B-ROLL Settings and Advanced Options Explained

Where are B-ROLL’s settings?#

B-ROLL spreads its settings over four spots: the main window rows, Advanced options (the three-dot button next to Subtitles), Settings (the gear button) and the globe button for language. The main window holds per-download choices; the other three hold what you set once.

This reference table lists every B-ROLL setting, where it lives, its options and its default, with labels as the app shows them.

Two defaults matter for bulk work: channel downloads are off by default, and playlists default to Ask, so a playlist link asks before it queues anything. Every page in B-ROLL features for video editors assumes these defaults unless it says otherwise.

What do B-ROLL’s Advanced options do?#

B-ROLL’s Advanced options decide how much of a video you get and what happens with playlist, channel and credits downloads. Open them with the three-dot button next to Subtitles; the label shows a dot while a part mode is on.

Part of a video has three modes. Whole video is the default. Only a part, ask me which each time opens the preview and trim player for a single link when VLC is installed, or a small Download which part? prompt otherwise. Only a part, use the default below applies the Start and End fields to every download.

The app’s own time rule for those fields: “A number = minutes (2 = 2:00). Use m:ss for exact (e.g. 1:30).” The YouTube clip downloader with preview and in/out points walks through marking several parts of one video.

Exact frame cut (slower, re-encodes) adds yt-dlp’s --force-keyframes-at-cuts option, which the yt-dlp README describes as slow because it re-encodes. Off, B-ROLL cuts on keyframes, so a clip can start a moment before your in point. The preview player follows this checkbox and has no switch of its own. The trade-off is laid out in keyframe cut vs frame-exact cut for YouTube clips.

Download playlists and Download channels each take No, Ask or Yes. On Ask, a watch link that belongs to a playlist asks “Download just this video, or the whole playlist?”; Yes or No answers for you. With channels on No, a channel link shows “Channel downloads are off: enable in Advanced.” and nothing is queued. The YouTube playlist and channel downloader covers the dialog that opens once they are on.

Save credits (attribution) for each download is on by default. B-ROLL writes a .credits.txt next to every file and appends the same block to credits.txt in the folder; the automatic credit files for every YouTube download page shows the template.

What is in B-ROLL’s Settings window?#

B-ROLL’s Settings window, behind the gear button, holds four options: Open B-ROLL at login, Use browser login for age-restricted videos, Open files with and Cookies file.

Open B-ROLL at login is off by default. When you switch it on, B-ROLL writes the value BROLL under HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run, the per-user key that Microsoft documents as running a program every time the user logs on. Turn it off before you uninstall, or the entry stays behind.

Use browser login for age-restricted videos is on by default. With no cookies file set, B-ROLL lets yt-dlp read the YouTube login of your installed browsers after a sign-in error. As of September 2026, yt-dlp often cannot read Chrome, Edge or Brave cookies while that browser, or its background process, runs, so Firefox or a cookies file are the dependable routes.

Open files with picks the player that Open file uses on a finished card: the system default, a media player B-ROLL finds on your PC, or a player you pick with Browse….

Cookies file (for sign-in / restricted videos) takes a cookies.txt through Choose… or the drop zone. B-ROLL copies it to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Broll\cookies.txt and uses it for every download from then on. Exporting, loading and refreshing that file is covered in YouTube cookies.txt: export, use and refresh it.

Where does B-ROLL save files by default?#

B-ROLL saves every download to %USERPROFILE%\Downloads until you pick another folder in the SAVE TO row. Change opens a folder picker, the small menu lists your real Downloads folder (OneDrive included) and up to 6 recent folders, and Open folder opens Explorer.

Audio can go elsewhere. Switch on Save audio to a different folder and a second SAVE TO row appears: Audio downloads land there, video downloads stay in the main folder.

Bulk downloads add one level. A playlist page link or a channel link saves into a subfolder named after the channel (for a playlist, the channel of its first video, or “channel” when none is found), while Whole playlist chosen from a watch link goes into the main folder. Subtitles in SRT, ASS or VTT sit next to the video, moving into a “Title - subtitles” folder when there is more than one.

B-ROLL’s own tools and settings never mix with your footage: they live in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Broll. Your first download is shown step by step in how to install B-ROLL and download your first video.

Which choices does B-ROLL remember between sessions?#

B-ROLL remembers every choice in the reference table: it writes them to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Broll\config.json and restores them at the next launch, including the part-of-a-video mode and its default Start and End.

Type, Quality and Format are stored twice, once for Video and once for Audio. Switch to Audio and your last audio format returns.

The same file also keeps your recent folders, the version you told the update dialog to skip, and the last 200 finished downloads, which come back as cards in Completed. The download log is the exception: it lives in memory for the session only.

The portable exe uses the same %LOCALAPPDATA%\Broll folder, so its settings stay on that PC rather than next to the exe. Uninstalling B-ROLL leaves the folder in place, with settings, history and any cookies.txt; delete it by hand for a full removal.

What does the TOOLS section of the Advanced panel do?#

The TOOLS section sits in the sidebar Advanced panel, which is separate from the Advanced options menu. It shows whether yt-dlp, ffmpeg and the JS runtime (Deno) are ready, and it holds four repair and support actions. Opening the panel also shows the log under the download list.

A common case for Reinstall tools: when an ffmpeg was already on your Windows PATH at first launch, B-ROLL skips its own ffmpeg and Deno, and TOOLS shows “JS runtime: missing”. The Report a bug message includes the last 4,000 characters of the log while Include the download log stays ticked.