TCS.YoutubePlayer

A Unity package for YouTube video playback with automatic tool management, supporting both streaming and download functionalities.

Features

• Direct YouTube video playback from URLs
• Dual playback modes: streaming and download
• Automatic external tool downloading (yt-dlp & FFmpeg)
• Comprehensive playback controls (play, pause, seek, speed, volume)
• Intelligent URL caching with expiration management
• Cross-platform architecture (Windows, macOS, Linux)
• Unity UI Toolkit integration
• Modern async/await programming patterns

Installation

Unity Package Manager

1. Open Unity Package Manager (Window > Package Manager)
2. Click the + button and select Add package from git URL
3. Enter: https://github.com/Ddemon26/TCS.YoutubePlayer.git

Manual Installation

1. Download the latest release from Releases
2. Extract to your Unity project's Assets folder
3. Unity will automatically import the package

Requirements

• Unity Editor 2020.3 or newer
• Internet connection for automatic tool downloads on first use
• Windows (full support), macOS/Linux (planned)

Quick Start

1. Add the prefab: Drag Runtime/Prefabs/YoutubePlayer.prefab to your scene
2. Configure settings: Set download permissions in the Inspector
3. Call PlayVideo(url) to play a YouTube video

using TCS.YoutubePlayer;

public class VideoController : MonoBehaviour 
{
    [SerializeField] YoutubePlayer youtubePlayer;
    
    void Start() 
    {
        youtubePlayer.PlayVideo("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ");
    }
}

Configuration

External Tools Setup

The system automatically downloads and manages external tools:

• yt-dlp.exe - Latest version from GitHub releases
• FFmpeg Essentials - From gyan.dev

Download Location: Assets/StreamingAssets/

StreamingAssets/
├── yt-dlp/Windows/yt-dlp.exe
└── ffmpeg/Windows/bin/ffmpeg.exe

Manual Override

For custom tool versions:

1. Place executables at the expected paths in StreamingAssets
2. Create/update tool_versions.json to prevent re-downloads

Platform Support

Platform	Status	Notes
Windows	Full Support	Automatic downloads available
macOS	Planned	Manual installation required
Linux	Planned	Manual installation required

Troubleshooting

Chrome/Edge flags yt-dlp as malicious

Some browsers, like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, may incorrectly flag yt-dlp.exe as malicious due to its nature as a command-line downloader. This is a false positive. If you encounter issues downloading the tools, using a different browser like Mozilla Firefox is recommended.

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feature/your-feature
3. Make your changes and commit: git commit -m 'Add your feature'
4. Push to the branch: git push origin feature/your-feature
5. Open a Pull Request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• yt-dlp - YouTube video extraction
• FFmpeg - Video processing and conversion