this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2025
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Greentext

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This is a place to share greentexts and witness the confounding life of Anon. If you're new to the Greentext community, think of it as a sort of zoo with Anon as the main attraction.

Be warned:

If you find yourself getting angry (or god forbid, agreeing) with something Anon has said, you might be doing it wrong.

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[–] [email protected] 219 points 3 weeks ago (9 children)
[–] [email protected] 58 points 3 weeks ago (9 children)

I was surprised at how well it works but anything command line is not for normies

[–] [email protected] 46 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Anyone who’s done “/gamemode creative” is smart enough to figure out “yt-dlp ”. Seriously people need to stop acting like typing the most basic commands that you can find tutorials about is some kinda level 9 magic

[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I think you've defined the problem rather well there..

It's not that Normies couldn't use it, it's that Normies won't use it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

Which generally helps it fly under the radar so us nerds can have nice things for longer.

I’m not for gate keeping, but I kinda like having tricky things if it means they don’t get ruined/stopped as fast.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It's not that peoplecan't figure it out, it's that they won't. As soon as you mention the terminal they stop listening or thinking

/gamemode creative doesn't have that problem because it's not a terminal, it's a chat window

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Thats why I run it in docker with a web ui (On my server behind a reverse proxy, so I could get HTTPS working)

Shut up, im not a nerd

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago
[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

Nah I'm sorry. There is a point where it's unreasonable to expect someone to learn something, but that isn't it.

Using yt-dlp is extremely straightforward.

Being ignorant and proud of it is a horrid personality trait. The average person knows how to drive a car, how to call others using their phone and how to use an ATM.

Typing 7 characters and copy-pasting a link is well within their abilities.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

simply downloading a video? sure, but literally anything else is insanely complicated for an average person.
If they want the music from a video they would have to look through all of https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp and probably still wouldn't find what they're looking for

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

If you are on an android phone you should check the F-Droid pages for Seal. No commandline, a nice GUI, works great.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago

+1 for Seal, Newpipe and Tubular both work fine too

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

You can use the OpenWith extensions to add it as a right click option.

I have this setup for my non-technical family members, so they just right click on the page choose open with -> ytdlp and it saves it to their downloads folder.

You can set up different options for example video or audio only.


  • In Firefox install: https://webextension.org/listing/external-application-button.html
  • In the Extension options, add an application
  • Name it something like "Open in YT-DLP: mp4"
  • Set the exe name to the path of a local copy of yt-dlp
  • Set the arguments to be -S res,ext:mp4:m4a --recode mp4 [HREF]
  • Under the Placement options -> Context Menu -> select "All Contexts"

You should now be able to right click on a YouTube page and choose "External Application launcher -> Open in YT-DLP: mp4"

If you want audio only, add another application in the extension settings and use the arguments -f ba[ext=m4a] [HREF] for m4a files.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

Normies don't deserve joy.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

You can add it as a right-click option to Firefox:

  • Install: https://webextension.org/listing/external-application-button.html
  • In the Extension options, add an application
  • Name it something like “Open in YT-DLP: mp4”
  • Set the exe name to the path of a local copy of yt-dlp
  • Set the arguments to be -S res,ext:mp4:m4a --recode mp4 [HREF]
  • Under the Placement options -> Context Menu -> select “All Contexts”

You should now be able to right click on a YouTube page and choose “External Application launcher -> Open in YT-DLP: mp4”

If you want audio only, add another application in the extension settings and use the arguments -f ba[ext=m4a] [HREF] for m4a files.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago
[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Do you type that in the windows finder bar?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

Its a package, so it gets delivered in the mail

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[–] [email protected] 111 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

Pro tip to teach people to fish instead of giving them a fish:

Whenever you're looking for a new software tool to do something, especially something "sketchy" like this, add something like "GPL" or "open source" to the end of your search string. It might not be quite enough to raise the official site of the best tool all the way to the first search result, but it cuts way, way down on the scam sites.

Or perhaps even better yet, go straight to checking AlternativeTo.net.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Or add "reddit" and check what people recommend Though you would have to use Google or perhaps Startpage

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 weeks ago

Yes, but eww.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

This worked a few years ago, but half of reddit is just bots and guerilla marketers now :(

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago

Hence why reading comprehension is important. You need to assume that people are out to screw you on the internet, so look for their motivations. Someone pushing a paid service could be getting a kickback, whereas someone pushing a FOSS service probably just wants it to get attention so it sticks around.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago

How dare you.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

May as well walk into an AA meeting and tell people they can just keep drinking

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Jdownloader 2 is the most straightforward.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago

It's an unholy Java monster

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

This was legit me untill I learnt about yt-dlp. I remember I used some random ass website for downloading yt vids, since I didn't have mobile data back then, and I wanted to listen to some tunes while I was going to school. The site would completely mess up file names every single time. Yt-dlp is the reason that pushed me to use cli apps more.

Yt-dlp my beloved

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

If you’re technically inclined, you can selfhost metube for your friends/family

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Is that just a yt-dlp front end? Was hoping it would also do the streaming which is what I currently have been thinking of setting up. Probably yt-dlp to download all latest videos and then stream that over UPNP so any device with VLC can watch over the LAN.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)

The fundamental issue is that he's looking for someone to provide a free service instead of for someone to provide free software.

The latter happens so much more often because it doesn't create ongoing costs for the developer.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 weeks ago
[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 weeks ago

Cobalt.tools

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago

jdownloader includes yt-dlp and is generally good if you want to download things that you might or might not be supposed to download

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The screenshot is an old version of MacOS. Either install yt-dlp (at the command line) or, and this is better by far, get the Downie app. I've been downloading videos all morning.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (7 children)

yes yt-dlp,
no to random app that’s probably just a wrapper for yt-dlp with spyware and ads bundled in

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Parabolic is super easy to use and allows you to download either a single video or entire playlist/channel. Also if you download playlists, it makes separate folders for them and embeds all the metadata you may need.

Open-source (GPL-licensed), available for Windows and Linux.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago
[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

If on Android, use Seal, a FOSS app that uses yt-dlp and allows you to download the video in a shit ton of format and stuff. Apparently can even embed subtitles and metadata into the files, although I never do that.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I haven't had to do this in awhile so I can't recommend the best downloader for this job... But I will say that this is the sort of thing where you absolutely need to have a good adblocker

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Clip Grab

No bullshit. No log in. Works on multiple sites. Free.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

This might not be bullshit, but after hitting 3 separate download buttons and not starting a download, I can say without a doubt that this link is an offender.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

If you are into docker use tubearchivist as it lets you host the videos as well.

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