]> jfr.im git - yt-dlp.git/blame - README.md
[build] Refactor `pyinst.py` and misc cleanup
[yt-dlp.git] / README.md
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b31fdeed 1<div align="center">
2
e980017a 3[![YT-DLP](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master/.github/banner.svg)](#readme)
d9d045e2 4
28dff70b 5[![Release version](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?color=blue&label=&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest)
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7[![License: Unlicense](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Unlicense-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge)](LICENSE)
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1aebc0f7 9[![Supported Sites](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Supported_Sites-brightgreen.svg?style=for-the-badge)](supportedsites.md)
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b31fdeed 15[![PyPi Downloads](https://img.shields.io/pypi/dm/yt-dlp?label=PyPi&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
c76eb41b 16
b31fdeed 17</div>
c76eb41b 18
b31fdeed 19yt-dlp is a [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) fork based on the now inactive [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc). The main focus of this project is adding new features and patches while also keeping up to date with the original project
5c0e5bc4 20
034b6215 21* [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
53ed7066 22 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
c76eb41b 23* [INSTALLATION](#installation)
17fa3ee2 24 * [Update](#update)
0e5927ee 25 * [Release Files](#release-files)
cf59cd4d 26 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
17fa3ee2 27 * [Compile](#compile)
b31fdeed 28* [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
29 * [General Options](#general-options)
50865ca8 30 * [Network Options](#network-options)
b31fdeed 31 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
50865ca8 32 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
33 * [Download Options](#download-options)
34 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
b31fdeed 35 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
50865ca8 36 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
0744a815 37 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
50865ca8 38 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
39 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
40 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
41 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
50865ca8 42 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
7a340e0d 43 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
50865ca8 44 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
c76eb41b 45* [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
50865ca8 46 * [Authentication with .netrc file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
c76eb41b 47* [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
50865ca8 48 * [Output template and Windows batch files](#output-template-and-windows-batch-files)
49 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
c76eb41b 50* [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
50865ca8 51 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
52 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
53 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
73cd218f 54* [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
55 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
5d3a0e79 56* [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
f74980cb 57* [PLUGINS](#plugins)
8c6f4daa 58* [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
e167860c 59* [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
8c6f4daa 60* [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
61 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
62 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
c76eb41b 63* [MORE](#more)
b31fdeed 64</div>
50865ca8 65
66
034b6215 67# NEW FEATURES
f20f5fe5 68The major new features from the latest release of [blackjack4494/yt-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) are:
034b6215 69
7a340e0d 70* **[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in youtube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
034b6215 71
7581d246 72* **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using `-S`. This allows for much easier format selection than what is possible by simply using `--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
034b6215 73
6aecd871 74* **Merged with youtube-dl [commit/379f52a](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/379f52a4954013767219d25099cce9e0f9401961)**: (v2021.06.06) You get all the latest features and patches of [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) in addition to all the features of [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc)
034b6215 75
0fdf490d 76* **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from [animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including `--write-comments`, `BiliBiliSearch`, `BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that the NicoNico improvements are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
29b6000e 77
f5546c0b 78* **Youtube improvements**:
6ccf351a 79 * All Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`) and private playlists supports downloading multiple pages of content
0fdf490d 80 * Search (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`), search URLs and in-channel search works
81 * Mixes supports downloading multiple pages of content
6ccf351a 82 * Most (but not all) age-gated content can be downloaded without cookies
f703a880 83 * Partial workaround for throttling issue
f20f5fe5 84 * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to `/video` to preserve the old behaviour
e6f21b3d 85 * `255kbps` audio is extracted (if available) from youtube music when premium cookies are given
9ee4f0bb 86 * Youtube music Albums, channels etc can be downloaded ([except self-uploaded music](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/723))
f20f5fe5 87
245524e6 88* **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[:PROFILE]`
89
597c1866 90* **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
91
b31fdeed 92* **Multi-threaded fragment downloads**: Download multiple fragments of m3u8/mpd videos in parallel. Use `--concurrent-fragments` (`-N`) option to set the number of threads used
8d801631 93
b31fdeed 94* **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
f20f5fe5 95
dec0d56f 96* **New extractors**: AnimeLab, Philo MSO, Spectrum MSO, SlingTV MSO, Cablevision MSO, RCN MSO, Rcs, Gedi, bitwave.tv, mildom, audius, zee5, mtv.it, wimtv, pluto.tv, niconico users, discoveryplus.in, mediathek, NFHSNetwork, nebula, ukcolumn, whowatch, MxplayerShow, parlview (au), YoutubeWebArchive, fancode, Saitosan, ShemarooMe, telemundo, VootSeries, SonyLIVSeries, HotstarSeries, VidioPremier, VidioLive, RCTIPlus, TBS Live, douyin, pornflip, ParamountPlusSeries, ScienceChannel, Utreon, OpenRec, BandcampMusic, blackboardcollaborate, eroprofile albums, mirrativ, BannedVideo, bilibili categories, Epicon, filmmodu, GabTV, HungamaAlbum, ManotoTV, Niconico search, Patreon User, peloton, ProjectVeritas, radiko, StarTV, tiktok user, Tokentube, voicy, TV2HuSeries, biliintl, 17live, NewgroundsUser, peertube channel/playlist, ZenYandex, CAM4, CGTN, damtomo, gotostage, Koo, Mediaite, Mediaklikk, MuseScore, nzherald, Olympics replay, radlive, SovietsCloset, Streamanity, Theta, Chingari, ciscowebex, Gettr, GoPro, N1, Theta, Veo, Vupload, NovaPlay
f20f5fe5 97
dec0d56f 98* **Fixed/improved extractors**: archive.org, roosterteeth.com, skyit, instagram, itv, SouthparkDe, spreaker, Vlive, akamai, ina, rumble, tennistv, amcnetworks, la7 podcasts, linuxacadamy, nitter, twitcasting, viu, crackle, curiositystream, mediasite, rmcdecouverte, sonyliv, tubi, tenplay, patreon, videa, yahoo, BravoTV, crunchyroll playlist, RTP, viki, Hotstar, vidio, vimeo, mediaset, Mxplayer, nbcolympics, ParamountPlus, Newgrounds, SAML Verizon login, Hungama, afreecatv, aljazeera, ATV, bitchute, camtube, CDA, eroprofile, facebook, HearThisAtIE, iwara, kakao, Motherless, Nova, peertube, pornhub, reddit, tiktok, TV2, TV2Hu, tv5mondeplus, VH1, Viafree, XHamster, 9Now, AnimalPlanet, Arte, CBC, Chingari, comedycentral, DIYNetwork, niconico, dw, funimation, globo, HiDive, NDR, Nuvid, Oreilly, pbs, plutotv, reddit, redtube, soundcloud, SpankBang, VrtNU, bbc, Bilibili, LinkedInLearning, parliamentlive, PolskieRadio, Streamable, vidme, francetv
fac98805 99
3de7c2ce 100* **Subtitle extraction from manifests**: Subtitles can be extracted from streaming media manifests. See [commit/be6202f](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/be6202f12b97858b9d716e608394b51065d0419f) for details
034b6215 101
597c1866 102* **Multiple paths and output templates**: You can give different [output templates](#output-template) and download paths for different types of files. You can also set a temporary path where intermediary files are downloaded to using `--paths` (`-P`)
0bc0a322 103
104* **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [configuration](#configuration) for details
105
418964fa 106* **Output template improvements**: Output templates can now have date-time formatting, numeric offsets, object traversal etc. See [output template](#output-template) for details. Even more advanced operations can also be done with the help of `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
fac98805 107
418964fa 108* **Other new options**: `--print`, `--sleep-requests`, `--convert-thumbnails`, `--write-link`, `--force-download-archive`, `--force-overwrites`, `--break-on-reject` etc
0bc0a322 109
418964fa 110* **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in `--match-filter`, multiple `--postprocessor-args` and `--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection) etc
c69911e4 111
b31fdeed 112* **Plugin extractors**: Extractors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
113
7a5c1cfe 114* **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`
aa837ddf 115
29b6000e 116
7a5c1cfe 117See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
a26c99ac 118
119
90505ff1 120**PS**: Some of these changes are already in youtube-dlc, but are still unreleased. See [this](Changelog.md#unreleased-changes-in-blackjack4494yt-dlc) for details
f20f5fe5 121
b9650873 122If you are coming from [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl), the amount of changes are very large. Compare [options](#options) and [supported sites](supportedsites.md) with youtube-dl's to get an idea of the massive number of features/patches [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) has accumulated.
f20f5fe5 123
53ed7066 124### Differences in default behavior
125
126Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc.
127
28b0eb0f 128* The options `--id`, `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
129* `avconv` is not supported as as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
130* The default [output template](#output-template) is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`. There is no real reason for this change. This was changed before yt-dlp was ever made public and now there are no plans to change it back to `%(title)s.%(id)s.%(ext)s`. Instead, you may use `--compat-options filename`
e4f02757 131* The default [format sorting](#sorting-formats) is different from youtube-dl and prefers higher resolution and better codecs rather than higher bitrates. You can use the `--format-sort` option to change this to any order you prefer, or use `--compat-options format-sort` to use youtube-dl's sorting order
28b0eb0f 132* The default format selector is `bv*+ba/b`. This means that if a combined video + audio format that is better than the best video-only format is found, the former will be prefered. Use `-f bv+ba/b` or `--compat-options format-spec` to revert this
133* Unlike youtube-dlc, yt-dlp does not allow merging multiple audio/video streams into one file by default (since this conflicts with the use of `-f bv*+ba`). If needed, this feature must be enabled using `--audio-multistreams` and `--video-multistreams`. You can also use `--compat-options multistreams` to enable both
134* `--ignore-errors` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
135* When writing metadata files such as thumbnails, description or infojson, the same information (if available) is also written for playlists. Use `--no-write-playlist-metafiles` or `--compat-options no-playlist-metafiles` to not write these files
136* `--add-metadata` attaches the `infojson` to `mkv` files in addition to writing the metadata when used with `--write-infojson`. Use `--compat-options no-attach-info-json` to revert this
137* `playlist_index` behaves differently when used with options like `--playlist-reverse` and `--playlist-items`. See [#302](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/302) for details. You can use `--compat-options playlist-index` if you want to keep the earlier behavior
138* The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
3acf6d38 139* All *experiences* of a funimation episode are considered as a single video. This behavior breaks existing archives. Use `--compat-options seperate-video-versions` to extract information from only the default player
28b0eb0f 140* Youtube live chat (if available) is considered as a subtitle. Use `--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use `--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent live chat from downloading
09f1580e 141* Youtube channel URLs are automatically redirected to `/video`. Append a `/featured` to the URL to download only the videos in the home page. If the channel does not have a videos tab, we try to download the equivalent `UU` playlist instead. Also, `/live` URLs raise an error if there are no live videos instead of silently downloading the entire channel. You may use `--compat-options no-youtube-channel-redirect` to revert all these redirections
28b0eb0f 142* Unavailable videos are also listed for youtube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
18e674b4 143* If `ffmpeg` is used as the downloader, the downloading and merging of formats happen in a single step when possible. Use `--compat-options no-direct-merge` to revert this
e858a9d6 144* Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
e4f02757 145* Some private fields such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use `--no-clean-infojson` or `--compat-options no-clean-infojson` to revert this
b51d2ae3 146* When `--embed-subs` and `--write-subs` are used together, the subtitles are written to disk and also embedded in the media file. You can use just `--embed-subs` to embed the subs and automatically delete the seperate file. See [#630 (comment)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/630#issuecomment-893659460) for more info. `--compat-options no-keep-subs` can be used to revert this.
53ed7066 147
148For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
28b0eb0f 149* `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options
150* `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams`
151* `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
53ed7066 152
f20f5fe5 153
d19bb9c0 154# INSTALLATION
b31fdeed 155yt-dlp is not platform specific. So it should work on your Unix box, on Windows or on macOS
50865ca8 156
7bc877a2 157You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
733d8e8f 158* Download [the binary](#release-files) from the [latest release](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest)
b8773e63 159* With Homebrew, `brew install yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp`
a61f4b28 160* Use [PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp): `python3 -m pip install --upgrade yt-dlp`
733d8e8f 161* Install master branch: `python3 -m pip3 install -U https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/archive/master.zip`
a61f4b28 162
163Note that on some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`
5f326cf5 164
5ba4a0b6
A
165UNIX users (Linux, macOS, BSD) can also install the [latest release](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest) one of the following ways:
166
167```
168sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
169sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
170```
171
172```
173sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
174sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
175```
176
177```
178sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
179sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
180```
181
b8773e63
THD
182macOS or Linux users that are using Homebrew (formerly known as Linuxbrew for Linux users) can also install it by:
183
184```
185brew install yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp
186```
187
cf59cd4d 188### UPDATE
189You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are using the provided release.
190If you are using `pip`, simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program.
b8773e63 191If you have installed using Homebrew, run `brew upgrade yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp`
cf59cd4d 192
0e5927ee
R
193### RELEASE FILES
194
733d8e8f 195#### Recommended
196
197File|Description
198:---|:---
199[yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform independant binary. Needs Python (Recommended for **UNIX-like systems**)
200[yt-dlp.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)|Windows standalone x64 binary (Recommended for **Windows**)
201
202#### Alternatives
203
0e5927ee
R
204File|Description
205:---|:---
0e5927ee 206[yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|MacOS standalone executable
733d8e8f 207[yt-dlp_x86.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_x86.exe)|Windows standalone x86 (32bit) binary
208[yt-dlp_min.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_x86.exe)|Windows standalone x64 binary built with `py2exe`.<br/> Does not contain `pycryptodomex`, needs VC++14
209[yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged windows executable (No auto-update)
210[yt-dlp_macos.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos.zip)|Unpackaged MacOS executable (No auto-update)
211
212#### Misc
213
214File|Description
215:---|:---
0e5927ee
R
216[yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball. Also contains manpages, completions, etc
217[SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
218[SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
219
e58c22a0 220### DEPENDENCIES
cf59cd4d 221Python versions 3.6+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
b31fdeed 222
c9652aa4 223<!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
224<!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
cf59cd4d 225On windows, [Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86)](https://download.microsoft.com/download/1/6/5/165255E7-1014-4D0A-B094-B6A430A6BFFC/vcredist_x86.exe) is also necessary to run yt-dlp. You probably already have this, but if the executable throws an error due to missing `MSVCR100.dll` you need to install it manually.
c9652aa4 226-->
fac98805 227
cf59cd4d 228While all the other dependancies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
229* [**ffmpeg** and **ffprobe**](https://www.ffmpeg.org) - Required for [merging seperate video and audio files](#format-selection) as well as for various [post-processing](#post-processing-options) tasks. Licence [depends on the build](https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html)
cf59cd4d 230* [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen) - For embedding thumbnail in certain formats. Licenced under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
b5ae35ee 231* [**pycryptodomex**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome) - For decrypting AES-128 HLS streams and various other data. Licenced under [BSD2](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
e36d50c5 232* [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets) - For downloading over websocket. Licenced under [BSD3](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
982ee69a 233* [**keyring**](https://github.com/jaraco/keyring) - For decrypting cookies of chromium-based browsers on Linux. Licenced under [MIT](https://github.com/jaraco/keyring/blob/main/LICENSE)
cf59cd4d 234* [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For embedding thumbnail in mp4/m4a if mutagen is not present. Licenced under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
235* [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licenced under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
236* [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or [**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading `rstp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licenced under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
237* [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licenced under [BSD3](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
7a340e0d 238* [**sponskrub**](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) - For using the now **deprecated** [sponskrub options](#sponskrub-options). Licenced under [GPLv3+](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub/blob/master/LICENCE.md)
cf59cd4d 239* Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
b31fdeed 240
cf59cd4d 241To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
242
f85e6be4 243The windows releases are already built with the python interpreter, mutagen, pycryptodomex and websockets included.
d710cc6d 244
245**Note**: There are some regressions in newer ffmpeg versions that causes various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependancy, we provide [custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds/wiki/Latest#latest-autobuilds) with patches for these issues at [yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds). See [the readme](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#patches-applied) for details on the specifc issues solved by these builds
246
5f326cf5 247
c76eb41b 248### COMPILE
5f326cf5 249
c76eb41b 250**For Windows**:
f85e6be4 251To build the Windows executable, you must have pyinstaller (and optionally mutagen, pycryptodomex, websockets)
d19bb9c0 252
733d8e8f 253Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, just run `pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (32/64 bit) as the python used to build it.
e38df8f9 254
733d8e8f 255 py -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
256 py pyinst.py
7581d246 257
fac98805 258Note that pyinstaller [does not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment
b96a939b 259
c76eb41b 260**For Unix**:
060ac762 261You will need the required build tools: `python`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`, `zip`, `pytest`
127d0759 262Then simply run `make`. You can also run `make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files
5f326cf5 263
e38df8f9 264**Note**: In either platform, `devscripts\update-version.py` can be used to automatically update the version number
d19bb9c0 265
b31fdeed 266# USAGE AND OPTIONS
6bcd846b 267
7a5c1cfe 268 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
b50e3bc6 269
c2b5f311 270`Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
e58c22a0 271<!-- Auto generated -->
c2b5f311 272
c76eb41b 273## General Options:
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274 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
275 --version Print program version and exit
8d801631 276 -U, --update Update this program to latest version. Make
277 sure that you have sufficient permissions
278 (run with sudo if needed)
b1940459 279 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
280 The download will be considered successfull
281 even if the postprocessing fails
282 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download
283 errors; e.g. to skip unavailable videos in
284 a playlist (default)
8a51f564 285 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
286 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
34488702 287 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
288 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
c4af7684 289 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
34488702 290 extractors and exit
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291 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
292 extractor
293 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
294 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
9ee4f0bb 295 from google videos for the search term
296 "large apple". Use the value "auto" to let
297 yt-dlp guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
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298 warning when guessing). "error" just throws
299 an error. The default value "fixup_error"
300 repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
8a51f564 301 this is not possible instead of searching
298f597b 302 --ignore-config, --no-config Disable loading any configuration files
8a51f564 303 except the one provided by --config-location.
304 When given inside a configuration
298f597b 305 file, no further configuration files are
306 loaded. Additionally, (for backward
307 compatibility) if this option is found
308 inside the system configuration file, the
8a51f564 309 user configuration is not loaded
0202b52a 310 --config-location PATH Location of the main configuration file;
311 either the path to the config or its
312 containing directory
c4af7684 313 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
8a51f564 314 only list them
6623ac34 315 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
b5ae35ee 316 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate).
317 Currently only supported for YouTube
597c1866 318 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
8a51f564 319 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output
53ed7066 320 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
31654882 321 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
53ed7066 322 configurations by reverting some of the
323 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
324 default behavior" for details
08c1d0d3 325
149f05c7 326## Network Options:
28b4f736 327 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy.
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328 To enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper
329 scheme. For example
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330 socks5://127.0.0.1:1080/. Pass in an empty
331 string (--proxy "") for direct connection
149f05c7 332 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
c4af7684 333 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
c4af7684 334 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
c4af7684 335 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
8c6c88c7 336
b31fdeed 337## Geo-restriction:
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338 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
339 some geo-restricted sites. The default
340 proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the
7550ea50 341 option is not present) is used for the
8a51f564 342 actual downloading
8c6c88c7 343 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
0934c9d4 344 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
8c6c88c7
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345 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
346 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
8c6c88c7
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347 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
348 explicitly provided two-letter ISO 3166-2
0934c9d4 349 country code
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350 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
351 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR
0934c9d4 352 notation
149f05c7 353
cfcec693 354## Video Selection:
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355 --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is 1)
356 --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
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357 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify
358 indices of the videos in the playlist
359 separated by commas like: "--playlist-items
360 1,2,5,8" if you want to download videos
361 indexed 1, 2, 5, 8 in the playlist. You can
362 specify range: "--playlist-items
363 1-3,7,10-13", it will download the videos
8a51f564 364 at index 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13
780083db 365 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
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366 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
367 SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
368 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
369 (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
6623ac34 370 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded in this date.
371 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
372 "(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?"
c4af7684 373 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
c76eb41b 374 this date. The date formats accepted is the
375 same as --date
c4af7684 376 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
c76eb41b 377 this date. The date formats accepted is the
378 same as --date
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379 --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Any field (see
380 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE") can be compared with a
a047eeb6 381 number or a string using the operators
382 defined in "Filtering formats". You can
383 also simply specify a field to match if the
384 field is present and "!field" to check if
385 the field is not present. In addition,
386 Python style regular expression matching
387 can be done using "~=", and multiple
388 filters can be checked with "&". Use a "\"
389 to escape "&" or quotes if needed. Eg:
390 --match-filter "!is_live & like_count>?100
2e7781a9 391 & description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'"
a047eeb6 392 matches only videos that are not live, has
393 a like count more than 100 (or the like
77b87f05 394 field is not available), and also has a
a047eeb6 395 description that contains the phrase "cats
396 & dogs" (ignoring case)
c76eb41b 397 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
c4af7684 398 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
8a51f564 399 to a video and a playlist
c4af7684 400 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
8a51f564 401 a video and a playlist
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402 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
403 age
404 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
405 archive file. Record the IDs of all
8a51f564 406 downloaded videos in it
8b0d7497 407 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
8a51f564 408 a file that is in the archive
8b0d7497 409 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
8a51f564 410 a file that has been filtered out
26e2805c 411 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest
412 of the playlist is skipped
c76eb41b 413 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
6bcd846b 414
d5a62e4f 415## Download Options:
b31fdeed 416 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
417 video that should be download concurrently
418 (default is 1)
5e3856a2 419 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
c4af7684 420 (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
6aecd871 421 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
422 below which throttling is assumed and the
423 video data is re-extracted (e.g. 100K)
c4af7684 424 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
8a51f564 425 "infinite"
0be8314d 426 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
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427 is 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and
428 ISM)
6623ac34 429 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
430 hlsnative and ISM (default)
8a51f564 431 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
6623ac34 432 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading if a fragment is unavailable
8a51f564 433 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
a82f4184 434 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
6623ac34 435 downloading is finished
c76eb41b 436 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
437 downloading is finished (default)
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438 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
439 (default is 1024)
c76eb41b 440 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
441 from an initial value of --buffer-size
442 (default)
443 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
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444 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
445 downloading (e.g. 10485760 or 10M) (default
446 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
447 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
448 (experimental)
2101f5d4 449 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
6623ac34 450 --no-playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in default order
c76eb41b 451 (default)
31487eb9 452 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
c4af7684 453 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
0934c9d4 454 expected file size
9bd20204 455 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
456 allowing some players to play the video
457 while downloading, and reducing the chance
458 of file corruption if download is
459 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
460 live streams
461 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
462 videos. This is default when not
463 downloading live streams
52a8a1e1 464 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
465 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
466 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
467 use it for. Currently supports native,
468 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
469 wget (Recommended: aria2c). You can use
470 this option multiple times to set different
471 downloaders for different protocols. For
472 example, --downloader aria2c --downloader
473 "dash,m3u8:native" will use aria2c for
474 http/ftp downloads, and the native
475 downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
476 (Alias: --external-downloader)
46ee996e 477 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
478 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
330690a2 479 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
480 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to
481 different positions using the same syntax
482 as --postprocessor-args. You can use this
483 option multiple times to give different
484 arguments to different downloaders
29b6000e 485 (Alias: --external-downloader-args)
d5a62e4f 486
cfcec693 487## Filesystem Options:
c4af7684 488 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ('-' for
e8dfecb3
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489 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
490 with '#', ';' or ']' are considered as
8a51f564 491 comments and ignored
1e520b55 492 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
6ccf351a 493 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
0202b52a 494 downloaded. Specify the type of file and
de6000d9 495 the path separated by a colon ":". All the
496 same types as --output are supported.
497 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
6ccf351a 498 (default) and "temp" paths. All
499 intermediary files are first downloaded to
500 the temp path and then the final files are
501 moved over to the home path after download
502 is finished. This option is ignored if
503 --output is an absolute path
d818eb74 504 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
c76eb41b 505 TEMPLATE" for details
0bc0a322 506 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder value for unavailable meta
507 fields in output filename template
508 (default: "NA")
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509 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
510 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
511 filenames
c76eb41b 512 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
513 filenames (default)
c2934512 514 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be windows compatible
515 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames windows compatible only if
516 using windows (default)
517 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
518 extension) to the specified number of
519 characters
9b45b9f5 520 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
521 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files.
522 This option includes --no-continue
523 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
524 related files (default)
c25228e5 525 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
526 (default)
527 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
e58c22a0 528 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
c25228e5 529 restart download of the entire file
c76eb41b 530 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
6623ac34 531 into output file (default)
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532 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
533 into output file
c76eb41b 534 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the
535 file modification time (default)
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536 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
537 the file modification time
538 --write-description Write video description to a .description
539 file
6623ac34 540 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
1dc2726f 541 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
c25228e5 542 (this may contain personal information)
6623ac34 543 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
cac96421 544 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
545 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
546 --write-description etc. (default)
547 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
548 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
75d43ca0 549 --clean-infojson Remove some private fields such as
550 filenames from the infojson. Note that it
551 could still contain some personal
552 information (default)
553 --no-clean-infojson Write all fields to the infojson
2305e2e5 554 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
555 infojson. The comments are fetched even
556 without this option if the extraction is
557 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
558 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
559 extraction is known to be quick
560 (Alias: --no-get-comments)
d845622b 561 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
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562 (created with the "--write-info-json"
563 option)
564 --cookies FILE File to read cookies from and dump cookie
565 jar in
982ee69a
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566 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
567 (default)
568 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[:PROFILE]
569 Load cookies from a user profile of the
570 given web browser. Currently supported
0ef787d7 571 browsers are: brave, chrome, chromium,
572 edge, firefox, opera, safari, vivaldi. You
573 can specify the user profile name or
574 directory using "BROWSER:PROFILE_NAME" or
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575 "BROWSER:PROFILE_PATH". If no profile is
576 given, the most recently accessed one is
577 used
578 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
6623ac34 579 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
3b1fe47d 580 can store some downloaded information (such
581 as client ids and signatures) permanently.
9ee4f0bb 582 By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/yt-dlp or
583 ~/.cache/yt-dlp
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584 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
585 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
6bcd846b 586
b31fdeed 587## Thumbnail Options:
1dc2726f 588 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
6623ac34 589 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk
c76eb41b 590 (default)
1dc2726f 591 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
34488702 592 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
593 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
2b1bd292 594
732044af 595## Internet Shortcut Options:
8a51f564 596 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
597 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
598 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
599 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
600 OS caches the URL based on the file path
601 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
602 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
732044af 603
0744a815 604## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
34488702 605 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with
606 --verbose, print the log to stderr
6c072e7d 607 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
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608 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
609 anything to disk
34488702 610 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
611 options are used
0cf05715 612 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Usefull
34488702 613 for extracting metadata even if the videos
614 are not actually available for download
0cf05715 615 (experimental)
616 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
617 formats are found (default)
e167860c 618 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
619 related files (Alias: --no-download)
34488702 620 -O, --print TEMPLATE Quiet, but print the given fields for each
621 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
622 used. Either a field name or same syntax as
623 the output template can be used
624 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
625 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
626 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
627 description of available keys
628 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
629 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
630 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
631 a playlist, the whole playlist information
632 is dumped in a single line
8a51f564 633 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be
e58c22a0 634 written as far as no errors occur, even if
635 -s or another simulation option is used
8a51f564 636 (Alias: --force-download-archive)
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637 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
638 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
819e0531 639 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
1dc2726f 640 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
819e0531 641 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
642 Template for progress outputs, optionally
643 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
644 "download-title:" (the console title),
645 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
646 The video's fields are accessible under the
647 "info" key and the progress attributes are
648 accessible under "progress" key. Eg:
649 --console-title --progress-template
650 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
1dc2726f 651 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
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652 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
653 to debug problems (very verbose)
654 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
655 files in the current directory to debug
656 problems
780083db 657 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
6bcd846b 658
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659## Workarounds:
660 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
1dc2726f 661 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
c4af7684 662 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
e167860c 663 information about the video (Currently
05a7ffb1 664 supported only for YouTube)
1dc2726f 665 --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
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666 --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video
667 access is restricted to one domain
668 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
45016689 669 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
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670 option multiple times
671 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
672 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
673 or fribidi executable in PATH
1cf376f5 674 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
675 during data extraction
c4af7684 676 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
e167860c 677 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
678 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
679 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
680 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can
681 only be used along with --min-sleep-interval
1cf376f5 682 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
683 subtitle download
36f35428 684
cfcec693 685## Video Format Options:
eb8a4433 686 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
687 for more details
688 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
689 "Sorting Formats" for more details
8a51f564 690 --S-force, --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
691 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
eb8a4433 692 Formats" for more details
693 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
c76eb41b 694 specified sort order (default), see
695 "Sorting Formats" for more details
696 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
697 into a single file
698 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for
699 each output file (default)
700 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
701 into a single file
702 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for
703 each output file (default)
da9be05e 704 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
705 over non-free ones of same quality. Use
706 with "-S ext" to strictly prefer free
707 containers irrespective of quality
708 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
709 containers (default)
e8e73840 710 --check-formats Check that the formats selected are
0ba692ac 711 actually downloadable
712 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats selected are
713 actually downloadable
34488702 714 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
715 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
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716 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
717 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
718 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
719 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
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720
721## Subtitle Options:
c76eb41b 722 --write-subs Write subtitle file
723 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
724 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
e167860c 725 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
726 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
727 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
34488702 728 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
729 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
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730 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
731 preference, for example: "srt" or
732 "ass/srt/best"
c32b0aab 733 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
734 be regex) or "all" separated by commas.
735 (Eg: --sub-langs en.*,ja) You can prefix
736 the language code with a "-" to exempt it
737 from the requested languages. (Eg: --sub-
738 langs all,-live_chat) Use --list-subs for a
739 list of available language tags
6bcd846b 740
cfcec693 741## Authentication Options:
1dc2726f 742 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
c4af7684 743 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
7a5c1cfe 744 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
dc48a354 745 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
1dc2726f 746 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
0001fcb5 747 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
748 either the path or its containing
749 directory. Defaults to ~/.netrc
29f7c58a 750 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
f5e008d1 751 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
909d24dd 752 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
753 a list of available MSOs
f5e008d1
S
754 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
755 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
c74d1aa3 756 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
757 interactively
f5e008d1
S
758 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
759 operators
760
c76eb41b 761## Post-Processing Options:
c4af7684 762 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
e4172ac9 763 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
3de7c2ce 764 --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format to convert the audio
765 to when -x is used. Currently supported
766 formats are: best (default) or one of
34488702 767 best|aac|flac|mp3|m4a|opus|vorbis|wav
e4172ac9 768 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality, insert a
769 value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for
770 VBR or a specific bitrate like 128K
c4af7684 771 (default 5)
c76eb41b 772 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
29b6000e 773 necessary (currently supported: mp4|mkv|flv
774 |webm|mov|avi|mp3|mka|m4a|ogg|opus). If
775 target container does not support the
06167fbb 776 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
3de7c2ce 777 can specify multiple rules; Eg.
06167fbb 778 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to
779 m4a, mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv.
c76eb41b 780 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
3de7c2ce 781 re-encoding is necessary. The syntax and
782 supported formats are the same as --remux-video
1b77b347 783 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
43820c03 784 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
45016689 785 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
786 to give the argument to the specified
8fa43c73 787 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
7a340e0d
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788 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
789 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
8fa43c73 790 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
791 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
6aecd871 792 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
793 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
8fa43c73 794 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
9ee4f0bb 795 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
7a340e0d
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796 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
797 specified executable only when being used
798 by the specified postprocessor.
799 Additionally, for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o"
800 can be appended to the prefix optionally
801 followed by a number to pass the argument
802 before the specified input/output file. Eg:
803 --ppa "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can
804 use this option multiple times to give
e4172ac9 805 different arguments to different
5b1ecbb3 806 postprocessors. (Alias: --ppa)
c76eb41b 807 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
6623ac34 808 after post-processing
c76eb41b 809 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
6623ac34 810 post-processing (default)
811 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
812 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
0be8314d
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813 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
814 webm and mkv videos)
c76eb41b 815 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
6aecd871 816 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
6623ac34 817 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
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818 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also adds
819 chapters to file unless --no-add-chapters
820 is used (Alias: --add-metadata)
821 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
6aecd871 822 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
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823 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
824 (Alias: --add-chapters)
825 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default)
826 (Alias: --no-add-chapters)
73cd218f 827 --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
828 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
829 for details
e9f4ccd1 830 --replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
831 Replace text in a metadata field using the
832 given regex. This option can be used
833 multiple times
c4af7684
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834 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
835 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
836 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
837 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
838 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
839 default; fix file if we can, warn
6aecd871 840 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
841 already exists
e4172ac9 842 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
843 path to the binary or its containing
844 directory
c4af7684 845 --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
34488702 846 downloading and post-processing. Same
847 syntax as the output template can be used
9de3ea31 848 to pass any field as arguments to the
849 command. An additional field "filepath"
850 that contains the final path of the
851 downloaded file is also available. If no
7d1eb38a 852 fields are passed, %(filepath)q is appended
34488702 853 to the end of the command. This option can
854 be used multiple times
855 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
5520aa2d 856 --exec-before-download CMD Execute a command before the actual
857 download. The syntax is the same as --exec
34488702 858 but "filepath" is not available. This
859 option can be used multiple times
860 --no-exec-before-download Remove any previously defined
861 --exec-before-download
e167860c 862 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
3de7c2ce 863 (currently supported: srt|vtt|ass|lrc)
e167860c 864 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
8fa43c73 865 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
3de7c2ce 866 (currently supported: jpg|png)
72755351 867 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
868 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix
869 can be used with "--paths" and "--output"
870 to set the output filename for the split
871 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
872 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters
873 (default)
7a340e0d 874 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
2d9ec704 875 given regular expression. Time ranges
876 prefixed by a "*" can also be used in place
877 of chapters to remove the specified range.
878 Eg: --remove-chapters "*10:15-15:00"
879 --remove-chapters "intro". This option can
7a340e0d 880 be used multiple times
9ee4f0bb 881 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
882 (default)
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883 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes around the chapters before
884 removing/splitting them. Requires a
885 reencode and thus is very slow, but the
886 resulting video may have fewer artifacts
887 around the cuts
888 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
889 when cutting/splitting (default)
3ae5e797 890 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS] The (case sensitive) name of plugin
891 postprocessors to be enabled, and
892 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
893 seperated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
894 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
895 The "when" argument determines when the
896 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
897 "pre_process" (after extraction),
898 "before_dl" (before video download),
899 "post_process" (after video download;
900 default) or "after_move" (after moving file
901 to their final locations). This option can
902 be used multiple times to add different
903 postprocessors
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904
905## SponsorBlock Options:
906Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
907 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
8a51f564 908 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
909
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910 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
911 for, separated by commas. Available
912 categories are all, sponsor, intro, outro,
913 selfpromo, interaction, preview,
914 music_offtopic. You can prefix the category
915 with a "-" to exempt it. See
916 https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/index.php/Segment_Categories
917 for description of the categories. Eg:
918 --sponsorblock-query all,-preview
919 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
920 the video file, separated by commas. If a
921 category is present in both mark and
922 remove, remove takes precedence. The syntax
923 and available categories are the same as
924 for --sponsorblock-mark
925 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
926 The title template for SponsorBlock
927 chapters created by --sponsorblock-mark.
928 The same syntax as the output template is
929 used, but the only available fields are
930 start_time, end_time, category, categories,
931 name, category_names. Defaults to
932 "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
933 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
934 --sponsorblock-remove
935 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
936 https://sponsor.ajay.app
a9e7f546 937
78895bd3 938## Extractor Options:
5ef7d9bd 939 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor
d6e51845 940 errors (default is 3), or "infinite"
6623ac34 941 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
8a51f564 942 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
943 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
944 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
e409895f 945 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
946 discontinuities such as ad breaks
947 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
948 formats at discontinuities such as ad
949 breaks (default)
5d3a0e79 950 --extractor-args KEY:ARGS Pass these arguments to the extractor. See
951 "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You can
952 use this option multiple times to give
245524e6 953 arguments for different extractors
17cb02d0 954
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955# CONFIGURATION
956
7a5c1cfe 957You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
e2e43aea 958
0202b52a 9591. **Main Configuration**: The file given by `--config-location`
7a5c1cfe
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9601. **Portable Configuration**: `yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the bundled binary. If you are running from source-code (`<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`), the root directory is used instead.
9611. **Home Configuration**: `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by `-P "home:<path>"`, or in the current directory if no such path is given
e2e43aea 9621. **User Configuration**:
963 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
964 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
965 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
966 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
967 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
968 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
969
c589c1d3 970 `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%` defaults to `~/.config` if undefined. On windows, `~` points to %HOME% if present, `%USERPROFILE%` (generally `C:\Users\<user name>`) or `%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`.
07cce701 9711. **System Configuration**: `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
b7770046 972
7a5c1cfe 973For example, with the following configuration file yt-dlp will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under `YouTube` directory in your home directory:
b7770046
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974```
975# Lines starting with # are comments
976
977# Always extract audio
978-x
979
980# Do not copy the mtime
981--no-mtime
982
983# Use this proxy
984--proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
985
298f597b 986# Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
987-o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
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988```
989
e2e43aea 990Note that options in configuration file are just the same options aka switches used in regular command line calls; thus there **must be no whitespace** after `-` or `--`, e.g. `-o` or `--proxy` but not `- o` or `-- proxy`.
b7770046 991
7a5c1cfe 992You can use `--ignore-config` if you want to disable all configuration files for a particular yt-dlp run. If `--ignore-config` is found inside any configuration file, no further configuration will be loaded. For example, having the option in the portable configuration file prevents loading of user and system configurations. Additionally, (for backward compatibility) if `--ignore-config` is found inside the system configuration file, the user configuration is not loaded.
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993
994### Authentication with `.netrc` file
995
0001fcb5 996You may also want to configure automatic credentials storage for extractors that support authentication (by providing login and password with `--username` and `--password`) in order not to pass credentials as command line arguments on every yt-dlp execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell command history. You can achieve this using a [`.netrc` file](https://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on a per extractor basis. For that you will need to create a `.netrc` file in `--netrc-location` and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
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997```
998touch $HOME/.netrc
999chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
1000```
1001After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1002```
0001fcb5 1003machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
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1004```
1005For example:
1006```
1007machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1008machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1009```
7a5c1cfe 1010To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
b7770046 1011
0001fcb5 1012The default location of the .netrc file is `$HOME` (`~`) in UNIX. On Windows, it is `%HOME%` if present, `%USERPROFILE%` (generally `C:\Users\<user name>`) or `%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
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1013
1014# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1015
0202b52a 1016The `-o` option is used to indicate a template for the output file names while `-P` option is used to specify the path each type of file should be saved to.
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1017
1018**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
1019
e58c22a0 1020The simplest usage of `-o` is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in `yt-dlp -o funny_video.flv "https://some/video"` (hard-coding file extension like this is _not_ recommended and could break some post-processing).
a439a3a4 1021
f5aa5cfb 1022It may however also contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according to [python string formatting operations](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting). For example, `%(NAME)s` or `%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations.
a439a3a4 1023
1024The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
2b8a2973 10251. **Object traversal**: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a `.` (dot) separator. You can also do python slicing using `:`. Eg: `%(tags.0)s`, `%(subtitles.en.-1.ext)s`, `%(id.3:7:-1)s`, `%(formats.:.format_id)s`. `%()s` refers to the entire infodict. Note that all the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use `-j` to see such fields
e625be0d 10261. **Addition**: Addition and subtraction of numeric fields can be done using `+` and `-` respectively. Eg: `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
10271. **Date/time Formatting**: Date/time fields can be formatted according to [strftime formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes) by specifying it separated from the field name using a `>`. Eg: `%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`, `%(upload_date>%Y-%m-%d)s`, `%(epoch-3600>%H-%M-%S)s`
7c37ff97 10281. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified seperated with a `,`. Eg: `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
10291. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a `|` seperator. This overrides `--output-na-template`. Eg: `%(uploader|Unknown)s`
91dd88b9 10301. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types `diouxXeEfFgGcrs`, `B`, `j`, `l`, `q` can be used for converting to **B**ytes, **j**son, a comma seperated **l**ist (alternate form flag `#` makes it new line `\n` seperated) and a string **q**uoted for the terminal, respectively
524e2e4f 10311. **Unicode normalization**: The format type `U` can be used for NFC [unicode normalization](https://docs.python.org/3/library/unicodedata.html#unicodedata.normalize). The alternate form flag (`#`) changes the normalization to NFD and the conversion flag `+` can be used for NFKC/NFKD compatibility equivalence normalization. Eg: `%(title)+.100U` is NFKC
a439a3a4 1032
1033To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1034```
7c37ff97 1035%(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
a439a3a4 1036```
de6000d9 1037
80c03fa9 1038Additionally, you can set different output templates for the various metadata files separately from the general output template by specifying the type of file followed by the template separated by a colon `:`. The different file types supported are `subtitle`, `thumbnail`, `description`, `annotation` (deprecated), `infojson`, `pl_thumbnail`, `pl_description`, `pl_infojson`, `chapter`. For example, `-o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' -o 'thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s'` will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video. If any of the templates (except default) is empty, that type of file will not be written. Eg: `--write-thumbnail -o "thumbnail:"` will write thumbnails only for playlists and not for video.
e29663c6 1039
1040The available fields are:
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1041
1042 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1043 - `title` (string): Video title
1044 - `url` (string): Video URL
1045 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1046 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
597c1866 1047 - `description` (string): The description of the video
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1048 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1049 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1050 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1051 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
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1052 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
1053 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
e6f21b3d 1054 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released
1055 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
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1056 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1057 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1058 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
1059 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1060 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
53c18592 1061 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
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1062 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1063 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1064 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1065 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1066 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
277d6ff5 1067 - `comment_count` (numeric): Number of comments on the video (For some extractors, comments are only downloaded at the end, and so this field cannot be used)
b7770046 1068 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
3dbb2a9d 1069 - `live_status` (string): One of 'is_live', 'was_live', 'is_upcoming', 'not_live'
b7770046 1070 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
f76ede8e 1071 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
6cfda058 1072 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
c224251a 1073 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is 'private', 'premium_only', 'subscriber_only', 'needs_auth', 'unlisted' or 'public'
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1074 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1075 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
29b6000e 1076 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
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1077 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by `--format`
1078 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
1079 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
1080 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
1081 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
1082 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1083 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1084 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
1085 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1086 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1087 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
176f1866 1088 - `dynamic_range` (string): The dynamic range of the video
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1089 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
1090 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
1091 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
1092 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
1093 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
1094 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1095 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
1096 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch when creating the file
1097 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`
e6f21b3d 1098 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
b7770046 1099 - `playlist` (string): Name or id of the playlist that contains the video
e6f21b3d 1100 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1101 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
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1102 - `playlist_id` (string): Playlist identifier
1103 - `playlist_title` (string): Playlist title
1104 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1105 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
bd99f6e6 1106 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
1107 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
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1108
1109Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1110
1111 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1112 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1113 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1114
1115Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1116
1117 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1118 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1119 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1120 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1121 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1122 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1123 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1124
1125Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1126
1127 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1128 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1129 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1130 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1131 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1132 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1133 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1134 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1135 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1136 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1137
b050d210 1138Available for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
72755351 1139
1140 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1141 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1142 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1143 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1144
53c18592 1145Available only when used in `--print`:
1146
1147 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1148 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the actual filename may be different due to post-processing. Use `--exec echo` to get the name after all postprocessing is complete
7a340e0d
NA
1149
1150Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1151
1152 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1153 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1154 - `categories` (list): The SponsorBlock categories the chapter belongs to
1155 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1156 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1157 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
53c18592 1158
a820dc72 1159Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. Note that some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with placeholder value provided with `--output-na-placeholder` (`NA` by default).
b7770046 1160
bc97cdae 1161For example for `-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title `yt-dlp test video` and id `BaW_jenozKc`, this will result in a `yt-dlp test video-BaW_jenozKc.mp4` file created in the current directory.
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1162
1163For numeric sequences you can use numeric related formatting, for example, `%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to 5 characters, like in `00042`.
1164
1165Output templates can also contain arbitrary hierarchical path, e.g. `-o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s'` which will result in downloading each video in a directory corresponding to this path template. Any missing directory will be automatically created for you.
1166
1167To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1168
91ebc640 1169The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
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1170
1171In some cases, you don't want special characters such as 中, spaces, or &, such as when transferring the downloaded filename to a Windows system or the filename through an 8bit-unsafe channel. In these cases, add the `--restrict-filenames` flag to get a shorter title:
1172
1173#### Output template and Windows batch files
1174
1175If you are using an output template inside a Windows batch file then you must escape plain percent characters (`%`) by doubling, so that `-o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"` should become `-o "%%(title)s-%%(id)s.%%(ext)s"`. However you should not touch `%`'s that are not plain characters, e.g. environment variables for expansion should stay intact: `-o "C:\%HOMEPATH%\Desktop\%%(title)s.%%(ext)s"`.
1176
1177#### Output template examples
1178
de6000d9 1179Note that on Windows you need to use double quotes instead of single.
b7770046
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1180
1181```bash
7a5c1cfe
P
1182$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc
1183youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
b7770046 1184
7a5c1cfe
P
1185$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
1186youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
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1187
1188# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
7a5c1cfe 1189$ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
b7770046 1190
b050d210 1191# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
7a5c1cfe 1192$ yt-dlp -o '%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
e29663c6 1193
b7770046 1194# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
7a5c1cfe 1195$ yt-dlp -o '%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists
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1196
1197# Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
7a5c1cfe 1198$ yt-dlp -u user -p password -P '~/MyVideos' -o '%(playlist)s/%(chapter_number)s - %(chapter)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.udemy.com/java-tutorial/
b7770046
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1199
1200# Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
7a5c1cfe 1201$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -o "%(series)s/%(season_number)s - %(season)s/%(episode_number)s - %(episode)s.%(ext)s" https://videomore.ru/kino_v_detalayah/5_sezon/367617
b7770046
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1202
1203# Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
7a5c1cfe 1204$ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
b7770046
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1205```
1206
1207# FORMAT SELECTION
1208
7a5c1cfe
P
1209By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1210This is generally equivalent to using `-f bestvideo*+bestaudio/best`. However, if multiple audiostreams is enabled (`--audio-multistreams`), the default format changes to `-f bestvideo+bestaudio/best`. Similarly, if ffmpeg is unavailable, or if you use yt-dlp to stream to `stdout` (`-o -`), the default becomes `-f best/bestvideo+bestaudio`.
b7770046 1211
c111cefa 1212**Deprecation warning**: Latest versions of yt-dlp can stream multiple formats to the stdout simultaneously using ffmpeg. So, in future versions, the default for this will be set to `-f bv*+ba/b` similar to normal downloads. If you want to preserve the `-f b/bv+ba` setting, it is recommended to explicitly specify it in the configuration options.
1213
eff63539 1214The general syntax for format selection is `-f FORMAT` (or `--format FORMAT`) where `FORMAT` is a *selector expression*, i.e. an expression that describes format or formats you would like to download.
b7770046
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1215
1216**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
1217
a439a3a4 1218The simplest case is requesting a specific format, for example with `-f 22` you can download the format with format code equal to 22. You can get the list of available format codes for particular video using `--list-formats` or `-F`. Note that these format codes are extractor specific.
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1219
1220You can also use a file extension (currently `3gp`, `aac`, `flv`, `m4a`, `mp3`, `mp4`, `ogg`, `wav`, `webm` are supported) to download the best quality format of a particular file extension served as a single file, e.g. `-f webm` will download the best quality format with the `webm` extension served as a single file.
1221
1222You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1223
e094cec1 1224 - `all`: Select all formats
f8d4ad9a 1225 - `mergeall`: Select and merge all formats (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
1226 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio
1227 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio
909d24dd 1228 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1229 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1230 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality video-only format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1231 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
909d24dd 1232 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1233 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1234 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
1235 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
909d24dd 1236 - `ba*`, `bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `best*[acodec!=none]`
1237 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
b7770046 1238
e58c22a0 1239For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use `-f worstvideo`. It is however recommended not to use `worst` and related options. When your format selector is `worst`, the format which is worst in all respects is selected. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use `-f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps` instead of `-f worst`. See [sorting formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.
eff63539 1240
1241You can select the n'th best format of a type by using `best<type>.<n>`. For example, `best.2` will select the 2nd best combined format. Similarly, `bv*.3` will select the 3rd best format that contains a video stream.
b7770046 1242
eb8a4433 1243If you want to download multiple videos and they don't have the same formats available, you can specify the order of preference using slashes. Note that formats on the left hand side are preferred, for example `-f 22/17/18` will download format 22 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 17 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 18 if it's available, otherwise it will complain that no suitable formats are available for download.
b7770046
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1244
1245If you want to download several formats of the same video use a comma as a separator, e.g. `-f 22,17,18` will download all these three formats, of course if they are available. Or a more sophisticated example combined with the precedence feature: `-f 136/137/mp4/bestvideo,140/m4a/bestaudio`.
1246
d806c9fd 1247You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using `-f <format1>+<format2>+...` (requires ffmpeg installed), for example `-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg.
1248
1249**Deprecation warning**: Since the *below* described behavior is complex and counter-intuitive, this will be removed and multistreams will be enabled by default in the future. A new operator will be instead added to limit formats to single audio/video
1250
1251Unless `--video-multistreams` is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, unless `--audio-multistreams` is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. For example, `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --video-multistreams --audio-multistreams` will download and merge all 3 given formats. The resulting file will have 2 video streams and 2 audio streams. But `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --no-video-multistreams` will download and merge only `bestvideo` and `bestaudio`. `best` is ignored since another format containing a video stream (`bestvideo`) has already been selected. The order of the formats is therefore important. `-f best+bestaudio --no-audio-multistreams` will download and merge both formats while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams` will ignore `best` and download only `bestaudio`.
eb8a4433 1252
1253## Filtering Formats
1254
b7770046
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1255You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
1256
1257The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1258
1259 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1260 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1261 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
1262 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1263 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1264 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1265 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1266 - `fps`: Frame rate
1267
1268Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains) and following string meta fields:
1269
1270 - `ext`: File extension
1271 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1272 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1273 - `container`: Name of the container format
1274 - `protocol`: The protocol that will be used for the actual download, lower-case (`http`, `https`, `rtsp`, `rtmp`, `rtmpe`, `mms`, `f4m`, `ism`, `http_dash_segments`, `m3u8`, or `m3u8_native`)
1275 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
29f7c58a 1276 - `language`: Language code
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1277
1278Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation `!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g. `!*=` (does not contain).
1279
e58c22a0 1280Note that none of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by the website. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.
b7770046 1281
e094cec1 1282Formats for which the value is not known are excluded unless you put a question mark (`?`) after the operator. You can combine format filters, so `-f "[height<=?720][tbr>500]"` selects up to 720p videos (or videos where the height is not known) with a bitrate of at least 500 KBit/s. You can also use the filters with `all` to download all formats that satisfy the filter. For example, `-f "all[vcodec=none]"` selects all audio-only formats.
b7770046 1283
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1284Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses, for example if you want to download the best mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480 you can use `-f '(mp4,webm)[height<480]'`.
1285
eb8a4433 1286## Sorting Formats
1287
2e7781a9 1288You can change the criteria for being considered the `best` by using `-S` (`--format-sort`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...`.
1289
1290The available fields are:
eb8a4433 1291
63be1aab 1292 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
1293 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
1294 - `ie_pref`: The format preference as given by the extractor
1295 - `lang`: Language preference as given by the extractor
dca3ff4a 1296 - `quality`: The quality of the format as given by the extractor
63be1aab 1297 - `source`: Preference of the source as given by the extractor
e36d50c5 1298 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > other > `mms`/`rtsp` > unknown > `f4f`/`f4m`)
155d2b48 1299 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other > unknown)
63be1aab 1300 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other > unknown)
eb8a4433 1301 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
63be1aab 1302 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `webm` > `flv` > other > unknown). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is prefered.
1303 - `aext`: Audio Extension (`m4a` > `aac` > `mp3` > `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > other > unknown). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to `opus` > `ogg` > `webm` > `m4a` > `mp3` > `aac`.
1304 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
eb8a4433 1305 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if know in advance. This will be unavailable for mu38 and DASH formats.
63be1aab 1306 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1307 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
eb8a4433 1308 - `height`: Height of video
1309 - `width`: Width of video
63be1aab 1310 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1311 - `fps`: Framerate of video
176f1866 1312 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `SDR`)
63be1aab 1313 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1314 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1315 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1316 - `br`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr`
1317 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
d806c9fd 1318
1319**Deprecation warning**: Many of these fields have (currently undocumented) aliases, that may be removed in a future version. It is recommended to use only the documented field names.
eb8a4433 1320
9ee4f0bb 1321All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in descending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+`. Eg: `+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a preferred value for the fields, separated by a `:`. Eg: `res:720` prefers larger videos, but no larger than 720p and the smallest video if there are no videos less than 720p. For `codec` and `ext`, you can provide two preferred values, the first for video and the second for audio. Eg: `+codec:avc:m4a` (equivalent to `+vcodec:avc,+acodec:m4a`) sets the video codec preference to `h264` > `h265` > `vp9` > `vp9.2` > `av01` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` and audio codec preference to `mp4a` > `aac` > `vorbis` > `opus` > `mp3` > `ac3` > `dts`. You can also make the sorting prefer the nearest values to the provided by using `~` as the delimiter. Eg: `filesize~1G` prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.
1322
176f1866 1323The fields `hasvid` and `ie_pref` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using `--format-sort-force`. Apart from these, the default order used is: `lang,quality,res,fps,hdr:12,codec:vp9.2,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. The extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
eb8a4433 1324
176f1866 1325Note that the default has `codec:vp9.2`; i.e. `av1` is not prefered. Similarly, the default for hdr is `hdr:12`; i.e. dolby vision is not prefered. These choices are made since DV and AV1 formats are not yet fully compatible with most devices. This may be changed in the future as more devices become capable of smoothly playing back these formats.
eb8a4433 1326
e58c22a0 1327If your format selector is `worst`, the last item is selected after sorting. This means it will select the format that is worst in all respects. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use `-f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps`.
eb8a4433 1328
1329**Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1330
eb8a4433 1331## Format Selection examples
b7770046
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1332
1333Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
1334
1335```bash
e58c22a0 1336# Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
909d24dd 1337# or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
7a5c1cfe 1338$ yt-dlp -f 'bv+ba/b'
909d24dd 1339
1340# Download best format that contains video,
1341# and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
7a5c1cfe 1342$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+ba/b'
2af884ff 1343
1344# Same as above
7a5c1cfe 1345$ yt-dlp
909d24dd 1346
6fd35a11 1347# Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1348# For this case, an output template should be used since
1349# by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
7a5c1cfe 1350$ yt-dlp -f 'bv,ba' -o '%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s'
909d24dd 1351
f8d4ad9a 1352# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1353# and all audio-only formats into one file
1354$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]' --audio-multistreams
1355
1356# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1357# and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1358$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+ba+ba.2' --audio-multistreams
909d24dd 1359
6fd35a11 1360
1361# The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
f8d4ad9a 1362# and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
6fd35a11 1363
1364# Download the worst video available (old method)
7a5c1cfe 1365$ yt-dlp -f 'wv*+wa/w'
eb8a4433 1366
1367# Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
7a5c1cfe 1368$ yt-dlp -S '+res'
eb8a4433 1369
1370# Download the smallest video available
7a5c1cfe 1371$ yt-dlp -S '+size,+br'
eb8a4433 1372
1373
909d24dd 1374
eb8a4433 1375# Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
7a5c1cfe 1376$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b'
eb8a4433 1377
1378# Download the best video with the best extension
1379# (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
7a5c1cfe 1380$ yt-dlp -S 'ext'
eb8a4433 1381
1382
909d24dd 1383
eb8a4433 1384# Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1385# or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
7a5c1cfe 1386$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w'
b7770046 1387
eb8a4433 1388# Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1389# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
7a5c1cfe 1390$ yt-dlp -S 'height:480'
b7770046 1391
eb8a4433 1392# Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1393# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1394# Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1395# So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
7a5c1cfe 1396$ yt-dlp -S 'res:480'
b7770046 1397
b7770046 1398
909d24dd 1399
eb8a4433 1400# Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1401# or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
7a5c1cfe 1402$ yt-dlp -f 'b[filesize<50M] / w'
eb8a4433 1403
1404# Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1405# or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
7a5c1cfe 1406$ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize:50M'
eb8a4433 1407
1408# Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
7a5c1cfe 1409$ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize~50M'
eb8a4433 1410
1411
909d24dd 1412
eb8a4433 1413# Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1414# or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1415$ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)'
eb8a4433 1416
1417# Download best video available via the best protocol
1418# (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
7a5c1cfe 1419$ yt-dlp -S 'proto'
eb8a4433 1420
1421
909d24dd 1422
eb8a4433 1423# Download the best video with h264 codec, or the best video if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1424$ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[vcodec^=avc1] / (bv*+ba/b)'
eb8a4433 1425
1426# Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1427# or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1428$ yt-dlp -S 'codec:h264'
eb8a4433 1429
1430# Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1431# or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1432$ yt-dlp -S '+codec:h264'
eb8a4433 1433
1434
1435
1436# More complex examples
1437
e58c22a0 1438# Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1439# or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1440$ yt-dlp -f '((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)'
eb8a4433 1441
1442# Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
f8d4ad9a 1443# or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1444# preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
7a5c1cfe 1445$ yt-dlp -S 'res:720,fps'
eb8a4433 1446
1447
909d24dd 1448
eb8a4433 1449# Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1450# or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1451# preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
7a5c1cfe 1452$ yt-dlp -S '+res:480,codec,br'
b7770046 1453```
eb8a4433 1454
73cd218f 1455# MODIFYING METADATA
1456
e9f4ccd1 1457The metadata obtained the the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
1458
418964fa 1459`--replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE` is used to replace text in any metadata field using [python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax). [Backreferences](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html?highlight=backreferences#re.sub) can be used in the replace string for advanced use.
e9f4ccd1 1460
2e7781a9 1461The general syntax of `--parse-metadata FROM:TO` is to give the name of a field or an [output template](#output-template) to extract data from, and the format to interpret it as, separated by a colon `:`. Either a [python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax) with named capture groups or a similar syntax to the [output template](#output-template) (only `%(field)s` formatting is supported) can be used for `TO`. The option can be used multiple times to parse and modify various fields.
73cd218f 1462
1463Note that any field created by this can be used in the [output template](#output-template) and will also affect the media file's metadata added when using `--add-metadata`.
1464
9c2b75b5 1465This option also has a few special uses:
28b0eb0f 1466* You can download an additional URL based on the metadata of the currently downloaded video. To do this, set the field `additional_urls` to the URL that you want to download. Eg: `--parse-metadata "description:(?P<additional_urls>https?://www\.vimeo\.com/\d+)` will download the first vimeo video found in the description
b11d2101 1467* You can use this to change the metadata that is embedded in the media file. To do this, set the value of the corresponding field with a `meta_` prefix. For example, any value you set to `meta_description` field will be added to the `description` field in the file. For example, you can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis". Any value set to the `meta_` field will overwrite all default values.
c31be5b0 1468
1469For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1470
1471Metadata fields|From
1472:---|:---
1473`title`|`track` or `title`
1474`date`|`upload_date`
1475`description`, `synopsis`|`description`
1476`purl`, `comment`|`webpage_url`
1477`track`|`track_number`
1478`artist`|`artist`, `creator`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
1479`genre`|`genre`
1480`album`|`album`
1481`album_artist`|`album_artist`
1482`disc`|`disc_number`
1483`show`|`series`
1484`season_number`|`season_number`
1485`episode_id`|`episode` or `episode_id`
1486`episode_sort`|`episode_number`
1487`language` of each stream|From the format's `language`
1488**Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1489
73cd218f 1490
1491## Modifying metadata examples
1492
1493Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
1494
1495```bash
1496# Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
02aabd45 1497$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'title:%(artist)s - %(title)s'
73cd218f 1498
1499# Regex example
02aabd45 1500$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)'
73cd218f 1501
1502# Set title as "Series name S01E05"
02aabd45 1503$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata '%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s'
73cd218f 1504
1505# Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url
02aabd45 1506$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)' --add-metadata
73cd218f 1507
e9f4ccd1 1508# Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
1509$ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata 'title,uploader' '[ _]' '-'
1510
73cd218f 1511```
1512
5d3a0e79 1513# EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1514
34488702 1515Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS`. `ARGS` is a `;` (semicolon) seperated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2`. Eg: `--extractor-args "youtube:player_client=android_agegate,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
5d3a0e79 1516
1517The following extractors use this feature:
1518* **youtube**
1519 * `skip`: `hls` or `dash` (or both) to skip download of the respective manifests
e7e94f2a 1520 * `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web`, `android`, `ios`, `mweb`. These also have `_music`, `_embedded`, `_agegate`, and `_creator` variants (Eg: `web_embedded`) (`mweb` has only `_agegate`). By default, `android,web` is used, but the agegate and creator variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com` urls. You can also use `all` to use all the clients
b6de707d 1521 * `player_skip`: Skip some network requests that are generally needed for robust extraction. One or more of `configs` (skip client configs), `webpage` (skip initial webpage), `js` (skip js player). While these options can help reduce the number of requests needed or avoid some rate-limiting, they could cause some issues. See [#860](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/860) for more details
57015a4a 1522 * `include_live_dash`: Include live dash formats (These formats don't download properly)
2d6659b9 1523 * `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side).
34488702 1524 * `max_comments`: Maximum amount of comments to download (default all).
7581d246 1525 * `max_comment_depth`: Maximum depth for nested comments. YouTube supports depths 1 or 2 (default).
ac56cf38 1526* **youtubetab**
1527 (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1528 * `skip`: One or more of `webpage` (skip initial webpage download), `authcheck` (allow the download of playlists requiring authentication when no initial webpage is downloaded. This may cause unwanted behavior, see [#1122](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/1122) for more details)
11f9be09 1529
3acf6d38 1530* **funimation**
1531 * `language`: Languages to extract. Eg: `funimation:language=english,japanese`
1532 * `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
1533
73d829c1 1534* **vikiChannel**
1535 * `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
1536
bc97cdae 1537NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
5d3a0e79 1538
3acf6d38 1539
f74980cb 1540# PLUGINS
b7770046 1541
3ae5e797 1542Plugins are loaded from `<root-dir>/ytdlp_plugins/<type>/__init__.py`; where `<root-dir>` is the directory of the binary (`<root-dir>/yt-dlp`), or the root directory of the module if you are running directly from source-code (`<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`). Plugins are currently not supported for the `pip` version
1543
1544Plugins can be of `<type>`s `extractor` or `postprocessor`. Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it. Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME`.
1545
1546See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example plugins.
1547
1548Note that **all** plugins are imported even if not invoked, and that **there are no checks** performed on plugin code. Use plugins at your own risk and only if you trust the code
1549
1550If you are a plugin author, add [ytdlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/ytdlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability
b7770046 1551
b7770046 1552
8c6f4daa 1553
1554# EMBEDDING YT-DLP
1555
1556yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1557
1558Your program should avoid parsing the normal stdout since they may change in future versions. Instead they should use options such as `-J`, `--print`, `--progress-template`, `--exec` etc to create console output that you can reliably reproduce and parse.
1559
1560From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1561
1562```python
1563import yt_dlp
1564
1565ydl_opts = {}
1566with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1567 ydl.download(['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
1568```
1569
1570Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of options available, have a look at [`yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py`](yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py#L154-L452).
1571
1572Here's a more complete example of a program that outputs only errors (and a short message after the download is finished), converts the video to an mp3 file, implements a custom postprocessor and prints the final info_dict as json:
1573
1574```python
1575import json
1576
1577import yt_dlp
1578from yt_dlp.postprocessor.common import PostProcessor
1579
1580
1581class MyLogger:
1582 def debug(self, msg):
1583 # For compatability with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
1584 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
1585 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
1586 pass
1587 else:
1588 self.info(msg)
1589
1590 def info(self, msg):
1591 pass
1592
1593 def warning(self, msg):
1594 pass
1595
1596 def error(self, msg):
1597 print(msg)
1598
1599
1600class MyCustomPP(PostProcessor):
1601 def run(self, info):
1602 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
1603 return [], info
1604
1605
1606def my_hook(d):
1607 if d['status'] == 'finished':
1608 print('Done downloading, now converting ...')
1609
1610
1611ydl_opts = {
1612 'format': 'bestaudio/best',
1613 'postprocessors': [{
1614 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
1615 'preferredcodec': 'mp3',
1616 'preferredquality': '192',
1617 }],
1618 'logger': MyLogger(),
1619 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
1620}
1621
1622with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1623 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP())
1624 info = ydl.extract_info('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc')
1625 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1626```
1627
1628See the public functions in [`yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py`](yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py) for other available functions. Eg: `ydl.download`, `ydl.download_with_info_file`
1629
1630
e167860c 1631# DEPRECATED OPTIONS
1632
1633These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
1634
6ccf351a 1635#### Redundant options
1636While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
f4536226 1637
53c18592 1638 --get-description --print description
1639 --get-duration --print duration_string
1640 --get-filename --print filename
1641 --get-format --print format
1642 --get-id --print id
1643 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
1644 -e, --get-title --print title
1645 -g, --get-url --print urls
2b8a2973 1646 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
8f18aca8 1647 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
1648 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
1649 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
1650 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
6ccf351a 1651
1652
1653#### Not recommended
1654While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
1655
d9aa2332 1656 --all-formats -f all
c32b0aab 1657 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
b7b04c78 1658 --print-json -j --no-simulate
e167860c 1659 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting. Eg: %(autonumber)03d
a439a3a4 1660 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
73cd218f 1661 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
52a8a1e1 1662 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
1663 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
53ed7066 1664 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
1665 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
5d3a0e79 1666 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
1667 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
1668 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
1669 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
6ccf351a 1670
1671
1672#### Developer options
1673These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
1674
34488702 1675 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
6ccf351a 1676 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
88acdbc2 1677 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
1678 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
f4536226 1679
1680
1681#### Old aliases
1682These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
1683
1684 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
1685 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
1686 --dump-headers --print-traffic
1687 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
1688 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
1689 --load-info --load-info-json
1690 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
e167860c 1691 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
e167860c 1692 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
1693 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
f4536226 1694 --split-tracks --split-chapters
1695 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
e167860c 1696 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
f4536226 1697 --write-srt --write-subs
e167860c 1698 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
f4536226 1699
7a340e0d
NA
1700#### Sponskrub Options
1701Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of `--sponsorblock`
1702
1703 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
1704 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
1705 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
1706 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
1707 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
1708 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
1709 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
1710 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
1711
f4536226 1712#### No longer supported
1713These options may no longer work as intended
1714
1715 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
1716 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
1717 -C, --call-home Not implemented
1718 --no-call-home Default
1719 --include-ads No longer supported
1720 --no-include-ads Default
0bb1bc1b 1721 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
1722 --no-write-annotations Default
486fb179 1723
1724#### Removed
1725These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
1726
f4536226 1727 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1728 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1729 -t, --title -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1730 -l, --literal -o accepts literal names
1731
8c6f4daa 1732# CONTRIBUTING
1733See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp) for instructions on [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue) and [Contributing code to the project](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
e167860c 1734
c2b5f311 1735# MORE
8c6f4daa 1736For FAQ see the [youtube-dl README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)