yt-dlp
A free command-line tool that saves video and audio from websites at the size you choose, with subtitles, for watching offline.
What you can do with it
- Creative Commons and public domain films at 720p for a flight
- CC-licensed talks as small MP3s
- Offline backups of your own uploads, skipping ones you already have
Worth knowingOnly for videos you're allowed to copy (your own, Creative Commons, public domain). Downloading other people's videos usually breaks the site's terms and can infringe copyright in the UK. It also needs FFmpeg (about 320MB on Windows) for MP3s and subtitles.
The full tutorial
01Check you're allowed to keep itFREE02Get yt-dlp and FFmpeg (no admin needed)MEMBERS03Save a film at the size you wantMEMBERS04Talks as MP3s, films with subtitlesMEMBERS05Save a whole channel, tidily, with no repeatsMEMBERS
Download whole video channels for flights, with subtitles, in one command · ~25 min · tested 2026-10-09
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