video-to-gif/lib/video-downloader.js

A Node.js module that searches YouTube videos by song name and converts clips to animated GIFs

import youtubedl from "youtube-dl-exec";
import path from "path";
import fs from "fs";

// Point to the file in the root directory
const BINARY_PATH = path.resolve("./yt-dlp"); 

async function downloadVideo(title, outputDir, url) {
    if (!fs.existsSync(BINARY_PATH)) {
        console.error("❌ yt-dlp binary is missing!");
        return null;
    }

    const outputTemplate = path.join(outputDir, `${sanitizeFilename(title)}.%(ext)s`);
    const cookiePath = path.resolve("cookies.txt");

    // ✅ THE MAGIC CONFIGURATION FOR 2025
    await youtubedl(url, {
        execPath: BINARY_PATH, 
        output: outputTemplate,
        
        // 1. Use the TV Embedded client (Bypasses most 'Sign in' checks)
        extractorArgs: "youtube:player_client=tv_embedded",
        
        // 2. Add Referer to look like an embedded video
        referer: "https://www.youtube.com/",
        
        // 3. Standard flags
        format: "bestaudio/best",
        noWarnings: true,
        noCheckCertificates: true,
        forceIpv4: true,
        
        // 4. Use cookies if they exist
        cookies: fs.existsSync(cookiePath) ? cookiePath : undefined
    });

    // Check if file exists
    const files = fs.readdirSync(outputDir).filter(f => f.startsWith(sanitizeFilename(title)));
    if (!files.length) return null;
    
    // Return newest file
    return path.join(outputDir, files[0]);
}

function sanitizeFilename(name) {
    return name.replace(/[^\w\s]/gi, '').replace(/\s+/g, '_').substring(0, 50);
}

export { downloadVideo };