I'd recommend a Python script on a cron/task scheduler job.

Personally, I use Tubearchivist.

There are others though.

https://github.com/tubearchivist/tubearchivist

> For minimal system requirements, the Tube Archivist stack needs around 2GB of available memory for a small testing setup and around 4GB of available memory for a mid to large sized installation. Minimal with dual core with 4 threads, better quad core plus. This project requires docker. Ensure it is installed and running on your system.

What the hell. Is this an entire OS?

Its an archive solution.

So it uses redis and elastic search in the backend.

It definitely isnt lightweight, but I like its interface the best out of all solutions.

How can a 'small testing setup' for an 'archive solution' be double the size of Windows 8.1...

Consider freetube for a braindead simple mechanism. Alternatively, I believe MPV can suit your needs with some more elbow grease.

I add all videos that I want to watch to a playlist and then run a script on my machine to download the videos. It will only download each video once as it keep tracks of downloaded videos through the file downloaded.txt so you can delete/move them freely. You can also add the script to a systemd timer or cron so to automate it.

This is the script: https://github.com/danisztls/yt-assistant. AFAIK the same can be done with a single line yt-dlp command and you can do the same to download all videos from a channel.