PeerTube Video Downloader
One tool for every PeerTube instance — paste a URL from any server in the fediverse and keep the MP4.
Why download PeerTube videos with ViralMint?
PeerTube has no single website. It is thousands of independently-run instances federating with each other, which is why platform-specific downloaders never work on it — there is no one domain to target. ViralMint detects the PeerTube API on whatever host you paste, so framatube.org, tilvids.com and someone's self-hosted server all behave identically. Most instances serve plain progressive MP4 files, so downloads are a direct fetch with no segment stitching and no quality loss; some larger ones use HLS, which is handled the same way. Many PeerTube uploads are Creative Commons licensed and some instances put a download button right on the page — this is for the ones that do not, and for pulling several videos at once (paste up to 20 URLs, one per line). Since PeerTube is federated, the same video may exist on several instances; downloading from the origin instance gets you the best available rendition.
How to download from PeerTube
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Copy the PeerTube video URL
From joinpeertube.org, copy the share or page URL — e.g.
https://framatube.org/w/abcdefghijklmnop -
Paste it into ViralMint
Open the ViralMint desktop app and paste the URL into chat. The planner detects the PeerTube URL and triggers the download automatically — no flags, no command line.
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Get the mp4, transcript and AI insights
The video lands in the Videos page with a local Whisper transcript and AI-extracted hook / structure / tone — ready for clip extraction or repurposing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does this work on my own self-hosted instance?
Yes. Detection is based on the PeerTube API the instance exposes, not on a list of known domains, so any standard instance works — including one you run yourself on a domain nobody has ever seen.
Is downloading PeerTube videos allowed?
It depends on the licence the uploader chose, and PeerTube shows it on the video page — a lot of content is explicitly Creative Commons. Check the licence and respect it; the tool does not change what you are permitted to do with the file.
The same video appears on several instances. Which should I use?
The origin instance, where it was uploaded. Federated copies may only mirror metadata or a lower rendition, so going to the source gets you the best quality available.
How ViralMint compares to other PeerTube downloaders
| Approach | Examples | Trade-off | ViralMint advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online converters | Y2mate, SaveFrom, ssyoutube, OnlineVideoConverter | Pop-up ads, redirects, quality capped at 720p, file-size limits, no batch downloads, your URL logged to ad networks | Local app, zero ads, original quality (up to Original upload (up to 4K on some instances)), unlimited file size, batch mode |
| Browser extensions | Video DownloadHelper, FastestTube, similar Chrome / Firefox add-ons | Routinely broken after PeerTube updates, removed from stores for ToS violations, no transcript or AI analysis | Updates with yt-dlp upstream (community-maintained), independent of browser extension stores, Whisper transcript built in |
| yt-dlp command line | yt-dlp, youtube-dl | Most flexible option but requires terminal comfort, manual cookie handling, no GUI for batch selection | Same yt-dlp under the hood, wrapped in a desktop GUI with cookie auto-detect, batch UI, and post-processing pipeline |
| Closed-source desktop apps | 4K Video Downloader, Allavsoft, ByClick Downloader | Closed-source, paid tiers gate batch and HD, no AI pipeline, no extensible Whisper / FFmpeg post-processing | Open source (AGPL-3.0), AI features prepaid per-action, integrates with the rest of the ViralMint creator pipeline |
Supported URL Example
https://framatube.org/w/abcdefghijklmnopEquivalent yt-dlp command
If you already use yt-dlp, the desktop app's PeerTube download is equivalent to running:
yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b" --merge-output-format mp4 "https://framatube.org/w/abcdefghijklmnop"ViralMint also auto-runs Whisper transcription, downloads the thumbnail, and extracts AI hook / structure / tone insights — steps that take a separate command chain in raw yt-dlp.