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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>
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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
sudo dnf install yt-dlp
# or latest via pip:
sudo pip install yt-dlp --break-system-packages
Update
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
# 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:
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
# 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
# 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:
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:
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.
Tags
#yt-dlp #youtube #video #plex #linux #media #dev-tools