Downloading a YouTube video through Wget
I am trying to download YouTube videos through Wget. The first thing necessary is to capture the URL of the actual video resource. Suppose I want to download this video: video. Opening up the page in the Firebug console reveals something like this:
The link which I have encircled looks like the link to the resource, for there we see only the video: http://www.youtube.com/v/r-KBncrOggI?version=3&autohide=1. However, when I am trying to download this resource with Wget, a 4 KB file of name r-KBncrOggI@version=3&autohide=1 gets stored in my hard-drive, nothing else. What should I do to get the actual video?
And secondly, is there a way to capture different resources for videos of different resolutions, like 360px, 480px, etc.?
I'm afraid it's not that easy do get the right link for the video resource.
The link you got, http://www.youtube.com/v/r-KBncrOggI?version=3&autohide=1, points to the player rather than the video itself. There is one Perl utility, youtube-download, which is well-maintained and does the trick. This is how to get the HQ version (magic fmt=18) of that video:
stas@Stanislaws-MacBook-Pro:~$ youtube-download -o "{title}.{suffix}" --fmt 18 r-KBncrOggI
--> Working on r-KBncrOggI
Downloading `Sourav Ganguly in Farhan Akhtar's Show - Oye! It's Friday!.mp4`
75161060/75161060 (100.00%)
Download successful!
stas@Stanislaws-MacBook-Pro:~$
There might be better command-line YouTube Downloaders around. But sorry, one doesn't simply download a video using Firebug and wget any more :(
The only way I know to capture that URL manually is by watching the active downloads of the browser:
That largest data chunks are video data, so you can copy its URL:
However, for a large video, this will only return a part of the stream unless you figure out the URL query parameter responsible for stream range to be downloaded and adjust it.
A bonus: everything changes periodically as YouTube is constantly evolving. So, don't do that manually unless you carve pain.