Well you know what they say “Great minds think quicker than mine and probably have already had that thought.”

“Give me a Python script using yt-dlp that I can run on a cronjob that will download the videos from any of my subscribed channels since the last time the script was run”

You can use the following Python script to download videos from your subscribed channels since the last run. This script uses yt-dlp and stores the last download timestamp to track new videos.

First, ensure you have yt-dlp installed:

pip install yt-dlp

Then, create a script called download_videos.py:

import os
import json
import subprocess
from datetime import datetime

# Configuration
last_run_file = 'last_run.json'
download_directory = 'downloads'

# Ensure the download directory exists
os.makedirs(download_directory, exist_ok=True)

# Load the last run time
if os.path.exists(last_run_file):
    with open(last_run_file, 'r') as f:
        last_run = json.load(f)['last_run']
else:
    last_run = datetime.now().isoformat()

# Update the last run time to now
current_run = datetime.now().isoformat()

# Command to get videos from subscribed channels since the last run
command = [
    'yt-dlp',
    '--download-archive', 'archive.txt',
    '--output', f'{download_directory}/%(title)s.%(ext)s',
    '--date-after', last_run,
    '--no-post-overwrites',
    '--merge-output-format', 'mp4',
    'https://www.youtube.com/channel/CHANNEL_ID',  # Replace with your channel URL
]

# Run the command
subprocess.run(command)

# Save the current run time
with open(last_run_file, 'w') as f:
    json.dump({'last_run': current_run}, f)

print("Download complete. Next run will check for videos since:", current_run)

Setting Up the Cron Job

1. Make the script executable:

   chmod +x download_videos.py
   

2. Open your crontab:

   crontab -e
   

3. Add a line to run the script at your desired interval (e.g., daily at 2 AM):

   0 2 * * * /path/to/python /path/to/download_videos.py
   

Notes

• Replace CHANNEL_ID in the script with your actual channel IDs or use a playlist URL if preferred.
• The archive.txt file keeps track of already downloaded videos to avoid duplicates.
• Adjust the paths to Python and your script as needed.

I agree. Tech communities have a habit of drastically over estimating how much everyone else cares about the details of tech.

Even something as simple as PC gaming scares off a lot of people because of the perception that you need to be some kind of tech wizard in order to cobble everything together to make a game run. Actual cobbling together of software to pirate (no matter how simple it seems to people in the know) is just a bunch of technobabble.

I'm more and more inclined towards the idea of piracy myself as time goes on and media continues to shave itself down into more and more ridiculous, unrelated shards, that you have to subscribe to just to be able to SEE if they have what you want.

I don't actively do it actively since I dont really know where to begin, and things I have found have been to sketch for me, or requiring memberships or even payments to join.

Almost as if it’s just people who already pirate talking to each other about how hard they are going to pirate. Meanwhile general audiences don’t care.

this isn't quite true, we have seen an uptick in piracy over the last few years from the streaming service hyper diversion thats been happening for some time now.

It's probably not a lot of people, but it is still happening.