DEV Community: Dhiraj Chaurasiya

yt-dlp for youtube video downloads.

Dhiraj Chaurasiya — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 18:35:49 +0000

How to Use yt-dlp: The Ultimate Guide to Downloading Videos from YouTube and More

If you’ve ever wanted to download videos or playlists from YouTube or many other streaming platforms, yt-dlp is one of the best tools you can use. It’s a powerful command-line program that lets you grab videos, audios, subtitles, and more — all with simple commands.

In this article, I’ll walk you through:

What yt-dlp is
How to install it
Basic and advanced commands
How to download videos at specific quality (like 720p)
Downloading entire playlists
Tips and tricks for better downloads

What is yt-dlp?

yt-dlp is a fork of the popular tool youtube-dl. It’s actively maintained, with new features, bug fixes, and supports many more sites. It’s perfect for anyone who wants control over downloading videos with great quality and options.

Installing yt-dlp

You can install yt-dlp easily:

Windows:

Download the executable from the yt-dlp GitHub releases and put it in a folder in your PATH.
macOS:

  brew install yt-dlp

Linux: Most distros have yt-dlp in their package managers, or you can use pip:

  python3 -m pip install -U yt-dlp

Basic Command to Download a Video

To download a video, simply run:

yt-dlp <video_url>

Note: Replace the <video_url> with actual url of video.
eg: yt-dlp https://youtu.be/bZ2o8ideUYY?si=it5cVDmJljdBA8h4

This downloads the best available quality by default.

Download a Video in 720p Quality

To download a video in 720p, use the format selector:

yt-dlp -f "bestvideo[height<=720]+bestaudio/best[height<=720]" <video_url>

What does this mean?

-f means format selection.
bestvideo[height<=720] chooses the best video-only stream up to 720p.
bestaudio grabs the best audio-only stream.
The + tells yt-dlp to merge video and audio.
The fallback best[height<=720] downloads the best combined stream up to 720p if separate streams are not available.

Note: You need ffmpeg installed to merge video and audio streams. Without ffmpeg, yt-dlp will download video and audio separately but won’t merge them.

The guide to install ffmpeg is discussed in tips below.

Extra

To download a playlist in 720p sorted in same order.

yt-dlp -f "bestvideo[height<=720]+bestaudio/best[height<=720]" -o "%(playlist_index)03d. %(title)s.%(ext)s" https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=YOUR_PLAYLIST_ID

Additional Useful Commands

Download audio only:

yt-dlp -f bestaudio <video_url>

Download subtitles if available:

yt-dlp --write-subs --sub-lang en <video_url>

List available formats:

yt-dlp -F <video_url>

Tips for Better Downloads

Always keep yt-dlp updated for latest site support:

  yt-dlp -U

Install ffmpeg to handle format merging and conversions. The best article guiding ffmpeg installation for me!
Check formats with -F to pick the exact quality or codec you want.

Customized commands 🚩

To download only audio in mp3 format

yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 <YouTube video URL>

To download a playlist in mp4 format keeping track of downloads to resume later in case of obstruction.

yt-dlp -f "bestvideo[ext=mp4][height<=720]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/best[ext=mp4][height<=720]" \
  --merge-output-format mp4 \
  -o "%(playlist_index)03d. %(title)s.%(ext)s" \
  --download-archive downloaded.txt \
  --ignore-errors \
  --no-overwrites \
  url

Conclusion

yt-dlp is a versatile tool that can make downloading videos easy and customizable. Whether you want a single video in 720p or a whole playlist, yt-dlp has you covered.

Setup Firebase using Firebase CLI for Flutter

Dhiraj Chaurasiya — Sat, 11 Jan 2025 09:01:09 +0000

Firebase setup using Flutterfire cli has made the integration much easier than earlier minimizing the chance of gradle error in the setup process.

The installation process might skip asking for application id if you've created flutter project by flutter create projectname --org com.projectname
Below are the steps to follow while setting up flutterfire

Here we are going to install using npm.

1. Under prepare your workspace section

Install Node.js

use npm --version to check installed version once installed or if it's already installed.
Install the Firebase CLI via npm by running the following command:

npm install -g firebase-tools

This will add firebase CLI to your system. To confirm the installation use firebase --version.

If there shows an error of firebase command not foundor anything related to that. It is recommended to restart your terminal or command prompt

firebase login

This will navigate to browser choosing the email you want to link your local project with remote project.

2. Under Install and run the FlutterFire CLI

Check for the firebase projects with the following command:

firebase projects:list

This will list all the firebase project made with your gmail account.

Now, activate the flutterfire cli

dart pub global activate flutterfire_cli

In windows if you're installing the flutterfire cli for first time then you'll get a warning asking to add the path to your environment variables.

Just copy the path and add to environment variables for windows

For macos copy the export command and paste it to terminal.

Then, at the root of your Flutter project directory, run this command:

flutterfire configure

This will show all the available projects and let you to choose the firebase project you want to integrate. use arrow keys to navigate and spacebar to select the project
choose the platform you want to build the project for.

** After registering the platform for which you're building the project, it will ask for the android application id.

GO TO android/app/build.gradle and search for android->namespace which might look like com.example.projectname

copy and paste it to your terminal providing the android application id.

This will add firebase_options.dart file to lib folder of your Flutter project.

3. Install firebase_core dependency.

flutter pub add firebase_core

This will solve the error showing the missing of package.

Now you're good to go! You've linked your flutter project with firebase.