Video Transcript Downloader

node {baseDir}/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

cd {baseDir} && npm ci  # Requires Node.js 20+

CLI syntax:

node {baseDir}/scripts/vtd.js --help
node {baseDir}/scripts/vtd.js transcript --help

Subcommands support focused help without requiring --url.

Transcript (default: clean paragraph)

node {baseDir}/scripts/vtd.js transcript --url 'https://…'
node {baseDir}/scripts/vtd.js transcript --url 'https://…' --lang en
node {baseDir}/scripts/vtd.js transcript --url 'https://…' --timestamps
node {baseDir}/scripts/vtd.js transcript --url 'https://…' --keep-brackets

Download video / audio / subtitles

node {baseDir}/scripts/vtd.js download --url 'https://…' --output-dir ~/Downloads
node {baseDir}/scripts/vtd.js audio --url 'https://…' --output-dir ~/Downloads
node {baseDir}/scripts/vtd.js subs --url 'https://…' --output-dir ~/Downloads --lang en

Formats (list + choose)

List available formats (format ids, resolution, container, audio-only, etc):

node {baseDir}/scripts/vtd.js formats --url 'https://…'

Download a specific format id (example):

node {baseDir}/scripts/vtd.js download --url 'https://…' --output-dir ~/Downloads -- --format 137+140

Prefer MP4 container without re-encoding (remux when possible):

node {baseDir}/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.

node {baseDir}/scripts/vtd.js formats --url 'https://…' -- -v

Troubleshooting (only when needed)

• Missing yt-dlp / ffmpeg:

brew install yt-dlp ffmpeg

• Verify:

yt-dlp --version
ffmpeg -version | head -n 1