video-dl is a free, MIT-licensed graphical interface for yt-dlp, offered on Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android. It downloads from websites supported by yt-dlp and handles full playlists, selected playlist items, queued links, subtitles, proxies, and timecode range cuts. Audio can be saved in a chosen codec, while Song only uses SponsorBlock to remove non-music sections. NLE Ready remuxes video when its codec suits an editor and re-encodes only when needed, using detected NVENC, QuickSync, AMF, or VideoToolbox encoders. Downloads use aria2c over several connections, with download and processing progress bars. Browser cookies support videos requiring login; on Windows, Chrome 127 and later requires exporting cookies.txt or using Firefox or Edge. The interface offers English, French, and German, plus light and dark themes. Windows and Android need no separate dependencies. Linux requires ffmpeg, while macOS requires ffmpeg installed with Homebrew. Self-updates use a signed channel, and the project says it sends only video-fetch and update-check requests.
Who it is for
video-dl suits users who want a graphical yt-dlp downloader on desktop or Android. It is useful for playlist, subtitle, audio, trimming, and editor-oriented download workflows.
What is good
- Desktop and Android versions
- Playlist, subtitle, and batch downloads
- Hardware encoder detection
- Signed self-update channel
- MIT-licensed and free
What to know first
- Linux requires ffmpeg
- macOS requires Homebrew-installed ffmpeg
- Chrome 127+ needs cookie export on Windows
- Supported sites depend on yt-dlp
Verdict
video-dl adds a graphical workflow to yt-dlp downloads across four platforms. Its editing, audio, queue, and cookie options are broad, but platform dependencies and browser-cookie requirements matter for setup.
Compared on video downloaders
- Supported sources
- Websites supported by yt-dlp
- Playlist downloads
- Yes
- Subtitle downloads
- Yes
- Batch downloads
- Yes
- Device platforms
- Windows, macOS, Linux, Android
