YouTube Downloader (download.mjs)

A simple Node.js wrapper around yt-dlp using youtube-dl-exec.
This script lets you download YouTube videos with:

• Interactive resolution menu (1080p, 720p, 480p, or audio-only).
• MP4 output by default, with merging handled by ffmpeg.
• Built-in yt-dlp progress bar in the terminal.
• Subtitles (optional).
• Playlist support.
• Batch/concurrent downloading.
• Resume support.

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📦 Requirements

• Node.js v18+ (works best with v20+).
• ffmpeg (for merging video/audio and audio-only mode).

On macOS:

brew install ffmpeg

On Linux (Debian/Ubuntu):

sudo apt install ffmpeg

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⚙️ Installation

Clone or copy the script into your project folder, then install dependencies:

npm init -y
npm install youtube-dl-exec

Make it executable (optional):

chmod +x download.mjs

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▶️ Usage

Basic run

node download.mjs "https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID"

You’ll be prompted to choose a quality:

Choose output quality (applies to all URLs this run):
  1) MP4 up to 1080p (best <=1080)
  2) MP4 up to 720p
  3) MP4 up to 480p
  4) Audio-only (M4A)

Enter 1/2/3/4 [default 1]:

Skip the prompt

If you want to skip the interactive menu:

• Force format manually

node download.mjs --format "bestvideo[ext=mp4][height<=720]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/best[ext=mp4]" URL

• Audio only

node download.mjs --audio URL

• Disable prompt entirely

node download.mjs --noPrompt URL

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📂 Features

• Multiple URLs

node download.mjs URL1 URL2 URL3

• Read from a file

node download.mjs --fromFile urls.txt

• Custom output folder

node download.mjs --outDir ./my_downloads URL

• Subtitles

node download.mjs --subs --lang en URL

• Cookies (for age-gated/private videos)

node download.mjs --cookies ./cookies.txt URL

• Proxy

node download.mjs --proxy "socks5://127.0.0.1:1080" URL

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⚡ Examples

• Download a playlist but stop at 720p:

node download.mjs --format "bestvideo[ext=mp4][height<=720]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/best[ext=mp4]" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=XXXX"

• Download audio-only as MP3:

node download.mjs --audio --audioFormat mp3 URL

• Batch file with subtitles:

node download.mjs --fromFile urls.txt --subs --lang en

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🛠 Advanced

• Concurrency: Default is 2 downloads at once.

node download.mjs --concurrent 4 --fromFile urls.txt

• Retries: Default is 2.

node download.mjs --retries 5 URL

• Rate limiting (useful on unstable connections):

node download.mjs --rateLimit 2M URL

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🚧 Notes

• The progress bar comes from yt-dlp itself (via stdio: "inherit").
• If you see WARNING: You have requested merging of multiple formats but ffmpeg is not installed, install ffmpeg as described above.
• If downloads fail with 403 Forbidden errors, try:

node download.mjs --extractorArgs "youtube:player_client=android" --geo AU URL

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📜 License

MIT — free to use, modify, and share.