video-download

SKILL.md

---
name: video-download
description: Download videos from 1800+ websites and generate subtitles using Faster Whisper AI. Use when user wants to download videos from YouTube, Bilibili, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, Vimeo, or any other supported video site, extract audio, or transcribe video content to text/subtitles.
metadata:
  {
    "openclaw":
      {
        "homepage": "https://github.com/upupc/video-download",
        "emoji": "🎬",
        "requires": { "bins": ["python", "ffmpeg"], "env": [] },
        "primaryEnv": "",
        "install": [
          {
            "id": "pip",
            "kind": "pip",
            "packages": ["yt-dlp", "yt-dlp-ejs", "ffmpeg-python", "faster-whisper", "tqdm"],
            "label": "Install dependencies (pip)",
          }
        ],
      },
  }
---

# Video Download & Subtitle Generation

This skill downloads videos from 1800+ websites and generates subtitles using Faster Whisper AI.

## Supported Websites

This skill supports downloading from virtually any video website thanks to yt-dlp. Some popular ones include:

**Video Platforms:**
- YouTube, YouTube Shorts
- Bilibili (哔哩哔哩), Niconico (ニコニコ動画)
- TikTok, Douyin (抖音)
- Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram
- Vimeo, Dailymotion
- Twitch (clips, VODs), Kick
- Rutube, VK Video

**Chinese Platforms:**
- iQiyi (爱奇艺), Youku (优酷), MangoTV (芒果TV)
- Weibo Video, Douyu (斗鱼), Huya (虎牙)

**International:**
- Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video
- BBC iPlayer, ITV, Channel 4
- ARD, ZDF, Arte

For the complete list of 1800+ supported sites, see: [yt-dlp supported extractors](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/supportedsites.md)
Local document about supported sites: references/supportedsites.md

**Important:** If you see an error like `Sign in to confirm you’re not a bot`, you should use the `cookiefile` parameter for authenticated downloads. See the `cookiefile` usage section at the end of this document.

## Prerequisites

Ensure the following Python packages are installed:
- `yt-dlp` - For downloading videos from any supported site
- `yt-dlp-ejs` - External JavaScript for yt-dlp supporting many runtimes
- `ffmpeg-python` - For audio extraction
- `faster-whisper` - For speech-to-text transcription (faster and more memory-efficient than openai-whisper). **Note**: The first run will download models from HuggingFace (default: small, ~3GB). A VPN is required for mainland China users.
- `tqdm` - For progress bar display during transcription

Install via pip:
```bash
pip install yt-dlp yt-dlp-ejs ffmpeg-python faster-whisper tqdm
```

ffmpeg must also be installed on your system

## Usage

### Command Line

```bash
python scripts/video_parser.py '{"urls":["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"],"output":"./downloads"}'
```

## Parameters

| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|-----------|------|----------|-------------|
| `urls` | array | Yes | List of video URLs from any supported website |
| `output` | string | No | Output directory (default: "./downloads") |
| `model` | string | No | Faster Whisper model size: tiny, base, small, medium, large, large-v2, large-v3, turbo (default: "small") |
| `transcribe` | boolean | No | Whether to transcribe video to subtitle (default: true) |
| `subtitle_format` | string | No | Subtitle format: txt, srt, vtt, json (default: "txt") |
| `download_subtitle` | boolean | No | Download video's built-in subtitles if available (default: false) |
| `onlysubtitle` | boolean | No | Only download subtitles. When `true`, the script uses `skip_download + writesubtitles + writeautomaticsub` internally (default: false) |
| `overwrite_subtitle` | boolean | No | Overwrite existing subtitle files (default: true, set to false to skip if exists) |
| `cookie` | string | No | Cookie header string; injected into `http_headers.Cookie` (default: "") |
| `cookiesfrombrowser` | string | No | Read cookies from browser (default: ""; injected only when non-empty) |
| `cookiefile` | string | No | Netscape-format cookie file path (default: ""; injected only when non-empty) |

## Output

The skill will:
1. Create a folder for each video (named after the video title)
2. Download the video file to that folder
3. Extract audio as WAV file
4. Generate transcript using Faster Whisper
5. Save subtitle as .txt file

Output structure:
```
downloads/
└── Video Title/
    ├── Video Title.mp4
    ├── Video Title.wav
    └── Video Title.txt
```

## Examples

### Download YouTube video:
```bash
python scripts/video_parser.py '{"urls":["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"],"output":"./my_videos"}'
```

### Download Bilibili video:
```bash
python scripts/video_parser.py '{"urls":["https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1xx411c7XD"],"output":"./downloads"}'
```

### Download TikTok video:
```bash
python scripts/video_parser.py '{"urls":["https://www.tiktok.com/@username/video/1234567890"],"output":"./tiktok"}'
```

### Download multiple videos from different sites:
```bash
python scripts/video_parser.py '{"urls":["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO1","https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1xx","https://twitter.com/user/status/123"],"output":"./videos"}'
```

### Download Twitch clip:
```bash
python scripts/video_parser.py '{"urls":["https://www.twitch.tv//channel/clip/ClipName"],"output":"./clips"}'
```

### Download only (without transcription):
```bash
python scripts/video_parser.py '{"urls":["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"],"output":"./downloads","transcribe":false}'
```

### Generate SRT subtitle:
```bash
python scripts/video_parser.py '{"urls":["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"],"output":"./downloads","subtitle_format":"srt"}'
```

### Generate VTT subtitle:
```bash
python scripts/video_parser.py '{"urls":["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"],"output":"./downloads","subtitle_format":"vtt"}'
```

### Download video with built-in subtitles:
```bash
python scripts/video_parser.py '{"urls":["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"],"output":"./downloads","download_subtitle":true}'
```

### Download with custom Faster Whisper model:
```bash
python scripts/video_parser.py '{"urls":["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"],"output":"./downloads","model":"large"}'
```

### Skip transcription if subtitle already exists:
```bash
python scripts/video_parser.py '{"urls":["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"],"output":"./downloads","overwrite_subtitle":false}'
```

### Download video with Cookie:
```bash
python scripts/video_parser.py '{"urls":["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"],"output":"./downloads","cookie":"sid=xxx; token=yyy"}'
```

### Download video with cookies from browser:
```bash
python scripts/video_parser.py '{"urls":["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"],"output":"./downloads","cookiesfrombrowser":"chrome"}'
```

### Download video with cookie file:
```bash
python scripts/video_parser.py '{"urls":["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"],"output":"./downloads","cookiefile":"/path/to/cookies.txt"}'
```

### Only download subtitles:
```bash
python scripts/video_parser.py '{"urls":["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"],"output":"./downloads","onlysubtitle":true,"cookiefile":"/path/to/cookies.txt"}'
```

`cookiefile` usage:
- Install the **Get cookies.txt LOCALLY** Chrome extension first.  
  URL: <https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/get-cookiestxt-locally/cclelndahbckbenkjhflpdbgdldlbecc?pli=1>
- Log in to the target website, then use the extension to export `cookies.txt` to your local machine.
- Set `cookiefile` to that local file path, for example:

```bash
python scripts/video_parser.py '{"urls":["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"],"output":"./downloads","cookiefile":"/Users/yourname/Downloads/cookies.txt"}'
```

## Troubleshooting

- **ffmpeg not found**: Install ffmpeg via `brew install ffmpeg` (macOS) or your system's package manager
- **Faster Whisper model download fails**: Models are downloaded from HuggingFace. Mainland China users need a VPN/proxy to download models. The default small model is ~75MB.
- **Download fails**: Some videos may be geo-restricted, age-gated, or unavailable. Check the video URL and try again.
- **Cookie/auth required**: Some sites need authentication. You can pass cookies via yt-dlp options if needed.