tyrrrz/youtubedownloader

YoutubeDownloader is a desktop application that downloads videos from YouTube. You paste the URL of a video, playlist, or channel and pick a format, and the app saves the file to your computer. It also lets you search YouTube by keyword from inside the app, which is useful when you want to find and grab a video without opening a browser first. The project is written in C# and described as being in maintenance mode. Under the hood it uses a separate library by the same author called YoutubeExplode to talk to YouTube. The README links to a blog post by the author explaining how YoutubeExplode reverse engineers the YouTube site, so the download behaviour is driven by that library rather than an official API. The README lists features that match what a typical media downloader does: a cross-platform graphical interface, downloading by URL, downloading whole playlists or channels, downloading by search query, choosing video quality and format, and signing in with a YouTube account to reach private content. It can also automatically embed audio tracks in alternative languages, embed subtitles, and inject media tags into the saved file. Downloads are offered as stable releases on GitHub, plus continuous-integration builds and community-maintained packages on Scoop for Windows and the Arch User Repository for Linux. The README notes that the community packages are not always in sync with the latest release. On macOS, users may need to remove the downloaded app from quarantine with a terminal command that the README provides. The README opens with a political statement: by using the project or its source code the user is said to give implicit agreement to several positions condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine and supporting Ukraine. The author asks readers to learn more about the war through a linked page, and notes that development is funded by community donations.