Node-ytdl-core: Playable partial stream

[gooca]

Is it possible to use ffmpeg with ytdl-core to stream only a certain part of a video? Like if I'm trying to download 30 seconds in the middle of an hour long video, would this be possible?

[fent]

Yeah, just pass the stream to ffmpeg. I've used the following modules before

https://www.npmjs.com/package/fluent-ffmpeg (see seekInput() and duration()
https://www.npmjs.com/package/ffmpeg-binaries (using the -ss and -t arguments)

[gooca]

Currently I'm running

const fs = require('fs');
const ytdl = require('ytdl-core');
const ffmpeg = require('fluent-ffmpeg');

url = videoID = "6YNZlXfW6Ho"
outStream = fs.createWriteStream('video.webm');
ffmpeg().input(
    ytdl(url, {filter: function(format) { 
        if( format.container == 'webm' && format.resolution === null){return format}
        }})
)
.format('webm')
.seekInput(120)
.duration(3)
.pipe(outStream);

to get the 3 seconds of audio in the middle of a song. However, it is taking longer than I would hope to download 3 seconds of audio, is the code downloading the entire song and then cutting it with ffmpeg?
If so, would there be any way to only get exactly what I need/ download more efficiently?

[DapperMickie]

Should be possible as youtube does exactly that right? With buffering starting at a specific time?

[fent]

There's begin but it's not very reliable. We might want to investigate this a bit more and see how Youtube does this.

[micodeyt]

Hello @fent !
Do you still plan on working on an improved start / end feature ?

[fent]

yes but I currently don't have much free time to put into open source. so it'll be a while before i look into it.

[redbrain]

I've looked for how other scrapers do this; it seems they all download it fully and cut it later with ffmpeg or the equivalent.
I couldn't find much on YouTube's begin and it seemed weird to try to use; probably just not very consistent.
Please talk to me in Discord if you have experience/information with any of that; I have some time now so I can attempt a PR.