Guides: YouTube Footage from Download to Timeline

Which guide fits your editing software?

DaVinci Resolve and Premiere Pro each get a footage guide and a subtitle guide, because the two handle YouTube files and .srt imports differently.

The table matches each editing app to its guides and edit-ready file.

Editing software	Footage guide	Subtitle guide	Edit-ready file
DaVinci Resolve, free or Studio	YouTube videos for DaVinci Resolve	YouTube subtitles in DaVinci Resolve	DNxHR or ProRes .mov
Premiere Pro	YouTube videos for Premiere Pro and After Effects	YouTube subtitles in Premiere Pro	ProRes or DNxHR .mov
After Effects	The Premiere Pro guide, same files	Not applicable	ProRes or DNxHR .mov

As of September 2026, an MP4 download keeps YouTube’s own codec, often VP9 or AV1. On Ema Zamboni’s Resolve timeline, 4K60 AV1 was heavy to play back and AV1 or VP9 files crashed Resolve at times. Pick ProRes or DNx as the Format and B-ROLL converts each download automatically, keeping resolution and frame rate.

How do you get only the part of a video you need?

Downloading part of a YouTube video means fetching only the range between an in point and an out point. Download part of a YouTube video compares B-ROLL, yt-dlp and online cutters.

In B-ROLL you mark the range in the preview player, which needs VLC installed, or type the Start and End times. Each clip is saved as Title [mm-ss to mm-ss], with a fast keyframe cut by default or a frame-exact cut that re-encodes. B-ROLL prefers HLS streams for clips, which fixed stalls on ranges deep inside long videos.

For documentary work, b-roll from YouTube: rights, clips, codecs and credits covers the full job, starting with footage you have the right to use: your own uploads, Creative Commons, licensed or permitted material.

How do you work with subtitles and transcripts?

B-ROLL saves YouTube subtitles as SRT, ASS or VTT files next to the video, or embeds them in MP4, MKV and MOV files, from the Subtitles menu beside Format. The language dialog splits tracks into official and auto-generated, so you choose captions on purpose.

Auto captions need cleanup: download YouTube auto-generated captions as SRT covers the errors and repeated lines. A subtitle file is also a timecoded transcript: a paper edit from a YouTube transcript turns its timecodes into in and out points. Subtitles always cover the whole video and are not embedded in clips, so shift a clip’s subtitle track by its in point.

How do you keep a growing footage library in order?

A footage library stays in order when every file names its source and time range and has a credit beside it. B-ROLL writes a .credits.txt next to each download and appends the same block to a credits.txt for the folder.

How to organize downloaded YouTube clips builds folders and matching bins around those files, and how to collect and track clips for a video essay runs from a bookmarks folder to named ranges. To back up your own YouTube channel, switch on channel downloads in Advanced options first.

The credits file reports what yt-dlp returns, so check the license on YouTube too. The rules live in credits, licenses and fair use for YouTube clips.

Where do you start if you are new to this?

New users start with how to install B-ROLL and download your first video: the installer or the portable exe, on Windows 10 and 11. B-ROLL fetches yt-dlp, ffmpeg and Deno on first launch; then you paste a link and press Enter.

When a guide names a codec tier or container, codecs and formats for editing YouTube footage explains it. macOS and Linux versions of B-ROLL are planned.