- Retreive metadata such as viewcount, duration, rating, author, thumbnail, keywords
- Download video or audio at requested resolution / bitrate / format / filesize
- Command line tool (ytdl) for downloading directly from the command line
- Retrieve the URL to stream the video in a player such as vlc or mplayer
- Works with age-restricted videos and non-embeddable videos
- Small, standalone, single importable module file (pafy.py)
- Select highest quality stream for download or streaming
- Download audio only (no video) in ogg or m4a format
- Download video only (no audio) in m4v format
- Works with Python 2.7 and 3.x
- No dependencies
Full documentation is available at http://pythonhosted.org/Pafy
Here is how to use the module in your own python code. For command line tool (ytdl) instructions, see further below:
>>> import pafy
create a video instance from a YouTube url:
>>> url = "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyMHZVT91Dw"
>>> video = pafy.new(url)
get certain attributes:
>>> video.title
u'Rick Astley Sings Live - Never Gonna Give You Up - This Morning'
>>> video.rating
4.93608852755
>>> video.length
355
display video metadata:
>>> print video
Title: Rick Astley Sings Live - Never Gonna Give You Up - This Morning
Author: Ryan915
ID: cyMHZVT91Dw
Duration: 00:05:55
Rating: 4.93608852755
Views: 672583
Thumbnail: https://i1.ytimg.com/vi/cyMHZVT91Dw/default.jpg
Keywords: Rick, Astley, Sings, Live, on, This, Morning, Never, Gonna, You...
show regular formats for a video (video files with audio):
>>> streams = video.streams
>>> for s in streams:
>>> print s.resolution, s.extension
480x854 webm
480x854 flv
360x640 webm
360x640 flv
360x640 mp4
240x400 flv
320x240 3gp
144x176 3gp
show all formats, file-sizes and their download url:
>>> for s in streams:
>>> print s.resolution, s.extension, s.get_filesize(), s.url
480x854 webm 56858674 http://r12--sn-aoh8kier.c.youtube.com/videoplayback?expire=1369...
480x854 flv 53066081 http://r11---sn-aoh8kier.c.youtube.com/videoplayback?expire=1369...
360x640 webm 34775366 http://r11---sn-aoh8kier.c.youtube.com/videoplayback?expire=1369...
360x640 flv 32737100 http://r11---sn-aoh8kier.c.youtube.com/videoplayback?expire=1369...
360x640 mp4 25919932 http://r11---sn-aoh8kier.c.youtube.com/videoplayback?expire=1369...
240x400 flv 14341366 http://r11---sn-aoh8kier.c.youtube.com/videoplayback?expire=1369...
320x240 3gp 11083585 http://r11---sn-aoh8kier.c.youtube.com/videoplayback?expire=1369...
144x176 3gp 3891135 http://r11---sn-aoh8kier.c.youtube.com/videoplayback?expire=1369...
get best resolution regardless of file format:
>>> best = video.getbest()
>>> best.resolution, best.extension
('480x854', 'webm')
get best resolution for a particular file format: (mp4, webm, flv or 3gp):
>>> best = video.getbest(preftype="mp4")
>>> best.resolution, best.extension
('360x640', 'mp4')
get best resolution for a particular file format, or return different format if it has the best resolution:
>>> best = video.getbest(preftype="mp4", ftypestrict=False)
>>> best.resolution, best.extension
('480x854', 'webm')
get url, for download or streaming in mplayer / vlc etc:
>>> best.url
'http://r12---sn-aig7kner.c.youtube.com/videoplayback?expire=1369...
Download video and show progress:
>>> best.download(quiet=False)
-Downloading 'Rick Astley Sings Live - Never Gonna Give You Up - This Morning.webm' [56,858,674 Bytes]
56,858,674 Bytes [100.00%] received. Rate: [ 720 kbps]. ETA: [0 secs]
Done
Download video, use specific filepath:
>>> myfilename = "/tmp/" + best.title + "." + best.extension
>>> best.download(filepath=myfilename)
Get audio-only streams (m4a and/or ogg vorbis) (use video.videostreams to get video-only streams):
>>> audiostreams = video.audiostreams
>>> for a in audiostreams:
>>> print(a.quality, a.extension, a.get_filesize())
('48k', 'm4a', 2109164)
('128k', 'm4a', 5630839)
('256k', 'm4a', 11302824)
Download the 3rd audio stream from the above list:
>>> audiostreams[2].download()
Get the best quality audio stream:
>>> bestaudio = video.getbestaudio()
>>> bestaudio.bitrate
'256k'
Download the best quality audio file:
>>> bestaudio.download()
show ALL formats for a video (video+audio, video-only and audio-only):
>>> allstreams = video.allstreams
>>> for s in allstreams:
>>> print(s.quality, s.extension, s.mediatype)
('1280x720', 'mp4', 'a/v')
('640x360', 'webm', 'a/v')
('640x360', 'mp4', 'a/v')
('320x240', 'flv', 'a/v')
('320x240', '3gp', 'a/v')
('176x144', '3gp', 'a/v')
('1920x1080', 'm4v', 'video')
('1280x720', 'm4v', 'video')
('854x480', 'm4v', 'video')
('640x360', 'm4v', 'video')
('426x240', 'm4v', 'video')
('256x144', 'm4v', 'video')
('48k', 'm4a', 'audio')
('128k', 'm4a', 'audio')
('256k', 'm4a', 'audio')
('128k', 'ogg', 'audio')
('256k', 'ogg', 'audio')
usage: ytdl [-h] [-i] [-s]
[-t {audio,video,normal,all} [{audio,video,normal,all} ...]]
[-n N] [-b] [-a]
url
YouTube Download Tool
positional arguments:
url YouTube video URL to download
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-i Display vid info
-s Display available streams
-t {audio,video,normal,all} [{audio,video,normal,all} ...]
Stream types to display
-n N Specify stream to download by stream number (use -s to
list available streams)
-b Download the best quality video (ignores -n)
-a Download the best quality audio (ignores -n)
Download best available resolution (-b):
ytdl "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyMHZVT91Dw" -b
Download best available audio stream (-a): (note; the full url is not required, just the video id will suffice):
ytdl cyMHZVT91Dw -a
get video info (-i):
ytdl cyMHZVT91Dw -i
list available dowload streams:
ytdl cyMHZVT91Dw
Stream Type Format Quality Size
------ ---- ------ ------- ----
1 normal webm [640x360] 33 MB
2 normal mp4 [640x360] 24 MB
3 normal flv [320x240] 13 MB
4 normal 3gp [320x240] 10 MB
5 normal 3gp [176x144] 3 MB
6 audio m4a [48k] 2 MB
7 audio m4a [128k] 5 MB
8 audio m4a [256k] 10 MB
Download mp4 640x360 (ie. stream number 2):
ytdl cyMHZVT91Dw -n2
Download m4a audio stream at 256k bitrate:
ytdl cyMHZVT91Dw -n8