YouTube Video Metadata Retriever

A Python script that retrieves comprehensive metadata from YouTube videos using yt-dlp.

Quick Start

# Install dependency
pip install yt-dlp

# Retrieve metadata from any YouTube video
python youtube_metadata.py "https://youtu.be/AuCUZ9bSbao"

# Save metadata to JSON file
python youtube_metadata.py "https://youtu.be/AuCUZ9bSbao" --json

Key Features

Comprehensive Metadata: Extract title, channel, views, likes, duration, resolution, tags, description, and more
Exact Publish Time: Get both local time and UTC time of video publication
Beautiful Output: Formatted console display with emoji icons and boxed sections
Smart URL Parsing: Automatically handles all YouTube URL formats
Optional JSON Export: Save metadata to a JSON file for further processing
No API Key Required: Uses yt-dlp instead of YouTube Data API

Installation

Prerequisites

Requirement	Version	Description
Python	3.7+	Python runtime
pip	Latest	Python package manager

Install yt-dlp

pip install yt-dlp

That's it! No YouTube API key needed.

Usage

Basic Usage

# Display metadata (default behavior)
python youtube_metadata.py <video_url_or_id>

# With video ID only
python youtube_metadata.py dQw4w9WgXcQ

# With full URL
python youtube_metadata.py "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"

# Save to JSON file
python youtube_metadata.py "https://youtu.be/AuCUZ9bSbao" --json

Supported URL Formats

The script automatically extracts the video ID from any of these formats:

Format	Example
Standard URL	`https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID`
Short URL	`https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID`
Shorts	`https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VIDEO_ID`
Embed	`https://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID`
Mobile	`https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID`
Music	`https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID`
Video ID Only	`dQw4w9WgXcQ`

Command Line Options

Option	Short	Description
`url`	(required)	YouTube video URL or video ID
`--json`	`-j`	Save metadata to JSON file
`--help`	`-h`	Show help message

Output Format

The script displays metadata in a formatted, boxed layout:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  we got lost in China
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

📹 Video ID     : AuCUZ9bSbao
🔗 URL          : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuCUZ9bSbao

┌─ 📅 PUBLISH INFO ─────────────────────────────────────┐
│  📆 Date       : 20260406
│  ⏰ Local Time : 03:31:25 PM
│  🌐 UTC Time   : 08:31:25 PM
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

┌─ 👤 CHANNEL ──────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  📺 Name       : Ludwig
│  👥 Followers  : 6,850,000
│  🔗 URL        : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrPseYLGpNygVi34QpGNqpA
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

┌─ 📊 STATISTICS ───────────────────────────────────────┐
│  👁️  Views     : 786,850
│  👍 Likes      : 44,913
│  💬 Comments   : 2,900
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

┌─ 🎬 VIDEO DETAILS ────────────────────────────────────┐
│  ⏱️  Duration   : 46m 45s
│  📐 Resolution : 3840x2160
│  📁 Category   : Gaming
│  🌍 Language   : EN
│  🔞 Age Limit  : No
│  📡 Live       : No
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

┌─ 📝 DESCRIPTION ──────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Check out Invincible VS here: ...                     │
│  [Word-wrapped for readability]                        │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

┌─ 🏷️  TAGS ────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  ludwig, ludwigahgren, ahgren, gaming, chat, ...      │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Metadata Fields

PUBLISH INFO

Field	Format	Example
📆 Date	YYYYMMDD	`20260406`
⏰ Local Time	12-hour format	`03:31:25 PM`
🌐 UTC Time	12-hour format	`08:31:25 PM`

CHANNEL

Field	Description
📺 Name	Channel name
👥 Followers	Subscriber count (formatted with commas)
🔗 URL	Channel URL

STATISTICS

Field	Description
👁️ Views	Total view count
👍 Likes	Total like count
💬 Comments	Total comment count

VIDEO DETAILS

Field	Description
⏱️ Duration	Formatted as `Xh Ym Zs` or `Ym Zs`
📐 Resolution	Video resolution (e.g., `3840x2160` for 4K)
📁 Category	Video category (e.g., Gaming, Music, Education)
🌍 Language	Video language code (e.g., EN, ES, FR)
🔞 Age Limit	Whether video has age restriction
📡 Live	Whether video is a live stream

JSON Output

Use the --json or -j flag to save metadata to a JSON file:

python youtube_metadata.py "https://youtu.be/AuCUZ9bSbao" --json

Output file: AuCUZ9bSbao_metadata.json

JSON Structure

{
  "title": "we got lost in China",
  "video_id": "AuCUZ9bSbao",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuCUZ9bSbao",
  "upload_date": "20260406",
  "timestamp": 1743953485,
  "publish_datetime": "2026-04-06T15:31:25+00:00",
  "duration_seconds": 2805,
  "duration_formatted": "46:45",
  "resolution": "3840x2160",
  "width": 3840,
  "height": 2160,
  "view_count": 786850,
  "like_count": 44913,
  "comment_count": 2900,
  "description": "...",
  "tags": ["ludwig", "ludwigahgren", ...],
  "categories": ["Gaming"],
  "channel_id": "UCrPseYLGpNygVi34QpGNqpA",
  "channel_name": "Ludwig",
  "channel_url": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrPseYLGpNygVi34QpGNqpA",
  "subscriber_count": 6850000,
  "thumbnail": "...",
  "thumbnails": [...],
  "age_limit": 0,
  "is_live": false,
  "language": "en",
  "availability": "public"
}

How It Works

URL Parsing

The extract_video_id() function handles multiple URL formats:

Direct Video ID: If input matches 11-character pattern, uses it directly
YouTube URL: Parses URL and extracts video ID from query params or path
Short URLs: Handles youtu.be domain separately
Special Paths: Handles /shorts, /embed, /v paths
Fallback: Regex search for 11-character alphanumeric string

Metadata Extraction

Uses yt-dlp.YoutubeDL with extract_info(url, download=False):

No video download occurs
Only metadata is extracted
All fields are safely accessed with .get() to handle missing data

Number Formatting

Views, likes, comments formatted with f"{n:,}"
Duration converted from seconds to Xh Ym Zs format

Time Handling

Unix timestamp converted to UTC-aware datetime
Local time calculated via astimezone()
UTC time extracted directly

Error Handling

Scenario	Behavior
Invalid URL	Prints error: "Could not extract video ID from URL"
Video not found	yt-dlp raises exception, caught and displayed
Network error	Exception caught, error message shown
Missing metadata field	Gracefully shows "N/A"

Dependencies

Package	Version	Purpose
yt-dlp	Latest	YouTube metadata extraction
urllib.parse	Built-in	URL parsing
datetime	Built-in	Time formatting
json	Built-in	JSON export
argparse	Built-in	Command-line argument parsing
re	Built-in	Video ID regex extraction

Examples

Example 1: Quick Video Check

$ python youtube_metadata.py "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"

Retrieving metadata for: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

📹 Video ID     : dQw4w9WgXcQ
🔗 URL          : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

┌─ 📅 PUBLISH INFO ─────────────────────────────────────┐
│  📆 Date       : 20091025
│  ⏰ Local Time : 10:57:33 AM
│  🌐 UTC Time   : 06:57:33 AM
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Example 2: Save Metadata for Analysis

$ python youtube_metadata.py "https://youtu.be/abc123" -j

Retrieving metadata for: https://youtu.be/abc123
[... formatted output ...]
Metadata saved to: abc123_metadata.json

Example 3: Check YouTube Shorts

$ python youtube_metadata.py "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xyz789"

Retrieving metadata for: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xyz789
[... works automatically ...]

Troubleshooting

yt-dlp Not Installed

Error: ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'yt_dlp'

Solution:

pip install yt-dlp

Video Unavailable

Error: Video unavailable or This video is not available

Causes:

Video is private/deleted
Region restriction
Age restriction (may require login)

Solution: Use a different video URL

Rate Limiting

Error: HTTP Error 429: Too Many Requests

Solution:

Wait a few minutes and retry
Use --json flag to cache results locally

Old yt-dlp Version

Error: Various extraction failures

Solution:

pip install --upgrade yt-dlp

Network Issues

Error: Connection timeout or refused

Solution:

Verify internet connection
Check firewall settings
Try with different video URL

License

MIT License

Author

Built with yt-dlp for comprehensive YouTube metadata extraction.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Cargo.toml		Cargo.toml
README.md		README.md
RUST_README.md		RUST_README.md
main.rs		main.rs
youtube_metadata.py		youtube_metadata.py
yt-meta		yt-meta

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YouTube Video Metadata Retriever

Quick Start

Table of Contents

Key Features

Installation

Prerequisites

Install yt-dlp

Usage

Basic Usage

Supported URL Formats

Command Line Options

Output Format

Metadata Fields

PUBLISH INFO

CHANNEL

STATISTICS

VIDEO DETAILS

JSON Output

JSON Structure

How It Works

URL Parsing

Metadata Extraction

Number Formatting

Time Handling

Error Handling

Dependencies

Examples

Example 1: Quick Video Check

Example 2: Save Metadata for Analysis

Example 3: Check YouTube Shorts

Troubleshooting

yt-dlp Not Installed

Video Unavailable

Rate Limiting

Old yt-dlp Version

Network Issues

License

Author

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