TinyChan

There's 2 ways to do this, each with its own pros and cons.

First, some background info. There's plenty of sites that will let you painlessly download audio from youtube in mp3 format, but these sites all operate by transcoding the audio and recompressing it with the mpeg 1 layer 3 audio codec. They use a 320kbps bitrate to avoid significant audible quality degradation, but the audio on youtube is delivered at a much lower bitrate, so this transcoding process creates a much larger output file than the source input: this is referred to as bit-bloat, because you're increasing the storage requirements while decreasing the overall quality. The thing is, this conversion process is mostly unnecessary nowadays because AAC has been a commonly supported audio format for over a decade, and Opus is an open format which is natively supported by modern Android devices (or, with some simple tweaks, in older versions).

• Method 1 will give you AAC audio in an mp4 (as .m4a) container. This method is simpler and will get you better compatibility, but audio quality varies from 128kbps down to 48kbps.
  
• Method 2 will give you Opus audio in an Ogg (as .opus) container. This is more involved and may require additional steps depending on your use case, but the audio quality is better and the bitrates are pretty consistently around 128kbps, or even higher.
  

What you'll need:

(Or at least this is what I use, but if you already have some other tool you know how to use, you can substitute that if you want, but I guarantee no audio transcoding occurs with the software I chose.)

Audio file tagger: Mp3tag https://www.mp3tag.de/en/
*note: Support for opus with a .ogg extension or tagging of matroska (mkv/mka/webm) files is relatively new, so I recommend using the latest version, although it can be done with a version as old as 2.94 at least by leaving the opus files with the .opus extension for tagging purposes.
Knowledge: How to navigate within Windows, rename files, and change file extensions. How to load audio files onto your portable device of choice, if desired.
*note: This one is on you. I'm not handholding basic computer concepts.

< Method 1 only >
An old web browser: Firefox 27.0.1 https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/27.0.1/
*note: This is the version I've been using so I know it works for this method, but I haven't bothered to dig into what actually determines whether you get mp4 or webm videos. This version does have some limited webm support. Be sure to set the Update tab in Options to "Never check for updates", otherwise it may install an update and no longer recieve the mp4 videos which is the whole point in the first place.
Video downloader extension: DownloadHelper 4.9.24.1 long ass url
*note: I had this installed while the old FF addon site was still accessible. Save the link to your HD and then drag the .xpi file into a Firefox window after launching the old version. Or just open this thread in old FF and click the link and when you get a notice that the extension installation was blocked, allow it.
mp4 muxer: Yamb http://yamb.unite-video.com/
*It's old, but it's easy to use and it does the job. Get the installer version because you'll also need mp4box.exe to actually do anything with it. If you don't want to fully install stuff, you can simply extract the contents with 7zip to whatever directory you like.
< *optional* >
Alternate instance enabler: Firefox Portable https://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox-portable-legacy-52
*note: if you already have modern Firefox installed and don't want to stop using it, this will allow you to have a second installation in its own directory that won't mess with your main installation. (And of course it can also be run from a USB or external HD.) Just install 27.0.1 over the newer version that this comes bundled with.

< Method 2 only >
Firefox: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/
note: Chrome won't work because the Chrome version of Video DownloadHelper is required to disable itself on YT in order to be eligible for inclusion in the Chrome extension store (or Google Play or whatever they call it.)
Video downloader extension: Video DownloadHelper https://www.downloadhelper.net/
note: This is is also available in the add-ons manager by typing

about:addons

in the url bar and then searching "video download helper". It should be the first result, with almost 2m users.
mkvextract/mkvtoolnix: https://mkvtoolnix.download/
*note1: I'm using v28.2.0 because that's what was current when I started playing around with webms.
*note2: I also use mkvmerge GUI v2.9.8 when not making webms because the interface is simpler and it was current when I first started making mkv files.
*note3: Depending on your use case you may only need mkvextract, but it all comes as a bundle. There is a GUI for mkvextract, but for some strange reason (maybe just my version?) doesn't support extraction of Opus streams.
*note4: I recommend putting mkvextract in the

C:\Windows

directory so you can use it from the command line no matter what the current working directory is.

• PM
• Forget Thread
• Watch
• 315 visits

Method 1 (aka AAC audio)

Step 1: Launch FF 27 and go to the page of whatever video you're looking to download. I'll be using this video for demonstration purposes https://youtu.be/ZpVzaieoVgo
Be aware that if you are on YouTube itself, the page will be respond slowly and seem to lock up when loading. This is normal behavior as far as I can tell because of the huge fucking javascript file involved. Sometimes it even asks if you want to stop the script. It doesn't really make a differece what you choose because the page will still be slow until it finishes loading. Pages with embedded YT videos will not have this issue, but most sites use a newer version of https ssl signing/excryption/whatever that isn't compatible with FF 27. (Tinychan is, so you could post a link to the video in a thread here and then download it from inside the thread, but if you're gonna do that, use this thread, don't just spam links in any thread you see.) Update: Looks like embeds are no longer functional in FF27, so you'll have to deal with the slow page load on YouTube itself to continue using this method.

Step 2: Click the down arrow to the right of the animated* DownloadHelper icon in the upper right corner (outlined with a red square here). Depending on the page you're on, there may be multiple options. It's a bit confusing if you're actually on YT, because the name seems to be taken from the page header text, so the ads which play before the video also have the title of the actual video. You can try to make an educated guess based on the size of each file, but it pretty much just comes down to trial and error because the ads are higher resolution than the actual video. In this case⁺, it turned out to be the 3rd option. You'll want to ignore the white menu that pops up to the left when you hover over each option and simply click on the video title highligted in blue which will save the file to your HD. (Depending on your settings, it may prompt you to select where to save it and with what filename.)
*When media is detected, the icon will animate, when none is present it is grayed out.
⁺Further experimentation seems to indicate that the 3rd file is the one you want on monetized videos (ones with ads).

Note: The maximum resolution for non-ad mp4 videos delivered by YT seems to be 360p. If the downloaded video is higher resolution, it's an ad. It is possible that very old videos may be less than 360p because YT does not upscale. I occasionally encounter 240p videos.

(Edited 2 months later.)

• PM

Method 1 (aka AAC audio, cont'd)

Step 3: It's time to remux the audio track into its own container.

• Open up Yamb.
  
• Select the Editing icon (the 3 colored cubes).
  
• Double-click on "Click to extract streams from AVI/MP4/MOV/TS files.
  
• Click on the 'search folder' icon next to the field labelled "Input" (shown here with a red square). Drag-and-drop is not supported.
  
• Navigate to the video you downloaded and open it. (You can ignore the "Open as read-only" option.)
  
• Select the track with the description that begins "AAC LC" (95% of the time this will be the second track).
  
• Tick the "Extract to MP4." radio button.
  
• Click "Next".
  
• If you have multiple videos with audio you wish to extract, you can use the Back button and select another, otherwise the Finish button will ask if you want to quit Yamb.
  

In Explorer, navigate to the folder where you saved the video and there will now be two mp4 files: the original; and one with "_track[#]" appended to the original name. The track[#] name is the AAC audio file and contains no video component so it won't have a thumbnail. Rename the file however you wish- making sure to change the extension to .m4a so that media players will understand that it should be included in audio libraries rather than video. You can delete the original video file now if you want.

• PM

Method 1 (aka AAC audio, cont'd (cont'd))

Step 4: Tagging
Open Mp3tag and click on the folder icon with the green check-mark on it and navigate to the folder where your .m4a file(s) are. (Drag-and-Drop is supported as well.) Once you've selected a directory, it will scan all supported media files and then display a list of metadata. There is a selection of basic metadata fields displayed on the left which will populate with data from whichever file(s) is/are currently selected. You can manually enter/edit data here if you wish. You can also right click on files to edit additional, more specialized tags. One of the grate features of Mp3tag is the ability to generate tags by parsing the filename and directory tree into various fields. To do this, (1)right click on your new .m4a file and go to the menu option Convert > "Filename - Tag". Then (2)you will see a formula field with variables that can be re-arranged, and beneath that a live sample of the fields and the data which will populate them. Hit OK when things look the way you want. Personally, I recommend using the "Extended tags..." editor (shown inset(3), accessed from the right-click menu) to include the video url in the "WWWAUDIOSOURCE" field, just for reference.

Step 5: Your file is ready to play!

• PM

Method 2 (aka Opus audio)

Step 1: Disable autoplay on YT. (Toggle the switch shown with the red box to the left.)
*note: This is necessary for step 3 to work properly.

Step 2: Go directly to the YT page of the video you want by pasting the video url into the url/search bar. Again, I'll be using the video from @639,457 (FuckAlms !vX8K53rFBI) for this.
*note: It is important to go directly to the video's dedicated page. If you click on a video link from someone's channel, it will override the disable autoplay setting.

Step 3a: Click the Video DownloadHelper icon (the red, yellow and blue orbs*) and you'll see serveral options. Luckily it's much easier to know which one you want here because it will show the video resolution, duration, size, and container (underlined in red). Click on the grey box with "•••▶" in it. This will bring up a submenu. Click the 'Details' entry.
*Unlike the version used in Method 1, this icon does not animate when media is detected, it simply changes from grey to colored.

• PM

Method 2 (aka Opus audio, cont'd)

Step 3b: The details page will open a new tab filled with technical data about the video. Select the entire big-ass url in the 'audioUrl' box (shown highlighted in navy blue) and right-click on it. Choose the 'Open link' option. This will bring you to a bare-bones media window, similar to opening an image in a new tab, but with media controls. Now just press Ctrl+S and give the file a name other than "videoplayback".
*note1: Modern YT videos are actually separate audio and video streams, which is why it is possible to get just the audio.
*note2: Changing the extension when saving doesn't work, so even if you replace the .webm extension with .mka, it'll just come out as '[filename].mka.webm' when finished.
*note3: If you don't get a media window, it's likely that the video began to play for whatever reason, so the the url goes dead because it's already begun transferring and each one is only good once. Try opening a New Private Window (Ctrl+Shift+P) and going back to Step 1 if this happens.

From here on, there are a few different paths you can take, depending on your use case.

Optional Step 3.99: Remuxing to full matroska

• Launch mkvtoolnix-gui. (or mmg if you're using the super-old version I mentioned.)
  
• Just drag-and-drop your webm file into the mkvtoolnix GUI.
  
• Click "Start multiplexing" (or "Start muxing" in the old version).
  
• Navigate to the directory where the downloaded webm was saved and delete it. Now you've got a proper matroska audio file instead.
  
• Move on to tagging.

Step 4: Extracting the opus audio stream

• Launch the command prompt. (Windows key+R, type "cmd".)
  
• Navigate to the directory where the webm/.mka was saved. (

  cd "[directory]"

  Tab can be used to autocomplete directory and filenames once the first few letters have been typed. Use

  cd ..

  to back out of a directory.)
  
• This step assumes mkvextract.exe is either in the same directory as the webm/.mka file, or the

  C:\Windows

  directory. Type

  mkvextract "[filename.ext]" tracks 0:"[outputfile].opus"

  
  
• It's safe to delete the webm file now. (For whatever reason, mplayer can read and display matroska tags, but not vorbis comments*, so for my use I keep .mka files on my computer and then just generate the opus files from them when I want to put them on a portable device.)
  
• Move on to tagging.
  

*Vorbis comments is the tagging scheme utilized by the ogg container format, which is what opus files are held in.

Step 5: Tagging
See Step 4 of Method 1 @639,459 (FuckAlms !vX8K53rFBI) The same basic principles apply, but since there's less data in the filename because it defaults to "videoplayback" it may be simpler to just select the file and fill in the fields manually on the left side.

• PM

Method 2 (aka Opus audio, cont'd (cont'd))

Step 6: Compatibility checking

If you've made it this far, you can probably figure out what version of Android your device is running. Since I have Android 7.1.1, I have to change the file extension to .ogg in order for the files to appear in my music library.
*note: Although the tags are able to be read by players in Android 7, if you are using Pulsar which supports tag editing, you'll get an error if you try to edit them. Editing tags in vorbis ogg files works, so I don't know if this is system dependent or if it's specific to Pulsar. Possibly the editor thinks the opus ogg files are invalid because they have a different audio codec marker so it throws an error rather than risk corrupting a file.

• PM

P.S. yt;dw

P.P.S. here's the cover art too. It's taken from her video of Dark Tranquillity's Eyes of the World.

(Edited 49 seconds later.)

• PM

Method 1 has been updated to reflect recent changes regarding the (lack of) functionality of embedded videos. I suppose I should note that I'm only testing embeds on TC so there's a small possibility that the change is in TC's code, but I think that's a pretty remote chance. It's most likely Google deprecating old code because nobody is supposed to be using such old browsers anymore, and most websites are partially if not entirely nonfunctional in them.

• PM

Alternative point of view on downloading audio with original quality.
1: I used to spend a FORTUNE on playback equipment and media for Max audio quality. Speakers $6000 and later $12-13 Thousand spent. Way back tape machines running at faster speeds and special heads for the deck. Was an expensive hobby. Much like Wines and what it takes to truly appreciate fine wines.

NOW - Not so much - For my 24 Hour Gym routine I want to jam as much media into a SanDisk Mp3 and to pack that audio I use a medium choice when it comes to quality BECAUSE the Headphones and Earbuds just do NOT deliver more when High Bit downloads are tried. Comfortable Buds and Headphones always come as a compromise. Headphones that deliver QUALITY to the MAX are too HEAVY re the Magnet necessary. Earbuds that are comfortable tend to be of just OK audio quality. So sure I have multiple SanDisks because for what you get the cost is just DIRT Cheep. I want hours of music with daily changes.

Plus I am now older and the Ear after tests just do not have what they were back in my HI FI hobby days - Did a stint in Professional Audio and my front end design for Wireless Mics, is still the only circuit used on every brand of Wireless Mike. Mikes all have an IDEAL Interface and my circuit provides that. Gave it away just because it was to good to hold to just one company. Once upon a time the only good interface was a Transformer which is heavy and has low end limitations. That said the Microphone manufactures still choose to use a transformer when designing and testing professional Mikes.

(Edited 1 minute later.)

• PM

@previous (B)
Oh, these methods aren't getting anywhere near CD quality. The bitrates are all in the low range, but this ensures that you don't lose any more quality than has already been lost, and you don't end up with larger files than what YouTube is delivering.

Does SanDisk still sell mp3 players? I love my Sansa but the battery is so old I have to jump-start it every time I want to use it because the bright start-up screen would suck all the power out of it otherwise.

(Edited 2 minutes later.)

• PM

@previous (FuckAlms !vX8K53rFBI)
New - Sandisk Sansa Clip Sport Plus Silicone Case - Slim Fit, Anti-Slip Protective Soft Rubber Silicone Skin Cover Case for Sandisk Sansa Clip Sport Plus SDMX28 MP3 Player 2016 Release - Light Pink $12.95 Amazon.
Glad you asked because I need to upgrade to one with BlueTooth.
SanDisk 32GB Clip Sport Plus MP3 Player, Black - Bluetooth, LCD Screen, FM Radio - SDMX32-032G-G46K $56.99

NOW on order! Prime will have it to me 2morrow in AM. I have one much older and even smaller - Have it in hand but no clue on model number as none on the device.- Ah from Amazon I see and think it's SanDisk - Clip Jam 8GB* MP3 Player - Blue SanDisk Clip Jam MP3 player. - Best Buy does show NEW
SanDisk - Clip Sport Plus 32GB MP3 Player - Blue $32.95 So SanDisk aka Western Digital must still be making them. Once wayyyy back when I tripled my money on WD stock and then when they bought SanDisk I held on for a few months and SOLD - Now looking at STOCK LoL good I sold all of that off. Company based on Mechanical storage and only buying SanDisk to have Flash - Just toooo many bearing fails over the many years to ever trust a spinning disk -

Once back in the Dinosaur ages I was hands on for a few weeks work wise with the early vestiges of DRUM Memories (Now Disc) and still shocked those "Me" who designed it from a basic IBM patent - turned it into something that could be put on a Missile and launched as a weapon. I designed the magnetic heads for that er thing Had 30-45 women hand winding delicate heads of my design for that memory. Even the computer memory was tiny magnetic ferrite cores hand strung with each bit = one core = YIKES - I had to take the IBM design and convert to a scheme that could take Rocket Launch dynamics.

(Edited 24 seconds later.)

• PM

WHO GIVES A GODDAMN FUCK

• PM

Instructions unclear. I went to a fake lemonparty url and caught a virus

• PM

@642,411 (C)
> WHO GIVES A GODDAMN FUCK

• PM

@642,413 (D)
So sorry to hear that, it must have been very upsetting to get a virus when you were expecting lemonparty. Someone should really crack down on those fake lemonparty sites.

• PM

A minor update that doesn't really warrant editing the above posts, but YouTube has been messing around with things again and the Video DownloadHelper developer is having to work around these changes, so currently Method 2 doesn't apply because VDH 8.0.0 is only able to find the AAC audio stream. (Prior to the update the "webm" audio was downloading as a blob file which seemed to be missing some sort of header or magic number or something which made the file unrecognizable to the various players and decoders I tried, but a hex editor showed the A_OPUS string which seems to indicate that it did in fact contain the opus audio.) You can now get a raw m4a audio file straight from VDH without having to remux or extract anything. The only problem with getting the m4a audio this way is that the m4a container is in a streaming-optimized format which doesn't contain bitrate info, so there may be playback compatibility issues, but I haven't investigated it too much yet. Yamb (or mp4box via command line) cannot load or extract the stream from these particular m4a files, so the alternative is to download the whole video as an mp4 with VDH and then use Yamb to extract the audio as in @639,458 (FuckAlms !vX8K53rFBI) but unless you have a registered (paid) version of VDH, it'll transcode the video (but only the video) in order to watermark it, which is pretty processor intensive. I'll look into this more later, but figured I'd mention this since the new, fixed version of VDH came out today.

• PM

What is the TL;DR version?

• PM

@previous (F)
I understand your frustration. It seems that YouTube has made some changes that affect the functionality of Video DownloadHelper. According to the extension’s website, the latest version (7.6.6) released on Dec 8, 2022 fixes the issue of downloading videos from YouTube1. You may want to update your extension to this version and see if it works. Alternatively, you can try using the aggregator tool that allows you to merge separate audio and video files into a single file2. This is an upgrade feature that requires a license, but you can try it for free for a limited time. I hope this helps you solve your problem.😊

1: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/versions/ 2: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/

• PM

@OP
If your're not afraid of the command line, yt-dlp, a fork of the now mostly defunct youtube-dl also works well under Windows. Use a format specifier of -f 140 for high quality m4a or -f 251 for high quality opus or give it the -F switch to list all available formats.

Also
> actually useful information
> mfw

(Edited 19 seconds later.)

• PM

@previous (H)
Oh wow, this is grate!

After messing around a bit, the only way to repackage the streaming (DASH) .m4a audio file in a way that Yamb will recognize it is to combine it with an AVC video stream using mkvtoolnix, and then use Yamb to remux that file as an mp4 and then extract the AAC audio from the remuxed mp4, which is just way too many hoops to jump through. For people who don't want to use command line, just wait for VDH to watermark the video and use Yamb to extract the audio from that file as in @639,458, (FuckAlms !vX8K53rFBI) because the audio doesn't get changed.

If you're not afraid of a little cmd, yt-dlp seems to not have the throttling issues that VDH deals with, so it's much faster at downloading. Although the -f140 switch will also get you a DASH m4a file like VDH gets unless you install ffmpeg as well (it'll still get the DASH audio, but it'll automatically repackage it with ffmpeg). Or you can skip the params and it'll get the video+audio mp4 and then since you're already in the command line, just do

mp4box -single 2 [filename.mp4]

*. Then just rename the [filename]_track2.mp4 to .m4a and tag them @639,459 (FuckAlms !vX8K53rFBI)

*Assuming that the audio is the second track, which is usually is; and assuming you've put mp4box in the

C:\Windows

directory.

• PM

@previous (FuckAlms !vX8K53rFBI)
Years ago I discovered I could stockpile CD's for free from local libraries. Large cities near by with their own stocked shelves of CD's-Dvd's.
But I must admit I never once considered the file size - ONLY the size of the audio itself. Memory is now so dirt cheep and you can easily carry Terabytes in your change pocket.

• PM

@previous (!dxXqzZbxPY)
> you can easily carry Terabytes in your change pocket
Dang, my first flash drive was a 32MB thing made by JungSoft.

• PM

@previous (FuckAlms !vX8K53rFBI)
SanDisk Extreme Portable 2TB Flash USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C External SSD V2 $109 and not to long ago it was $499
Cheaper for a larger version for computer memory in a 2.5 X 2.5 inch package $89

• PM

@OP
Remember &fmt=18?

• PM

@previous (Morbid !vbsvhaneDY)
> Remember &fmt=18?

You mean &fmt=22? :D

• PM

@642,571 (FuckAlms !vX8K53rFBI)
You make me hard!

• PM

@642,157 (FuckAlms !vX8K53rFBI)
I want to worship your body with my tongue.

• PM

@639,460 (FuckAlms !vX8K53rFBI)
Let's spoon, babe!

• PM

@642,417 (FuckAlms !vX8K53rFBI)
I want you. Take me.

• PM

@642,157 (FuckAlms !vX8K53rFBI)
> Method 1 has been updated to reflect recent changes regarding the (lack of) functionality of embedded videos. I suppose I should note that I'm only testing embeds on TC so there's a small possibility that the change is in TC's code, but I think that's a pretty remote chance. It's most likely Google deprecating old code because nobody is supposed to be using such old browsers anymore, and most websites are partially if not entirely nonfunctional in them.

I NEED YOUR Love, BABE

• PM

@642,571 (FuckAlms !vX8K53rFBI)
> > you can easily carry Terabytes in your change pocket
> Dang, my first flash drive was a 32MB thing made by JungSoft.

I would offer everything.

• PM

@previous (J)
Are you male or female or in between?

• PM