How to Download YouTube Playlists as TV Show Seasons Using yt-dlp

If you enjoy organizing YouTube videos into seasons and episodes for easy access, especially for educational content on Jellyfin, yt-dlp is a powerful tool for downloading entire playlists with custom naming formats. In this tutorial, we’ll cover how to download YouTube playlists and organize them into seasons like S01E01, S02E01, etc.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, you’ll need:

• Kubuntu (or any Linux-based operating system)
• A terminal
• Basic knowledge of using command-line tools

Step 1: Install yt-dlp

yt-dlp is an open-source tool for downloading videos from YouTube and other video platforms. It’s a fork of youtube-dl with additional features and updates.

1. Open your terminal.
2. Run the following commands to update your package list and install yt-dlp:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install yt-dlp

Alternatively, if you have pip installed, you can install it with:

pip install yt-dlp

Step 2: Download YouTube Playlists as Episodes in Seasons

To download YouTube playlists and name each episode sequentially (e.g., S01E01, S02E01), you’ll need to format your yt-dlp command accordingly. Here’s how to set it up for each season.

Example 1: Download Season 1

Let’s say you have a Season 1 playlist at this URL:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpjOfK6RZPY&list=PLGnieQmILo-g0BWFpckG_Q4-MYON_Jfae

To download this playlist as S01E01, S01E02, etc., use the following command:

yt-dlp -f bestvideo+bestaudio -o 'S01E%(playlist_index)02d.%(ext)s' "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpjOfK6RZPY&list=PLGnieQmILo-g0BWFpckG_Q4-MYON_Jfae"

Explanation:

• -f bestvideo+bestaudio tells yt-dlp to download the highest quality video and audio, then combine them.
• -o 'S01E%(playlist_index)02d.%(ext)s' formats the output to look like S01E01.mp4, S01E02.mp4, etc.

Example 2: Download Season 2

For Season 2, use the following command with the Season 2 playlist URL:

yt-dlp -f bestvideo+bestaudio -o 'S02E%(playlist_index)02d.%(ext)s' "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxGwVT2oDJ8&list=PLSW2D61TnopT7EB7TozoTfs_wEkPC3byE"

Example 3: Download Season 3

To download Season 3, simply change the season number in the filename format. For the Season 3 playlist link:

yt-dlp -f bestvideo+bestaudio -o 'S03E%(playlist_index)02d.%(ext)s' "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9tzoIplps8&list=PLGnieQmILo-h8CNDHxvMmSWYg_-yiTddM"

Step 3: Organize and Import to Jellyfin

Once downloaded, you can move each season’s files into separate folders named Season 1, Season 2, etc. This makes it easy to import into Jellyfin or another media manager.

1. Create a folder structure:

Show Name/
├── Season 1/
│   ├── S01E01.mp4
│   ├── S01E02.mp4
├── Season 2/
│   ├── S02E01.mp4
│   ├── S02E02.mp4

2. In Jellyfin, go to Libraries to add your downloaded videos.

Tips and Troubleshooting

• To download only audio: Use -f bestaudio to download just the audio track if you don’t need video.
• Limit download speed: Add -r 500K to avoid excessive bandwidth usage.
• Update yt-dlp: Use yt-dlp -U to keep it up-to-date for the latest features and fixes.

Now you’re all set to create a well-organized library of YouTube playlists on your Jellyfin server! Enjoy easy access to educational shows and more.