StrimDL Version 3.0.5

 

A simple, modern web interface to download media from YouTube and X (formerly Twitter) using yt-dlp and Python.

Supports direct downloads as:

• 🎬 YouTube videos (.mp4)
• 🎵 YouTube audio (.mp3)
• 📥 Twitter/X videos (as .mp4)

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🚀 Features

• 🎯 Clean and responsive dark UI
• 🔐 Login Authentication: Optional authentication to restrict access (default username admin / password admin)
• 🔎 Automatic YouTube title as filename
• 🧠 Smart MP4/MP3 selection (only enabled for YouTube)
• ⚡️ No persistent storage required (downloads stream to browser)
• 🐳 Easy deployment via Docker & Docker Compose
• ⚙️ Customizable download path and filename patterns

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📦 Installation

1. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/strimdl.git
   cd strimdl

2. Copy the example environment file and configure your settings:

   cp .env.example .env

3. Edit the .env file and set:

   DOWNLOAD_PATH=/path/to/your/downloads
   TZ=Europe/Berlin
   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   VIDEO_NAMING_PATTERN={userId}@twitter-{tweetId}
   IMAGE_NAMING_PATTERN={userId}@twitter-{tweetId}
   STRIMDL_USER=admin
   STRIMDL_PASS=admin
   YTDLP_COOKIES_DIR=./cookies
   YTDLP_COOKIES_PATH=/cookies/youtube.txt
   YTDLP_UPDATE_ON_START=true
   STRIMDL_UPDATE_DEVMODE=false
   STRIMDL_UPDATE_SERVER_URL=https://update.gerald-hasani.com
   FFMPEG_VIDEO_PRESET=veryfast
   FFMPEG_VIDEO_CRF=24
   FFMPEG_MAX_HEIGHT=1440

   Note: By default, login is required with username admin and password admin. Change STRIMDL_USER and STRIMDL_PASS to secure your instance. If YouTube asks yt-dlp to confirm you are not a bot, export browser cookies to ./cookies/youtube.txt and keep YTDLP_COOKIES_PATH=/cookies/youtube.txt.

4. Start via Docker Compose:

   docker compose up -d --build

   Or build and run with Docker:

   docker build -t strimdl .
   docker run --rm -p 10001:10001 --env-file .env -v ${DOWNLOAD_PATH}:/download strimdl

5. Open your browser and go to:

   http://localhost:10001/
   

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🧑‍💻 Usage

1. Access the login page if prompted.
2. Log in with your credentials.
3. Paste a YouTube or X (Twitter) URL.
4. Choose format and quality (for YouTube).
5. Click Start Download.

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StrimDL Update Check

StrimDL checks Gerald Hasani's Update Center once per day and shows a notice in the web UI when a new version is available.

For testing, enable dev mode to check every 3 minutes:

STRIMDL_UPDATE_DEVMODE=true

The public StrimDL Update Center API key is built into the app.

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Conversion Performance

YouTube often serves high resolutions as AV1 or VP9. For browser-compatible MP4 output StrimDL re-encodes those videos to H.264, and 1440p/2160p re-encoding can take several minutes.

These .env values control that conversion:

FFMPEG_VIDEO_PRESET=veryfast
FFMPEG_VIDEO_CRF=24
FFMPEG_MAX_HEIGHT=1440

FFMPEG_VIDEO_PRESET controls speed. Use ultrafast for faster but larger files, veryfast as a good default, or medium for smaller files at the cost of time.

FFMPEG_VIDEO_CRF controls quality/size. Lower values look better and create larger files. Common values are 23 to 26.

FFMPEG_MAX_HEIGHT caps the output height during re-encoding. The default 1440 prevents very slow 2160p conversions. Set it to 0 if you want to keep the source height.

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YouTube Cookies

If YouTube returns Sign in to confirm you’re not a bot, yt-dlp needs browser cookies from a signed-in browser session.

1. Create a local cookies directory:

   mkdir -p cookies

2. Export YouTube cookies in Netscape cookies.txt format and save them as:

   ./cookies/youtube.txt
   

3. Set these values in .env:

   YTDLP_COOKIES_DIR=./cookies
   YTDLP_COOKIES_PATH=/cookies/youtube.txt
   YTDLP_UPDATE_ON_START=true

4. Recreate the container:

   docker compose up -d --build

Keep the cookie file private. It can grant access to your browser session.

YTDLP_UPDATE_ON_START=true checks for the latest stable yt-dlp release whenever the container starts. This avoids stale Docker build-cache layers after YouTube changes.

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🛠️ Built With

• yt-dlp
• Python 3.11+
• HTML & JavaScript (no frameworks)
• Docker & Docker Compose

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📄 Change Log

• v3.0.5

• Added update server integration to notify users when a new version is available.
• Changed the main action button to show a red Cancel state while a download or conversion is running.
• Added a visible activity indicator with elapsed time during long-running download/conversion steps.
• Made ffmpeg conversion behavior configurable through .env.
• Improved conversion performance defaults for AV1/VP9 YouTube videos:
  • FFMPEG_VIDEO_PRESET=veryfast
  • FFMPEG_VIDEO_CRF=24
  • FFMPEG_MAX_HEIGHT=1440
• Avoided unnecessary re-encoding when the cached video can be copied directly.
• Cleaned up partial cache files after cancelled downloads.
• Updated StrimDL version to 3.0.5.
• Centralized version display so the footer reads from backend APP_VERSION instead of hardcoding the version in index.html.
• Rebuilt and smoke-tested the Docker container.

• v3.0.1 – Switched audio download from CBR/ABR to VBR (Variable Bitrate), providing significantly better quality and bitrate as it always selects the best available quality during download. Improved UI with custom dropdown for format selection, real-time status updates via Server-Side Events (SSE), playlist link detection, and enhanced spacing between UI elements. YouTube downloads are working again after they stopped working following the update on the YouTube platform.

• v2.0.0 – Added login authentication, improved Docker support, updated UI and README.

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📝 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.