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Gutless2615@ttrpg.network 1 month ago“Give me a Python script using yt-dlp that I can run on a cronjob that will download the videos from any of my subscribed channels since the last time the script was run”
You can use the following Python script to download videos from your subscribed channels since the last run. This script uses yt-dlp
and stores the last download timestamp to track new videos.
First, ensure you have yt-dlp
installed:
pip install yt-dlp
Then, create a script called download_videos.py
:
import os import json import subprocess from datetime import datetime # Configuration last_run_file = 'last_run.json' download_directory = 'downloads' # Ensure the download directory exists os.makedirs(download_directory, exist_ok=True) # Load the last run time if os.path.exists(last_run_file): with open(last_run_file, 'r') as f: last_run = json.load(f)['last_run'] else: last_run = datetime.now().isoformat() # Update the last run time to now current_run = datetime.now().isoformat() # Command to get videos from subscribed channels since the last run command = [ 'yt-dlp', '--download-archive', 'archive.txt', '--output', f'{download_directory}/%(title)s.%(ext)s', '--date-after', last_run, '--no-post-overwrites', '--merge-output-format', 'mp4', 'https://www.youtube.com/channel/CHANNEL_ID', # Replace with your channel URL ] # Run the command subprocess.run(command) # Save the current run time with open(last_run_file, 'w') as f: json.dump({'last_run': current_run}, f) print("Download complete. Next run will check for videos since:", current_run)
Setting Up the Cron Job
-
Make the script executable:
chmod +x download_videos.py
-
Open your crontab:
crontab -e
-
Add a line to run the script at your desired interval (e.g., daily at 2 AM):
0 2 * * * /path/to/python /path/to/download_videos.py
Notes
- Replace
CHANNEL_ID
in the script with your actual channel IDs or use a playlist URL if preferred. - The
archive.txt
file keeps track of already downloaded videos to avoid duplicates. - Adjust the paths to Python and your script as needed.
webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 1 month ago
Another example, which i can personally verify has been working fine for months. It works a bit different to the above, it downloads the latests 2* vids that are not already downloaded and runs once every hour.
Channels i am “subscribed” too are stored in a single text file, it also uses the avc1 codec because i found p9 and p10 had issues with the jellyfin client on my tv
looks like this, i added categories but i don’t actually use them in the script besides putting them in a variable, lol. Vid-limit is how many of the latests vids it should look at to download. The original reason i implemented that is so i could selectively download a bulk of latests vids if i wanted to.
Gutless2615@ttrpg.network 1 month ago
Yeah this is more elegant and closer to what I’d actually want to implement. I was more just showing what could be done in literally thirty seconds on the can with ChatGPT.
webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 1 month ago
I knew i recognized that output.
Mine is actually also made with the help of Chatgpt but manually refined and tested.