ChannelTube

ChannelTube is a lightweight service for synchronizing and fetching content from YouTube channels using yt-dlp. It provides a web-configurable scheduler and download pipeline to keep a local collection of videos or audio up to date.

Key Features

• Scheduled sync by hour list (comma-separated hours) with a small scheduling deadband
• Uses yt-dlp to download video or audio formats with configurable format IDs and fallback codecs
• Options for subtitles handling (none, embed, external) and selectable subtitle languages
• Supports cookies file for authenticated/restricted content
• Docker image and docker-compose support for easy deployment
• Configurable runtime options: user/group IDs, thread limit, defer hours, include video ID in filenames, verbose logging
• Optional media server integration: trigger library scans for Plex and Jellyfin after downloads

Use Cases

• Maintain a local archive of one or more YouTube channels for offline viewing or backup
• Automatically fetch new uploads and populate a Plex or Jellyfin library for home media servers
• Extract audio from channel uploads for podcasting or offline listening

Limitations and Considerations

• Functionality and site compatibility depend on yt-dlp; updates to yt-dlp may be required for continued compatibility
• May require cookies or authenticated sessions for age-restricted or private content
• Not a transcoding pipeline; downloaded formats depend on yt-dlp/ffmpeg availability and configured format IDs
• Scheduling has a noted deadband of up to ~10 minutes from the scheduled start time

ChannelTube is suited for users who want an automated, deployable tool to pull channel content and integrate it into local media workflows. It focuses on reliable fetching and simple media-server integration rather than advanced transcoding or metadata enrichment.