Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2018 December 17

= December 17 =

Need help with Python and a Firefox plugin to download YT playlists
So I've come upon this helpful thread on how to download entire playlists from YouTube. However, all this Python coding and programming BS is just beyond me. What does the guy mean by "adding" VLC and youtube-dl, and how do I do this? I've barely managed to install Python and youtube-dl (though I'm not even sure if I've even managed to install the latter), and when I use the "add" button, I can only paste something into two boxes which looks like a.) custom program name, and b.) required program path.

However no matter what I do, I don't seem to get VLC and youtube-dl "added", all I've managed is to make self-titled entries show in the addon options page that seem to be pointing nowhere and where (unlike in that guy's screenshot of how it's supposed to look) not even a logo shows up next to the self-titled name that I gave it. I can now right-click on any link and go "Open with...youtube-dl" or "Open with...VLC", but neither of them does anything at all. --46.93.158.170 (talk) 11:32, 17 December 2018 (UTC)


 * Hm. I seem to have at least made VLC available to the plugin now, but when I go to "Open with...VLC" like the linked thread is telling me to, no download of the entire playlist happens, it only opens one single video in VLC from cache. --46.93.158.170 (talk) 11:37, 17 December 2018 (UTC)


 * Dammit, after downloading YouTube DL GUI (which, of course, only worked as a GUI to download single videos, not playlists) that I came upon by mere chance while googling desperately for youtube-dl's documentary, I actually had to write my own Python programming script. Of course, *NOTHING WHATSOEVER* works how the youtube-dl documentation claims it does *AT ALL*. *NOT A SINGLE ONE* of those "official" commands and options seem to even be recognized by youtube-dl, nor does the bare-bones download of youtube.dl *WITHOUT A GUI* from Github even just provide a program that can be used in command prompt, only lots of stupid "py" files that Windows can't even seem to be able to use or recognize. Only the third-party GUI comes with an actually executable .exe that it runs from cache, as it shows you in the program options via a file path to a temporary folder, after you've hit a "DOWNLOAD .exe" button in the GUI. So I could at least execute this temporary cache .exe via command prompt while the GUI was open, whereby I found out that it recognizes none of the "official commands" at all.


 * So, no way to tell youtube-dl to simply extract the audio from the videos and only download those or specifically which items I want from the YouTube playlist, not even any way to specifiy a download folder other than the contemporary cache folder, but *DAMN*, the Python programming script I finally came up with during a course of maybe 2 hours of trying one script after another did at least download the entire playlist, and the programming script looks like this: [TEMPORARY CACHE]\youtube-dl.exe [PLAYLIST URL]. Phew!


 * In any case, that entire thread I've linked in my OP above is entirely misleading. You don't need any plugin for Firefox, all you need is to install Python and then YouTube DL GUI which will temporarily download you an .exe that you can use in command prompt. Even though it recognizes none of the commands and options from the official youtube-dl documentation, it can at least be used via command prompt to download entire YouTube playlists in one go. --46.93.158.170 (talk) 12:47, 17 December 2018 (UTC)
 * I have no comment on your other problems but youtube-dl does explicitly provide a command line Windows executable that comes with Python and should work without requiring any additional dependencies. I used it myself about 3 weeks ago. This is the link [//yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl.exe]. It is from this page [//rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/] where it is described thusly "" where Windows executable is the link.  It is also listed here [//youtube-dl.org] "" and here [//github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/README.md#installation] "" so shouldn't be hard to find.  Note that when I used youtube-dl ~3 weeks ago, several command line options did seem to work as expected. As said, I did use the Windows executable provided by someone in the dev team and not random versions from random GUIs or whatever so that could be the reason.  I actually ended up using streamlink  [//github.com/streamlink/streamlink] not youtube-dl in the end since I couldn't work out or maybe it wasn't possible [//github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/11618] [//stackoverflow.com/questions/37040798/how-do-you-use-youtube-dl-to-download-live-streams-that-are-live] to download an ongoing live stream from the ~earliest possible. Although I can't explicitly remember if I tried the -live-restart option [//github.com/streamlink/streamlink/issues/878] but do remember there was some weirdness with the hls options I did try although it seemed to be a Youtube compatibility issue and not because youtube-dl wasn't working as expected. (Not strictly the beginning/start since it was Al Jazeera so it's one of those continuous live streams that goes back about 4 hours at any one time.) But I was able to use youtube-dl to download from the current position.  Nil Einne (talk) 03:12, 18 December 2018 (UTC)

Alphabet Ink corporate office phone number
I need to contact someone at the Corporate Headquarters of Alphabet Inc but I’m having difficulty finding a phone number or email. Does anyone have that information? I have called directory assistance and news papers in Mountain View, CA and searched the Internet but have been unsuccessful. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.103.117.30 (talk) 17:31, 17 December 2018 (UTC)


 * We have an article Alphabet Inc. that gives the headquarters location as Googleplex, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, California, U.S. and their website that invites investor contact at an email address given at the bottom at this link. DroneB (talk) 17:54, 17 December 2018 (UTC)