TrimFetch Media Downloader

A borderless, overlay-style Windows media downloader that wraps yt-dlp + ffmpeg.
Paste a link, download video or audio, trim it on a visual timeline, and copy or save the result.

  

output.mp4

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TrimFetch is a native WinUI 3 app with Fluent Design (Mica / acrylic) that lives in a small overlay window near your cursor. It hides when you click away and returns on a global hotkey, giving you a fast "spotlight-style" way to grab media from thousands of sites supported by yt-dlp.

Paste a URL from YouTube, Instagram, X, TikTok, Vimeo, Reddit, and many more — TrimFetch downloads the media (MP4 for video, M4A/audio for audio-only), copies the finished file to your clipboard, saves it to your chosen folder, and keeps a searchable local history. Use the built-in trim timeline to export MP4 or GIF clips from video, and MP3 or WAV clips from audio.

Inspiration

This project is inspired by Media Downloader (macOS). The inspiration is conceptual — its UX and workflows (overlay-style quick capture, post-download clipboard copy, history, and trim) — reimagined for Windows with WinUI 3, system tray integration, and Windows-specific tooling (winget, toast notifications, MSIX packaging). TrimFetch is an independent implementation written from scratch in C# / WinUI 3; no source code was copied from the upstream project.

Features

Downloading

• Download video and audio from thousands of yt-dlp-supported websites.
• Paste a URL, or enable auto-download from clipboard to start as soon as a supported link is copied (toggle in Settings).
• URLs are validated against an embedded supported-hosts index before yt-dlp is spawned.
• A remote preview thumbnail for the pasted URL is shown while the download runs.
• Quality presets: Best available, Up to 1080p, Up to 720p, Smallest file size, and Audio only.
• Automatic audio-only downloads for audio-first sources (podcasts, music links, etc.) — no need to pick the preset manually.
• Prefers broadly compatible MP4 output for video (progressive HTTPS MP4 when possible; ffmpeg merge via yt-dlp).
• Live download progress via a circular progress indicator.
• Cancel in-flight downloads; rapid re-downloads use session tracking so stale results never overwrite the UI.
• Deduplicates downloads: if the same URL is already in history, the existing item is focused instead of re-downloading.

After download

• Automatically copies the finished file to the Windows clipboard (shell file clipboard).
• Optional Windows toast notification with a preview image when a download completes (toggle in Settings).
• Opens the trim surface immediately (preview playback + timeline).

Trim & export — video

• In-app video preview with draggable start/end handles on a visual timeline.
• Filmstrip thumbnails along the timeline (ffmpeg stills, disk-cached per item).
• Waveform under the timeline for precise in/out points.
• Video / Audio mode toggle — switch to audio mode to export an audio range from any download with an audio track.
• Copy trimmed MP4 to the clipboard (stream-copy first, re-encode fallback if needed).
• Copy trimmed selection as GIF (video mode only).
• Save trimmed MP4 to a file you choose.
• Re-open trim mode from history (Edit trim).

Trim & export — audio

• Download audio-only via the Audio only preset, or let TrimFetch pick it automatically for audio-first links.
• Trim audio with the same timeline controls as video: drag start/end, scrub playback, and use the waveform view (filmstrip is hidden in audio mode).
• Audio mode lets you choose MP3 (libmp3lame) or WAV (pcm_s16le) before copying or saving.
• Copy trimmed audio to the clipboard, or save it via the file picker as .mp3 / .wav (default filename includes the trim range).
• Audio-only sources open directly in audio mode with generated waveform peaks; silent video hides audio mode; video + audio lets you trim either the MP4 clip or an MP3/WAV excerpt.

History

• Persistent download history with generated poster thumbnails.
• Per item: copy the file again, copy as GIF (eligible clips), reveal in File Explorer, open the source URL, or delete.
• Keyboard-friendly history navigation with highlight states and recently-copied feedback.

Overlay & shell

• Borderless overlay window with Mica / acrylic cards; hides when you click away and returns on a global hotkey (default Ctrl+Shift+W).

• Window placement follows the cursor.

• System tray icon with Ready / Downloading status, plus Open, Settings, and Exit.

• Run at startup (optional Windows startup registration).

• Customizable keyboard shortcuts in Settings:

  Action	Default
  Activate app (global)	Ctrl+Shift+W
  Copy	Enter
  Open trim mode	Ctrl+Enter
  Copy trim as GIF	Ctrl+G
  Copy history item as GIF	Ctrl+Shift+G

Settings & dependencies

• Choose and persist a custom download folder; open it from Settings.
• Install or verify yt-dlp and ffmpeg from Settings (via winget).
• First-run dependency setup flow when tools are missing (bootstraps winget via App Installer if needed).
• Check for updates from GitHub Releases (Settings → About).

Theming & platform

• Light / Dark (and high-contrast) via WinUI ThemeResource brushes.
• WinUI 3 desktop app (installer or portable publish) targeting Windows 10 1809+ (Windows 11 recommended for overlay / Mica behavior).

Local development

Requirements

• Windows 10 1809 or newer (Windows 11 recommended for overlay / Mica behavior).

• .NET SDK matching the project target (net10.0-windows10.0.26100.0).

• Windows App SDK / WinUI 3 workload (Visual Studio 2022 or the dotnet CLI with the Windows SDK).

• yt-dlp and ffmpeg on PATH (or install via in-app Settings / winget):

  winget install yt-dlp
  winget install Gyan.FFmpeg
  
  # verify
  yt-dlp --version
  ffmpeg -version

Build & run

From the repository root (TrimFetch):

# Build (Debug, x64)
dotnet build src/TrimFetch/TrimFetch.csproj -c Debug -p:Platform=x64

# Run (development; may use packaged identity via winapp)
dotnet run --project src/TrimFetch/TrimFetch.csproj

# Unit tests
dotnet test tests/TrimFetch.Helpers.Tests/TrimFetch.Helpers.Tests.csproj

# A single test class
dotnet test tests/TrimFetch.Helpers.Tests/ --filter "FullyQualifiedName~YtDlpOutputTests"

Release & distribution

Recommended: install from the Microsoft Store (auto-updates, signed package).

Alternative: each GitHub Release includes per-architecture installers (PowerToys-style naming), plus Source code (zip) and Source code (tar.gz) generated automatically from the tag.

Download	CPU
TrimFetchSetup-<version>-x64.exe	Intel / AMD (most PCs)
TrimFetchSetup-<version>-arm64.exe	Windows on ARM (Snapdragon, etc.)

Cut a release with the Release workflow:

git tag v1.0.1
git push origin v1.0.1

Run the matching .exe, then launch TrimFetch from the Start menu. On first run, install yt-dlp and ffmpeg from Settings or winget install yt-dlp Gyan.FFmpeg.

Windows may show SmartScreen for unsigned builds — More info → Run anyway.

Do not commit signing certificates, .pfx files, or private keys.

How it works

TrimFetch uses yt-dlp to fetch media and ffmpeg / ffprobe to merge, probe, generate timeline stills and waveforms, export video trims (MP4 / GIF), and export audio trims (MP3 / WAV). Downloads are saved to the folder you select in Settings. Preferences live in %LOCALAPPDATA%\TrimFetch\preferences.json. History and generated thumbnails live under the app's local cache folder (resolved via ApplicationData.Current.LocalCacheFolder, because MSIX redirects package-local storage).

Packaged apps do not inherit your login-shell PATH, so the app resolves yt-dlp and ffmpeg through ExternalToolLocator (preferring WinGet-installed binaries). ExternalToolLocator.Refresh() is called before spawning external processes.

Architecture at a glance

• MainWindow — borderless OverlappedPresenter, Mica backdrop, global hotkey registration, window-region clipping; hides on deactivation and reshows via hotkey.
• MainPage (partial class split across MainPage.*.cs) — the single hosted page: overlay animations, card chrome, video playback, and ViewModel wiring.
• MainPageViewModel (CommunityToolkit.Mvvm) — the single ViewModel owning download lifecycle, trim state, history persistence, and filmstrip generation. It marshals to the UI thread only through UiDispatcher, never DispatcherQueue directly.
• Services (no DI container; instantiated directly) — MediaDownloaderService, TrimExportService, ThumbnailStripService, ThumbnailGeneratorService, VideoThumbnailFetchService, MediaProbeService, DependencySetupService, PreferencesService, AppStorageService, GlobalHotKeyService, ClipboardService, and more.

Project structure

Path	Description
src/TrimFetch/	WinUI 3 application (main app)
src/TrimFetch/ViewModels/	MVVM view models (MainPageViewModel, SettingsViewModel)
src/TrimFetch/Services/	Download, trim, clipboard, tray, notifications, preferences
src/TrimFetch/Controls/	Timeline, circular progress UI
src/TrimFetch/Helpers/	Tool location, overlay chrome, output parsing, layout math
src/trimfetch.png	Source app icon
src/TrimFetch/Assets/	Generated logos, AppIcon.ico, yt-dlp-supported-hosts.txt
tests/TrimFetch.Helpers.Tests/	Unit tests for helpers / yt-dlp output parsing
.github/workflows/	CI workflow that builds TrimFetchSetup-*-{x64,arm64}.exe releases
installer/	Inno Setup script for Windows installers

Notes

Site support depends on your installed yt-dlp version. If a site stops working, update yt-dlp first:

winget upgrade yt-dlp

License

TrimFetch is released under the MIT License. It builds on third-party tools that carry their own licenses — notably yt-dlp (Unlicense) and ffmpeg (LGPL/GPL) — which are downloaded at runtime and are not bundled with this repository.

Support

If TrimFetch is useful to you, consider supporting development:

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Related project: pixel-point/media-downloader — the macOS SwiftUI reference implementation that inspired TrimFetch.