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Quick Start Guide

Get started with Downie's basic features and commands.

Basic Usage

Download a Video

# Basic download (best quality)
downie video download "https://youtube.com/watch?v=example"

# Specify quality
downie video download "https://youtube.com/watch?v=example" -q 1080p

# Specify output directory
downie video download "https://youtube.com/watch?v=example" -o ~/Downloads/videos

Download Subtitles

# Download English subtitles
downie subtitle download "https://youtube.com/watch?v=example"

# Download multiple languages
downie subtitle download "https://youtube.com/watch?v=example" -l "en,es,fr"

# Convert to SRT format
downie subtitle download "https://youtube.com/watch?v=example" --convert-srt

Process Videos

# Resize video
downie video download "https://youtube.com/watch?v=example" \
  --process \
  --resize 1920x1080

# Convert HDR to SDR
downie video download "https://youtube.com/watch?v=example" \
  --process \
  --hdr-to-sdr

# Extract audio
downie video download "https://youtube.com/watch?v=example" \
  --extract-audio \
  --audio-format mp3

Command Structure

Downie commands follow this pattern: 

downie <command> [options] URL
downie subtitle <command> [options] URL

Common options: - -o, --output: Output directory - -q, --quality: Video quality - -f, --format: Format selection - --process: Enable video processing - --verbose: Show detailed output

Examples

Download Playlist

downie video download "https://youtube.com/playlist?list=example" \
  -o playlist \
  -q 720p

Download with Custom Format

downie video download "https://youtube.com/watch?v=example" \
  -f "bestvideo[height<=1080]+bestaudio/best"

Process and Convert

downie video download "https://youtube.com/watch?v=example" \
  --process \
  --resize 1280x720 \
  --fps 30 \
  --video-codec libx264

Next Steps