1 [![Build Status](https://travis-ci.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc.svg?branch=master)]
(https://travis-ci.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc)
2 [![PyPi](https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/youtube-dlc.svg)]
(https://pypi.org/project/youtube-dlc)
4 [![Gitter chat](https://img.shields.io/gitter/room/youtube-dlc/community)]
(https://gitter.im/youtube-dlc)
5 [![License: Unlicense](https://img.shields.io/badge/license-Unlicense-blue.svg)]
(https://github.com/blackjack4494/youtube-dlc/blob/master/LICENSE)
7 youtube-dlc - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms.
9 youtube-dlc is a fork of youtube-dl with the intention of getting features tested by the community merged in the tool faster, since youtube-dl's development seems to be slowing down.
(https://web.archive.org/web/20201014194602/https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/26462)
11 - [INSTALLATION](#installation)
12 - [DESCRIPTION](#description)
14 - [Network Options:](#network-options)
15 - [Geo Restriction:](#geo-restriction)
16 - [Video Selection:](#video-selection)
17 - [Download Options:](#download-options)
18 - [Filesystem Options:](#filesystem-options)
19 - [Thumbnail images:](#thumbnail-images)
20 - [Verbosity / Simulation Options:](#verbosity--simulation-options)
21 - [Workarounds:](#workarounds)
22 - [Video Format Options:](#video-format-options)
23 - [Subtitle Options:](#subtitle-options)
24 - [Authentication Options:](#authentication-options)
25 - [Adobe Pass Options:](#adobe-pass-options)
26 - [Post-processing Options:](#post-processing-options)
27 - [Extractor Options:](#extractor-options)
28 - [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
29 - [Authentication with
`.netrc` file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
30 - [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
31 - [Output template and Windows batch files](#output-template-and-windows-batch-files)
32 - [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
33 - [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
34 - [Format selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
35 - [VIDEO SELECTION](#video-selection-
1)
38 [How to update](#update)
41 Preferred way using pip:
42 You may want to use
`python3` instead of
`python`
44 python -m pip install --upgrade youtube-dlc
46 If you want to install the current master branch
48 python -m pip install git+https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc
50 **UNIX** (Linux, macOS, etc.)
53 sudo wget https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/releases/latest/download/youtube-dlc -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dlc
54 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dlc
58 sudo curl -L https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/releases/latest/download/youtube-dlc -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dlc
59 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dlc
62 **Windows** users can download
[youtube-dlc.exe](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/releases/latest/download/youtube-dlc.exe) (**do not** put in
`C:\Windows\System32`!).
65 To build the Windows executable yourself (without version info!)
67 python -m pip install --upgrade pyinstaller
68 pyinstaller.exe youtube_dlc\__main__.py --onefile --name youtube-dlc
70 Or simply execute the
`make_win.bat` if pyinstaller is installed.
71 There will be a
`youtube-dlc.exe` in
`/dist`
73 New way to build Windows is to use
`python pyinst.py` (please use python3
64Bit)
74 For
32Bit Version use a
32Bit Version of python (
3 preferred here as well) and run
`python pyinst32.py`
77 You will need the required build tools
78 python, make (GNU), pandoc, zip, nosetests
85 **DO NOT UPDATE using
`-U` !** instead download binaries again or when installed with pip use a described above when installing.
86 I will add some memorable short links to the binaries so you can download them easier.
89 **youtube-dlc** is a command-line program to download videos from YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version
2.6,
2.7, or
3.2+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on your Unix box, on Windows or on macOS. It is released to the public domain, which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
91 youtube-dlc [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
94 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
95 --version Print program version and exit
96 -U, --update Update this program to latest version. Make
97 sure that you have sufficient permissions
98 (run with sudo if needed)
99 -i, --ignore-errors Continue on download errors, for example to
100 skip unavailable videos in a playlist
101 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos (in the
102 playlist or the command line) if an error
104 --dump-user-agent Display the current browser identification
105 --list-extractors List all supported extractors
106 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
108 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
110 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
111 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
112 from google videos for youtube-dlc "large
113 apple". Use the value "auto" to let
114 youtube-dlc guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
115 warning when guessing). "error" just throws
116 an error. The default value "fixup_error"
117 repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
118 this is not possible instead of searching.
119 --ignore-config Do not read configuration files. When given
120 in the global configuration file
121 /etc/youtube-dlc.conf: Do not read the user
122 configuration in ~/.config/youtube-
123 dlc/config (%APPDATA%/youtube-
124 dlc/config.txt on Windows)
125 --config-location PATH Location of the configuration file; either
126 the path to the config or its containing
128 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
130 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (YouTube only)
131 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (YouTube only)
132 --no-color Do not emit color codes in output
135 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy.
136 To enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper
138 socks5://
127.0.0.1:
1080/. Pass in an empty
139 string (--proxy "") for direct connection
140 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
141 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
142 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
143 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
146 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
147 some geo-restricted sites. The default
148 proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the
149 option is not present) is used for the
151 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
152 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
153 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
154 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
155 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
156 explicitly provided two-letter ISO
3166-
2
158 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
159 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR
163 --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is
1)
164 --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
165 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify
166 indices of the videos in the playlist
167 separated by commas like: "--playlist-items
168 1,
2,
5,
8" if you want to download videos
169 indexed
1,
2,
5,
8 in the playlist. You can
170 specify range: "--playlist-items
171 1-
3,
7,
10-
13", it will download the videos
172 at index
1,
2,
3,
7,
10,
11,
12 and
13.
173 --match-title REGEX Download only matching titles (regex or
175 --reject-title REGEX Skip download for matching titles (regex or
177 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
178 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
179 SIZE (e.g.
50k or
44.6m)
180 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
182 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded in this date
183 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
184 this date (i.e. inclusive)
185 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
186 this date (i.e. inclusive)
187 --min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than
189 --max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than
191 --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Specify any key (see
192 the "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a list of
193 available keys) to match if the key is
194 present, !key to check if the key is not
195 present, key > NUMBER (like "comment_count
196 > 12", also works with >=, <, <=, !=, =) to
197 compare against a number, key = 'LITERAL'
198 (like "uploader = 'Mike Smith'", also works
199 with !=) to match against a string literal
200 and & to require multiple matches. Values
201 which are not known are excluded unless you
202 put a question mark (?) after the operator.
203 For example, to only match videos that have
204 been liked more than
100 times and disliked
205 less than
50 times (or the dislike
206 functionality is not available at the given
207 service), but who also have a description,
208 use --match-filter "like_count >
100 &
209 dislike_count <?
50 & description" .
210 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
211 to a video and a playlist.
212 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
213 a video and a playlist.
214 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
216 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
217 archive file. Record the IDs of all
218 downloaded videos in it.
219 --include-ads Download advertisements as well
223 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
225 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is
10), or
227 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
228 is
10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and
230 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments (DASH, hlsnative
232 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading when some fragment is not
234 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
235 downloading is finished; fragments are
237 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g.
1024 or
16K)
239 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer
240 size. By default, the buffer size is
241 automatically resized from an initial value
243 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
244 downloading (e.g.
10485760 or
10M) (default
245 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
246 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
248 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
249 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
250 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
252 --hls-prefer-native Use the native HLS downloader instead of
254 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg Use ffmpeg instead of the native HLS
256 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos,
257 allowing to play the video while
258 downloading (some players may not be able
260 --external-downloader COMMAND Use the specified external downloader.
262 aria2c,avconv,axel,curl,ffmpeg,httpie,wget
263 --external-downloader-args ARGS Give these arguments to the external
266 ## Filesystem Options:
267 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ('-' for
268 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
269 with '#', ';' or ']' are considered as
270 comments and ignored.
271 --id Use only video ID in file name
272 -o, --output TEMPLATE Output filename template, see the "OUTPUT
273 TEMPLATE" for all the info
274 --autonumber-start NUMBER Specify the start value for %(autonumber)s
276 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
277 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
279 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite files
280 -c, --continue Force resume of partially downloaded files.
281 By default, youtube-dlc will resume
282 downloads if possible.
283 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded files
284 (restart from beginning)
285 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
287 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
288 the file modification time
289 --write-description Write video description to a .description
291 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
292 --write-annotations Write video annotations to a
293 .annotations.xml file
294 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
295 (created with the "--write-info-json"
297 --cookies FILE File to read cookies from and dump cookie
299 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-
300 dlc can store some downloaded information
301 permanently. By default
302 $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dlc or
303 ~/.cache/youtube-dlc . At the moment, only
304 YouTube player files (for videos with
305 obfuscated signatures) are cached, but that
307 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
308 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
309 --trim-file-name Limit the filename length (extension
313 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
314 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
315 --list-thumbnails Simulate and list all available thumbnail
318 ## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
319 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode
320 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
321 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
323 --skip-download Do not download the video
324 -g, --get-url Simulate, quiet but print URL
325 -e, --get-title Simulate, quiet but print title
326 --get-id Simulate, quiet but print id
327 --get-thumbnail Simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
328 --get-description Simulate, quiet but print video description
329 --get-duration Simulate, quiet but print video length
330 --get-filename Simulate, quiet but print output filename
331 --get-format Simulate, quiet but print output format
332 -j, --dump-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information.
333 See the "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a description
335 -J, --dump-single-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information
336 for each command-line argument. If the URL
337 refers to a playlist, dump the whole
338 playlist information in a single line.
339 --print-json Be quiet and print the video information as
340 JSON (video is still being downloaded).
341 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
342 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
343 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
344 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
345 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
346 to debug problems (very verbose)
347 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
348 files in the current directory to debug
350 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
351 -C, --call-home Contact the youtube-dlc server for
353 --no-call-home Do NOT contact the youtube-dlc server for
357 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
358 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
359 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
360 information about the video. (Currently
361 supported only for YouTube)
362 --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
363 --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video
364 access is restricted to one domain
365 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
366 separated by a colon ':'. You can use this
367 option multiple times
368 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
369 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
370 or fribidi executable in PATH
371 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
372 download when used alone or a lower bound
373 of a range for randomized sleep before each
374 download (minimum possible number of
375 seconds to sleep) when used along with
376 --max-sleep-interval.
377 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Upper bound of a range for randomized sleep
378 before each download (maximum possible
379 number of seconds to sleep). Must only be
380 used along with --min-sleep-interval.
381 --sleep-subtitles Enforce sleep interval on subtitles as well.
384 ## Video Format Options:
385 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see the "FORMAT
386 SELECTION" for all the info
387 --all-formats Download all available video formats
388 --prefer-free-formats Prefer free video formats unless a specific
390 -F, --list-formats List all available formats of requested
392 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest Do not download the DASH manifests and
393 related data on YouTube videos
394 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest Do not download the HLS manifests and
395 related data on YouTube videos
396 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
397 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
398 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
399 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
402 --write-sub Write subtitle file
403 --write-auto-sub Write automatically generated subtitle file
405 --all-subs Download all the available subtitles of the
407 --list-subs List all available subtitles for the video
408 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
409 preference, for example: "srt" or
411 --sub-lang LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download
412 (optional) separated by commas, use --list-
413 subs for available language tags
415 ## Authentication Options:
416 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
417 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
418 out, youtube-dlc will ask interactively.
419 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
420 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
421 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, smotri, youku)
423 ## Adobe Pass Options:
424 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
425 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
426 a list of available MSOs
427 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
428 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
429 If this option is left out, youtube-dlc
430 will ask interactively.
431 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
434 ## Post-processing Options:
435 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
436 (requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or
438 --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format: "best", "aac",
439 "flac", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", "vorbis", or
440 "wav"; "best" by default; No effect without
442 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg/avconv audio quality, insert
443 a value between
0 (better) and
9 (worse)
444 for VBR or a specific bitrate like
128K
446 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video to another container format
447 if necessary (currently supported: mp4|mkv,
448 target container format must support video
449 / audio encoding, remuxing may fail)
450 --recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if
451 necessary (currently supported:
452 mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv|avi)
453 --postprocessor-args ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessor
454 -k, --keep-video Keep the video file on disk after the post-
455 processing; the video is erased by default
456 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files; the
457 post-processed files are overwritten by
459 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
461 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
462 --add-metadata Write metadata to the video file
463 --metadata-from-title FORMAT Parse additional metadata like song title /
464 artist from the video title. The format
465 syntax is the same as --output. Regular
466 expression with named capture groups may
467 also be used. The parsed parameters replace
468 existing values. Example: --metadata-from-
469 title "%(artist)s - %(title)s" matches a
470 title like "Coldplay - Paradise". Example
471 (regex): --metadata-from-title
472 "(?P<artist>.+?) - (?P<title>.+)"
473 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
474 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
475 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
476 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
477 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
478 default; fix file if we can, warn
480 --prefer-avconv Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running the
482 --prefer-ffmpeg Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running the
483 postprocessors (default)
484 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg/avconv binary;
485 either the path to the binary or its
486 containing directory.
487 --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
488 downloading and post-processing, similar to
489 find's -exec syntax. Example: --exec 'adb
490 push {} /sdcard/Music/ && rm {}'
491 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to other format
492 (currently supported: srt|ass|vtt|lrc)
494 ## Extractor Options:
495 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
499 You can configure youtube-dlc by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. On Linux and macOS, the system wide configuration file is located at
`/etc/youtube-dlc.conf` and the user wide configuration file at
`~/.config/youtube-dlc/config`. On Windows, the user wide configuration file locations are
`%APPDATA%\youtube-dlc\config.txt` or
`C:\Users\<user name>\youtube-dlc.conf`. Note that by default configuration file may not exist so you may need to create it yourself.
501 For example, with the following configuration file youtube-dlc will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under
`Movies` directory in your home directory:
503 # Lines starting with # are comments
505 # Always extract audio
508 # Do not copy the mtime
512 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
514 # Save all videos under Movies directory in your home directory
515 -o ~/Movies/%(title)s.%(ext)s
518 Note 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`.
520 You can use
`--ignore-config` if you want to disable the configuration file for a particular youtube-dlc run.
522 You can also use
`--config-location` if you want to use custom configuration file for a particular youtube-dlc run.
524 ### Authentication with `.netrc` file
526 You 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 youtube-dlc 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 your
`$HOME` and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
529 chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
531 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
533 machine <extractor> login <login> password <password>
537 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
538 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
540 To activate authentication with the
`.netrc` file you should pass
`--netrc` to youtube-dlc or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
542 On Windows you may also need to setup the
`%HOME%` environment variable manually. For example:
544 set HOME=%USERPROFILE%
549 The
`-o` option allows users to indicate a template for the output file names.
551 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
553 The basic usage is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in
`youtube-dlc -o funny_video.flv "https://some/video"`. However, it may 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/2/library/stdtypes.html#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. Allowed names along with sequence type are:
555 - `id` (string): Video identifier
556 - `title` (string): Video title
557 - `url` (string): Video URL
558 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
559 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
560 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
561 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
562 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
563 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
564 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released
565 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
566 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
567 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
568 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
569 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
570 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
571 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
572 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
573 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
574 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
575 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
576 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
577 - `comment_count` (numeric): Number of comments on the video
578 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
579 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
580 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
581 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
582 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
583 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by
`--format`
584 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
585 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
586 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
587 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
588 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
589 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
590 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
591 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
592 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
593 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
594 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
595 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
596 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
597 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
598 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
599 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
600 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
601 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch when creating the file
602 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at
`--autonumber-start`
603 - `playlist` (string): Name or id of the playlist that contains the video
604 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
605 - `playlist_id` (string): Playlist identifier
606 - `playlist_title` (string): Playlist title
607 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
608 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
610 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
612 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
613 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
614 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
616 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
618 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
619 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
620 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
621 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
622 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
623 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
624 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
626 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
628 - `track` (string): Title of the track
629 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
630 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
631 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
632 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
633 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
634 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
635 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
636 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
637 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
639 Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. Note that some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with
`NA`.
641 For example for
`-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title
`youtube-dlc test video` and id
`BaW_jenozKcj`, this will result in a
`youtube-dlc test video-BaW_jenozKcj.mp4` file created in the current directory.
643 For numeric sequences you can use numeric related formatting, for example,
`%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to
5 characters, like in
`00042`.
645 Output 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.
647 To use percent literals in an output template use
`%%`. To output to stdout use
`-o -`.
649 The current default template is
`%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`.
651 In 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:
653 #### Output template and Windows batch files
655 If 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"`.
657 #### Output template examples
659 Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
662 $ youtube-dlc --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc
663 youtube-dlc test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
665 $ youtube-dlc --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
666 youtube-dlc_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
668 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
669 $ youtube-dlc -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
671 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
672 $ youtube-dlc -o '%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists
674 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
675 $ youtube-dlc -u user -p password -o '~/MyVideos/%(playlist)s/%(chapter_number)s - %(chapter)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.udemy.com/java-tutorial/
677 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
678 $ youtube-dlc -o "C:/MyVideos/%(series)s/%(season_number)s - %(season)s/%(episode_number)s - %(episode)s.%(ext)s" https://videomore.ru/kino_v_detalayah/5_sezon/367617
680 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
681 $ youtube-dlc -o - BaW_jenozKc
686 By default youtube-dlc tries to download the best available quality, i.e. if you want the best quality you **don't need** to pass any special options, youtube-dlc will guess it for you by **default**.
688 But sometimes you may want to download in a different format, for example when you are on a slow or intermittent connection. The key mechanism for achieving this is so-called *format selection* based on which you can explicitly specify desired format, select formats based on some criterion or criteria, setup precedence and much more.
690 The general syntax for format selection is
`--format FORMAT` or shorter
`-f FORMAT` where
`FORMAT` is a *selector expression*, i.e. an expression that describes format or formats you would like to download.
692 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
694 The 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.
696 You 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.
698 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
700 - `best`: Select the best quality format represented by a single file with video and audio.
701 - `worst`: Select the worst quality format represented by a single file with video and audio.
702 - `bestvideo`: Select the best quality video-only format (e.g. DASH video). May not be available.
703 - `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. May not be available.
704 - `bestaudio`: Select the best quality audio only-format. May not be available.
705 - `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio only-format. May not be available.
707 For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use
`-f worstvideo`.
709 If 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 slash is left-associative, i.e. 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.
711 If 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`.
713 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in
`-f "best[height=720]"` (or
`-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
715 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons
`<`,
`<=`,
`>`,
`>=`,
`=` (equals),
`!=` (not equals):
717 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
718 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
719 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
720 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
721 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
722 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
723 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
726 Also filtering work for comparisons
`=` (equals),
`^=` (starts with),
`$=` (ends with),
`*=` (contains) and following string meta fields:
728 - `ext`: File extension
729 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
730 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
731 - `container`: Name of the container format
732 - `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`)
733 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
735 Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation
`!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g.
`!*=` (does not contain).
737 Note 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 video hoster.
739 Formats 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.
741 You can merge the video and audio of two formats into a single file using
`-f <video-format>+<audio-format>` (requires ffmpeg or avconv installed), for example
`-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg/avconv.
743 Format 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]'`.
745 Since the end of April
2015 and version
2015.04.26, youtube-dlc uses
`-f bestvideo+bestaudio/best` as the default format selection (see
[#5447](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/5447),
[#5456](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/5456)). If ffmpeg or avconv are installed this results in downloading
`bestvideo` and
`bestaudio` separately and muxing them together into a single file giving the best overall quality available. Otherwise it falls back to
`best` and results in downloading the best available quality served as a single file.
`best` is also needed for videos that don't come from YouTube because they don't provide the audio and video in two different files. If you want to only download some DASH formats (for example if you are not interested in getting videos with a resolution higher than
1080p), you can add
`-f bestvideo[height<=?1080]+bestaudio/best` to your configuration file. Note that if you use youtube-dlc to stream to
`stdout` (and most likely to pipe it to your media player then), i.e. you explicitly specify output template as
`-o -`, youtube-dlc still uses
`-f best` format selection in order to start content delivery immediately to your player and not to wait until
`bestvideo` and
`bestaudio` are downloaded and muxed.
747 If you want to preserve the old format selection behavior (prior to youtube-dlc
2015.04.26), i.e. you want to download the best available quality media served as a single file, you should explicitly specify your choice with
`-f best`. You may want to add it to the [configuration file](#configuration) in order not to type it every time you run youtube-dlc.
749 #### Format selection examples
751 Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
754 # Download best mp4 format available or any other best if no mp4 available
755 $ youtube-dlc -f 'bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/best[ext=mp4]/best'
757 # Download best format available but no better than 480p
758 $ youtube-dlc -f 'bestvideo[height<=480]+bestaudio/best[height<=480]'
760 # Download best video only format but no bigger than 50 MB
761 $ youtube-dlc -f 'best[filesize<50M]'
763 # Download best format available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol
764 $ youtube-dlc -f '(bestvideo+bestaudio/best)[protocol^=http]'
766 # Download the best video format and the best audio format without merging them
767 $ youtube-dlc -f 'bestvideo,bestaudio' -o '%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s'
769 Note that in the last example, an output template is recommended as bestvideo and bestaudio may have the same file name.
774 Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options
`--date`,
`--datebefore` or
`--dateafter`. They accept dates in two formats:
776 - Absolute dates: Dates in the format
`YYYYMMDD`.
777 - Relative dates: Dates in the format
`(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?`
782 # Download only the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
783 $ youtube-dlc --dateafter now-6months
785 # Download only the videos uploaded on January 1, 1970
786 $ youtube-dlc --date 19700101
788 $ # Download only the videos uploaded in the 200x decade
789 $ youtube-dlc --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20091231