YouTube under Windows XP - Downloaders, players and browser support

[AstroSkipper]

4 hours ago, nicolaasjan said:

One issue with 3D Youtube Downloader is, that you can´t add custom arguments, like `--embed-thumbnail` (the program doesn't read the yt-dlp config file ).

Or am I missing something?

And what about that?



Did you already try to insert your custom argument there? You can get there by clicking on Options in the main window.

Edited March 7 by AstroSkipper

[nicolaasjan]

4 hours ago, AstroSkipper said:

And what about that?

<image>

Did you already try to insert your custom argument there? You can get there by clicking on Options in the main window.

I overlooked that...

But when I inserted `--embed-thumbnail` (without quotes), first it seemed to work, but when I opened the downloaded audio file with foobar2000, no thumbnail was present.

Log from 3dyd:

15:15:49, 3D Youtube Downloader 1.22.2
15:15:49, ffmpeg (ext): lavf 57.83.100, lavc 57.107.100, lavu 55.78.100, lswr 2.9.100, lsws 4.8.100
15:15:49, libcurl (ext): libcurl/7.67.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1d zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.7 nghttp2/1.39.2
15:24:10, #02, Page analysis, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD-MdiUm1_Y
15:24:10, #02, Opening given www.youtube.com URL...
15:24:15, #02, Led Zeppelin - Kashmir (Live from Celebration Day) [Official Video]
15:24:15, #02, Streams processing (23 found) ...
15:24:15, #03, Downloading thumbnail
15:24:15, #03, Downloading thumbnail, successfully downloaded
15:24:15, #03, Ready
15:24:15, #02, 1. WebM 1080p 1920x1080 30fps 139.82 MB VO
15:24:15, #02, 2. WebM 720p 1280x720 30fps 70.96 MB VO
15:24:15, #02, 3. MP4 1080p 1920x1080 30fps 106.23 MB VO
15:24:15, #02, 4. MP4 720p 1280x720 30fps 60.17 MB VO
15:24:15, #02, 5. WebM 480p 854x480 30fps 40.16 MB VO
15:24:15, #02, 6. MP4 480p 854x480 30fps 31.81 MB VO
15:24:15, #02, 7. WebM 360p 640x360 30fps 23.93 MB VO
15:24:15, #02, 8. MP4 360p 640x360 30fps 16.92 MB VO
15:24:15, #02, 9. WebM 240p 426x240 30fps 13.17 MB VO
15:24:15, #02, 10. MP4 720p 1280x720 30fps 57.89 MB VO
15:24:15, #02, 11. MP4 1080p 1920x1080 30fps 225.20 MB VO
15:24:15, #02, 12. MP4 480p 854x480 30fps 30.54 MB VO
15:24:15, #02, 13. MP4 360p 640x360 30fps 19.61 MB VO
15:24:15, #02, 14. OPUS 48000Hz Stereo 124kbps 8.08 MB AO
15:24:16, #02, 15. MP4 240p 426x240 30fps 10.25 MB VO
15:24:16, #02, 16. MP4 360p 640x360 30fps 28.02 MB
15:24:16, #02, 17. M4A 44100Hz Stereo 129kbps 8.44 MB AO
15:24:16, #02, 18. MP4 240p 426x240 30fps 7.86 MB VO
15:24:16, #02, 19. WebM 144p 256x144 30fps 6.14 MB VO
15:24:16, #02, 20. MP4 144p 256x144 30fps 5.69 MB VO
15:24:16, #02, 21. OPUS 48000Hz Stereo 62kbps 4.04 MB AO
15:24:17, #02, 22. MP4 144p 256x144 30fps 4.56 MB VO
15:24:17, #02, 23. OPUS 48000Hz Stereo 47kbps 3.04 MB AO
15:24:17, #02, Ready
15:24:17, #04, M4A 44100Hz Stereo 129kbps 8.44 MB AO
15:24:17, #04, Extracting audio track
15:24:28, #04, Ready

Cover also not shown in MediaInfo.

I also tried 3dyd to parse yt-dlp's config.txt by inserting:

--config-locations 'C:\Documents and Settings\Nico\Application Data\yt-dlp\config.txt'

But that resulted in this error:

15:55:46, 3D Youtube Downloader 1.22.2
15:55:46, ffmpeg (ext): lavf 57.83.100, lavc 57.107.100, lavu 55.78.100, lswr 2.9.100, lsws 4.8.100
15:55:46, libcurl (ext): libcurl/7.67.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1d zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.7 nghttp2/1.39.2
15:57:08, #01, Page analysis, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD-MdiUm1_Y
15:57:08, #01, Opening given www.youtube.com URL...
15:57:08, [error] #01, failed to parse extra arguments: unknown escape sequence
15:57:08, #01, Ready

I guess I have more luck by just using yt-dlp with CMD.

 

[Edit]

It had to be written like this:

--config-locations "C:\\Documents and Settings\\Nico\\Application Data\\yt-dlp\\config.txt"

No errors, but also no thumbnail.

This is how it should look (downloaded with CMD):

Edited March 7 by nicolaasjan

[AstroSkipper]

1 hour ago, nicolaasjan said:

I also tried 3dyd to parse yt-dlp's config.txt by inserting:

--config-locations 'C:\Documents and Settings\Nico\Application Data\yt-dlp\config.txt'

But that resulted in this error:

15:55:46, 3D Youtube Downloader 1.22.2
15:55:46, ffmpeg (ext): lavf 57.83.100, lavc 57.107.100, lavu 55.78.100, lswr 2.9.100, lsws 4.8.100
15:55:46, libcurl (ext): libcurl/7.67.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1d zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.7 nghttp2/1.39.2
15:57:08, #01, Page analysis, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD-MdiUm1_Y
15:57:08, #01, Opening given www.youtube.com URL...
15:57:08, [error] #01, failed to parse extra arguments: unknown escape sequence
15:57:08, #01, Ready

I guess I have more luck by just using yt-dlp with CMD.

If you try the option

--config-locations "c:\\Portable\\3D Youtube Downloader\\yt-dlp\\config.txt"

then there is no error about "unknown escape sequence" but I didn't get a thumbnail, either. You may report to the developer that the extra arguments do not have any effects.

[VistaLover]

... Going to: 

https://yd.3dyd.com/changelog/

and reading the details of v1.21:

Quote

switched to yt-dlp for the site analysis

I get the distinct impression that yt-dlp is only being used for the initial discovery of available YT formats  ; the actual stream downloading (including thumbnail) is delegated to/performed by curl (via "libcurl_openssl.dll") and the muxing delegated to the embedded, shared, ffmpeg module; for picture embedding to take place, either ffmpeg (if recent enough), atomicparsley (non-existent here) or yt-dlp's mutagen Python module needs to be invoked post stream (re-)mux; this is something (according to posted logs) that's not taking place right now; perhaps if the dev was made aware, (s)he could code the app accordingly...

7 hours ago, nicolaasjan said:

I guess I have more luck by just using yt-dlp with CMD.

FWIW, these frontends are just being coded for the average Windows user, most of the time oblivious to the existence of the Windows Command Prompt and the way CLI apps work; trust me, I get despaired from countless GitHub issue reports, where the OP cites that "the .EXE is broken", because it only blinks and closes upon double-clicking it  ...

Edited March 7 by VistaLover

[AstroSkipper]

1 hour ago, VistaLover said:

FWIW, these frontends are just being coded for the average Windows user, most of the time oblivious to the existence of the Windows Command Prompt and the way CLI apps work; trust me, I get despaired from countless GitHub issue reports, where the OP cites that the .EXE is broken, because it only blinks and closes upon double-clicking it  ...

If you can't click it, then it's broken ...  That's the problem when total convenience has taken hold, knowledge does no longer exist and thinking is far too strenuous.  And modern operating systems, which do everything for the user, including AI, are also responsible for users' ignorance. 

Edited March 7 by AstroSkipper
Update of content

[nicolaasjan]

1 hour ago, VistaLover said:

I get the distinct impression that yt-dlp is only used for the initial discovery of available YT formats  ; the actual stream downloading (including thumbnail) is delegated to/performed by curl (via "libcurl_openssldll") and the muxing delegated to the embedded, shared, ffmpeg module; for picture embedding to take place, either ffmpeg (if recent enough), atomicparsley (non-existent here) or yt-dlp's mutagen Python module needs to be invoked post stream (re-)mux; this is something (according to posted logs) that's not taking place right now; perhaps if the dev was made aware, (s)he could code the app accordingly...

Ah, that makes sense.

Regarding contacting the dev(s), it is rather inconvenient to do that, to say the least...
For contact, you have to use Google Docs (under Contact, there is an iframe containing this link).

(I have done that, after I discovered they used my XP build without giving credit for it and/or linking to my fork).

They should put the whole thing open source on GitHub. That would be convenient.

Edited March 7 by nicolaasjan

[Reino]

If the e-mail-address is still the same, then it's "3DYD Soft Support <support@3dyd.com>". A couple of times, from 2017 until 2020, I've had mail-contact with a guy named Nick for some issues and feature-requests.

[AstroSkipper]

On GitHub, I found a nice Batch Script for downloading Audio and Video using yt-dlp or youtube-dl and ffmpeg. It is called ytBATCH. I have already configured it to my needs, and it works great under Windows XP. Whatever yt-dlp option is needed can be easily added to a config file. All preferences which have been set inside ytBatch are stored in config files. Once, all has been adjusted, you only need to insert the YT-link and to select V for Video or A for Audio. Then the file will be immediately downloaded.  I use the script with @nicolaasjan's yt-dlp/youtube-dl releases and @Reino's last ffmpeg release. Now, my downloaded video and audio files also contain a thumbnail and metadata. 

Edited March 9 by AstroSkipper
Update of content

[nicolaasjan]

The easiest and fastest way (for me) is using the Open With extension (direct link for Pale Moon).

Edited March 9 by nicolaasjan

[AstroSkipper]

2 hours ago, nicolaasjan said:

The easiest and fastest way (for me) is using the Open With extension (direct link for Pale Moon).

I also used the Open With extension in the past. It is indeed a nice extension.

17 hours ago, AstroSkipper said:

On GitHub, I found a nice Batch Script for downloading Audio and Video using yt-dlp or youtube-dl and ffmpeg. It is called ytBATCH. I have already configured it to my needs, and it works great under Windows XP. Whatever yt-dlp option is needed can be easily added to a config file. All preferences which have been set inside ytBatch are stored in config files. Once, all has been adjusted, you only need to insert the YT-link and to select V for Video or A for Audio. Then the file will be immediately downloaded.  I use the script with @nicolaasjan's yt-dlp/youtube-dl releases and @Reino's last ffmpeg release. Now, my downloaded video and audio files also contain a thumbnail and metadata. 

ytBATCH is not only one batch file but a couple of batch files.  I changed the code of some batch files to avoid PowerShell commands which do not work under Windows XP. Now, ytBATCH is able to download the most recent versions of @nicolaasjan's yt-dlp and youtube-dl releases, and @Reino's last ffmpeg release, by itself.



And here ytBatch's Preferences:



And this is the main window where a command or the YouTube link has to be entered:



This script collection is cool.

Edited March 9 by AstroSkipper
Update of content

[nicolaasjan]

27 minutes ago, AstroSkipper said:

Now, ytBATCH is able to download the most recent versions of @nicolaasjan's yt-dlp

How do you do let it check for a new version?

The XP version is a zipped exe, so it can't be updated with `-U` from within yt-dlp...

(I guess I could provide a plain exe file, but then all the links that are already floating around on the web will be broken. )

[AstroSkipper]

22 hours ago, nicolaasjan said:

How do you do let it check for a new version?

I removed in all batch files the PowerShell commands for downloading and extracting the yt-dlp, youtube-dl and ffmpeg archive files. As a replacement, I added wget.exe for downloading your releases respectively @Reino's release and 7z.exe for extracting the downloaded archive files. Then, I rewrote the corresponding code in different batch files.  Now, all batch files for updating work again under Windows XP. The yt-dlp, youtube-dl and ffmpeg archive files are downloaded, extracted and then removed including all unwanted files. So, your yt-dlp or youtube-dl can be checked by the -U option at any time.

Edited March 10 by AstroSkipper
Update of content

[AstroSkipper]

6 hours ago, AstroSkipper said:

6 hours ago, nicolaasjan said:

How do you do let it check for a new version?

I removed in all batch files the PowerShell commands for downloading and extracting the yt-dlp, youtube-dl and ffmpeg archive files. As a replacement, I added wget.exe for downloading your releases respectively @Reino's release and 7z.exe for extracting the downloaded archive files. Then, I rewrote the corresponding code in different batch files.  Now, all batch files for updating work again under Windows XP. The yt-dlp, youtube-dl and ffmpeg archive files are downloaded, extracted and then removed including all unwanted files. So, your yt-dlp can be checked by the -U option at any time.

After checking for updates, I added an option to decide whether an update of the yt-dlp file or the youtube-dl file should be carried out or not.





Now, everything is running the way I wanted it to. Project finished.

Edited March 10 by AstroSkipper

[AstroSkipper]

FYI, an update check of @Reino's ffmpeg SSE release is not necessary in ytBatch since his ffmpeg 7.1-2362 SSE release is the very last one. Unfortunately, his old Pentium 3 SSE AMD Athlon XP 3200+ computer has died which prompted him to stop creating new releases. This can be read here: https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=2014523#post2014523 Therefore, my ytBatch for Windows XP mod downloads this last ffmpeg 7.1-2362 SSE release if it does not exist, and that was it.  All that means ytBatch for Windows XP only looks for updates in terms of itself and @nicolaasjan's yt-dlp/youtube-dl releases if triggered by the user. However, an update of ytBatch for Windows XP itself should only be done manually otherwise my modifications will be overwritten mercilessly. 

Edited March 10 by AstroSkipper
Correction

[AstroSkipper]

Why do I report here in terms of my ytBatch for Windows XP mod? I have decided to make my mod available for all users. Since YouTube Downloaders compatible with Windows XP are rather rare and ytBatch is simply great, everyone should be able to download YouTube video or audio files in Windows XP. Especially when such great releases are made available by @nicolaasjan. Everything can be set in ytBatch for a very individualised media download. And ytBatch is very light in consuming resources and very fast. When my test phase is finished, I will publish ytBatch for Windows XP here in this thread.

Greetings from Germany, AstroSkipper 

Edited March 10 by AstroSkipper
Update of content