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How to get video information from YouTube in JSON format and parse it.

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Getting video information from the YouTube website is very easy, it is possible to directly download a JSON file containing all information about a YouTube video. The example below shows how to get the video ID, title, description, and duration info from a certain YouTube video.

Bash
(jcartwright@localhost) 192.168.1.5 Documents  $ yt-dlp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZkSRMelB6c --skip-download --dump-single-json --no-check-certificate --restrict-filenames --ignore-no-formats-error | jq -r '.id,.title,.description,.duration_string,.release_date'
3ZkSRMelB6c
Snake Giveaway 🐍
Regular Donations: https://streamelements.com/bhdonos/tip
Special Donations: https://streamelements.com/bhdonos_special/tip
Website: https://www.BuddhismHotline.org/
Discord: https://discord.com/invite/vs44Yc3FZ8

No animals were harmed in this livestream, Jones runs an animal rescue and is trained to handle these snakes.
2:04:00
20231219

This is the command I used.

Bash
yt-dlp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZkSRMelB6c --skip-download --dump-single-json\
 --no-check-certificate --restrict-filenames --ignore-no-formats-error | jq -r \
 '.id,.title,.description,.duration_string,.release_date'

Here is another example, this will get the resolution as well.

Bash
(jcartwright@localhost) 192.168.1.5 Documents  $ yt-dlp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZkSRMelB6c --skip-download --dump-single-json --no-check-certificate --restrict-filenames --ignore-no-formats-error | jq -r '.id,.fulltitle,.description,.duration_string,.release_timestamp,.format_note,.resolution'
3ZkSRMelB6c
Snake Giveaway 🐍
Regular Donations: https://streamelements.com/bhdonos/tip
Special Donations: https://streamelements.com/bhdonos_special/tip
Website: https://www.BuddhismHotline.org/
Discord: https://discord.com/invite/vs44Yc3FZ8

No animals were harmed in this livestream, Jones runs an animal rescue and is trained to handle these snakes.
2:04:00
1703026892
1080p60+medium
1920x1080

This shows that it is easy to download a JSON file listing all information about a YouTube video. This might be very useful to someone out there.

And, using rsstail it is easy to list the last 20 videos on a YouTube channel.

Bash
(jcartwright@localhost) 192.168.1.5 Documents  $ rsstail -n 40 -t -p -l -u https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UCrB8o1tlLKRnPHlpSy3GBFg
2023/12/22 10:07:35  Pubdate: 2023/12/21 20:47:28  Title: Christmas Cancelled ❌🎅                              Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1--Ee-PKXMY  
2023/12/22 10:07:35  Pubdate: 2023/12/21 05:08:26  Title: Snake Giveaway 🐍                                    Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZkSRMelB6c  
2023/12/22 10:07:35  Pubdate: 2023/12/19 18:13:14  Title: Praising the Grinch ❌🎄                              Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_78VGVzsChY  
2023/12/22 10:07:35  Pubdate: 2023/12/18 04:09:09  Title: Respect your Elders.                                Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OQuL_kjpBc  
2023/12/22 10:07:35  Pubdate: 2023/12/16 10:30:14  Title: Helping the "Homeless"                              Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLvbW6Fupjg  
2023/12/22 10:07:35  Pubdate: 2023/12/16 23:53:28  Title: I'M BEING BLACKMAILED.                              Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FyYYT-gzT0  
2023/12/22 10:07:35  Pubdate: 2023/12/10 03:28:26  Title: Stop Being Poor.                                    Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ersRixTb00  
2023/12/22 10:07:35  Pubdate: 2023/12/17 09:16:48  Title: Daddy Love You?                                     Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgvdKYATzf8  
2023/12/22 10:07:35  Pubdate: 2023/12/17 07:05:05  Title: BAN GTA 6                                           Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkgBU8nXggY  
2023/12/22 10:07:35  Pubdate: 2023/12/06 10:09:57  Title: Come Out 🌈                                          Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYq8s8iq63s  
2023/12/22 10:07:35  Pubdate: 2023/12/03 09:24:52  Title: How to Make Friends.                                Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3UxCs8ntSI  
2023/12/22 10:07:35  Pubdate: 2023/12/01 12:09:39  Title: Mathis Peace Talk 🕊️                                Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-3KBEEqH4E  
2023/12/22 10:07:35  Pubdate: 2023/12/08 22:38:58  Title: I'm Suing You.                                      Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAjqLcqBD9I  
2023/12/22 10:07:35  Pubdate: 2023/11/26 06:11:49  Title: Thanksgiving is Racist.                             Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLuQburQNwI  
2023/12/22 10:07:35  Pubdate: 2023/11/22 07:00:10  Title: Share your Feelings.                                Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUR87oBJDKQ

This command is very simple.

Bash
rsstail -n 40 -t -p -l -u https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UCrB8o1tlLKRnPHlpSy3GBFg

This makes it easy, using xmlstarlet is very complicated.

This is all done without needing the YouTube API and a key. So very handy indeed.


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