__hetz

I can say that TubeArchivist is essentially single-user. Multiple accounts on a single TA instance will share the same underlying library with a ./library_dir/channel_id/video_id.ext directory structure. You could run an instance per user for individual TA libraries but, last I looked, the Jellyfin plugin doesn’t support multiple TA instances so it still wouldn’t be able to get the metadata from any instance(s) other than the one it’s configured to. It was a requested feature, on the plugin’s GitHub, but I’m not sure if it’s actively being implemented. The only workaround I can think of for now would be using a shared TA library and then manually tagging the videos in JF and using parental controls to hide them. Billy won’t see vids tagged #SusieYT, Susie has #BillyYT added to her blacklist, etc.

Gotcha, that sheds more light. For your use case you’d need to script up some solution that parses the URLs from the feed(s) and sends them to TA’s API. I don’t think it’d be terribly difficult but, if I wasn’t concerned with actually saving the content, I’d turn to something like SmartTube/FreeTube/etc for simplicity and to just stream it.

For OP’s use case, throwing specific URLs at something which will download them and then have them pop up in Jellyfin, I can’t think of anything easier (at least after the initial setup) than TA. Unless any of the other suggestions here can also handle the metadata for JF, there’s gonna be a lot of manual work involved to have videos show up meaningfully and organized in JF.

TA is probably perfect, really. You get the TA Jellyfin plugin , mount TA’s library directory as read-only in Jellyfin, and add that mount as a “Shows” library with TA as the sole metadata provider. Channels become “Show” names and “Seasons” are the upload year. One-way or bi-directional watch progress between JF and TA. I don’t use the feature but I think it supports some sort of organizing by YouTube playlist these days too, maybe as “Collections.”

The only issue I’ve had is JF seems to do some built-in stuff when it comes to filling in metadata based on file names. Occasionally an “S0” or “E12”, as examples, will erroneously put a video into “Specials” (Season 0) or give an “Episode 12” where there shouldn’t be if those or similar substrings are in the Video ID (which is also the filename). My hackish solution, for a while, was a script that ran a sqlite command against the Jellyfin DB to find any videos in the YouTube library with not null episode numbers and set them to null, and also set unexpected seasons to the year of the video’s upload.

I had it automated to run right after my scheduled TA downloads completed but it felt a bit wrong doing that on live DB. So now I just periodically run the query, sans the updating, then fix the metadata from within JF’s UI if there are any query results. I could see that being a little irksome, and beyond what non-hobbyists could figure out, but it’s honestly a small price for me when it means I have all my archived YouTube content organized, with descriptions and thumbnails, with no other real work on my part.

Don’t know if I can pick a favorite but I’m often the most happy when I’m actively using Homebox and LubeLogger. I track my tools with the former and track service records, parts inventory, mileage and such with the latter. If I’m using those services extensively it’s because I’m wrenching on something and adding more RockAuto magnets to my collection. Even when the circumstances suck, I genuinely enjoy an opportunity to take things apart, tinker and repair them.

No longer directly related to self hosting

I like busting out the jack and stands, reefing on a breaker bar, field repairs that succeed in getting out of a bind without waiting 2 hours for a tow bill in the hundreds of dollars, then making it home safely and doing it the right way, meticulously cleaning gasket surfaces… It’s zen for me and I don’t know why. The same reason I enjoy stripping down a firearm and cleaning it more than the day at the range leading up to that point. Or why I’ll go through the trouble of disassembling a $30 tower fan to extract every bit of dust and pet hair that has found it’s way trapped inside. I couldn’t pay someone else to do that for less than the damn thing costs… I just know that I can do it and feel compelled to. I might be an overgrown gnome.

I’ve got the family’s vehicles in LubeLogger, having become the mechanic for anything short of transmission problems or requiring welding or a machine shop. The riding mower is in there too just because. It’s never often enough and I’m tempted to find a bike or an old beater I can tune up just to have a project that doesn’t have me sitting at the keyboard.