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YouTube keeps making changes to the website which breaks all YouTube download applications, including my favourite YouTube downloader called "youtube-dl". For this reason, we've backported the Maverick version for Ubuntu Karmic and Lucid users - and the updated version is available in the WebUpd8 PPA.

But before you install the latest youtube-dl, a little info on this amazing YouTube command line donwloader.


youtube-dl is a python script (comes in a .deb) for downloading videos from YouTube. The recent versions also support downloading videos from video.google.com, photobucket, dailymotion, and metacafe.

But it's not just fixing YouTube that's new in the latest youtube-dl. Here are some recent changes which are not in the Lucid version of youtube-dl:
  • add preliminary support for Dailymotion videos
  • support for WebM formats (vp8 + vorbis)
  • support for youtu.be URLs
  • add support for the "original" video format in YouTube
  • add a --max-quality option

And a lot more.

I'm not sure, but you might have to add the Gstreamer PPA for WebM support.


To install the latest youtube-dl in Ubuntu, run the following commands in a terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install youtube-dl
You can also manually download the .deb files if you want.


Using youtube-dl is very easy. To download a YouTube video, use the following command:
youtube-dl YOUTUBE-URL
where YOUTUBE-URL is the exact link to the YouTube video, like this (just an example): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF14bWw1NKk

You can download all the available formats, like this:
youtube-dl --all-formats YOUTUBE-URL

For advanced options, type:
youtube-dl --help


If you're not using Ubuntu, you can grab the Python script from HERE.