YouTube-DL - How to Use the YouTube-DL Video Downloader
Video Downloader
YouTube-DL is a free and open source application that can be used to download videos from a variety of websites, including YouTube. It is available for Windows and Linux operating systems, and is released under the Unlicense software license.
Command-line interface
You can use the YouTube-DL command line interface to download multiple videos with one command. It supports lists of video URLS, videos from a channel or videos from playlists, and can download all or only a specific section of the playlist.
Copy the URL to a YouTube video
Paste the URL to a YouTube video in the Terminal or Command-Line by typing youtube-dl url_to_video> and press Enter. This will download only the video, without subtitles and description, and automatically chooses the best video and audio quality.
Format codes
All YouTube videos have format codes, which you can pass to youtube-dl with the -f option to download them at a specified quality. For example, to download a video in 22-quality, you can type youtube-dl --f 22 url_to_video>.
Cache downloaded information
By default, youtube-dl stores some of the information it gets when downloading a video in $XDG_CACHE_HOME or /.cache/youtube-dl (see the "OUTPUT TEMPLATE") in order to reduce the need for repeated downloads. If you prefer, you can specify a location in the filesystem where you want to store downloaded information permanently.
Playlists
YouTube has become a popular place for people to share playlists of their favorite music and movies. You can also create your own playlists with youtube-dl to share your favorite songs or videos. You can even download individual items within a playlist using the -playlist-start and -playlist-end parameters.