YoutubeDLSharp

A simple .NET wrapper library for youtube-dl and yt-dlp.

For yt-dlp	For youtube-dl
Versions >= v.1.0	Versions v.0.x

What is it?

YoutubeDLSharp is a wrapper for the popular command-line video downloaders youtube-dl and yt-dlp. It allows you to use the extensive features of youtube-dl/ yt-dlp in a .NET project. For more about the features of youtube-dl/ yt-dlp, supported websites and anything else, visit their project pages at http://ytdl-org.github.io/youtube-dl/ and https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp.

How do I install it?

First, add the package from NuGet:

PM> Install-Package YoutubeDLSharp

Next, you would want to have the binaries for yt-dlp and FFmpeg available. If you don't have them set up already, you can either...

• ...download them from their respective download pages manually: [yt-dlp Download] [FFmpeg Download]
• ...use the built-in download methods:

  await YoutubeDLSharp.Utils.DownloadYtDlp();
  await YoutubeDLSharp.Utils.DownloadFFmpeg();

How do I use it?

There are two ways to use YoutubeDLSharp: the class YoutubeDL provides high level methods for downloading and converting videos while the class YoutubeDLProcess allows directer and flexibler access to the youtube-dl process.

Using the YoutubeDL class

In the simplest case, initializing the downloader and downloading a video can be achieved like this:

var ytdl = new YoutubeDL();
// set the path of yt-dlp and FFmpeg if they're not in PATH or current directory
ytdl.YoutubeDLPath = "path\\to\\yt-dlp.exe";
ytdl.FFmpegPath = "path\\to\\ffmpeg.exe";
// optional: set a different download folder
ytdl.OutputFolder = "some\\directory\\for\\video\\downloads";
// download a video
var res = await ytdl.RunVideoDownload("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq9ghmgqoyc");
// the path of the downloaded file
string path = res.Data;

Instead of only downloading a video, you can also directly extract the audio track ...

var res = await ytdl.RunAudioDownload(
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUQsqBqxoR4",
    AudioConversionFormat.Mp3
);

... or selectively download videos from a playlist:

var res = await ytdl.RunVideoPlaylistDownload(
    "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPfak9ofGSn9sWgKrHrXrxQXXxwhCblaT",
    start: 52, end: 76
);

All of the above methods also allow you to track the download progress or cancel an ongoing download:

// a progress handler with a callback that updates a progress bar
var progress = new Progress<DownloadProgress>(p => progressBar.Value = p.Progress);
// a cancellation token source used for cancelling the download
// use `cts.Cancel();` to perform cancellation
var cts = new CancellationTokenSource();
// ...
await ytdl.RunVideoDownload("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QdPW8JrYzQ",
                            progress: progress, ct: cts.Token);

As youtube-dl also allows you to extract extensive metadata for videos, you can also fetch these (without downloading the video):

var res = await ytdl.RunVideoDataFetch("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QdPW8JrYzQ");
// get some video information
VideoData video = res.Data;
string title = video.Title;
string uploader = video.Uploader;
long? views = video.ViewCount;
// all available download formats
FormatData[] formats = video.Formats;
// ...

This intro does not show all available options. Refer to the method documentations for more.

The project includes a demo WPF desktop app under WpfDemoApp that uses the YoutubeDL class.

Working with options

YoutubeDLSharp uses the OptionSet class to model youtube-dl/ yt-dlp options. The names of the option properties correspond to the names of youtube-dl, so defining a set of options can look like this:

var options = new OptionSet()
{
    NoContinue = true,
    RestrictFilenames = true,
    Format = "best",
    RecodeVideo = VideoRecodeFormat.Mp4,
    Exec = "echo {}"
}

Some options of yt-dlp can be set multiple times. This is reflected in YoutubeDLSharp by passing an array of values to the corresponding option properties:

var options = new OptionSet()
{
    PostprocessorArgs = new[]
    {
        "ffmpeg:-vcodec h264_nvenc",
        "ffmpeg_i1:-hwaccel cuda -hwaccel_output_format cuda"
    }
};

OptionSet instances can be passed to many YoutubeDL methods to override the default behaviour:

var options = new OptionSet()
{
    NoContinue = true,
    RestrictFilenames = true
}
var ytdl = new YoutubeDL();
var res = await ytdl.RunVideoDownload(
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq9ghmgqoyc",
    overrideOptions: options
);

Alternatively, RunWithOptions() can be used to directly run youtube-dl/ yt-dlp with a given OptionSet:

var ytdl = new YoutubeDL();
var res = await ytdl.WithOptions("<YOUR_URL>", options);

For documentation of all options supported by yt-dlp and their effects, visit https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp#usage-and-options.

Additionally, YoutubeDLSharp allows you to pass custom options to the downloader program. This is especially useful when a forked/ modified version of youtube-dl is used. Custom can be specified like this:

// add
options.AddCustomOption<string>("--my-custom-option", "value");
// set
options.SetCustomOption<string>("--my-custom-option", "new value");

YoutubeDLProcess

To start a youtube-dl/ yt-dlp process directly with the defined options, you can also use the low-level YoutubeDLProcess class, giving you more control over the process:

var ytdlProc = new YoutubeDLProcess();
// capture the standard output and error output
ytdlProc.OutputReceived += (o, e) => Console.WriteLine(e.Data);
ytdlProc.ErrorReceived += (o, e) => Console.WriteLine("ERROR: " + e.Data);
// start running
string[] urls = new[] { "https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#options" };
await ytdlProc.RunAsync(urls, options);

Loading/ Saving configuration

You can persist a youtube-dl/ yt-dlp configuration to a file and reload it:

// Save to file
var saveOptions = new OptionSet();
saveOptions.WriteConfigFile("path\\to\\file");

// Reload configuration
OptionSet loadOptions = OptionSet.LoadConfigFile("path\\to\\file");

The file format is compatible with the format used by youtube-dl/ yt-dlp itself. For more, read https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp#configuration.

Issues & Contributing

You are very welcome to contribute by reporting issues, fixing bugs or resolving inconsistencies to youtube-dl/ yt-dlp. If you want to contribute a new feature to the library, please open an issue with your suggestion before starting to implement it.

All issues related to downloading specific videos, support for websites or downloading/ conversion features should better be reported to https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues.

Version History

See Changelog.

License

This project is licensed under BSD-3-Clause license.