URL progress — See real-time download percentage for each URL
• Overall progress bar — Track how many URLs have been processed
• Color-coded status — Green (done), red (failed), yellow (downloading)
• Live output log — See yt-dlp output in real-time with color-coded messages
• Auto-retry — Failed downloads retry automatically (configurable attempts)
• Download archive — Skip already-downloaded videos on re-runs
• URL deduplication — Duplicate URLs are detected and skipped
• Import from file — Load URLs from a text file (supports comments with #)
• Paste from clipboard — Paste multiple URLs at once
• Configurable settings — Rate limit, proxy, subtitle language, container format, and more
• Settings persistence — All settings saved to config.json
• Update yt-dlp — One-click update button built in
• Save logs — Export the output log to a file
• Native UI — Uses system theme (Windows native on Windows, clean look on Linux/macOS)

---

Requirements

Tool	Version	Purpose
Python	3.8+	Runtime
yt-dlp	Latest	Video downloading engine
ffmpeg	Latest	Merging video+audio, post-processing
ffprobe	Latest	Media info (usually comes with ffmpeg)

---

Installation

1. Install Python

• Windows: Download from python.org — check "Add to PATH" during install
• Linux: Usually pre-installed. If not: sudo apt install python3 python3-tk
• macOS: brew install python or download from python.org

2. Install yt-dlp

pip install yt-dlp

Or with pipx (recommended for isolation):

pipx install yt-dlp

3. Install ffmpeg

• Windows: Download from ffmpeg.org or use:

  winget install ffmpeg
  

• Linux:

  sudo apt install ffmpeg

• macOS:

  brew install ffmpeg

4. Install tkinter (Linux only, if needed)

Most systems have it pre-installed. If you get a ModuleNotFoundError:

sudo apt install python3-tk

---

Usage

Running the app

# Linux / macOS
python3 bulk_video_downloader.py

# Windows
python bulk_video_downloader.py

Adding URLs

You have 3 ways to add URLs:

1. + Add URL — Type or paste a single URL
2. Paste URLs — Paste multiple URLs from your clipboard (one per line)
3. Import File — Load URLs from a .txt file

File format for Import

# My video list (lines starting with # are comments)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
https://vimeo.com/123456789
https://twitter.com/user/status/123456789

# JSON array format is also supported:
[
  "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abc123",
  "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=def456"
]

Downloading

1. Add your URLs
2. Select a Mode (download quality/format)
3. Choose an Output folder (defaults to ./downloads)
4. Click Start Download
5. Watch the progress in the URL list and Live Output panel

Download Modes

Mode	Description
Best video + audio	Highest quality video + audio merged (default)
Audio only (MP3)	Extracts audio and converts to MP3 (320kbps)
Audio only (native codec)	Keeps original audio codec (opus/m4a), no re-encoding
Video only (no audio)	Downloads video stream only
720p max	Best quality up to 720p
1080p max	Best quality up to 1080p
4K max	Best quality up to 2160p

---

Settings

Click the Settings tab to configure. Settings are saved to config.json when you click "Save Settings".

Download

Setting	Description	Default
Retries	Number of retry attempts per URL on failure	3
Rate limit	Bandwidth cap (e.g. 5M = 5 MB/s, 500K = 500 KB/s)	unlimited
Container format	Output format for merged video (mp4, mkv, webm)	mp4

Network

Setting	Description	Default
Proxy	HTTP/SOCKS proxy (e.g. socks5://127.0.0.1:1080)	none

Embedding

Setting	Description	Default
Embed subtitles	Download and embed subtitles into the file	On
Subtitle languages	Language codes (e.g. en, en,es,fr)	en
Embed thumbnail	Embed video thumbnail as cover art	On
Embed metadata	Embed title, artist, date, etc.	On
Embed chapters	Embed video chapters if available	On

Behavior

Setting	Description	Default
Use download archive	Track downloaded IDs to skip on re-runs	On
Single video only	Ignore playlists, download single video	On

Advanced

Setting	Description	Default
Extra yt-dlp arguments	Any additional yt-dlp flags (space-separated)	empty

---

Files Created

File	Purpose
config.json	Your saved settings
download_archive.txt	List of already-downloaded video IDs (prevents re-downloading)
downloads/	Default output folder for downloaded videos

---

Tips & Tricks

Download with cookies (for age-restricted or private videos)

1. Export cookies from your browser using a browser extension (e.g. "Get cookies.txt LOCALLY")
2. Save as cookies.txt in the same folder
3. In Settings > Advanced > Extra yt-dlp arguments, add:

   --cookies cookies.txt
   

Geo-restricted content

Add to Extra yt-dlp arguments:

--geo-bypass

Download with specific subtitles

Change "Subtitle languages" in Settings to:

en,es,fr,ja

This downloads English, Spanish, French, and Japanese subtitles.

Download entire playlists

1. Uncheck "Single video only (no playlists)" in Settings
2. Paste the playlist URL

Use with a VPN/proxy

Set the proxy in Settings > Network:

socks5://127.0.0.1:1080
http://user:pass@proxy.example.com:8080

Limit download speed

Set rate limit in Settings > Download:

5M      → 5 megabytes/second
500K    → 500 kilobytes/second
2.5M    → 2.5 megabytes/second

---

Troubleshooting

"yt-dlp not found"

Make sure yt-dlp is installed and in your PATH:

pip install yt-dlp
yt-dlp --version

"ffmpeg not found"

Install ffmpeg and ensure it's in your PATH:

ffmpeg -version

Downloads fail with "403 Forbidden"

Try updating yt-dlp (click "Update yt-dlp" button) or use cookies.

"No module named _tkinter" (Linux)

sudo apt install python3-tk

GUI looks different on Linux

The app uses native system theme. On Linux it uses the "clam" ttk theme which provides a clean cross-platform appearance.

---

Updating yt-dlp

Click the "Update yt-dlp" button in the Downloads tab, or run manually:

pip install -U yt-dlp

Keep yt-dlp updated — sites frequently change their APIs.

---

Supported Sites

yt-dlp supports 1800+ sites including:

• YouTube (videos, shorts, playlists, channels)
• Vimeo
• Twitter/X
• Reddit
• Instagram
• TikTok
• Twitch (VODs, clips)
• Facebook
• Dailymotion
• SoundCloud
• Bandcamp
• And many more...

Full list: yt-dlp supported sites

---

License

This project is provided as-is for personal use. Please respect copyright laws and the terms of service of the websites you download from.

---

Credits

• Original concept by EDM115
• GUI edition by officialputuid
• Powered by yt-dlp and ffmpeg