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[ffmpeg] Detect libavformat version for `aac_adtstoasc`
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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
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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)
50865ca8 64
65
034b6215 66# NEW FEATURES
f20f5fe5 67The major new features from the latest release of [blackjack4494/yt-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) are:
034b6215 68
7a340e0d 69* **[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in youtube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
034b6215 70
7581d246 71* **[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 72
6aecd871 73* **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 74
0fdf490d 75* **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 76
f5546c0b 77* **Youtube improvements**:
6ccf351a 78 * All Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`) and private playlists supports downloading multiple pages of content
0fdf490d 79 * Search (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`), search URLs and in-channel search works
80 * Mixes supports downloading multiple pages of content
6ccf351a 81 * Most (but not all) age-gated content can be downloaded without cookies
f703a880 82 * Partial workaround for throttling issue
f20f5fe5 83 * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to `/video` to preserve the old behaviour
e6f21b3d 84 * `255kbps` audio is extracted (if available) from youtube music when premium cookies are given
9ee4f0bb 85 * Youtube music Albums, channels etc can be downloaded ([except self-uploaded music](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/723))
f20f5fe5 86
245524e6 87* **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[:PROFILE]`
88
597c1866 89* **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
90
b31fdeed 91* **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 92
b31fdeed 93* **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
f20f5fe5 94
0676afb1 95* **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, SkyNewsAU, EUScreen, Gronkh, microsoftstream, on24, trovo channels
f20f5fe5 96
0676afb1 97* **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, 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, 7plus, tagesschau
fac98805 98
3de7c2ce 99* **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 100
597c1866 101* **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 102
103* **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [configuration](#configuration) for details
104
418964fa 105* **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 106
418964fa 107* **Other new options**: `--print`, `--sleep-requests`, `--convert-thumbnails`, `--write-link`, `--force-download-archive`, `--force-overwrites`, `--break-on-reject` etc
0bc0a322 108
418964fa 109* **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 110
b31fdeed 111* **Plugin extractors**: Extractors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
112
7a5c1cfe 113* **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`
aa837ddf 114
29b6000e 115
7a5c1cfe 116See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
a26c99ac 117
118
90505ff1 119**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 120
b9650873 121If 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 122
53ed7066 123### Differences in default behavior
124
0930b11f 125Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
53ed7066 126
96565c7e 127* The options `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
28b0eb0f 128* `avconv` is not supported as as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
96565c7e 129* 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 130* 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 131* 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
132* 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
133* `--ignore-errors` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
134* 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
135* `--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
136* `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
137* The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
3acf6d38 138* 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 139* 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 140* 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 141* Unavailable videos are also listed for youtube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
18e674b4 142* 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 143* Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
e4f02757 144* 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
0930b11f 145* 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 146
147For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
28b0eb0f 148* `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options
149* `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams`
150* `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
53ed7066 151
f20f5fe5 152
d19bb9c0 153# INSTALLATION
50865ca8 154
7bc877a2 155You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
a61f4b28 156
0930b11f 157#### Using the release binary
158
159You can simply download the [correct binary file](#release-files) for your OS: **[[Windows](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)] [[UNIX-like](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)]**
5f326cf5 160
0930b11f 161In UNIX-like OSes (MacOS, Linux, BSD), you can also install the same in one of the following ways:
5ba4a0b6
A		 162
163```
164sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
165sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
166```
167
168```
169sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
170sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
171```
172
173```
174sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
175sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
176```
177
0930b11f 178PS: The manpages, shell completion files etc. are available in [yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
179
180#### With [PIP](https://pypi.org/project/pip)
181
182You can install the [PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) with:
183```
184python3 -m pip install -U yt-dlp
185```
186
187On some systems (like Termux), it is not possible to install pycryptodomex. In that case, install without dependancies:
188```
189python3 -m pip install --no-deps -U yt-dlp
190```
191
192You can also install the master branch with:
193```
194python3 -m pip3 install -U https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/archive/master.zip
195```
196
197Note that on some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`
198
199#### With [Homebrew](https://brew.sh)
200
201macOS or Linux users that are using Homebrew can also install it by:
b8773e63
THD		 202
203```
204brew install yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp
205```
206
cf59cd4d 207### UPDATE
0930b11f 208You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are [using the provided release](#using-the-release-binary)
209
210If you [installed with pip](#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
211
212If you [installed using Homebrew](#with-homebrew), run `brew upgrade yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp`
cf59cd4d 213
0e5927ee
R		 214### RELEASE FILES
215
733d8e8f 216#### Recommended
217
218File|Description
219:---|:---
0930b11f 220[yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independant binary. Needs Python (recommended for **UNIX-like systems**)
221[yt-dlp.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary (recommended for **Windows**)
733d8e8f 222
223#### Alternatives
224
0e5927ee
R		 225File|Description
226:---|:---
96565c7e 227[yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|MacOS (10.15+) standalone executable
0930b11f 228[yt-dlp_x86.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_x86.exe)|Windows (Vista SP2+) standalone x86 (32-bit) binary
96565c7e 229[yt-dlp_min.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_min.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary built with `py2exe`.<br/> Does not contain `pycryptodomex`, needs VC++14
0930b11f 230[yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
231[yt-dlp_macos.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos.zip)|Unpackaged MacOS (10.15+) executable (no auto-update)
733d8e8f 232
233#### Misc
234
235File|Description
236:---|:---
0e5927ee
R		 237[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
238[SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
239[SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
240
e58c22a0 241### DEPENDENCIES
cf59cd4d 242Python versions 3.6+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
b31fdeed 243
c9652aa4 244<!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
245<!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
cf59cd4d 246On 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 247-->
fac98805 248
cf59cd4d 249While all the other dependancies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
250* [**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)
0930b11f 251* [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen) - For embedding thumbnail in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
252* [**pycryptodomex**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome) - For decrypting AES-128 HLS streams and various other data. Licensed under [BSD2](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
253* [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets) - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD3](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
254* [**keyring**](https://github.com/jaraco/keyring) - For decrypting cookies of chromium-based browsers on Linux. Licensed under [MIT](https://github.com/jaraco/keyring/blob/main/LICENSE)
255* [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For embedding thumbnail in mp4/m4a if mutagen is not present. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
256* [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
257* [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or [**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading `rstp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
258* [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licensed under [BSD3](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
259* [**sponskrub**](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) - For using the now **deprecated** [sponskrub options](#sponskrub-options). Licensed under [GPLv3+](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub/blob/master/LICENCE.md)
cf59cd4d 260* Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
b31fdeed 261
cf59cd4d 262To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
263
0930b11f 264The Windows and MacOS standalone release binaries are already built with the python interpreter, mutagen, pycryptodomex and websockets included.
d710cc6d 265
266**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
267
5f326cf5 268
c76eb41b 269### COMPILE
5f326cf5 270
c76eb41b 271**For Windows**:
49a57e70 272To build the Windows executable, you must have pyinstaller (and optionally mutagen, pycryptodomex, websockets). Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, (optionally) build lazy extractors using `devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py`, and then just run `pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (32/64 bit) as the python used to build it.
e38df8f9 273
733d8e8f 274 py -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
49a57e70 275 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
733d8e8f 276 py pyinst.py
7581d246 277
fac98805 278Note 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 279
c76eb41b 280**For Unix**:
060ac762 281You will need the required build tools: `python`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`, `zip`, `pytest`
127d0759 282Then simply run `make`. You can also run `make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files
5f326cf5 283
49a57e70 284**Note**: In either platform, `devscripts/update-version.py` can be used to automatically update the version number
d19bb9c0 285
b31fdeed 286# USAGE AND OPTIONS
6bcd846b 287
7a5c1cfe 288 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
b50e3bc6 289
c2b5f311 290`Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
e58c22a0 291<!-- Auto generated -->
c2b5f311 292
c76eb41b 293## General Options:
1dc2726f
PH		 294 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
295 --version Print program version and exit
8d801631 296 -U, --update Update this program to latest version. Make
297 sure that you have sufficient permissions
298 (run with sudo if needed)
b1940459 299 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
0930b11f 300 The download will be considered successful
b1940459 301 even if the postprocessing fails
302 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download
303 errors; e.g. to skip unavailable videos in
304 a playlist (default)
8a51f564 305 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
306 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
34488702 307 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
308 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
c4af7684 309 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
34488702 310 extractors and exit
c4af7684
PH		 311 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
312 extractor
313 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
314 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
9ee4f0bb 315 from google videos for the search term
316 "large apple". Use the value "auto" to let
317 yt-dlp guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
c4af7684
PH		 318 warning when guessing). "error" just throws
319 an error. The default value "fixup_error"
320 repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
8a51f564 321 this is not possible instead of searching
298f597b 322 --ignore-config, --no-config Disable loading any configuration files
8a51f564 323 except the one provided by --config-location.
324 When given inside a configuration
298f597b 325 file, no further configuration files are
326 loaded. Additionally, (for backward
327 compatibility) if this option is found
328 inside the system configuration file, the
8a51f564 329 user configuration is not loaded
0202b52a 330 --config-location PATH Location of the main configuration file;
331 either the path to the config or its
332 containing directory
c4af7684 333 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
8a51f564 334 only list them
6623ac34 335 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
b5ae35ee 336 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate).
337 Currently only supported for YouTube
597c1866 338 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
8a51f564 339 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output
53ed7066 340 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
31654882 341 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
53ed7066 342 configurations by reverting some of the
343 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
344 default behavior" for details
08c1d0d3 345
149f05c7 346## Network Options:
28b4f736 347 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy.
0934c9d4
S		 348 To enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper
349 scheme. For example
28b4f736
PH		 350 socks5://127.0.0.1:1080/. Pass in an empty
351 string (--proxy "") for direct connection
149f05c7 352 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
c4af7684 353 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
c4af7684 354 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
c4af7684 355 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
8c6c88c7 356
b31fdeed 357## Geo-restriction:
c25f1a9b
S		 358 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
359 some geo-restricted sites. The default
360 proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the
7550ea50 361 option is not present) is used for the
8a51f564 362 actual downloading
8c6c88c7 363 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
0934c9d4 364 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
8c6c88c7
S		 365 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
366 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
8c6c88c7
S		 367 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
368 explicitly provided two-letter ISO 3166-2
0934c9d4 369 country code
9e18bb4c
S		 370 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
371 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR
0934c9d4 372 notation
149f05c7 373
cfcec693 374## Video Selection:
1dc2726f
PH		 375 --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is 1)
376 --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
c4af7684
PH		 377 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify
378 indices of the videos in the playlist
379 separated by commas like: "--playlist-items
380 1,2,5,8" if you want to download videos
381 indexed 1, 2, 5, 8 in the playlist. You can
382 specify range: "--playlist-items
383 1-3,7,10-13", it will download the videos
8a51f564 384 at index 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13
780083db 385 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
c4af7684
PH		 386 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
387 SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
388 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
389 (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
0930b11f 390 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
6623ac34 391 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
392 "(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?"
c4af7684 393 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
c76eb41b 394 this date. The date formats accepted is the
395 same as --date
c4af7684 396 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
c76eb41b 397 this date. The date formats accepted is the
398 same as --date
77b87f05
MT		 399 --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Any field (see
400 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE") can be compared with a
a047eeb6 401 number or a string using the operators
402 defined in "Filtering formats". You can
403 also simply specify a field to match if the
404 field is present and "!field" to check if
405 the field is not present. In addition,
406 Python style regular expression matching
407 can be done using "~=", and multiple
408 filters can be checked with "&". Use a "\"
409 to escape "&" or quotes if needed. Eg:
410 --match-filter "!is_live & like_count>?100
2e7781a9 411 & description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'"
a047eeb6 412 matches only videos that are not live, has
413 a like count more than 100 (or the like
77b87f05 414 field is not available), and also has a
a047eeb6 415 description that contains the phrase "cats
416 & dogs" (ignoring case)
c76eb41b 417 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
c4af7684 418 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
8a51f564 419 to a video and a playlist
c4af7684 420 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
8a51f564 421 a video and a playlist
c4af7684
PH		 422 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
423 age
424 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
425 archive file. Record the IDs of all
8a51f564 426 downloaded videos in it
8b0d7497 427 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
8a51f564 428 a file that is in the archive
8b0d7497 429 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
8a51f564 430 a file that has been filtered out
26e2805c 431 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest
432 of the playlist is skipped
c76eb41b 433 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
6bcd846b 434
d5a62e4f 435## Download Options:
b31fdeed 436 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
437 video that should be download concurrently
438 (default is 1)
5e3856a2 439 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
c4af7684 440 (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
6aecd871 441 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
442 below which throttling is assumed and the
443 video data is re-extracted (e.g. 100K)
c4af7684 444 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
8a51f564 445 "infinite"
0be8314d 446 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
b56e41a7
S		 447 is 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and
448 ISM)
6623ac34 449 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
450 hlsnative and ISM (default)
8a51f564 451 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
6623ac34 452 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading if a fragment is unavailable
8a51f564 453 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
a82f4184 454 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
6623ac34 455 downloading is finished
c76eb41b 456 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
457 downloading is finished (default)
c4af7684
PH		 458 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
459 (default is 1024)
c76eb41b 460 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
461 from an initial value of --buffer-size
462 (default)
463 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
db157d2a
S		 464 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
465 downloading (e.g. 10485760 or 10M) (default
466 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
467 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
468 (experimental)
2101f5d4 469 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
6623ac34 470 --no-playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in default order
c76eb41b 471 (default)
31487eb9 472 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
c4af7684 473 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
0934c9d4 474 expected file size
9bd20204 475 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
476 allowing some players to play the video
477 while downloading, and reducing the chance
478 of file corruption if download is
479 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
480 live streams
481 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
482 videos. This is default when not
483 downloading live streams
52a8a1e1 484 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
485 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
486 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
487 use it for. Currently supports native,
488 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
489 wget (Recommended: aria2c). You can use
490 this option multiple times to set different
491 downloaders for different protocols. For
492 example, --downloader aria2c --downloader
493 "dash,m3u8:native" will use aria2c for
494 http/ftp downloads, and the native
495 downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
496 (Alias: --external-downloader)
46ee996e 497 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
498 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
330690a2 499 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
500 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to
501 different positions using the same syntax
502 as --postprocessor-args. You can use this
503 option multiple times to give different
504 arguments to different downloaders
29b6000e 505 (Alias: --external-downloader-args)
d5a62e4f 506
cfcec693 507## Filesystem Options:
c4af7684 508 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ('-' for
e8dfecb3
S		 509 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
510 with '#', ';' or ']' are considered as
8a51f564 511 comments and ignored
1e520b55 512 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
6ccf351a 513 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
0202b52a 514 downloaded. Specify the type of file and
de6000d9 515 the path separated by a colon ":". All the
516 same types as --output are supported.
517 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
6ccf351a 518 (default) and "temp" paths. All
519 intermediary files are first downloaded to
520 the temp path and then the final files are
521 moved over to the home path after download
522 is finished. This option is ignored if
523 --output is an absolute path
d818eb74 524 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
c76eb41b 525 TEMPLATE" for details
0bc0a322 526 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder value for unavailable meta
527 fields in output filename template
528 (default: "NA")
c4af7684
PH		 529 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
530 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
531 filenames
c76eb41b 532 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
533 filenames (default)
0930b11f 534 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
535 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
536 using Windows (default)
c2934512 537 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
538 extension) to the specified number of
539 characters
9b45b9f5 540 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
541 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files.
542 This option includes --no-continue
543 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
544 related files (default)
c25228e5 545 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
546 (default)
547 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
e58c22a0 548 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
c25228e5 549 restart download of the entire file
c76eb41b 550 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
6623ac34 551 into output file (default)
c4af7684
PH		 552 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
553 into output file
c76eb41b 554 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the
555 file modification time (default)
c4af7684
PH		 556 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
557 the file modification time
558 --write-description Write video description to a .description
559 file
6623ac34 560 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
1dc2726f 561 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
c25228e5 562 (this may contain personal information)
6623ac34 563 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
cac96421 564 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
565 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
566 --write-description etc. (default)
567 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
568 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
75d43ca0 569 --clean-infojson Remove some private fields such as
570 filenames from the infojson. Note that it
571 could still contain some personal
572 information (default)
573 --no-clean-infojson Write all fields to the infojson
2305e2e5 574 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
575 infojson. The comments are fetched even
576 without this option if the extraction is
577 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
578 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
579 extraction is known to be quick
580 (Alias: --no-get-comments)
d845622b 581 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
c4af7684
PH		 582 (created with the "--write-info-json"
583 option)
584 --cookies FILE File to read cookies from and dump cookie
585 jar in
982ee69a
MB		 586 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
587 (default)
588 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[:PROFILE]
589 Load cookies from a user profile of the
590 given web browser. Currently supported
0ef787d7 591 browsers are: brave, chrome, chromium,
592 edge, firefox, opera, safari, vivaldi. You
593 can specify the user profile name or
594 directory using "BROWSER:PROFILE_NAME" or
982ee69a
MB		 595 "BROWSER:PROFILE_PATH". If no profile is
596 given, the most recently accessed one is
597 used
598 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
6623ac34 599 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
3b1fe47d 600 can store some downloaded information (such
601 as client ids and signatures) permanently.
9ee4f0bb 602 By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/yt-dlp or
603 ~/.cache/yt-dlp
36f35428
PH		 604 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
605 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
6bcd846b 606
b31fdeed 607## Thumbnail Options:
1dc2726f 608 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
6623ac34 609 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk
c76eb41b 610 (default)
1dc2726f 611 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
34488702 612 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
613 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
2b1bd292 614
732044af 615## Internet Shortcut Options:
8a51f564 616 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
617 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
618 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
619 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
620 OS caches the URL based on the file path
621 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
622 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
732044af 623
0744a815 624## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
34488702 625 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with
626 --verbose, print the log to stderr
6c072e7d 627 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
c4af7684
PH		 628 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
629 anything to disk
34488702 630 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
631 options are used
0930b11f 632 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
633 extracting metadata even if the videos are
634 not actually available for download
0cf05715 635 (experimental)
636 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
637 formats are found (default)
e167860c 638 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
639 related files (Alias: --no-download)
34488702 640 -O, --print TEMPLATE Quiet, but print the given fields for each
641 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
642 used. Either a field name or same syntax as
643 the output template can be used
644 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
645 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
646 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
647 description of available keys
648 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
649 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
650 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
651 a playlist, the whole playlist information
652 is dumped in a single line
8a51f564 653 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be
e58c22a0 654 written as far as no errors occur, even if
655 -s or another simulation option is used
8a51f564 656 (Alias: --force-download-archive)
1dc2726f
PH		 657 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
658 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
819e0531 659 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
1dc2726f 660 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
819e0531 661 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
662 Template for progress outputs, optionally
663 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
664 "download-title:" (the console title),
665 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
666 The video's fields are accessible under the
667 "info" key and the progress attributes are
0930b11f 668 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.:
819e0531 669 --console-title --progress-template
670 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
1dc2726f 671 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
c4af7684
PH		 672 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
673 to debug problems (very verbose)
674 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
675 files in the current directory to debug
676 problems
780083db 677 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
6bcd846b 678
36f35428
PH		 679## Workarounds:
680 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
0930b11f 681 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
c4af7684 682 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
e167860c 683 information about the video (Currently
05a7ffb1 684 supported only for YouTube)
1dc2726f 685 --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
c4af7684
PH		 686 --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video
687 access is restricted to one domain
688 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
45016689 689 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
c4af7684
PH		 690 option multiple times
691 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
692 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
693 or fribidi executable in PATH
1cf376f5 694 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
695 during data extraction
c4af7684 696 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
e167860c 697 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
698 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
699 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
700 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can
701 only be used along with --min-sleep-interval
1cf376f5 702 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
703 subtitle download
36f35428 704
cfcec693 705## Video Format Options:
eb8a4433 706 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
707 for more details
708 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
709 "Sorting Formats" for more details
8a51f564 710 --S-force, --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
711 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
eb8a4433 712 Formats" for more details
713 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
c76eb41b 714 specified sort order (default), see
715 "Sorting Formats" for more details
716 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
717 into a single file
718 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for
719 each output file (default)
720 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
721 into a single file
722 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for
723 each output file (default)
da9be05e 724 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
725 over non-free ones of same quality. Use
726 with "-S ext" to strictly prefer free
727 containers irrespective of quality
728 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
729 containers (default)
0930b11f 730 --check-formats Check that the selected formats are
0ba692ac 731 actually downloadable
0930b11f 732 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
0ba692ac 733 actually downloadable
0930b11f 734 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
735 downloadable
34488702 736 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
737 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
c4af7684
PH		 738 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
739 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
740 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
741 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
8ae7be3e
PH		 742
743## Subtitle Options:
c76eb41b 744 --write-subs Write subtitle file
745 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
746 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
e167860c 747 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
748 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
749 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
34488702 750 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
751 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
c4af7684
PH		 752 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
753 preference, for example: "srt" or
754 "ass/srt/best"
c32b0aab 755 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
756 be regex) or "all" separated by commas.
757 (Eg: --sub-langs en.*,ja) You can prefix
758 the language code with a "-" to exempt it
759 from the requested languages. (Eg: --sub-
760 langs all,-live_chat) Use --list-subs for a
761 list of available language tags
6bcd846b 762
cfcec693 763## Authentication Options:
1dc2726f 764 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
c4af7684 765 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
7a5c1cfe 766 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
dc48a354 767 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
1dc2726f 768 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
0001fcb5 769 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
770 either the path or its containing
771 directory. Defaults to ~/.netrc
29f7c58a 772 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
f5e008d1 773 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
909d24dd 774 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
775 a list of available MSOs
f5e008d1
S		 776 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
777 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
c74d1aa3 778 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
779 interactively
f5e008d1
S		 780 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
781 operators
782
c76eb41b 783## Post-Processing Options:
c4af7684 784 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
e4172ac9 785 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
3de7c2ce 786 --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format to convert the audio
787 to when -x is used. Currently supported
788 formats are: best (default) or one of
34488702 789 best|aac|flac|mp3|m4a|opus|vorbis|wav
e4172ac9 790 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality, insert a
791 value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for
792 VBR or a specific bitrate like 128K
c4af7684 793 (default 5)
c76eb41b 794 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
29b6000e 795 necessary (currently supported: mp4|mkv|flv
796 |webm|mov|avi|mp3|mka|m4a|ogg|opus). If
797 target container does not support the
06167fbb 798 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
3de7c2ce 799 can specify multiple rules; Eg.
06167fbb 800 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to
801 m4a, mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv.
c76eb41b 802 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
3de7c2ce 803 re-encoding is necessary. The syntax and
804 supported formats are the same as --remux-video
1b77b347 805 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
43820c03 806 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
45016689 807 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
808 to give the argument to the specified
8fa43c73 809 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
7a340e0d
NA		 810 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
811 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
8fa43c73 812 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
813 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
6aecd871 814 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
815 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
8fa43c73 816 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
9ee4f0bb 817 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
7a340e0d
NA		 818 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
819 specified executable only when being used
820 by the specified postprocessor.
821 Additionally, for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o"
822 can be appended to the prefix optionally
823 followed by a number to pass the argument
824 before the specified input/output file. Eg:
825 --ppa "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can
826 use this option multiple times to give
e4172ac9 827 different arguments to different
5b1ecbb3 828 postprocessors. (Alias: --ppa)
c76eb41b 829 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
6623ac34 830 after post-processing
c76eb41b 831 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
6623ac34 832 post-processing (default)
833 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
834 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
0be8314d
PH		 835 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
836 webm and mkv videos)
c76eb41b 837 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
6aecd871 838 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
6623ac34 839 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
7a340e0d
NA		 840 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also adds
841 chapters to file unless --no-add-chapters
842 is used (Alias: --add-metadata)
843 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
6aecd871 844 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
7a340e0d
NA		 845 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
846 (Alias: --add-chapters)
847 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default)
848 (Alias: --no-add-chapters)
73cd218f 849 --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
850 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
851 for details
e9f4ccd1 852 --replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
853 Replace text in a metadata field using the
854 given regex. This option can be used
855 multiple times
c4af7684
PH		 856 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
857 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
858 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
859 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
860 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
861 default; fix file if we can, warn
6aecd871 862 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
863 already exists
e4172ac9 864 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
865 path to the binary or its containing
866 directory
c4af7684 867 --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
34488702 868 downloading and post-processing. Same
869 syntax as the output template can be used
9de3ea31 870 to pass any field as arguments to the
871 command. An additional field "filepath"
872 that contains the final path of the
873 downloaded file is also available. If no
7d1eb38a 874 fields are passed, %(filepath)q is appended
34488702 875 to the end of the command. This option can
876 be used multiple times
877 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
5520aa2d 878 --exec-before-download CMD Execute a command before the actual
879 download. The syntax is the same as --exec
34488702 880 but "filepath" is not available. This
881 option can be used multiple times
882 --no-exec-before-download Remove any previously defined
883 --exec-before-download
e167860c 884 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
3de7c2ce 885 (currently supported: srt|vtt|ass|lrc)
e167860c 886 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
8fa43c73 887 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
3de7c2ce 888 (currently supported: jpg|png)
72755351 889 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
890 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix
891 can be used with "--paths" and "--output"
892 to set the output filename for the split
893 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
894 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters
895 (default)
7a340e0d 896 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
2d9ec704 897 given regular expression. Time ranges
898 prefixed by a "*" can also be used in place
899 of chapters to remove the specified range.
900 Eg: --remove-chapters "*10:15-15:00"
901 --remove-chapters "intro". This option can
7a340e0d 902 be used multiple times
9ee4f0bb 903 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
904 (default)
7a340e0d
NA		 905 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes around the chapters before
906 removing/splitting them. Requires a
907 reencode and thus is very slow, but the
908 resulting video may have fewer artifacts
909 around the cuts
910 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
911 when cutting/splitting (default)
3ae5e797 912 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS] The (case sensitive) name of plugin
913 postprocessors to be enabled, and
914 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
915 seperated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
916 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
917 The "when" argument determines when the
918 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
919 "pre_process" (after extraction),
920 "before_dl" (before video download),
921 "post_process" (after video download;
922 default) or "after_move" (after moving file
923 to their final locations). This option can
924 be used multiple times to add different
925 postprocessors
7a340e0d
NA		 926
927## SponsorBlock Options:
928Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
929 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
8a51f564 930 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
931
7a340e0d
NA		 932 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
933 for, separated by commas. Available
934 categories are all, sponsor, intro, outro,
935 selfpromo, interaction, preview,
936 music_offtopic. You can prefix the category
937 with a "-" to exempt it. See
938 https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/index.php/Segment_Categories
939 for description of the categories. Eg:
940 --sponsorblock-query all,-preview
941 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
942 the video file, separated by commas. If a
943 category is present in both mark and
944 remove, remove takes precedence. The syntax
945 and available categories are the same as
946 for --sponsorblock-mark
947 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
948 The title template for SponsorBlock
949 chapters created by --sponsorblock-mark.
950 The same syntax as the output template is
951 used, but the only available fields are
952 start_time, end_time, category, categories,
953 name, category_names. Defaults to
954 "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
955 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
956 --sponsorblock-remove
957 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
958 https://sponsor.ajay.app
a9e7f546 959
78895bd3 960## Extractor Options:
5ef7d9bd 961 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor
d6e51845 962 errors (default is 3), or "infinite"
6623ac34 963 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
8a51f564 964 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
965 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
966 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
e409895f 967 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
968 discontinuities such as ad breaks
969 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
970 formats at discontinuities such as ad
971 breaks (default)
5d3a0e79 972 --extractor-args KEY:ARGS Pass these arguments to the extractor. See
973 "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You can
974 use this option multiple times to give
245524e6 975 arguments for different extractors
17cb02d0 976
b7770046
U		 977# CONFIGURATION
978
7a5c1cfe 979You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
e2e43aea 980
0202b52a 9811. **Main Configuration**: The file given by `--config-location`
7a5c1cfe
P		 9821. **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.
9831. **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 9841. **User Configuration**:
985 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
986 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
987 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
988 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
989 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
990 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
991
c589c1d3 992 `%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 9931. **System Configuration**: `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
b7770046 994
7a5c1cfe 995For 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
U		 996```
997# Lines starting with # are comments
998
999# Always extract audio
1000-x
1001
1002# Do not copy the mtime
1003--no-mtime
1004
1005# Use this proxy
1006--proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1007
298f597b 1008# Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1009-o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
b7770046
U		 1010```
1011
e2e43aea 1012Note 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 1013
7a5c1cfe 1014You 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.
b7770046
U		 1015
1016### Authentication with `.netrc` file
1017
0001fcb5 1018You 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:
b7770046
U		 1019```
1020touch $HOME/.netrc
1021chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
1022```
1023After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1024```
0001fcb5 1025machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
b7770046
U		 1026```
1027For example:
1028```
1029machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1030machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1031```
7a5c1cfe 1032To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
b7770046 1033
0001fcb5 1034The default location of the .netrc file is `$HOME` (`~`) in UNIX. On Windows, it is `%HOME%` if present, `%USERPROFILE%` (generally `C:\Users\<user name>`) or `%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
b7770046
U		 1035
1036# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1037
0202b52a 1038The `-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.
b7770046
U		 1039
1040**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
1041
e58c22a0 1042The 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 1043
0930b11f 1044It 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 1045
1046The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
2b8a2973 10471. **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 10481. **Addition**: Addition and subtraction of numeric fields can be done using `+` and `-` respectively. Eg: `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
10491. **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 10501. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified seperated with a `,`. Eg: `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
10511. **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 10521. **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 10531. **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 1054
1055To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1056```
7c37ff97 1057%(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
a439a3a4 1058```
de6000d9 1059
08438d2c 1060Additionally, 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`, `link`, `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 1061
1062The available fields are:
b7770046
U		 1063
1064 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1065 - `title` (string): Video title
1066 - `url` (string): Video URL
1067 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1068 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
597c1866 1069 - `description` (string): The description of the video
b7770046
U		 1070 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1071 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1072 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1073 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
b7770046
U		 1074 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
1075 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
e6f21b3d 1076 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released
1077 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
b7770046
U		 1078 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1079 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1080 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
1081 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1082 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
53c18592 1083 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
b7770046
U		 1084 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1085 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1086 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1087 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1088 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
277d6ff5 1089 - `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 1090 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
3dbb2a9d 1091 - `live_status` (string): One of 'is_live', 'was_live', 'is_upcoming', 'not_live'
b7770046 1092 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
f76ede8e 1093 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
6cfda058 1094 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
c224251a 1095 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is 'private', 'premium_only', 'subscriber_only', 'needs_auth', 'unlisted' or 'public'
b7770046
U		 1096 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1097 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
29b6000e 1098 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
b7770046
U		 1099 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by `--format`
1100 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
1101 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
1102 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
1103 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
1104 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1105 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1106 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
1107 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1108 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1109 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
176f1866 1110 - `dynamic_range` (string): The dynamic range of the video
b7770046
U		 1111 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
1112 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
1113 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
1114 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
1115 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
1116 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1117 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
1118 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch when creating the file
1119 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`
e6f21b3d 1120 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
b7770046 1121 - `playlist` (string): Name or id of the playlist that contains the video
e6f21b3d 1122 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1123 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
b7770046
U		 1124 - `playlist_id` (string): Playlist identifier
1125 - `playlist_title` (string): Playlist title
1126 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1127 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
bd99f6e6 1128 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
1129 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
b7770046
U		 1130
1131Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1132
1133 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1134 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1135 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1136
1137Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1138
1139 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1140 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1141 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1142 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1143 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1144 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1145 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1146
1147Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1148
1149 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1150 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1151 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1152 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1153 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1154 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1155 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1156 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1157 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1158 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1159
b050d210 1160Available for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
72755351 1161
1162 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1163 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1164 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1165 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1166
53c18592 1167Available only when used in `--print`:
1168
1169 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1170 - `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		 1171
1172Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1173
1174 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1175 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1176 - `categories` (list): The SponsorBlock categories the chapter belongs to
1177 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1178 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1179 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
53c18592 1180
49a57e70 1181Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. For 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.
1182
1183Note 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 1184
0930b11f 1185**Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
b7770046 1186
49a57e70 1187For numeric sequences you can use [numeric related formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting), for example, `%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to 5 characters, like in `00042`.
b7770046
U		 1188
1189Output 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.
1190
1191To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1192
91ebc640 1193The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
b7770046
U		 1194
1195In 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:
1196
1197#### Output template and Windows batch files
1198
1199If 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"`.
1200
1201#### Output template examples
1202
de6000d9 1203Note that on Windows you need to use double quotes instead of single.
b7770046
U		 1204
1205```bash
7a5c1cfe
P		 1206$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc
1207youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
b7770046 1208
7a5c1cfe
P		 1209$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
1210youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
b7770046
U		 1211
1212# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
7a5c1cfe 1213$ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
b7770046 1214
b050d210 1215# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
7a5c1cfe 1216$ yt-dlp -o '%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
e29663c6 1217
b7770046 1218# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
7a5c1cfe 1219$ yt-dlp -o '%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists
b7770046
U		 1220
1221# Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
7a5c1cfe 1222$ 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
U		 1223
1224# Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
7a5c1cfe 1225$ 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
U		 1226
1227# Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
7a5c1cfe 1228$ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
b7770046
U		 1229```
1230
1231# FORMAT SELECTION
1232
7a5c1cfe
P		 1233By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1234This 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 1235
c111cefa 1236**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.
1237
eff63539 1238The 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
U		 1239
1240**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
1241
a439a3a4 1242The 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.
b7770046
U		 1243
1244You 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.
1245
1246You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1247
e094cec1 1248 - `all`: Select all formats
f8d4ad9a 1249 - `mergeall`: Select and merge all formats (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
1250 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio
1251 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio
909d24dd 1252 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1253 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1254 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality video-only format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1255 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
909d24dd 1256 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1257 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1258 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
1259 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
909d24dd 1260 - `ba*`, `bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `best*[acodec!=none]`
1261 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
b7770046 1262
e58c22a0 1263For 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 1264
1265You 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 1266
eb8a4433 1267If 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
U		 1268
1269If 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`.
1270
d806c9fd 1271You 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.
1272
1273**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
1274
1275Unless `--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 1276
1277## Filtering Formats
1278
b7770046
U		 1279You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
1280
1281The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1282
1283 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1284 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1285 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
1286 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1287 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1288 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1289 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1290 - `fps`: Frame rate
1291
1292Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains) and following string meta fields:
1293
1294 - `ext`: File extension
1295 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1296 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1297 - `container`: Name of the container format
1298 - `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`)
1299 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
29f7c58a 1300 - `language`: Language code
b7770046
U		 1301
1302Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation `!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g. `!*=` (does not contain).
1303
e58c22a0 1304Note 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 1305
e094cec1 1306Formats 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 1307
b7770046
U		 1308Format 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]'`.
1309
eb8a4433 1310## Sorting Formats
1311
2e7781a9 1312You can change the criteria for being considered the `best` by using `-S` (`--format-sort`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...`.
1313
1314The available fields are:
eb8a4433 1315
63be1aab 1316 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
1317 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
1318 - `ie_pref`: The format preference as given by the extractor
1319 - `lang`: Language preference as given by the extractor
dca3ff4a 1320 - `quality`: The quality of the format as given by the extractor
63be1aab 1321 - `source`: Preference of the source as given by the extractor
e36d50c5 1322 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > other > `mms`/`rtsp` > unknown > `f4f`/`f4m`)
155d2b48 1323 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other > unknown)
63be1aab 1324 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other > unknown)
eb8a4433 1325 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
63be1aab 1326 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `webm` > `flv` > other > unknown). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is prefered.
1327 - `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`.
1328 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
0930b11f 1329 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
63be1aab 1330 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1331 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
eb8a4433 1332 - `height`: Height of video
1333 - `width`: Width of video
63be1aab 1334 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1335 - `fps`: Framerate of video
49a57e70 1336 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
63be1aab 1337 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1338 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1339 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1340 - `br`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr`
1341 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
d806c9fd 1342
1343**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 1344
9ee4f0bb 1345All 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.
1346
176f1866 1347The 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 1348
176f1866 1349Note 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 1350
e58c22a0 1351If 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 1352
1353**Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1354
eb8a4433 1355## Format Selection examples
b7770046
U		 1356
1357Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
1358
1359```bash
e58c22a0 1360# Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
909d24dd 1361# or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
7a5c1cfe 1362$ yt-dlp -f 'bv+ba/b'
909d24dd 1363
1364# Download best format that contains video,
1365# and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
7a5c1cfe 1366$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+ba/b'
2af884ff 1367
1368# Same as above
7a5c1cfe 1369$ yt-dlp
909d24dd 1370
6fd35a11 1371# Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1372# For this case, an output template should be used since
1373# by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
7a5c1cfe 1374$ yt-dlp -f 'bv,ba' -o '%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s'
909d24dd 1375
f8d4ad9a 1376# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1377# and all audio-only formats into one file
1378$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]' --audio-multistreams
1379
1380# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1381# and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1382$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+ba+ba.2' --audio-multistreams
909d24dd 1383
6fd35a11 1384
1385# The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
f8d4ad9a 1386# and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
6fd35a11 1387
1388# Download the worst video available (old method)
7a5c1cfe 1389$ yt-dlp -f 'wv*+wa/w'
eb8a4433 1390
1391# Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
7a5c1cfe 1392$ yt-dlp -S '+res'
eb8a4433 1393
1394# Download the smallest video available
7a5c1cfe 1395$ yt-dlp -S '+size,+br'
eb8a4433 1396
1397
909d24dd 1398
eb8a4433 1399# Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
7a5c1cfe 1400$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b'
eb8a4433 1401
1402# Download the best video with the best extension
1403# (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
7a5c1cfe 1404$ yt-dlp -S 'ext'
eb8a4433 1405
1406
909d24dd 1407
eb8a4433 1408# Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1409# or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
7a5c1cfe 1410$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w'
b7770046 1411
eb8a4433 1412# Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1413# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
7a5c1cfe 1414$ yt-dlp -S 'height:480'
b7770046 1415
eb8a4433 1416# Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1417# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1418# Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1419# So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
7a5c1cfe 1420$ yt-dlp -S 'res:480'
b7770046 1421
b7770046 1422
909d24dd 1423
eb8a4433 1424# Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1425# or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
7a5c1cfe 1426$ yt-dlp -f 'b[filesize<50M] / w'
eb8a4433 1427
1428# Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1429# or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
7a5c1cfe 1430$ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize:50M'
eb8a4433 1431
1432# Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
7a5c1cfe 1433$ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize~50M'
eb8a4433 1434
1435
909d24dd 1436
eb8a4433 1437# Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1438# or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1439$ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)'
eb8a4433 1440
1441# Download best video available via the best protocol
1442# (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
7a5c1cfe 1443$ yt-dlp -S 'proto'
eb8a4433 1444
1445
909d24dd 1446
eb8a4433 1447# Download the best video with h264 codec, or the best video if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1448$ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[vcodec^=avc1] / (bv*+ba/b)'
eb8a4433 1449
1450# Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1451# or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1452$ yt-dlp -S 'codec:h264'
eb8a4433 1453
1454# Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1455# or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1456$ yt-dlp -S '+codec:h264'
eb8a4433 1457
1458
1459
1460# More complex examples
1461
e58c22a0 1462# Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1463# or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1464$ 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 1465
1466# Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
f8d4ad9a 1467# or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1468# preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
7a5c1cfe 1469$ yt-dlp -S 'res:720,fps'
eb8a4433 1470
1471
909d24dd 1472
eb8a4433 1473# Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1474# or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1475# preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
7a5c1cfe 1476$ yt-dlp -S '+res:480,codec,br'
b7770046 1477```
eb8a4433 1478
73cd218f 1479# MODIFYING METADATA
1480
e9f4ccd1 1481The metadata obtained the the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
1482
418964fa 1483`--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 1484
2e7781a9 1485The 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 1486
1487Note 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`.
1488
9c2b75b5 1489This option also has a few special uses:
28b0eb0f 1490* 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 1491* 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 1492
1493For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1494
1495Metadata fields|From
1496:---|:---
1497`title`|`track` or `title`
1498`date`|`upload_date`
1499`description`, `synopsis`|`description`
1500`purl`, `comment`|`webpage_url`
1501`track`|`track_number`
1502`artist`|`artist`, `creator`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
1503`genre`|`genre`
1504`album`|`album`
1505`album_artist`|`album_artist`
1506`disc`|`disc_number`
1507`show`|`series`
1508`season_number`|`season_number`
1509`episode_id`|`episode` or `episode_id`
1510`episode_sort`|`episode_number`
1511`language` of each stream|From the format's `language`
1512**Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1513
73cd218f 1514
1515## Modifying metadata examples
1516
1517Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
1518
1519```bash
1520# Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
02aabd45 1521$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'title:%(artist)s - %(title)s'
73cd218f 1522
1523# Regex example
02aabd45 1524$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)'
73cd218f 1525
1526# Set title as "Series name S01E05"
02aabd45 1527$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata '%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s'
73cd218f 1528
1529# Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url
02aabd45 1530$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)' --add-metadata
73cd218f 1531
0930b11f 1532# Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
1533$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ':(?P<formats>)' -j
1534
e9f4ccd1 1535# Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
1536$ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata 'title,uploader' '[ _]' '-'
1537
73cd218f 1538```
1539
5d3a0e79 1540# EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1541
0930b11f 1542Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS`. `ARGS` is a `;` (semicolon) separated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2`. Eg: `--extractor-args "youtube:player_client=android_agegate,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
5d3a0e79 1543
1544The following extractors use this feature:
96565c7e 1545
1546#### youtube
1547* `skip`: `hls` or `dash` (or both) to skip download of the respective manifests
1548* `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
1549* `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
1550* `include_live_dash`: Include live dash formats (These formats don't download properly)
1551* `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
1552* `max_comments`: Maximum amount of comments to download (default all)
1553* `max_comment_depth`: Maximum depth for nested comments. YouTube supports depths 1 or 2 (default)
1554
1555#### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1556* `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)
1557
1558#### funimation
1559* `language`: Languages to extract. Eg: `funimation:language=english,japanese`
1560* `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
1561
1562#### vikichannel
1563* `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
73d829c1 1564
bc97cdae 1565NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
5d3a0e79 1566
3acf6d38 1567
f74980cb 1568# PLUGINS
b7770046 1569
3ae5e797 1570Plugins 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
1571
1572Plugins 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`.
1573
1574See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example plugins.
1575
1576Note 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
1577
1578If you are a plugin author, add [ytdlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/ytdlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability
b7770046 1579
b7770046 1580
8c6f4daa 1581
1582# EMBEDDING YT-DLP
1583
1584yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1585
1586Your 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.
1587
1588From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1589
1590```python
1591import yt_dlp
1592
1593ydl_opts = {}
1594with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1595 ydl.download(['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
1596```
1597
1598Most 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).
1599
1600Here'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:
1601
1602```python
1603import json
1604
1605import yt_dlp
1606from yt_dlp.postprocessor.common import PostProcessor
1607
1608
1609class MyLogger:
1610 def debug(self, msg):
1611 # For compatability with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
1612 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
1613 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
1614 pass
1615 else:
1616 self.info(msg)
1617
1618 def info(self, msg):
1619 pass
1620
1621 def warning(self, msg):
1622 pass
1623
1624 def error(self, msg):
1625 print(msg)
1626
1627
1628class MyCustomPP(PostProcessor):
1629 def run(self, info):
1630 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
1631 return [], info
1632
1633
1634def my_hook(d):
1635 if d['status'] == 'finished':
1636 print('Done downloading, now converting ...')
1637
1638
1639ydl_opts = {
1640 'format': 'bestaudio/best',
1641 'postprocessors': [{
1642 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
1643 'preferredcodec': 'mp3',
1644 'preferredquality': '192',
1645 }],
1646 'logger': MyLogger(),
1647 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
1648}
1649
1650with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1651 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP())
1652 info = ydl.extract_info('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc')
1653 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1654```
1655
1656See the public functions in [`yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py`](yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py) for other available functions. Eg: `ydl.download`, `ydl.download_with_info_file`
1657
49a57e70 1658**Tip**: If you are porting your code from youtube-dl to yt-dlp, one important point to look out for is that we do not guarantee the return value of `YoutubeDL.extract_info` to be json serializable, or even be a dictionary. It will be dictionary-like, but if you want to ensure it is a serializable dictionary, pass it through `YoutubeDL.sanitize_info` as shown in the example above
1659
8c6f4daa 1660
e167860c 1661# DEPRECATED OPTIONS
1662
1663These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
1664
6ccf351a 1665#### Redundant options
1666While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
f4536226 1667
53c18592 1668 --get-description --print description
1669 --get-duration --print duration_string
1670 --get-filename --print filename
1671 --get-format --print format
1672 --get-id --print id
1673 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
1674 -e, --get-title --print title
1675 -g, --get-url --print urls
2b8a2973 1676 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
8f18aca8 1677 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
1678 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
1679 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
1680 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
6ccf351a 1681
1682
1683#### Not recommended
1684While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
1685
d9aa2332 1686 --all-formats -f all
c32b0aab 1687 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
b7b04c78 1688 --print-json -j --no-simulate
e167860c 1689 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting. Eg: %(autonumber)03d
a439a3a4 1690 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
19b824f6 1691 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
73cd218f 1692 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
52a8a1e1 1693 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
1694 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
53ed7066 1695 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
1696 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
5d3a0e79 1697 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
1698 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
1699 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
1700 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
6ccf351a 1701
1702
1703#### Developer options
1704These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
1705
34488702 1706 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
6ccf351a 1707 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
88acdbc2 1708 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
1709 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
f4536226 1710
1711
1712#### Old aliases
1713These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
1714
1715 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
1716 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
1717 --dump-headers --print-traffic
1718 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
1719 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
1720 --load-info --load-info-json
1721 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
e167860c 1722 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
e167860c 1723 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
1724 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
f4536226 1725 --split-tracks --split-chapters
1726 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
e167860c 1727 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
f4536226 1728 --write-srt --write-subs
e167860c 1729 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
f4536226 1730
7a340e0d
NA		 1731#### Sponskrub Options
1732Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of `--sponsorblock`
1733
1734 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
1735 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
1736 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
1737 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
1738 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
1739 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
1740 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
1741 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
1742
f4536226 1743#### No longer supported
1744These options may no longer work as intended
1745
1746 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
1747 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
1748 -C, --call-home Not implemented
1749 --no-call-home Default
1750 --include-ads No longer supported
1751 --no-include-ads Default
0bb1bc1b 1752 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
1753 --no-write-annotations Default
486fb179 1754
1755#### Removed
1756These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
1757
f4536226 1758 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1759 -t, --title -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1760 -l, --literal -o accepts literal names
1761
8c6f4daa 1762# CONTRIBUTING
1763See [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 1764
c2b5f311 1765# MORE
8c6f4daa 1766For FAQ see the [youtube-dl README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)
fork of https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/