javascript - How to get direct url for youtube videos

Question

All the current tutorials on making your own youtube video downloader are outdated. The whole token insertion from video info does not work, and neither does using the javascript method. Does anyone know of a way to do this currently without just downloading someone else's programs? I just want to know the method to go about so I can program my own (for fun :D)

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

As of 1/1/2018, the old technique described below doesn't seem to work reliably. Youtube's in-page variable structure seems to have changed and I haven't been able to figure out the updated version.

Here's an updated (June, 2017) version that works directly from the dev tools console available in any browser. Currently should work for any Youtube media type, including up to 4k if its available.

https://gist.github.com/geuis/8b1b2ea57d7f9a9ae22f80d4fbf5b97f

// ES6 version
const videoUrls = ytplayer.config.args.adaptive_fmts
  .split(',')
  .map(item => item
    .split('&')
    .reduce((prev, curr) => (curr = curr.split('='),
      Object.assign(prev, {[curr[0]]: decodeURIComponent(curr[1])})
    ), {})
  )
  .reduce((prev, curr) => Object.assign(prev, {
    [curr.quality_label || curr.type]: curr
  }), {});

console.log(videoUrls);

// ES5 version
var videoUrls = ytplayer.config.args.adaptive_fmts
  .split(',')
  .map(function (item) {
    return item
      .split('&')
      .reduce(function (prev, curr) {
        curr = curr.split('=');
        return Object.assign(prev, {[curr[0]]: decodeURIComponent(curr[1])})
      }, {});
  })
  .reduce(function (prev, curr) {
    return Object.assign(prev, {
      [curr.quality_label || curr.type]: curr
    });
  }, {});

console.log(videoUrls);

Sample output for https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0

{
  "1080p": {
    "itag": "248",
    "xtags": "",
    "lmt": "1440215955569849",
    "url": "https://r16---sn-n4v7kn7r.c.youtube.com/videoplayback?itag=248&keepalive=ye…2Cmm%2Cmn%2Cms%2Cmv%2Cpl%2Crequiressl%2Csc%2Csource%2Cexpire&mt=1498245944",
    "type": "video/webm;+codecs="vp9"",
    "bitrate": "1733724",
    "index": "243-1977",
    "size": "1920x1080",
    "projection_type": "1",
    "fps": "30",
    "clen": "31192903",
    "init": "0-242",
    "quality_label": "1080p"
  },
  "720p": {
    "itag": "247",
    "xtags": "",
    "lmt": "1440215905109639",
    "url": "https://r16---sn-n4v7kn7r.c.youtube.com/videoplayback?itag=247&keepalive=ye…2Cmm%2Cmn%2Cms%2Cmv%2Cpl%2Crequiressl%2Csc%2Csource%2Cexpire&mt=1498245944",
    "type": "video/webm;+codecs="vp9"",
    "bitrate": "726076",
    "index": "243-1933",
    "size": "1280x720",
    "projection_type": "1",
    "fps": "30",
    "clen": "15801933",
    "init": "0-242",
    "quality_label": "720p"
  },
  "480p": {
    "itag": "244",
    "xtags": "",
    "lmt": "1440215890236689",
    "url": "https://r16---sn-n4v7kn7r.c.youtube.com/videoplayback?itag=244&keepalive=ye…2Cmm%2Cmn%2Cms%2Cmv%2Cpl%2Crequiressl%2Csc%2Csource%2Cexpire&mt=1498245944",
    "type": "video/webm;+codecs="vp9"",
    "bitrate": "396541",
    "index": "243-1933",
    "size": "854x480",
    "projection_type": "1",
    "fps": "30",
    "clen": "7928237",
    "init": "0-242",
    "quality_label": "480p"
  },
  "360p": {
    "itag": "243",
    "xtags": "",
    "lmt": "1440215888783441",
    "url": "https://r16---sn-n4v7kn7r.c.youtube.com/videoplayback?itag=243&keepalive=ye…2Cmm%2Cmn%2Cms%2Cmv%2Cpl%2Crequiressl%2Csc%2Csource%2Cexpire&mt=1498245944",
    "type": "video/webm;+codecs="vp9"",
    "bitrate": "223695",
    "index": "243-1933",
    "size": "640x360",
    "projection_type": "1",
    "fps": "30",
    "clen": "5127362",
    "init": "0-242",
    "quality_label": "360p"
  },
  "240p": {
    "itag": "242",
    "xtags": "",
    "lmt": "1440215900971640",
    "url": "https://r16---sn-n4v7kn7r.c.youtube.com/videoplayback?itag=242&keepalive=ye…2Cmm%2Cmn%2Cms%2Cmv%2Cpl%2Crequiressl%2Csc%2Csource%2Cexpire&mt=1498245944",
    "type": "video/webm;+codecs="vp9"",
    "bitrate": "113952",
    "index": "242-1931",
    "size": "426x240",
    "projection_type": "1",
    "fps": "30",
    "clen": "2597162",
    "init": "0-241",
    "quality_label": "240p"
  },
  "144p": {
    "itag": "278",
    "xtags": "",
    "lmt": "1440215900119192",
    "url": "https://r16---sn-n4v7kn7r.c.youtube.com/videoplayback?itag=278&keepalive=ye…2Cmm%2Cmn%2Cms%2Cmv%2Cpl%2Crequiressl%2Csc%2Csource%2Cexpire&mt=1498245944",
    "type": "video/webm;+codecs="vp9"",
    "bitrate": "60303",
    "index": "242-1930",
    "size": "256x144",
    "projection_type": "1",
    "fps": "15",
    "clen": "1798744",
    "init": "0-241",
    "quality_label": "144p"
  },
  "audio/mp4;+codecs="mp4a.40.2"": {
    "bitrate": "128266",
    "itag": "140",
    "xtags": "",
    "lmt": "1440578358539132",
    "index": "592-1271",
    "clen": "8482615",
    "projection_type": "1",
    "url": "https://r16---sn-n4v7kn7r.c.youtube.com/videoplayback?itag=140&keepalive=ye…2Cmm%2Cmn%2Cms%2Cmv%2Cpl%2Crequiressl%2Csc%2Csource%2Cexpire&mt=1498245944",
    "type": "audio/mp4;+codecs="mp4a.40.2"",
    "init": "0-591"
  },
  "audio/webm;+codecs="vorbis"": {
    "bitrate": "118499",
    "itag": "171",
    "xtags": "",
    "lmt": "1440215938192462",
    "index": "4452-5366",
    "clen": "6383456",
    "projection_type": "1",
    "url": "https://r16---sn-n4v7kn7r.c.youtube.com/videoplayback?itag=171&keepalive=ye…2Cmm%2Cmn%2Cms%2Cmv%2Cpl%2Crequiressl%2Csc%2Csource%2Cexpire&mt=1498245944",
    "type": "audio/webm;+codecs="vorbis"",
    "init": "0-4451"
  },
  "audio/webm;+codecs="opus"": {
    "bitrate": "154966",
    "itag": "251",
    "xtags": "",
    "lmt": "1440215889283443",
    "index": "272-1186",
    "clen": "9526605",
    "projection_type": "1",
    "url": "https://r16---sn-n4v7kn7r.c.youtube.com/videoplayback?itag=251&keepalive=ye…2Cmm%2Cmn%2Cms%2Cmv%2Cpl%2Crequiressl%2Csc%2Csource%2Cexpire&mt=1498245944",
    "type": "audio/webm;+codecs="opus"",
    "init": "0-271"
  }
}