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3DYD YT Source is a free Windows DirectShow filter that lets MPC-HC, MPC-BE and other classic media players open a YouTube address the way they open a file on disk, with separate builds for foobar2000 and VLC.
Paste a YouTube link into most desktop media players and nothing happens, because a player expects a file on your disk rather than a web address.
3DYD YT Source is the small add-on that teaches it to accept the address instead.
It is free, and once installed you open a video the same way you open a file.
What 3DYD YT Source Actually Does
It is a DirectShow source filter, which is a plain way of saying it is the part that fetches the video rather than the part that plays it. Windows hands the address to the filter, the filter pulls the stream down, and your player carries on as normal.
That split matters when something goes wrong. The filter never decodes anything, so a video that arrives but stutters or plays without sound is a decoder problem, not a 3DYD one.
Decoders come from somewhere else, usually LAV Filters or the K-Lite Codec Pack, and most players that can use this filter already have them.
The upside of doing it this way is that you keep your own player. Your keyboard shortcuts, your subtitle settings, your audio output, your playlist, all of it works on a YouTube link the same as on a local file.
Which Player You Have Decides What You Install
There are three different downloads on this page and they are not interchangeable. Find your player in the first column.
| Your player | What to install | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| A DirectShow player, such as MPC-HC or MPC-BE | 3DYD YT Source 2.5.1, the installer | The normal route, and the one the rest of this page describes |
| foobar2000 | 3DYD YT Component, the foobar2000 plugin | A separate build with its own search panel and playlist support |
| VLC media player | The lib3dyd plugin, plus the filter above | VLC does not use DirectShow filters, and this plugin was last tested against VLC 2.2.4 |
The VLC row is the one to read twice. VLC 2.2.4 is a 2016 release, so on a current VLC the plugin is a gamble rather than a plan.
The installer registers the filter for every DirectShow player on the machine at once. The portable archives do not register anything, and they come in x86 and x64 versions that have to match your player rather than your copy of Windows.
Which file to take
The download page lists both 2.5.1 and the older 2.5. Take 2.5.1 unless you have a specific reason not to - it is the current release and the older one is kept only as a fallback.
Playing Your First Video
Install the filter, then open your player and look for Open File or Open Location. In MPC-HC it is File, then Open File.
Paste the full video address into the box and press Enter. The player will look like it is opening a local file, because as far as it knows, it is.
The address has to be complete, starting with https://. A shortened form such as a bare youtube.com/watch path will not be recognised.
For foobar2000 the route is different. Open File, then Preferences, then Components, click Install and point it at the downloaded component file, and our guide to installing foobar2000 components walks through it with pictures.
Once it is in, foobar2000 takes addresses through File, then Add location, and our guide on streaming online music with foobar2000 covers what you can do with it.
Choosing the Quality
By default the filter picks a stream for you. Open its Properties window from your player's filter list and you can take that decision back.
Set manual selection to Always and every video opens a chooser listing the formats YouTube actually published for that title, from the smallest and fastest up to the highest resolution available.
The same settings let you rule formats out. If one particular codec always stutters on your machine, add it to the ignore list once and the filter stops offering it.
When a URL Will Not Open
Start with the obvious check. Open the same address in a browser, because a video that is private, removed or region-blocked there will not open here either.
If the browser plays it and your player does not, turn on "Show error window on failure" in the filter settings so it tells you what went wrong instead of failing silently.
The useful trick is the URL scheme. Some players grab http addresses themselves before the filter ever sees them, and typing ys+ in front of the address forces the filter to handle it.
So ys+https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=... often opens when the plain address does not. If nothing works at all, reinstalling the filter re-registers the scheme, which is what usually broke.
A video that opens but plays badly is the other case, and that one is not the filter. Use the manual chooser to pick a different format, and if a whole class of file misbehaves the fix belongs with your decoders.
Who Should Look Elsewhere
The tell is what you want afterwards. If you want to keep the video, this is the wrong tool, because it streams rather than saves - 4K Video Downloader is the one for that.
If you just want the video off the browser tab and out of the way, our Web Player plays an address in a clean page with nothing else on it, and installs nothing.
For a stream that is not on YouTube at all, the Stream Extractor pulls the real media address out of a page, and YT to M3U turns a YouTube playlist into an M3U your player already understands.
And if your player simply refuses to cooperate, some players will not host a source filter the way this one expects. PotPlayer is worth a try in that case, since it handles online addresses on its own.
Quick questions
Is 3DYD YT Source free?
Yes. The filter, the foobar2000 component and the VLC plugin are all freeware, with no trial and nothing to unlock.
Which players does it work with?
Any Windows player built on DirectShow, which covers MPC-HC, MPC-BE and most classic players. foobar2000 and VLC each need their own separate download instead.
Does it download videos?
No. It streams them into your player, and nothing is kept afterwards. A downloader is a different kind of tool.
Why does my player ignore the address I paste?
The player is probably opening the address itself before the filter sees it. Put ys+ in front of the address to force the filter to take it.
Do I need a codec pack as well?
Usually not, because most players that use this filter already decode what YouTube serves. If video or audio plays badly, LAV Filters is the place to look.
Which portable version do I take, x86 or x64?
Match your player, not Windows. A 32-bit player needs the x86 build even on 64-bit Windows.
More players that pair well with it are in the Media Players section, and the rest of the filter and codec downloads sit under Video Codecs.
Download 3DYD YT Source 2.5.1 and see how it handles your player, or tell us how you got on if you have used it before.
