YouTube Transcript Downloader

yt-dlp --list-subs "YOUTUBE_URL"

yt-dlp --write-sub --skip-download --output "OUTPUT_NAME" "YOUTUBE_URL"

yt-dlp --write-auto-sub --skip-download --output "OUTPUT_NAME" "YOUTUBE_URL"

# Get audio file size estimate
yt-dlp --print "%(filesize,filesize_approx)s" -f "bestaudio" "YOUTUBE_URL"

# Or get duration to estimate
yt-dlp --print "%(duration)s %(title)s" "YOUTUBE_URL"

command -v whisper

pip3 install openai-whisper

yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 --output "audio_%(id)s.%(ext)s" "YOUTUBE_URL"

# Auto-detect language (recommended)
whisper audio_VIDEO_ID.mp3 --model base --output_format vtt

# Or specify language if known
whisper audio_VIDEO_ID.mp3 --model base --language en --output_format vtt

rm audio_VIDEO_ID.mp3

yt-dlp --print "%(title)s" "YOUTUBE_URL"

python3 -c "
import sys, re
seen = set()
with open('transcript.en.vtt', 'r') as f:
 for line in f:
 line = line.strip()
 if line and not line.startswith('WEBVTT') and not line.startswith('Kind:') and not line.startswith('Language:') and '-->' not in line:
 clean = re.sub(' ]*>', '', line)
 clean = clean.replace('&', '&').replace('>', '>').replace('<', ' transcript.txt

# Get video title
VIDEO_TITLE=$(yt-dlp --print "%(title)s" "YOUTUBE_URL" | tr '/' '_' | tr ':' '-' | tr '?' '' | tr '"' '')

# Find the VTT file
VTT_FILE=$(ls *.vtt | head -n 1)

# Convert with deduplication
python3 -c "
import sys, re
seen = set()
with open('$VTT_FILE', 'r') as f:
 for line in f:
 line = line.strip()
 if line and not line.startswith('WEBVTT') and not line.startswith('Kind:') and not line.startswith('Language:') and '-->' not in line:
 clean = re.sub(' ]*>', '', line)
 clean = clean.replace('&', '&').replace('>', '>').replace('<', ' "${VIDEO_TITLE}.txt"

echo "✓ Saved to: ${VIDEO_TITLE}.txt"

# Clean up VTT file
rm "$VTT_FILE"
echo "✓ Cleaned up temporary VTT file"

VIDEO_URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"

# Get video title for filename
VIDEO_TITLE=$(yt-dlp --print "%(title)s" "$VIDEO_URL" | tr '/' '_' | tr ':' '-' | tr '?' '' | tr '"' '')
OUTPUT_NAME="transcript_temp"

# ============================================
# STEP 1: Check if yt-dlp is installed
# ============================================
if ! command -v yt-dlp &> /dev/null; then
 echo "yt-dlp not found, attempting to install..."
 if command -v brew &> /dev/null; then
 brew install yt-dlp
 elif command -v apt &> /dev/null; then
 sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y yt-dlp
 else
 pip3 install yt-dlp
 fi
fi

# ============================================
# STEP 2: List available subtitles
# ============================================
echo "Checking available subtitles..."
yt-dlp --list-subs "$VIDEO_URL"

# ============================================
# STEP 3: Try manual subtitles first
# ============================================
echo "Attempting to download manual subtitles..."
if yt-dlp --write-sub --skip-download --output "$OUTPUT_NAME" "$VIDEO_URL" 2>/dev/null; then
 echo "✓ Manual subtitles downloaded successfully!"
 ls -lh ${OUTPUT_NAME}.*
else
 # ============================================
 # STEP 4: Fallback to auto-generated
 # ============================================
 echo "Manual subtitles not available. Trying auto-generated..."
 if yt-dlp --write-auto-sub --skip-download --output "$OUTPUT_NAME" "$VIDEO_URL" 2>/dev/null; then
 echo "✓ Auto-generated subtitles downloaded successfully!"
 ls -lh ${OUTPUT_NAME}.*
 else
 # ============================================
 # STEP 5: Last resort - Whisper transcription
 # ============================================
 echo "⚠ No subtitles available for this video."

 # Get file size
 FILE_SIZE=$(yt-dlp --print "%(filesize_approx)s" -f "bestaudio" "$VIDEO_URL")
 DURATION=$(yt-dlp --print "%(duration)s" "$VIDEO_URL")
 TITLE=$(yt-dlp --print "%(title)s" "$VIDEO_URL")

 echo "Video: $TITLE"
 echo "Duration: $((DURATION / 60)) minutes"
 echo "Audio size: ~$((FILE_SIZE / 1024 / 1024)) MB"
 echo ""
 echo "Would you like to download and transcribe with Whisper? (y/n)"
 read -r RESPONSE

 if [[ "$RESPONSE" =~ ^[Yy]$ ]]; then
 # Check for Whisper
 if ! command -v whisper &> /dev/null; then
 echo "Whisper not installed. Install now? (requires ~1-3GB) (y/n)"
 read -r INSTALL_RESPONSE
 if [[ "$INSTALL_RESPONSE" =~ ^[Yy]$ ]]; then
 pip3 install openai-whisper
 else
 echo "Cannot proceed without Whisper. Exiting."
 exit 1
 fi
 fi

 # Download audio
 echo "Downloading audio..."
 yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 --output "audio_%(id)s.%(ext)s" "$VIDEO_URL"

 # Get the actual audio filename
 AUDIO_FILE=$(ls audio_*.mp3 | head -n 1)

 # Transcribe
 echo "Transcribing with Whisper (this may take a few minutes)..."
 whisper "$AUDIO_FILE" --model base --output_format vtt

 # Cleanup
 echo "Transcription complete! Delete audio file? (y/n)"
 read -r CLEANUP_RESPONSE
 if [[ "$CLEANUP_RESPONSE" =~ ^[Yy]$ ]]; then
 rm "$AUDIO_FILE"
 echo "Audio file deleted."
 fi

 ls -lh *.vtt
 else
 echo "Transcription cancelled."
 exit 0
 fi
 fi
fi

# ============================================
# STEP 6: Convert to readable plain text with deduplication
# ============================================
VTT_FILE=$(ls ${OUTPUT_NAME}*.vtt 2>/dev/null || ls *.vtt | head -n 1)
if [ -f "$VTT_FILE" ]; then
 echo "Converting to readable format and removing duplicates..."
 python3 -c "
import sys, re
seen = set()
with open('$VTT_FILE', 'r') as f:
 for line in f:
 line = line.strip()
 if line and not line.startswith('WEBVTT') and not line.startswith('Kind:') and not line.startswith('Language:') and '-->' not in line:
 clean = re.sub(' ]*>', '', line)
 clean = clean.replace('&', '&').replace('>', '>').replace('<', ' "${VIDEO_TITLE}.txt"
 echo "✓ Saved to: ${VIDEO_TITLE}.txt"

 # Clean up temporary VTT file
 rm "$VTT_FILE"
 echo "✓ Cleaned up temporary VTT file"
else
 echo "⚠ No VTT file found to convert"
fi

echo "✓ Complete!"