What breaks when you download video on a Mac, why, and what actually fixes it.https://www.tbd.yt/https://www.tbd.yt/blog/downie-alternative-free-mac/https://www.tbd.yt/blog/downie-alternative-free-mac/An honest comparison from someone who builds a competing app. What Downie does that free tools do not, where the free options genuinely win, and the question that decides it in one line.Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.tbd.yt/blog/yt-dlp-download-youtube-channel-archive/https://www.tbd.yt/blog/yt-dlp-download-youtube-channel-archive/The four channel URLs that mean different things, the archive file that makes a nightly re-run cost nothing, and the rate limits that decide whether a 900-video archive finishes this week or not at all.Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.tbd.yt/blog/download-youtube-playlist-mac/https://www.tbd.yt/blog/download-youtube-playlist-mac/The command, the archive file that makes a second run skip what you already have, numbering that sorts correctly, and how to survive a playlist that fails halfway through.Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.tbd.yt/blog/download-part-of-youtube-video/https://www.tbd.yt/blog/download-part-of-youtube-video/A 40-second clip out of a two-hour stream, in about two seconds, without fetching the two hours. The flag most people have never heard of — and the one format that makes it fail with 403.Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.tbd.yt/blog/download-youtube-subtitles-srt/https://www.tbd.yt/blog/download-youtube-subtitles-srt/The command is three flags. The part nobody mentions is that auto-generated captions come out with every line duplicated — and which format avoids it instead of cleaning up afterwards.Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.tbd.yt/blog/youtube-audio-without-re-encoding/https://www.tbd.yt/blog/youtube-audio-without-re-encoding/YouTube already stores the audio as AAC. Extracting it is instant and lossless; converting it to MP3 is slower and worse. The distinction almost nobody makes, and the commands for both.Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.tbd.yt/blog/is-it-legal-to-download-youtube-videos/https://www.tbd.yt/blog/is-it-legal-to-download-youtube-videos/Two separate questions that get answered as one: what YouTube's contract says, and what copyright law says. The honest answer differs by which you mean, and by where you live.Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.tbd.yt/blog/pulltube-alternative-free/https://www.tbd.yt/blog/pulltube-alternative-free/Pulltube's headline feature is trimming before you download. The free command does the same job and skips the part where you wait for the whole file — here is the honest trade.Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.tbd.yt/blog/best-free-youtube-downloader-mac/https://www.tbd.yt/blog/best-free-youtube-downloader-mac/Written by someone who makes one, which is why it starts by telling you when to buy something else. Six options, what each is actually for, and the two questions that pick one in under a minute.Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.tbd.yt/blog/yt-dlp-mac-flags-reference/https://www.tbd.yt/blog/yt-dlp-mac-flags-reference/Not another install tutorial. The twenty or so flags a real user converges on after a year, what each is actually for, and the config file that means never typing them again.Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.tbd.yt/blog/4k-video-downloader-free-limits/https://www.tbd.yt/blog/4k-video-downloader-free-limits/The vendor never publishes the number. Here is what the pricing page does and does not say, checked against their own site, and how to answer the question without installing anything.Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.tbd.yt/blog/what-online-youtube-downloaders-do-with-your-link/https://www.tbd.yt/blog/what-online-youtube-downloaders-do-with-your-link/Not a scare piece. The mechanics of what happens when you paste a URL into a website — which explains the ads, the queues, the quality caps, and what the link itself tells them.Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.tbd.yt/blog/4k-youtube-download-wont-open-in-quicktime/https://www.tbd.yt/blog/4k-youtube-download-wont-open-in-quicktime/YouTube serves nothing above 1080p in H.264. Above that it is VP9 and AV1, which QuickTime cannot play. Three ways out, and what each costs.Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.tbd.yt/blog/yt-dlp-ffmpeg-not-installed-mac/https://www.tbd.yt/blog/yt-dlp-ffmpeg-not-installed-mac/Why the download 'worked' but left you two files, one silent. Installing FFmpeg on a Mac, pointing yt-dlp at it, and repairing the files you already have without re-downloading.Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.tbd.yt/blog/yt-dlp-nsig-extraction-failed/https://www.tbd.yt/blog/yt-dlp-nsig-extraction-failed/What the warning means, why it comes and goes on its own, and the one install that fixes it for good — plus how to check whether you are actually affected before changing anything.Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.tbd.yt/blog/yt-dlp-sign-in-to-confirm-youre-not-a-bot/https://www.tbd.yt/blog/yt-dlp-sign-in-to-confirm-youre-not-a-bot/What the error actually means, the fixes in order of how long each one lasts, and the two that make things worse.Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMThttps://www.tbd.yt/blog/yt-dlp-http-error-403-429/https://www.tbd.yt/blog/yt-dlp-http-error-403-429/Three different failures that get treated as one. How to tell which you have, what fixes each, and why the most-repeated advice makes 429 permanently worse.Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT