Installation

This section will walk you through the process of setting up the required environment and installing all necessary dependencies to get tk3u8 running on your system.

Installation methods

Isolated installation (via pip)

This method installs the program via pip and uses uv to run the program.

Tip

This method is the most recommended for most users.

Requirements

• Windows or Linux
• Python >=3.10.0
• ffmpeg
• uv

Steps

1. Install Python 3.10.0 or above. Ensure Add Python x.x to PATH is checked.
2. Install ffmpeg. Ensure ffmpeg is added to PATH.
3. Install Git.

4. Install uv, through pip command or via Standalone installer.

   pip install uv
   

5. Choose a location to store the program's data or source code, and create a folder there (e.g., create a folder named tk3u8 inside your Documents directory).

6. Initialize the created folder. This will create some stuff needed to isolate the installation of dependencies to this folder.

   uv init --app
   

7. Install tk3u8 by adding it as a dependency.

   uv add tk3u8
   

   This will install the tk3u8 package, as well as the dependencies needed by this program.

8. Run the program.

   uv run tk3u8 -h
   

   When installed properly, the output should look like this:

   Usage: tk3u8 [-h] [-q {original,uhd_60,uhd,hd_60,hd,ld,sd}] [--proxy PROXY]
                [--wait-until-live] [--timeout TIMEOUT] [--log-level {DEBUG,ERROR}] 
                [-v] username
   
   tk3u8 - A TikTok live downloader
   
   Positional Arguments:
     username              The username to be used for recording live stream
   
   Options:
     -h, --help            show this help message and exit
     -q {original,uhd_60,uhd,hd_60,hd,ld,sd}
                           Specify the quality of the video to download. Default: original
     --proxy PROXY         The proxy server to use for downloading. Sample format: 127.0.0.1:8080
     --wait-until-live     Let the program wait until the user goes live to start downloading stream
     --timeout TIMEOUT     Set the timeout in seconds before rechecking if the user is live.
     --log-level {DEBUG,ERROR}
                           Set the logging level (default: no logging if not used)
     -v, --version         Show the program's version
   

Isolated installation (via Git)

This step clones the source code from repository using Git and uses uv to run the program.

Info

This method is recommended if you want to get latest updates of the program so that you don't have to wait for published releases.

Requirements

• Windows or Linux
• Python >=3.10.0
• ffmpeg
• uv
• Git

Steps

1. Install Python 3.10.0 or above. Ensure Add Python x.x to PATH is checked.
2. Install ffmpeg. Ensure ffmpeg is added to PATH.
3. Install Git.

4. Install uv, through pip command or via Standalone installer.

   pip install uv
   

5. Clone this repository using Git.

   git clone https://github.com/Scoofszlo/tk3u8.git
   

6. Change the current directory to the project's folder.

   cd tk3u8
   

7. Run the program.

   uv run tk3u8 -h
   

   When installed properly, the output should look like this:

   Usage: tk3u8 [-h] [-q {original,uhd_60,uhd,hd_60,hd,ld,sd}] [--proxy PROXY]
                [--wait-until-live] [--timeout TIMEOUT] [--log-level {DEBUG,ERROR}] 
                [-v] username
   
   tk3u8 - A TikTok live downloader
   
   Positional Arguments:
     username              The username to be used for recording live stream
   
   Options:
     -h, --help            show this help message and exit
     -q {original,uhd_60,uhd,hd_60,hd,ld,sd}
                           Specify the quality of the video to download. Default: original
     --proxy PROXY         The proxy server to use for downloading. Sample format: 127.0.0.1:8080
     --wait-until-live     Let the program wait until the user goes live to start downloading stream
     --timeout TIMEOUT     Set the timeout in seconds before rechecking if the user is live.
     --log-level {DEBUG,ERROR}
                           Set the logging level (default: no logging if not used)
     -v, --version         Show the program's version
   

If you don't want to get the latest updates, you can checkout the latest published assuming v0.3.1 is the latest release and you want to use that:

git checkout tags/v0.3.1

System-wide installation via pip

Warning

This method installs the program system-wide using the command pip install tk3u8. Use this only if you are knowledgeable enough and you are comfortable installing the dependencies of this program system-wide. Doing so may conflict with those already installed on your system so please proceed with caution.

Requirements

• Windows or Linux
• Python >=3.10.0
• ffmpeg

Steps

1. Install Python 3.10.0 or above. Ensure Add Python x.x to PATH is checked.
2. Install ffmpeg. Ensure ffmpeg is added to PATH.
3. Install tk3u8 using pip install.

   pip install tk3u8
   

4. Run the program.

   tk3u8 -h
   

   When installed properly, the output should look like this:

   Usage: tk3u8 [-h] [-q {original,uhd_60,uhd,hd_60,hd,ld,sd}] [--proxy PROXY]
                [--wait-until-live] [--timeout TIMEOUT] [--log-level {DEBUG,ERROR}] 
                [-v] username
   
   tk3u8 - A TikTok live downloader
   
   Positional Arguments:
     username              The username to be used for recording live stream
   
   Options:
     -h, --help            show this help message and exit
     -q {original,uhd_60,uhd,hd_60,hd,ld,sd}
                           Specify the quality of the video to download. Default: original
     --proxy PROXY         The proxy server to use for downloading. Sample format: 127.0.0.1:8080
     --wait-until-live     Let the program wait until the user goes live to start downloading stream
     --timeout TIMEOUT     Set the timeout in seconds before rechecking if the user is live.
     --log-level {DEBUG,ERROR}
                           Set the logging level (default: no logging if not used)
     -v, --version         Show the program's version
   

Updating tk3u8

If you installed the program via pip (isolated installation), run this command:

uv lock -P tk3u8

If you installed the program via Git (isolated installation), run this command:

git pull origin

If system-wide installation was done via pip:

pip install tk3u8 --upgrade

Verifying installation

In case that there are some problems during the installation, ensure that all requirements are properly installed. You can verify each one by running the following commands in your terminal or command prompt:

• Python

  python --version
  
  # Sample output
  Python 3.12.2
  

• ffmpeg

  ffmpeg -version
  
  # Sample output
  ffmpeg version 2024-11-11-git-96d45c3b21-full_build-www.gyan.dev Copyright (c) 2000-2024 the FFmpeg developers
  ...
  

• uv

  uv --version
  
  # Sample output
  uv 0.6.17 (8414e9f3d 2025-04-25)
  

• Git

  git --version
  
  # Sample output
  git version x.x.x
  

If any command fails or shows an error, revisit the installation steps for that requirement.