Video Clipping Expert Knowledge

Cross-Platform Notes

All tools (ffmpeg, ffprobe, yt-dlp, whisper) use identical CLI flags on Windows, macOS, and Linux. The differences are only in shell syntax:

Feature	macOS / Linux	Windows (cmd.exe)
Suppress stderr	2>/dev/null	2>NUL
Filter output	| grep pattern	| findstr pattern
Delete files	rm file1 file2	del file1 file2
Null output device	-f null -	-f null - (same)
ffmpeg subtitle paths	subtitles=clip.srt	subtitles=clip.srt (relative OK, absolute needs C\\:/path)

IMPORTANT: ffmpeg filter paths (-vf "subtitles=...") always need forward slashes. On Windows with absolute paths, escape the colon: subtitles=C\\:/Users/me/clip.srt

Prefer using file_write tool for creating SRT/text files instead of shell echo/heredoc.

---

yt-dlp Reference

Download with Format Selection

# Best video up to 1080p + best audio, merged
yt-dlp -f "bv[height<=1080]+ba/b[height<=1080]" --restrict-filenames -o "source.%(ext)s" "URL"

# 720p max (smaller, faster)
yt-dlp -f "bv[height<=720]+ba/b[height<=720]" --restrict-filenames -o "source.%(ext)s" "URL"

# Audio only (for transcription-only workflows)
yt-dlp -x --audio-format wav --restrict-filenames -o "audio.%(ext)s" "URL"

Metadata Inspection

# Get full metadata as JSON (duration, title, chapters, available subs)
yt-dlp --dump-json "URL"

# Key fields: duration, title, description, chapters, subtitles, automatic_captions

YouTube Auto-Subtitles

# Download auto-generated subtitles in json3 format (word-level timing)
yt-dlp --write-auto-subs --sub-lang en --sub-format json3 --skip-download --restrict-filenames -o "source" "URL"

# Download manual subtitles if available
yt-dlp --write-subs --sub-lang en --sub-format srt --skip-download --restrict-filenames -o "source" "URL"