wiki: add yt-dlp article to media-creative section

Cover installation, Plex-optimized format selection, playlist downloading, config file, and background session usage. Cross-reference existing JS challenge troubleshooting article. Article count: 32 → 33. Open source section: 5 → 6. Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-03-14 00:33:58 -04:00
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--- a/03-opensource/media-creative/yt-dlp.md
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+# yt-dlp — Video Downloading
+
+## What It Is
+
+`yt-dlp` is a feature-rich command-line video downloader, forked from youtube-dl with active maintenance and significantly better performance. It supports YouTube, Twitch, and hundreds of other sites.
+
+---
+
+## Installation
+
+### Fedora
+```bash
+sudo dnf install yt-dlp
+# or latest via pip:
+sudo pip install yt-dlp --break-system-packages
+```
+
+### Update
+```bash
+sudo pip install -U yt-dlp --break-system-packages
+# or if installed as standalone binary:
+yt-dlp -U
+```
+
+Keep it current — YouTube pushes extractor changes frequently and old versions break.
+
+---
+
+## Basic Usage
+
+```bash
+# Download a single video (best quality)
+yt-dlp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID
+
+# Download to a specific directory with title as filename
+yt-dlp -o "/path/to/output/%(title)s.%(ext)s" URL
+```
+
+---
+
+## Plex-Optimized Download
+
+For Plex direct play, you want H.264 video in an MP4 container with embedded subtitles:
+
+```bash
+yt-dlp -f 'bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/bestvideo+bestaudio' \
+  --merge-output-format mp4 \
+  -o "/plex/plex/%(title)s.%(ext)s" \
+  --write-auto-subs --embed-subs \
+  URL
+```
+
+- `-f 'bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/...'` — prefer MP4 video + M4A audio; fall back to best available
+- `--merge-output-format mp4` — merge streams into MP4 container (requires ffmpeg)
+- `--write-auto-subs --embed-subs` — download auto-generated subtitles and bake them in
+
+---
+
+## Playlists and Channels
+
+```bash
+# Download a full playlist
+yt-dlp -o "%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" PLAYLIST_URL
+
+# Download only videos not already present
+yt-dlp --download-archive archive.txt PLAYLIST_URL
+```
+
+`--download-archive` maintains a file of completed video IDs — re-running the command skips already-downloaded videos automatically.
+
+---
+
+## Format Selection
+
+```bash
+# List all available formats for a video
+yt-dlp --list-formats URL
+
+# Download best video + best audio, merge to mp4
+yt-dlp -f 'bestvideo+bestaudio' --merge-output-format mp4 URL
+
+# Download audio only (MP3)
+yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 URL
+```
+
+---
+
+## Config File
+
+Persist your preferred flags so you don't repeat them every command:
+
+```bash
+mkdir -p ~/.config/yt-dlp
+cat > ~/.config/yt-dlp/config << 'EOF'
+-f bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/bestvideo+bestaudio
+--merge-output-format mp4
+--write-auto-subs
+--embed-subs
+--remote-components ejs:github
+EOF
+```
+
+After this, a bare `yt-dlp URL` uses all your preferred settings automatically.
+
+---
+
+## Running Long Downloads in the Background
+
+For large downloads or playlists, run inside `screen` or `tmux` so they survive SSH disconnects:
+
+```bash
+screen -dmS yt-download bash -c \
+  "yt-dlp -o '/plex/plex/%(title)s.%(ext)s' PLAYLIST_URL 2>&1 | tee ~/yt-download.log"
+
+# Check progress
+screen -r yt-download
+# or
+tail -f ~/yt-download.log
+```
+
+---
+
+## Troubleshooting
+
+For YouTube JS challenge errors, missing formats, and n-challenge failures on Fedora — see [yt-dlp YouTube JS Challenge Fix](../../05-troubleshooting/yt-dlp-fedora-js-challenge.md).
+
+---
+
+## Tags
+
+#yt-dlp #youtube #video #plex #linux #media #dev-tools