Download Video (YouTube / Bilibili)

Overview

Use yt-dlp to download videos from YouTube or Bilibili. Downloads go to the user's Videos folder (~/Videos).

Prerequisites

yt-dlp must be installed:

yt-dlp --version

# Install if missing
pip install yt-dlp        # cross-platform
winget install yt-dlp      # Windows
brew install yt-dlp        # macOS
sudo apt install yt-dlp    # Debian/Ubuntu

ffmpeg is recommended for merging video+audio streams.

Download by URL

yt-dlp -o "<videos-dir>/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "<url>"

Replace <videos-dir> with the user's Videos folder path, and <url> with the video URL.

Supported URLs:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=... or https://youtu.be/...
Bilibili: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV...

Download by Title (search)

# YouTube
yt-dlp -o "<videos-dir>/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "ytsearch1:<title>"

# Bilibili
yt-dlp -o "<videos-dir>/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "bilisearch1:<title>"

Quick Reference

| Goal | Flag | |------|------| | Best quality (default) | -f bestvideo+bestaudio/best | | Audio only (mp3) | -x --audio-format mp3 | | Specific resolution | -f "bestvideo[height<=720]+bestaudio" | | Subtitles | --write-subs --sub-langs zh-Hans,en | | Playlist (all videos) | just pass the playlist URL | | Limit speed | --rate-limit 2M |

Common Mistakes

"ffmpeg not found" — merge of best video+audio fails. Install ffmpeg or use -f best (single stream).
Bilibili login-required content — add cookies with --cookies-from-browser chrome.
Videos folder missing — create it first.

Workflow

URL given → download directly
Title given → use ytsearch1: or bilisearch1: prefix
yt-dlp missing → install, then retry
Error → read error message, check Common Mistakes above