diff --git a/TOOLS/lua/youtube-starttime.lua b/TOOLS/lua/youtube-starttime.lua
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ea8e9abe3f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/TOOLS/lua/youtube-starttime.lua
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+--sets the startime of a youtube video as specified in the "t=HHhMMmSSs" part of the url
+--NOTE: This might become obsolete once youtube-dl adds the functionality
+
+local msg = require 'mp.msg'
+
+function youtube_starttime()
+  url = mp.get_property("path", "")
+  start = 0
+
+  if string.find(url, "youtu%.?be") and
+    ((url:find("http://") == 1) or (url:find("https://") == 1)) then
+      time = string.match(url, "[#&%?]t=%d*h?%d*m?%d+s?m?h?")
+      --the time-string can start with #, & or ? followed by t= and the timing parameters
+      --at least one number needs to be present after t=, followed by h, m, s or nothing (>implies s)
+
+      if time then
+        for pos in string.gmatch(time,"%d+%a?") do
+          if string.match(pos,"%d+h") then            --find out multiplier for
+            multiplier = 60*60                        --hours
+          elseif string.match(pos,"%d+m") then
+            multiplier = 60                           --minutes
+          else multiplier = 1 end                     --seconds
+
+          start = start + (string.match(pos,"%d+") * multiplier)
+        end
+
+        msg.info("parsed '" .. time .. "' into '" .. start .. "' seconds")
+      end
+
+      mp.set_property("file-local-options/start",start)
+  end
+end
+
+mp.add_hook("on_load", 50, youtube_starttime)