YouTube Media/Audio Download using Python – pafy

This tutorial will help you download youtube video or audio with python using pafy library. Pafy library is used to retrieve YouTube content and metadata.

Features of Pafy
(i) Retrieve metadata such as viewcount, duration, rating, author, thumbnail, keywords.
(ii) Download video or audio at requested resolution / bitrate / format / filesize
(iii) Command line tool (ytdl) for downloading directly from the command line
(iv) Download video only (no audio) in m4v or webm format
(v) Download audio only (no video) in ogg or m4a format
(vi) Works with Python 2.6+ and 3.3+
(vii) Optionally depends on youtube-dl (recommended; more stable)

Installation

virtualenv venv
pip install pafy

Library Imported

 import pafy

Example1:
Retrieve metadata such as viewcount, duration, rating, author, description.

import pafy

# url of video
url = "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns4LCeeOFS4&t=320s"

# instant created
video = pafy.new(url)

# print title
print(video.title)

# print rating
print(video.rating)

# print viewcount
print(video.viewcount)

# print author & video length
print(video.author, video.length)

# print duration, likes, dislikes & description
print(video.duration, video.likes, video.dislikes, video.description)

Output:

Dynamic Programming | Set 3 (Longest Increasing Subsequence) | GeeksforGeeks
4.30275249481
57739
GeeksforGeeks 396
00:06:36 180 38 Explanation for the article: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/dynamic-programming-set-3-longest-increasing-subsequence/

Example2:
Download best resolution video regardless of extension

import pafy

url = "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eACohWVwTOc"
video = pafy.new(url)

streams = video.streams
for i in streams:
    print(i)

# get best resolution regardless of format
best = video.getbest()

print(best.resolution, best.extension)

# Download the video
best.download()

Output:

normal:3gp@176x144
normal:3gp@320x180
normal:webm@640x360
normal:mp4@640x360
normal:mp4@1280x720
1280x720 mp4
  25, 707, 969 Bytes [100.00%] received. Rate: [ 506 KB/s].  ETA: [0 secs]  

Example3:
Download video of a particular format specified (let say .3gp)

import pafy

url = "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eACohWVwTOc"
video = pafy.new(url)

streams = video.streams
for i in streams:
    print(i)

# get best resolution of a specific format
# set format out of(mp4, webm, flv or 3gp)
best = video.getbest(preftype ="3gp")

best.download()

Output:

normal:3gp@176x144
normal:3gp@320x180
normal:webm@640x360
normal:mp4@640x360
normal:mp4@1280x720
  6, 049, 643 Bytes [100.00%] received. Rate: [ 241 KB/s].  ETA: [0 secs]   

Example4:
Download a specific format audio.

import pafy

url = "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v =eACohWVwTOc"
video = pafy.new(url)

audiostreams = video.audiostreams
for i in audiostreams:
    print(i.bitrate, i.extension, i.get_filesize())

audiostreams[3].download()

Output:

160k webm 1365668
160k webm 1811815
160k m4a 3470205
160k webm 3301003
160k webm 3588746

Example5:
Download the bestaudio

import pafy

url = "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eACohWVwTOc"
video = pafy.new(url)

bestaudio = video.getbestaudio()
bestaudio.download()

Output:

References:
https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pafy