I downloaded the current version as ffmpeg-2021-11-10-git-44c65c6cc0-essentials_build.7z, uncompressed the file into a folder and the files you are looking for will be in the bin folder.

Make sure to install the Visual C++ and Netframework files first.

The youtube-dl-gui.exe comes in a compressed zip file so uncompress the files to a single folder. It includes; youtube-dl-gui.exe, a lang folder and a settings.ini file will be created when you first use the program. Download and copy the youtube-dl.exe to that same folder. If you downloaded the ffmpeg encoder, it's a 7zip file, extract the files and go to the bin folder and copy the ffmpeg.exe file to your youyube-dl folder.

So, now we are ready to begin.

Go to your youtube-dl folder and open youtube-dl-gui.exe by double-clicking on it. At first, you'll see their license agreement, the simplest one ever to read. Just click on Yes.

Then you get a message concerning where to save your downloads. Choose No to download to your default download folder or Yes if you want to specify a folder. If you selected Yes then navigate to your folder and then click OK.

Now, go to YouTube and get the web address of the video you want to download. There are a couple of ways to get this Video URL:

For Twitter right-click on the video and click on Copy Video Address.

Facebook had a similar feature but seems to have removed it. So on Facebook click on the video until it opens to a full-page and then copy the web address or URL address at the top of the page.

I noticed that when I copy a URL that the address automatically appears in the URL box Video URL, if not just paste it in. Right-click inside the box and click on paste.

For Download, click on Video or Audio depending. Just click on the word best and from the drop-down menu, choose your format and quality. For Quality, you can keep it on best. I kept the Sound box checked thinking that it would strip out the audio from the video if unchecked but unchecking it had no effect, so I'm not sure what it's for.

For Format, choose your format otherwise this program will download multiple copies in different formats. I usually pick mp4 for video and mp3 for audio.

And then just click on download. You'll get a little pop-up progress box.

If you download Youtube videos you'll find your video in your download folder in a sub-folder called youtube.com and a video folder inside of that. Twitter videos will be in twitter.com and Facebook videos be in a facebook.com folder.

Using Command Prompt

If you are the adventurous type you might want to use the command line prompt. I opened a command prompt at my youtube-dl folder and typed in

youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/(video link)

This is not a real Youtube link so substitute your own. You can also use the format command:

youtube-dl -format mp4 https://www.youtube.com/(video link)

Otherwise, make sure the path to the youtube-dl.exe in is the command. I have the file in a folder called youtube-dl-gui-2.252 on my E: drive - E:\youtube-dl-gui-2.252

so it would be:

E:\youtube-dl-gui-2.252\youtube-dl.exe -format mp4 https://www.youtube.com/(video link)

Using the command prompt, the videos go directly in the folder with your youtube-dl.exe folder with no sub-folders.

Converting Or Videos With Youtube-dl-gui

This program has a converter and merger components included so I decided to give them a shot. First try at both, nothing worked.

FFmpegPath is null.

When I first try to convert a video with this program I would get an error message that FFmpegPath is null, meaning it couldn't find ffmpeg.exe even though it was in the same folder as mentioned above. I tried different versions of ffmpeg.exe, even an older 32bit version. Same error message.

So I went into the Settings, click on Settings, top menu, of the program and went to the General tab and discovered I could set the path there. Where it says ffmpeg directory, click on the square with the three dots in it and find the path for ffmpeg.exe, alraedy in the same folder as youtube-dl.

Still didn't work. I noticed that everytime I moved away from that tab or open and closed the program that line was blank. I was convinced that was the issue, but how to fix it? An online search discovered nothing. So I noticed at the bottom of the settings screen you could change how the settings are saved. The default is Save in settings. I decided to switch it to Saves as ./args.txt. And it worked. Until I closed and opened the program again and I was getting that error nessage right in where you paste the URL for download.

So I went online and found someone who had posted there settings.ini file on a forum and compared it to mine. The settings.ini file is in the folder where you uncompressed the youtube-dl-gui-folder. I opened it, it's just a text file. Under the [General] settings my ffmprgPath= line was blank so I typed in the path, saved the file and the problem seems to be gone.

So, now to the conversion.

The Coverting

Open up the program and click on the Convert tab. Choose your file to be converted (Input). Click on the square with the three dots to navigate your system for the file. Immediataly it will open a second box for you to save it. Type in the file name you want and the extension of what you want to convert it to. For example video.avi for an AVI file or video.mkv for a Matroska Video file.

In the Save as type: area you can click on the All File Formats (*.*) and in the drop down menu, you'll see all the options. Just put in the name and click on one. Then just click on the Convert button.

If you go back the Setting options, and click on the Converter tab, you have a few options here to mess around with as you see fit.

Merging Videos With Youtube-dl-gui

The Merging.

Open program and click on the Merge tab.

My problem here was that I misinterrpreted merging as joining two clips together. On the Merge tab, I picked my first video (Input 1), again, click on the square with three dots to navigate to your clips on your system and then choose your second clip (input 2).

Again choose your output, choose name and extension. Type in the file name you want and the extension of what you want to convert it to. For example video.avi for an AVI file or video.mkv for a Matroska Video file. The Merge audio tracks was automatically checked, so I just click on the Merge button. My videos where all mp4 format so I chose that as my output. It didn't seem to work. I tried different videos, same result. I checked and unchecked Merge audio tracks, It just seemed to pick the first video and convert it.

I wanted to know what would happen if I just used the audio by saving the file as a mp3. I checked the Merge audio tracks option. While listening to the final result, I discovered what Merge meant in ths case. I was expecting two separate clips joined together but ended up with one clip playing both audio files at once.

So I tried a little test. I had a video file with no audio and I chose that as Input 1 on the Merge screen, then I chose a video with audio as Input 2. Then in the output I just named it test.mp4, again you can convert here to by choosing your extension and I checked on the Merge audio tracks option.

Then I clicked on the Merge button. The end result, the video from Input 1 with the audio from Input 2. If there was audio on the first video I would be hearing both tracks playing at once. This might be helpful to some YouTube creators who want to over-write one audio track on a video with another. Or add music or voice overlay to your personal videos. Don't be afraid to experiment.

If you want a copy of my settings click here: settings.ini