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#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""Extract clean plain-text transcripts from YouTube videos using yt-dlp."""
import argparse
from html import unescape
import re
import subprocess
import sys
import tempfile
from pathlib import Path
def download_subs(url: str, lang: str = "en") -> str:
"""Download auto-generated subtitles and return the VTT content."""
with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmp:
out = Path(tmp) / "sub"
subprocess.run(
[
"yt-dlp",
"--write-auto-sub",
"--write-sub",
"--skip-download",
"--sub-lang", lang,
"-o", str(out),
url,
],
check=True,
capture_output=True,
text=True,
)
# prefer manual subs over auto-generated
for suffix in [f".{lang}.vtt", f".{lang}.vtt"]:
vtt = Path(f"{out}{suffix}")
if vtt.exists():
return vtt.read_text(encoding="utf-8")
# fallback: grab whatever vtt file was written
vtts = list(Path(tmp).glob("*.vtt"))
if vtts:
return vtts[0].read_text(encoding="utf-8")
raise FileNotFoundError("No subtitles found. Try --list-subs on the video.")
def parse_vtt(vtt_text: str) -> str:
"""Parse VTT content into clean deduplicated plain text."""
lines: list[str] = []
prev = ""
for line in vtt_text.splitlines():
# skip VTT header, metadata, timestamps, blank lines
if re.match(r"^(WEBVTT|Kind:|Language:|\s*$)", line):
continue
if "-->" in line:
continue
# strip HTML-style tags (<c>, <b>, etc.) and formatting
clean = re.sub(r"<[^>]+>", "", line)
# decode HTML entities (> & < etc.)
clean = unescape(clean)
# normalize whitespace
clean = re.sub(r"\s+", " ", clean).strip()
if not clean or clean == prev:
continue
# handle overlapping cues: skip if current line is a suffix of prev
# or prev is a suffix of current (common in auto-subs)
if prev and (prev.endswith(clean) or clean.startswith(prev)):
# replace prev with the longer version
if clean.startswith(prev) and clean != prev:
lines[-1] = clean
prev = clean
continue
lines.append(clean)
prev = clean
return "\n".join(lines)
def main():
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="Extract YouTube transcript as plain text")
parser.add_argument("url", help="YouTube video URL")
parser.add_argument("-l", "--lang", default="en", help="Subtitle language code (default: en)")
parser.add_argument("-o", "--output", help="Output file (default: stdout)")
args = parser.parse_args()
try:
vtt = download_subs(args.url, args.lang)
except subprocess.CalledProcessError as e:
print(f"yt-dlp error: {e.stderr}", file=sys.stderr)
sys.exit(1)
except FileNotFoundError as e:
print(str(e), file=sys.stderr)
sys.exit(1)
transcript = parse_vtt(vtt)
if args.output:
Path(args.output).write_text(transcript, encoding="utf-8")
print(f"Saved to {args.output}", file=sys.stderr)
else:
print(transcript)
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
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