Introduction
# Video Transcript Downloader
`./scripts/vtd.js` can: - Print a transcript as a clean paragraph (timestamps optional). - Download video/audio/subtitles.
Transcript behavior: - YouTube: fetch via `youtube-transcript-plus` when possible. - Otherwise: pull subtitles via `yt-dlp`, then clean into a paragraph.
## Setup
```bash cd ~/Projects/agent-scripts/skills/video-transcript-downloader && npm ci ```
## Transcript (default: clean paragraph)
```bash ./scripts/vtd.js transcript --url 'https://…' ./scripts/vtd.js transcript --url 'https://…' --lang en ./scripts/vtd.js transcript --url 'https://…' --timestamps ./scripts/vtd.js transcript --url 'https://…' --keep-brackets ```
## Download video / audio / subtitles
```bash ./scripts/vtd.js download --url 'https://…' --output-dir ~/Downloads ./scripts/vtd.js audio --url 'https://…' --output-dir ~/Downloads ./scripts/vtd.js subs --url 'https://…' --output-dir ~/Downloads --lang en ```
## Formats (list + choose)
List available formats (format ids, resolution, container, audio-only, etc):
```bash ./scripts/vtd.js formats --url 'https://…' ```
Download a specific format id (example):
```bash ./scripts/vtd.js download --url 'https://…' --output-dir ~/Downloads -- --format 137+140 ```
Prefer MP4 container without re-encoding (remux when possible):
```bash ./scripts/vtd.js download --url 'https://…' --output-dir ~/Downloads -- --remux-video mp4 ```
## Notes
- Default transcript output is a single paragraph. Use `--timestamps` only when asked. - Bracketed cues like `[Music]` are stripped by default; keep them via `--keep-brackets`. - Pass extra `yt-dlp` args after `--` for `transcript` fallback, `download`, `audio`, `subs`, `formats`.
```bash ./scripts/vtd.js formats --url 'https://…' -- -v ```
## Troubleshooting (only when needed)
- Missing `yt-dlp` / `ffmpeg`:
```bash brew install yt-dlp ffmpeg ```
- Verify:
```bash yt-dlp --version ffmpeg -version | head -n 1 ```