How To Remove Art/Graphics From Downloaded Videos? UPDATED

[Kjennings92]

Well, the title kind of states it all: I want to know how one would edit art/graphics out of a video that was downloaded from Youtube?

 

In case you were wondering, the videos themselves don't contain regular video footage; just music, & I'm wanting to remove the artwork & any animations/graphics from them. But I'm not sure how I would go about doing so. [Considering I'm a newbie editor, I would very much appreciate someone providing me with a guide or some steps, etc. Also, which software/tools to use for this task?] 

 

If I ended up forgetting anything or you just need more details, please be sure to ask away & I'll do my best to answer your questions.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!  

[whispous]

Do you mean you just want the audio track?

[RONOTHAN##]

If you're saying you just want the audio track from the video, there are a couple tools that just strip the audio from the video. There are even ways to do it straight to youtube (ytmp3.cc is the first result from google)

[Kjennings92]

3 minutes ago, whispous said:

Do you mean you just want the audio track?

You are correct!

[Wictorian]

If you just want the audio you can turn it into .mp3 or any other audio format. Just google ” [insert your video format] to [insert audio format] converter]

If you just want constant blackness in the video you could do that with all software even built-in Windows software I suppose.

[Kjennings92]

Just now, RONOTHAN## said:

If you're saying you just want the audio track from the video, there are a couple tools that just strip the audio from the video. There are even ways to do it straight to youtube (ytmp3.cc is the first result from google)

I see what you're saying, but I already downloaded some of the files/tracks off of Youtube first. I just need a bit guidance as far wanting only the audio to remain...

[Kjennings92]

2 minutes ago, Wictorian said:

If you just want the audio you can turn it into .mp3 or any other audio format. Just google ” [insert your video format] to [insert audio format] converter]

If you just want constant blackness in the video you could do that with all software even built-in Windows software I suppose.

Hm. I was going to say I had to use Handbrake recently in order to get some of these videos to the right file types/formats I wanted. Is it possible Handbrake can simply remove the visuals so that only the audio will remain? 

[RONOTHAN##]

3 minutes ago, Kjennings92 said:

I see what you're saying, but I already downloaded some of the files/tracks off of Youtube first. I just need a bit guidance as far wanting only the audio to remain...

You should be able to do it with VLC. 

 

https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/2719/how-to-convert-video-files-formats-to-mp3-with-vlc/

 

 

[Kjennings92]

Just now, RONOTHAN## said:

You should be able to do it with VLC. 

 

https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/2719/how-to-convert-video-files-formats-to-mp3-with-vlc/

 

 

I might have to give this a try & see how it goes. But I thought there are better ways of converting your files other than using VLC? I'm not sure if it's the best, but pretty certain I haven't tried converting any files via VLC.

[RONOTHAN##]

Just now, Kjennings92 said:

I might have to give this a try & see how it goes. But I thought there are better ways of converting your files other than using VLC? I'm not sure if it's the best, but pretty certain I haven't tried converting any files via VLC.

There are some ones other programs dedicated to doing it, but I don't really know them off hand since VLC works fine enough (plus most people have it installed). Web converters have more or less taken over for this type of thing, so while you can find pieces of software dedicated to it, its usually not worth the download.

[Kjennings92]

1 minute ago, RONOTHAN## said:

There are some ones other programs dedicated to doing it, but I don't really know them off hand since VLC works fine enough (plus most people have it installed). Web converters have more or less taken over for this type of thing, so while you can find pieces of software dedicated to it, its usually not worth the download.

I see. Well, thanks for the tip! 

[GuiltySpark_]

4 minutes ago, Kjennings92 said:

I see. Well, thanks for the tip! 

You could have this complete in a matter of seconds if you just post the link to the Youtube video in any number of sites that do this kind of thing. I know you say you downloaded the video already but it doesn't really matter if you're just looking to get a quick .mp3 copy of the audio.

[Kjennings92]

2 minutes ago, rickeo said:

You could have this complete in a matter of seconds if you just post the link to the Youtube video in any number of sites that do this kind of thing. I know you say you downloaded the video already but it doesn't really matter if you're just looking to get a quick .mp3 copy of the audio.

I'll bear that in mind of course, but I'll try the VLC method first which should just straight up work. Thanks the suggestion though!

[Kilrah]

avidemux, open file, audio->save audio track.

[Latvian Video]

29 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

If you're saying you just want the audio track from the video, there are a couple tools that just strip the audio from the video. There are even ways to do it straight to youtube (ytmp3.cc is the first result from google)

I have used ytmp3.cc, it has worked well, but I switched to downloading the video with youtube-dl and converting it with ffmpeg, because youtube or youtube-dl changed something, so the files cant be played in winamp

[Kjennings92]

2 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

avidemux, open file, audio->save audio track.

Never heard of avidemux, but I think I'll stick with the VLC method since it was recommended to me. Plus, I've VLC before. No hard feelings.

[Kjennings92]

2 minutes ago, Latvian Video said:

I have used ytmp3.cc, it has worked well, but I switched to downloading the video with youtube-dl and converting it with ffmpeg, because youtube or youtube-dl changed something, so the files cant be played in winamp

You know it's going to be a bit hit & miss when it comes to sites that can do this right? No offense, but I think the software-route is the better method, but I'm not claiming to be an expert... 

[mariushm]

MeGUI has an option in the menu to extract video or audio or subtitle tracks from a video file.

The tool is here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/megui/

 

You can also download Youtube videos using a tool like JDownloader : https://jdownloader.org/download/index

Paste the url in the software, and select only the audio part to download.

There's also browser extensions that let you do that. In Firefox this addon works very well : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube_downloader_webx/?utm_source=addons.mozilla.org&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=search

 

It adds a button under the video that you can click and just select the audio if you want only that (i recommend opus as should be best quality, followed by mp4a / aac )

[Latvian Video]

9 minutes ago, Kjennings92 said:

You know it's going to be a bit hit & miss when it comes to sites that can do this right? No offense, but I think the software-route is the better method, but I'm not claiming to be an expert... 

Some are better, some are worse, the software method is better, but the website method is more convenient and faster

[Kjennings92]

Just now, Latvian Video said:

Some are better, some are worse, the software method is better, but the website method is more convenient and faster

Maybe, but that matter is subjective to say the least.

[Kjennings92]

OK, quick question I just thought of BEFORE I try the VLC method: I know all that's involved in this process is you convert the files you want to mp3 & in my case, the artwork & any graphics, etc will be removed. But for the project I'm working on, since I'll be adding my own artwork that I found anyway, should I just convert them to MP4 instead?  (Not sure if doing that will remove the art/graphics/animations, but I want a 2nd opinion or so on the matter...)

[mariushm]

You should NOT convert to mp3.

 

Youtube serves you video and audio in various formats.  For video, it uses AV1 or VP9 or H264 codecs.  For audio, it also uses multiple formats, but mostly AAC and Opus

 

As you can see in the picture below, for that LinusTechTips video, the downloader I suggested gives you the option to save

1. M4A -  AAC in MP4 container - so you download a M4A file, which is a mp4 file with just audio

2. AAC in the AAC container, raw aac  - you can open it with music players like foobar2000 or media player classic home cinema and it just plays.

3.  Opus audio in OGG container  - opus audio is better than AAC and it's open source codec

 

You can mix these formats with your video with a tool like  MKVToolnix for example. 

And a lot of video editors can work directly with m4a audio files, or even AAC files.... AAC codec used in both is standard, very common.

 

If you try to convert to mp3 , it's like opening a JPG picture and saving it again as JPG - you pointlessly lose some quality.

 

In the picture below, if you want to download just the audio, you can simply delete the video track and the application will download just the audio and the rest (close caption text ) if you leave them for download.

 

 

[Kjennings92]

1 minute ago, mariushm said:

You should NOT convert to mp3.

 

Youtube serves you video and audio in various formats.  For video, it uses AV1 or VP9 or H264 codecs.  For audio, it also uses multiple formats, but mostly AAC and Opus

 

As you can see in the picture below, for that LinusTechTips video, the downloader I suggested gives you the option to save

1. M4A -  AAC in MP4 container - so you download a M4A file, which is a mp4 file with just audio

2. AAC in the AAC container, raw aac  - you can open it with music players like foobar2000 or media player classic home cinema and it just plays.

3.  Opus audio in OGG container  - opus audio is better than AAC and it's open source codec

 

You can mix these formats with your video with a tool like  MKVToolnix for example. 

And a lot of video editors can work directly with m4a audio files, or even AAC files.... AAC codec used in both is standard, very common.

 

If you try to convert to mp3 , it's like opening a JPG picture and saving it again as JPG - you pointlessly lose some quality.

 

In the picture below, if you want to download just the audio, you can simply delete the video track and the application will download just the audio and the rest (close caption text ) if you leave them for download.

 

 

Hm, Am I going to have to re-download all the tracks I acquired? I should mention I used ClipGrab to get them.