The latest articles on DEV Community by oheyek (@oheyek). https://dev.to/oheyek https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F3632569%2F4a42183f-8779-4623-b925-57c2bb93ea63.jpeg https://dev.to/oheyek en oheyek Thu, 27 Nov 2025 11:11:22 +0000 https://dev.to/oheyek/i-built-a-python-video-downloader-for-my-engineering-thesis-586m https://dev.to/oheyek/i-built-a-python-video-downloader-for-my-engineering-thesis-586m <p>Hello Devs! 👋</p> <p>We've all been there. You need to download a video for offline viewing or archiving. You search on Google, click on the first result, and...</p> <p>🚨 <strong>Popups everywhere.</strong><br> 🚨 <strong>"Allow notifications to continue."</strong><br> 🚨 <strong>Sketchy redirects.</strong></p> <p>I recently faced a challenge: I needed to create a practical application for my <strong>Engineering Thesis</strong> (Bachelor's final project). I didn't want to build something that would just sit in a drawer. I wanted to solve a real annoyance.</p> <p>So, I combined my academic requirements with a practical solution and built <strong>VidGrabber</strong> – an open-source tool written in Python to grab videos easily.</p> <h2> 🚀 What is VidGrabber? </h2> <p>VidGrabber is a desktop utility that allows you to download videos from popular platforms. It was designed as a diploma project to demonstrate Python capabilities in handling media streams and GUI applications.</p> <p>No ads, no tracking, just code.</p> <p> </p> <div class="ltag-github-readme-tag"> <div class="readme-overview"> <h2> <img src="https://assets.dev.to/assets/github-logo-5a155e1f9a670af7944dd5e12375bc76ed542ea80224905ecaf878b9157cdefc.svg" alt="GitHub logo"> <a href="https://github.com/oheyek" rel="noopener noreferrer"> oheyek </a> / <a href="https://github.com/oheyek/VidGrabber" rel="noopener noreferrer"> VidGrabber </a> </h2> <h3> Desktop application for downloading and processing YouTube content </h3> </div> <div class="ltag-github-body"> <div id="readme" class="md"> <div class="markdown-heading"> <h1 class="heading-element"> <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://github.com/oheyek/VidGrabber/src/ui/icons/icon.png"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Foheyek%2FVidGrabber%2Fsrc%2Fui%2Ficons%2Ficon.png" alt="VidGrabber Logo" width="32"></a> VidGrabber</h1> </div> <div> <p><a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://camo.githubusercontent.com/629436a6802e7afc32a847d0887585634ccf768c75901f1bb547bba090e528df/68747470733a2f2f696d672e736869656c64732e696f2f62616467652f707974686f6e2d332e31302532422d626c75653f6c6f676f3d707974686f6e266c6f676f436f6c6f723d7768697465"><img src="https://camo.githubusercontent.com/629436a6802e7afc32a847d0887585634ccf768c75901f1bb547bba090e528df/68747470733a2f2f696d672e736869656c64732e696f2f62616467652f707974686f6e2d332e31302532422d626c75653f6c6f676f3d707974686f6e266c6f676f436f6c6f723d7768697465" alt="Python Version"></a> <a href="https://github.com/oheyek/VidGrabber/LICENSE" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://camo.githubusercontent.com/363208b55a1c6f4f3650322a8f5f48c8425f5f5c5015f575f637f05c88d00f30/68747470733a2f2f696d672e736869656c64732e696f2f6769746875622f6c6963656e73652f6f686579656b2f566964477261626265723f636f6c6f723d677265656e" alt="License"></a> <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://camo.githubusercontent.com/d8d74dec06a4b92efccb7211b4693f5d007e58bdede8f45e2c656e3107c0dab3/68747470733a2f2f696d672e736869656c64732e696f2f62616467652f706c6174666f726d2d77696e646f77732532302537432532306d61636f732532302537432532306c696e75782d6c6967687467726579"><img src="https://camo.githubusercontent.com/d8d74dec06a4b92efccb7211b4693f5d007e58bdede8f45e2c656e3107c0dab3/68747470733a2f2f696d672e736869656c64732e696f2f62616467652f706c6174666f726d2d77696e646f77732532302537432532306d61636f732532302537432532306c696e75782d6c6967687467726579" alt="Platform"></a> <a href="https://github.com/oheyek/VidGrabber/releases" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://camo.githubusercontent.com/4d560d4edfac6c6c1e56c1b2578970fa37746621374d62739ac2488efb0849f1/68747470733a2f2f696d672e736869656c64732e696f2f6769746875622f762f72656c656173652f6f686579656b2f566964477261626265723f696e636c7564655f70726572656c6561736573" alt="Release"></a> <a href="https://github.com/oheyek/VidGrabber/releases" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://camo.githubusercontent.com/030ea62b5365f3582b885646b419c8befafeac6c5b0803bbc48e5a3d86ffadf9/68747470733a2f2f696d672e736869656c64732e696f2f6769746875622f646f776e6c6f6164732f6f686579656b2f566964477261626265722f746f74616c3f636f6c6f723d6f72616e6765" alt="Downloads"></a></p> </div> <p>A powerful desktop application for downloading and processing YouTube content with an intuitive interface.</p> <p> <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://github.com/oheyek/VidGrabber/src/ui/icons/screenshot.png"><img src="https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=800%2Cheight=%2Cfit=scale-down%2Cgravity=auto%2Cformat=auto/https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Foheyek%2FVidGrabber%2Fsrc%2Fui%2Ficons%2Fscreenshot.png" alt="VidGrabber Interface" width="500"></a> </p> <div class="markdown-heading"> <h2 class="heading-element">✨ Features</h2> </div> <ul> <li> <strong>Multi-Format Downloads</strong>: Download videos (MP4), audio (MP3/WAV), thumbnails (JPG), and tags (CSV).</li> <li> <strong>Quality Selection</strong>: Choose from available video qualities (144p to 2160p) with automatic detection.</li> <li> <strong>Queue Management</strong>: Add multiple downloads to queue and process them in batch (up to 5 concurrent downloads).</li> <li> <strong>Smart Path Management</strong>: Customize download locations for each file type with persistent settings.</li> <li> <strong>Theme Customization</strong>: Switch between Dark, Light, and System themes.</li> <li> <strong>Tag Extraction</strong>: Extract video tags and copy them directly to clipboard.</li> <li> <strong>Cross-Platform</strong>: Works seamlessly on Windows, macOS, and Linux.</li> <li> <strong>Auto-Updates</strong>: Automatically downloads and updates yt-dlp and ffmpeg binaries.</li> <li> <strong>Progress Tracking</strong>: Real-time download progress with visual indicators.</li> </ul> <div class="markdown-heading"> <h2 class="heading-element">🛠️ Installation</h2> </div> <div class="markdown-heading"> <h3 class="heading-element">Using the Pre-built Release</h3> </div> <ol> <li>Download the appropriate executable for your platform from the <a href="https://github.com/oheyek/VidGrabber/releases" rel="noopener noreferrer">Releases</a> page <ul> <li>Windows: <code>VidGrabber.exe</code> </li> <li>macOS: <code>VidGrabber-macOS.zip</code> </li> <li>Linux: <code>VidGrabber-Linux.tar.gz</code> </li> </ul> </li> <li>Extract…</li> </ol> </div> </div> <div class="gh-btn-container"><a class="gh-btn" href="https://github.com/oheyek/VidGrabber" rel="noopener noreferrer">View on GitHub</a></div> </div> <h2> 🛠️ Tech Stack </h2> <p>Since this was an engineering project, I focused on clean structure and efficiency:</p> <ul> <li> <strong>Language:</strong> Python 3.x 🐍</li> <li> <strong>Core:</strong> <code>yt-dlp</code> (for robust video extraction)</li> <li> <strong>GUI:</strong> <code>customtkinter</code> (for a modern look) / <code>tkinter</code> </li> </ul> <h2> ✨ Key Features </h2> <ul> <li> <strong>User-Friendly Interface:</strong> Designed to be intuitive (a key requirement for my thesis).</li> <li> <strong>High Quality:</strong> Downloads the best available resolution.</li> <li> <strong>Audio Extraction:</strong> Option to grab just the audio (MP3).</li> <li> <strong>Open Source:</strong> Fully transparent code.</li> </ul> <h2> 💻 How to run it </h2> <p>If you want to test my thesis project, you can clone the repo and run it locally.</p> <ol> <li> <p><strong>Clone the repository:</strong><br> </p> <pre class="highlight shell"><code>git clone https://github.com/oheyek/VidGrabber.git <span class="nb">cd </span>VidGrabber </code></pre> </li> <li> <p><strong>Install dependencies:</strong><br> </p> <pre class="highlight shell"><code>pip <span class="nb">install</span> <span class="nt">-r</span> requirements.txt </code></pre> </li> <li> <p><strong>Run the app:</strong><br> </p> <pre class="highlight shell"><code>python main.py </code></pre> </li> </ol> <h2> 🤝 Contributions </h2> <p>Even though the thesis is the main milestone, I'd love to keep this project alive! If you have ideas for improvements, feel free to:</p> <ol> <li> Fork the repository.</li> <li> Create a feature branch.</li> <li> Submit a Pull Request!</li> </ol> <h2> 🔗 Links </h2> <ul> <li> <strong>GitHub Repo:</strong> <a href="https://github.com/oheyek/VidGrabber" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://github.com/oheyek/VidGrabber</a> </li> </ul> <p>If you find this tool useful or just want to support a student/developer, please consider <strong>starring the repo ⭐</strong> on GitHub. It really helps!</p> <p>Thanks for reading! Happy coding! 💻</p> python opensource productivity showdev