Youtube to snapshots and GIFs.

This module was forked from node-youtube. It is an extended version of it, providing more ffmpeg features and creating gifs from local paths.

Have you ever dreamt of creating a gif out of a youtube video ? Then you are in the right place

GIF source

This package allows you to take a screenshot, a gif or a portion out of a youtube video.

This package is the son of these two amazing parents:

• Youtube-dl package
• Fluent-ffmpeg package

Dependencies:

You need to get ffmpeg and ffprobe installed to start using this package.

Installation :

  $ npm install youtube.com-extended --save

How does it work ?

Instantiate the youtube object :

    var Youtube = require('youtube.com-extended');
    
    // You can instantiate the youtube object using the video url
    var youtube = Youtube('http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ategZqxHkz4');
    
    // or you can also specify the video id
    var youtube = Youtube('ategZqxHkz4');

Crop a youtube video :

    youtube.crop('0:05', '0:25', './file.mp4')
        .then(function () {
            console.log("Done");
        }).catch(function (err) {
            console.log("err : ", err)
        });

The .crop() method takes a 4th argument which is the format of the video to download example : ['--format=18'] This format is exactly the same we specify when downloading a youtube video using the Youtube-dl package. Make sure to take a look at it for more info.

Take a screenshot :

    youtube.snapshot('1:00', './file.jpg')
        .then(function () {
            console.log("Done");
        }).catch(function (err) {
            console.log("err : ", err)
        });

The .snapshot() method also takes the format as its 3rd argument.

Creating a GIF :

    youtube.gif('0:05', '0:35', './file.gif')
        .then(function () {
            console.log("Done");
        }).catch(function (err) {
            console.log("err : ", err)
        });

Creating a GIF from local path video file

    var Youtube = require('youtube.com-extended');
    var youtube = Youtube(); // do NOT provide any argument here

    youtube.gif('0:05', '0:35', '/tmp/existing_video.mp4', './file.gif')
            .then(function () {
                console.log("Done");
            }).catch(function (err) {
                console.log("err : ", err)
            });

The .gif() method takes 1 more argument, which is options object.

• options.size : The hight and width of the final gif ex : "600x300"
• options.ratio : The aspect argument may either be a number or a X:Y string. For example, '4:3' or 1.33333
• options.fps : An integer representing the fps of the final gif
• options.maxWidth : An integer representing the max width of final gif, ffprobe used here to get original video width and choose minimum value, ignored when options.size provided
• options.maxHeight : An integer representing the fps of the final gif, ffprobe used here to get original video width and choose minimum value, ignored when options.size provided

You can find more details on size, ratio, fps arguments on the Fluent-ffmpeg package.

Creating a GIF with different options

    youtube.gif('0:05', '0:35', './file.gif', {size: '800:?', fps: 8})
            .then(function () {
                // gif width is 800, height computed automatically, fps is 8
                console.log("Done");
            }).catch(function (err) {
                console.log("err : ", err)
            });

    youtube.gif('0:05', '0:35', './file.gif', {maxWidth: 800})
                .then(function () {
                    // gif max width is 800, height computed automatically
                    // for example, if original video width is 720, then result width is 720
                    // for example, if original video width is 1280, then result width is 800
                    console.log("Done");
                }).catch(function (err) {
                    console.log("err : ", err)
                });

Downloading a video

    youtube.download('file.mp4', format)
        .then(function () {
            console.log("done");
        });

Again, the format is the same as the one mentioned before.