VideoAd — Open Source Video & Audio Downloader

A self-hosted, zero-cloud video and audio downloader powered by a local Node.js server and a companion Chrome Extension.
Download videos, audio, and reels from YouTube, Instagram, and 1000+ supported sites — all from your own machine.

🚀 Quick Start · 📖 Features · 🔌 Extension Setup · 🛠 Architecture · 🤝 Contributing

Important

🚀 One-Click Windows Installation:

Method A (Easiest): Open PowerShell (or Command Prompt) and run this one-line command to download and start the installer immediately:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "Invoke-WebRequest -Uri 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Saarangggg/videoad/main/install_videoad.bat' -OutFile (Join-Path $env:USERPROFILE 'Desktop\install_videoad.bat') -UseBasicParsing; Start-Process -FilePath (Join-Path $env:USERPROFILE 'Desktop\install_videoad.bat') -Verb RunAs"

Method B: Right-click this link (install_videoad.bat) and choose "Save link as..." or "Save target as..." to download it directly as a .bat file (do not left-click it directly, or Chrome will just show it as text). Double-click the saved file to run.

📖 What is VideoAd?

VideoAd is a fully open-source, locally hosted media downloader developed by 5araang that runs entirely on your own computer — no cloud servers, no subscriptions, no data collection. It pairs a sleek web dashboard (served at http://localhost:48774) with a Chrome Extension that detects videos on any webpage and lets you download them instantly with one click.

It is built on top of yt-dlp — the world's most powerful open-source media extractor — and supports 1000+ websites out of the box including YouTube, Instagram, Twitter/X, Reddit, Vimeo, TikTok, SoundCloud, and more.

Why self-hosted? Developed by 5araang with absolute privacy in mind. No rate limits. No ads. No accounts. No sending your history to a third-party server. Your downloads, your machine.

✨ Features

Feature	Description
🎬 Video Downloads	Download best quality MP4 — or choose a specific resolution (1080p, 720p, 480p…)
🎵 Audio Extraction	Rip audio as high-quality MP3 directly from any video
📸 Instagram Reels	Download Instagram Reels and posts using one-click cookie connect
🔍 On-Page Media Detector	A floating toast appears automatically when a video is detected on any webpage
🖱 Right-Click Context Menu	Right-click any video link or page to trigger an instant download
📊 Live Download Progress	Real-time progress bar, speed, and ETA shown in the extension popup
🌐 1000+ Sites Supported	Powered by yt-dlp — works on YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter, Reddit, TikTok, and hundreds more
🔒 100% Local & Private	All downloads happen on your own machine — no external servers involved
⚡ Auto-Setup Installer	One-click `install_videoad.bat` downloads `yt-dlp` and `ffmpeg` automatically if missing
🛡 Ad & Tracker Blocker	Built-in blocker for video ads, banners, trackers, popup tabs, YouTube Music ads, and Instagram story ads
🔌 Chrome Extension	Companion extension for in-page detection, popup controls, and download triggering

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

Windows (10 or 11)
Node.js v18 or newer
Google Chrome browser

💾 Installation

To download and install VideoAd automatically on Windows:

⚡ Easiest: Run in PowerShell

Copy and paste this single command into your Windows PowerShell and press Enter. It will automatically download the installer, prompt for Admin elevation, and complete the setup:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "Invoke-WebRequest -Uri 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Saarangggg/videoad/main/install_videoad.bat' -OutFile (Join-Path $env:USERPROFILE 'Desktop\install_videoad.bat') -UseBasicParsing; Start-Process -FilePath (Join-Path $env:USERPROFILE 'Desktop\install_videoad.bat') -Verb RunAs"

📥 Alternative: Manual Download

Right-click this link (install_videoad.bat) and choose "Save link as..." or "Save target as..." to save the file to your computer. (Do not left-click it directly, or your browser will display the script's raw code as text.)
Double-click the downloaded install_videoad.bat file to run the installer.

What the installer does:

✅ Checks for Node.js.
✅ Creates a clean directory at C:\VideoAd and extracts the source code.
✅ Downloads standalone yt-dlp.exe and ffmpeg.exe binaries directly into C:\VideoAd.
✅ Installs all Node.js dependencies (npm install --production).
✅ Configures the videoad:// custom protocol handler for background launcher integration.
✅ Places a VideoAd Downloader shortcut on your Desktop.
✅ Starts the server silently in the background and opens the dashboard.

💻 Manual Clone Setup

If you prefer to clone the repository manually:

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/Saarangggg/videoad.git
cd videoad

Double-click install_videoad.bat (it will elevate to Admin, copy files to C:\VideoAd, and set up the silent background shortcut exactly like the one-click installer).

🔌 Chrome Extension Setup

Once setup is complete, load the Chrome Extension:

Open Chrome and navigate to chrome://extensions/
Enable Developer mode (toggle switch in the top-right corner).
Click "Load unpacked".
Select the C:\VideoAd\chrome-extension directory (or the chrome-extension/ folder inside your manual clone).
The VideoAd icon will appear in your toolbar. Open it and verify the status shows Connected.

🛡 Ad & Tracker Blocker

VideoAd includes a built-in, dynamic ad-blocking system inside the companion Chrome Extension:

Automatic Ad Skipping: Instantly skips video ads on YouTube and audio ads on YouTube Music (playback is muted and speed-boosted to 16x, automatically clicking the skip button).
Instagram Ad Skippers: Auto-skips sponsored Stories slides and hides sponsored posts from your home feed dynamically.
Redirection & Popunder Blocker: Intercepts and blocks programmatic popups and popunder ads (typical on movie/streaming sites) safely without violating Content Security Policy (CSP).
Clean Interface: Safely hides all visual display ads, companion ads, and sponsored banners without breaking main site navigation headers or video players.
Easy Toggle: Turn the ad blocker on or off at any time using the Ad & Tracker Blocker switch inside the extension settings panel.

🏃 Silent Background Running

VideoAd runs completely in the background with no terminal windows visible.

When you double-click the VideoAd Downloader Desktop shortcut, it starts silently and opens your browser.
When the Chrome Extension detects a video and prompts you to start, it launches the server automatically in the background using the custom registered protocol.
The console log windows will never interrupt or clutter your desktop!

To stop the background server, open a command prompt and run:

taskkill /f /im node.exe

Connecting Instagram

Instagram downloads require your session cookies. The extension handles this safely:

Make sure you are logged into Instagram in Chrome
Open the extension popup → click the ⚙ Settings gear icon
In the Instagram section, click "Connect"
The status dot turns 🟢 green once your session cookies are saved locally
You can now download any Instagram Reel or post without interruption

Your cookies are saved locally on your machine in instagram_cookies.txt — they are never sent anywhere externally.

🗑 Uninstalling

To completely remove VideoAd from your system:

⚡ Easiest: Run in PowerShell

Copy and paste this single command into your Windows PowerShell and press Enter to stop the server, delete custom protocol registry keys, delete Desktop shortcuts, and remove the C:\VideoAd installation folder:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "Invoke-WebRequest -Uri 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Saarangggg/videoad/main/uninstall_videoad.bat' -OutFile (Join-Path $env:USERPROFILE 'Desktop\uninstall_videoad.bat') -UseBasicParsing; Start-Process -FilePath (Join-Path $env:USERPROFILE 'Desktop\uninstall_videoad.bat') -Verb RunAs"

📥 Alternative: Manual Download

Right-click this link (uninstall_videoad.bat) and choose "Save link as..." to save the uninstaller script.
Double-click the downloaded uninstall_videoad.bat file to run the cleanup tool.

📁 Project Structure

videoad/
├── 📄 server.js                  # Express backend — yt-dlp orchestration + API
├── 📄 package.json               # Node.js dependencies
├── 📄 setup_and_run.bat          # One-click installer & launcher
├── 📄 run_downloader.bat         # Quick server restart shortcut (Desktop)
├── 📁 public/                    # Frontend web dashboard
│   ├── index.html                # Download UI (paste URL, view progress)
│   ├── app.js                    # Frontend logic
│   └── style.css                 # Glassmorphism dark UI styles
├── 📁 chrome-extension/          # Chrome Extension
│   ├── manifest.json             # Extension configuration (Manifest V3)
│   ├── popup.html                # Extension popup UI
│   ├── popup.js                  # Popup interaction logic
│   ├── background.js             # Service worker (context menus, messaging)
│   ├── content.js                # Bridge between page and background
│   ├── detector.js               # On-page media detection + floating toast
│   ├── detector.css              # Toast overlay styling
│   └── icon.png                  # Extension icon
├── 📁 downloads/                 # Temporary download storage (auto-cleaned)
├── 📄 .gitignore
└── 📄 README.md

🛠 Architecture

┌──────────────────────────────────┐
│         Chrome Browser           │
│                                  │
│  ┌────────────────────────────┐  │
│  │   Chrome Extension         │  │
│  │  ┌──────────┐ ┌─────────┐ │  │
│  │  │ popup.js │ │detector │ │  │
│  │  └──────────┘ └─────────┘ │  │
│  │       │ sendMessage        │  │
│  │  ┌────────────────────┐   │  │
│  │  │   background.js    │   │  │
│  │  │  (Service Worker)  │   │  │
│  │  └────────────────────┘   │  │
│  └────────────┬───────────────┘  │
│               │ HTTP fetch        │
└───────────────┼──────────────────┘
                ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────┐
│   Local Node.js Server :48774    │
│                                  │
│  POST /api/info    → yt-dlp      │
│  POST /api/download → yt-dlp     │
│  GET  /api/tasks   → progress    │
│  POST /api/save-cookies → file   │
│  GET  /api/instagram-cookie-status│
│                                  │
│   yt-dlp + ffmpeg (local bins)  │
└──────────────────────────────────┘

Technology Stack

Layer	Technology
Backend	Node.js · Express · child_process (spawn)
Media Extraction	yt-dlp (standalone binary)
Audio/Video Merge	FFmpeg (static binary)
Frontend UI	HTML5 · Vanilla JavaScript · CSS3 (Glassmorphism)
Extension	Chrome Extension Manifest V3 · Service Workers
Protocol Launcher	Windows Registry `HKCU\Software\Classes\videoad`

🌐 Supported Sites

VideoAd supports all sites supported by yt-dlp, including:

YouTube · Instagram · Twitter / X · TikTok · Reddit · Vimeo · Dailymotion · SoundCloud · Twitch · Facebook · Pinterest · LinkedIn · Bilibili · and 1000+ more →

🔧 Configuration & Usage

Starting the server manually

npm start
# Server runs at http://localhost:48774

API Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Description
`POST`	`/api/info`	Fetch video title, thumbnail, duration, formats
`POST`	`/api/download`	Start a background download task
`GET`	`/api/tasks`	List all active download tasks
`GET`	`/api/download-file/:id`	Serve a completed download file
`POST`	`/api/cancel/:id`	Cancel an active download
`POST`	`/api/save-cookies`	Save Instagram session cookies from extension
`GET`	`/api/instagram-cookie-status`	Check if Instagram cookies are saved
`GET`	`/api/extension-path`	Serve extension path for self-registration

Download Types

Type	Format	Notes
`video`	MP4 (best quality)	Merges best video + audio streams via FFmpeg
`audio`	MP3	Strips audio track and converts
`video` + resolution	MP4 (custom height)	e.g. limit to 720p

🛡 Privacy & Security

No telemetry — the app never phones home or logs anything externally.
No authentication — runs on localhost only (accessible from your LAN if needed).
Cookies stay local — Instagram session cookies are written to instagram_cookies.txt on your own machine only.
Auto file cleanup — downloaded files in the /downloads/ folder are automatically deleted after 1 hour.
.gitignore protected — instagram_cookies.txt, *.pem, node_modules/, and downloads/ are excluded from version control.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome and appreciated! Whether it's a bug fix, new feature, or documentation improvement.

How to Contribute

Fork the repository
Create a branch for your feature: git checkout -b feature/my-new-feature
Commit your changes: git commit -m "Add my feature"
Push to the branch: git push origin feature/my-new-feature
Open a Pull Request on GitHub

Ideas for Contributions

Add Firefox extension support
Subtitle/caption download option
Playlist batch download support
Download history / library view
macOS / Linux setup script equivalents
Cookie connect support for Twitter, TikTok

📋 Troubleshooting

Server won't start?

Make sure Node.js is installed: node --version
Delete node_modules/ and run npm install again

yt-dlp or ffmpeg not found?

Re-run setup_and_run.bat — it will re-download missing binaries automatically

Instagram downloads fail?

Make sure you're logged into Instagram in Chrome
Open the extension popup → Settings → Instagram → click Connect
The status dot must be 🟢 green before attempting a download

"Extension context invalidated" errors in console?

This is harmless — it happens when the extension reloads while pages are open
Reload the extension at chrome://extensions/ to reset

Chrome cookie database locked?

Do NOT use --cookies-from-browser manually — use the extension Connect button instead (it reads cookies through the Chrome API, bypassing the file lock entirely)

📜 License

This project is open source and available under the MIT License.

MIT License — Copyright (c) 2025 Saarang

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction...

⭐ Star History

If VideoAd has been useful to you, please consider giving it a ⭐ on GitHub — it helps others discover the project!

Made with ❤️ by Saarang (Instagram)

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Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 54 Commits
chrome-extension		chrome-extension
public		public
.gitignore		.gitignore
README.md		README.md
install_videoad.bat		install_videoad.bat
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json
server.js		server.js
uninstall_videoad.bat		uninstall_videoad.bat

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VideoAd — Open Source Video & Audio Downloader

📖 What is VideoAd?

✨ Features

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

💾 Installation

⚡ Easiest: Run in PowerShell

📥 Alternative: Manual Download

What the installer does:

💻 Manual Clone Setup

🔌 Chrome Extension Setup

🛡 Ad & Tracker Blocker

🏃 Silent Background Running

Connecting Instagram

🗑 Uninstalling

⚡ Easiest: Run in PowerShell

📥 Alternative: Manual Download

📁 Project Structure

🛠 Architecture

Technology Stack

🌐 Supported Sites

🔧 Configuration & Usage

Starting the server manually

API Endpoints

Download Types

🛡 Privacy & Security

🤝 Contributing

How to Contribute

Ideas for Contributions

📋 Troubleshooting

📜 License

⭐ Star History

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