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(https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
11 A command-line program to download videos from youtube.com and many other [video platforms](docs/supportedsites.md)
13 This is a fork of
[youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) which is inturn a fork of
[youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl)
15 * [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
16 * [INSTALLATION](#installation)
19 * [DESCRIPTION](#description)
21 * [Network Options](#network-options)
22 * [Geo Restriction](#geo-restriction)
23 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
24 * [Download Options](#download-options)
25 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
26 * [Thumbnail images](#thumbnail-images)
27 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
28 * [Verbosity / Simulation Options](#verbosity--simulation-options)
29 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
30 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
31 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
32 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
33 * [Adobe Pass Options](#adobe-pass-options)
34 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
35 * [SponSkrub (SponsorBlock) Options](#sponskrub-sponsorblock-options)
36 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
37 * [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
38 * [Authentication with .netrc file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
39 * [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
40 * [Output template and Windows batch files](#output-template-and-windows-batch-files)
41 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
42 * [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
43 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
44 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
45 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
51 The major new features from the latest release of
[blackjack4494/yt-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) are:
53 * **
[SponSkrub Integration](#sponskrub-sponsorblock-options)**: You can use [SponSkrub](https://github.com/pukkandan/SponSkrub) to mark/remove sponsor sections in youtube videos by utilizing the
[SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
55 * **[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 that what is possible by simply using
`--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
57 * **Merged with youtube-dl v2021.01
.24.1**: 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)
59 * **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from
[animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including
`--get-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/pukkandan/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
61 * **Youtube improvements**:
62 * All Youtube Feeds (
`:ytfav`,
`:ytwatchlater`,
`:ytsubs`,
`:ythistory`,
`:ytrec`) works correctly and support downloading multiple pages of content
63 * Youtube search works correctly (
`ytsearch:`,
`ytsearchdate:`) along with Search URLs
64 * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to
`/video` to preserve the old behaviour
66 * **New extractors**: AnimeLab, Philo MSO, Rcs, Gedi, bitwave.tv, mildom, audius
68 * **Fixed extractors**: archive.org, roosterteeth.com, skyit, instagram, itv, SouthparkDe, spreaker, Vlive, tiktok, akamai, ina
70 * **Plugin support**: Extractors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
72 * **Multiple paths**: You can give different paths for different types of files. You can also set a temporary path where intermediary files are downloaded to. See
[`--paths`](https://github.com/pukkandan/yt-dlp/#:~:text=-P,%20--paths%20TYPE:PATH) for details
74 <!-- Relative link doesn't work for "#:~:text=" -->
76 * **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [configuration](#configuration) for details
78 * **Other new options**:
`--parse-metadata`,
`--list-formats-as-table`,
`--write-link`,
`--force-download-archive`,
`--force-overwrites`,
`--break-on-reject` etc
80 * **Improvements**: Multiple
`--postprocessor-args` and
`--external-downloader-args`,
`%(duration_string)s` in
`-o`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection) etc
83 See
[changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/pukkandan/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
86 **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
88 If 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](docs/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.
93 You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
94 * Use
[PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp):
`python -m pip install --upgrade yt-dlp`
95 * Download the binary from the
[latest release](https://github.com/pukkandan/yt-dlp/releases/latest)
96 * Use pip+git:
`python -m pip install --upgrade git+https://github.com/pukkandan/yt-dlp.git@release`
97 * Install master branch:
`python -m pip install --upgrade git+https://github.com/pukkandan/yt-dlp`
100 `-U` does not work. Simply repeat the install process to update.
105 To build the Windows executable, you must have pyinstaller (and optionally mutagen for embedding thumbnail in opus/ogg files)
107 python -m pip install --upgrade pyinstaller mutagen
109 For the
64bit version, run
`py devscripts\pyinst.py 64` using
64bit python3. Similarly, to install
32bit version, run
`py devscripts\pyinst.py 32` using
32bit python (preferably
3)
111 You can also build the executable without any version info or metadata by using:
113 pyinstaller.exe youtube_dlc\__main__.py --onefile --name youtube-dlc
116 You will need the required build tools
117 python, make (GNU), pandoc, zip, nosetests
118 Then simply type this
122 **Note**: In either platform,
`devscripts\update-version.py` can be used to automatically update the version number
125 **youtube-dlc** is a command-line program to download videos from youtube.com many other [video platforms](docs/supportedsites.md). 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.
127 youtube-dlc [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
131 `Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
132 <!-- Autogenerated -->
135 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
136 --version Print program version and exit
137 -U, --update [BROKEN] Update this program to latest
138 version. Make sure that you have sufficient
139 permissions (run with sudo if needed)
140 -i, --ignore-errors Continue on download errors, for example to
141 skip unavailable videos in a playlist
142 (default) (Alias: --no-abort-on-error)
143 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
144 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
145 --dump-user-agent Display the current browser identification
146 --list-extractors List all supported extractors
147 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
149 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
151 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
152 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
153 from google videos for youtube-dl "large
154 apple". Use the value "auto" to let
155 youtube-dl guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
156 warning when guessing). "error" just throws
157 an error. The default value "fixup_error"
158 repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
159 this is not possible instead of searching
160 --ignore-config, --no-config Disable loading any configuration files
161 except the one provided by --config-location.
162 When given inside a configuration
163 file, no further configuration files are
164 loaded. Additionally, (for backward
165 compatibility) if this option is found
166 inside the system configuration file, the
167 user configuration is not loaded
168 --config-location PATH Location of the main configuration file;
169 either the path to the config or its
171 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
173 --flat-videos Do not resolve the video urls
174 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
175 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (YouTube only)
176 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched
177 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output
180 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy.
181 To enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper
183 socks5://
127.0.0.1:
1080/. Pass in an empty
184 string (--proxy "") for direct connection
185 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
186 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
187 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
188 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
191 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
192 some geo-restricted sites. The default
193 proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the
194 option is not present) is used for the
196 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
197 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
198 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
199 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
200 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
201 explicitly provided two-letter ISO
3166-
2
203 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
204 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR
208 --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is
1)
209 --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
210 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify
211 indices of the videos in the playlist
212 separated by commas like: "--playlist-items
213 1,
2,
5,
8" if you want to download videos
214 indexed
1,
2,
5,
8 in the playlist. You can
215 specify range: "--playlist-items
216 1-
3,
7,
10-
13", it will download the videos
217 at index
1,
2,
3,
7,
10,
11,
12 and
13
218 --match-title REGEX Download only matching titles (regex or
220 --reject-title REGEX Skip download for matching titles (regex or
222 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
223 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
224 SIZE (e.g.
50k or
44.6m)
225 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
227 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded in this date.
228 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
229 "(now|today)[+-][
0-
9](day|week|month|year)(s)?"
230 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
231 this date. The date formats accepted is the
233 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
234 this date. The date formats accepted is the
236 --min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than
238 --max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than
240 --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Specify any key (see
241 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a list of available
242 keys) to match if the key is present, !key
243 to check if the key is not present,
244 key>NUMBER (like "comment_count >
12", also
245 works with >=, <, <=, !=, =) to compare
246 against a number, key = 'LITERAL' (like
247 "uploader = 'Mike Smith'", also works with
248 !=) to match against a string literal and &
249 to require multiple matches. Values which
250 are not known are excluded unless you put a
251 question mark (?) after the operator. For
252 example, to only match videos that have
253 been liked more than
100 times and disliked
254 less than
50 times (or the dislike
255 functionality is not available at the given
256 service), but who also have a description,
257 use --match-filter "like_count >
100 &
258 dislike_count <?
50 & description"
259 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
260 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
261 to a video and a playlist
262 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
263 a video and a playlist
264 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
266 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
267 archive file. Record the IDs of all
268 downloaded videos in it
269 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
270 a file that is in the archive
271 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
272 a file that has been filtered out
273 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
274 --include-ads Download advertisements as well
276 --no-include-ads Do not download advertisements (default)
279 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
281 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is
10), or
283 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
284 is
10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and
286 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
287 hlsnative and ISM (default)
288 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
289 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading if a fragment is unavailable
290 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
291 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
292 downloading is finished
293 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
294 downloading is finished (default)
295 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g.
1024 or
16K)
297 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
298 from an initial value of --buffer-size
300 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
301 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
302 downloading (e.g.
10485760 or
10M) (default
303 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
304 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
306 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
307 --no-playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in default order
309 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
310 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
312 --hls-prefer-native Use the native HLS downloader instead of
314 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg Use ffmpeg instead of the native HLS
316 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos,
317 allowing to play the video while
318 downloading (some players may not be able
320 --external-downloader NAME Use the specified external downloader.
321 Currently supports aria2c, avconv, axel,
322 curl, ffmpeg, httpie, wget
323 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
324 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
325 the arguments separated by a colon ":". You
326 can use this option multiple times
327 (Alias: --external-downloader-args)
329 ## Filesystem Options:
330 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ('-' for
331 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
332 with '#', ';' or ']' are considered as
334 -P, --paths TYPE:PATH The paths where the files should be
335 downloaded. Specify the type of file and
336 the path separated by a colon ":"
337 (supported: description|annotation|subtitle
338 |infojson|thumbnail). Additionally, you can
339 also provide "home" and "temp" paths. All
340 intermediary files are first downloaded to
341 the temp path and then the final files are
342 moved over to the home path after download
343 is finished. Note that this option is
344 ignored if --output is an absolute path
345 -o, --output TEMPLATE Output filename template, see "OUTPUT
346 TEMPLATE" for details
347 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder value for unavailable meta
348 fields in output filename template
350 --autonumber-start NUMBER Specify the start value for %(autonumber)s
352 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
353 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
355 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
357 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
358 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files.
359 This option includes --no-continue
360 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
361 related files (default)
362 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files (default)
363 --no-continue Restart download of partially downloaded
365 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
366 into output file (default)
367 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
369 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the
370 file modification time (default)
371 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
372 the file modification time
373 --write-description Write video description to a .description
375 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
376 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
377 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
378 --write-annotations Write video annotations to a
379 .annotations.xml file
380 --no-write-annotations Do not write video annotations (default)
381 --get-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
383 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
384 (created with the "--write-info-json"
386 --cookies FILE File to read cookies from and dump cookie
388 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies (default)
389 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
390 can store some downloaded information
391 permanently. By default
392 $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl or
393 ~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the moment, only
394 YouTube player files (for videos with
395 obfuscated signatures) are cached, but that
397 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
398 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
399 --trim-file-name LENGTH Limit the filename length (extension
403 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
404 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk
406 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
407 --list-thumbnails Simulate and list all available thumbnail
410 ## Internet Shortcut Options:
411 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
412 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
413 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
414 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
415 OS caches the URL based on the file path
416 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
417 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
419 ## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
420 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode
421 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
422 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
424 --skip-download Do not download the video
425 -g, --get-url Simulate, quiet but print URL
426 -e, --get-title Simulate, quiet but print title
427 --get-id Simulate, quiet but print id
428 --get-thumbnail Simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
429 --get-description Simulate, quiet but print video description
430 --get-duration Simulate, quiet but print video length
431 --get-filename Simulate, quiet but print output filename
432 --get-format Simulate, quiet but print output format
433 -j, --dump-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information.
434 See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a description of
436 -J, --dump-single-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information
437 for each command-line argument. If the URL
438 refers to a playlist, dump the whole
439 playlist information in a single line
440 --print-json Be quiet and print the video information as
441 JSON (video is still being downloaded)
442 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be
443 written as far as no errors occur,even if
444 -s or another simulation switch is used
445 (Alias: --force-download-archive)
446 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
447 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
448 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
449 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
450 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
451 to debug problems (very verbose)
452 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
453 files in the current directory to debug
455 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
456 -C, --call-home [Broken] Contact the youtube-dlc server for
458 --no-call-home Do not contact the youtube-dlc server for
462 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
463 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
464 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
465 information about the video. (Currently
466 supported only for YouTube)
467 --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
468 --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video
469 access is restricted to one domain
470 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
471 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
472 option multiple times
473 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
474 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
475 or fribidi executable in PATH
476 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
477 download when used alone or a lower bound
478 of a range for randomized sleep before each
479 download (minimum possible number of
480 seconds to sleep) when used along with
482 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Upper bound of a range for randomized sleep
483 before each download (maximum possible
484 number of seconds to sleep). Must only be
485 used along with --min-sleep-interval
486 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Enforce sleep interval on subtitles as well
488 ## Video Format Options:
489 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
491 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
492 "Sorting Formats" for more details
493 --S-force, --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
494 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
495 Formats" for more details
496 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
497 specified sort order (default), see
498 "Sorting Formats" for more details
499 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
501 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for
502 each output file (default)
503 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
505 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for
506 each output file (default)
507 --all-formats Download all available video formats
508 --prefer-free-formats Prefer free video formats over non-free
509 formats of same quality
510 -F, --list-formats List all available formats of requested
512 --list-formats-as-table Present the output of -F in tabular form
514 --list-formats-old Present the output of -F in the old form
515 (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
516 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Download the DASH manifests and related
517 data on YouTube videos (default)
518 (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
519 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest Do not download the DASH manifests and
520 related data on YouTube videos
521 (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
522 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Download the HLS manifests and related data
523 on YouTube videos (default)
524 (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
525 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest Do not download the HLS manifests and
526 related data on YouTube videos
527 (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
528 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
529 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
530 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
531 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
534 --write-subs Write subtitle file
535 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
536 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
538 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write automatically generated
539 subtitle file (default)
540 --all-subs Download all the available subtitles of the
542 --list-subs List all available subtitles for the video
543 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
544 preference, for example: "srt" or
546 --sub-lang LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download
547 (optional) separated by commas, use --list-
548 subs for available language tags
550 ## Authentication Options:
551 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
552 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
553 out, youtube-dlc will ask interactively
554 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
555 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
556 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
558 ## Adobe Pass Options:
559 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
560 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
561 a list of available MSOs
562 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
563 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
564 If this option is left out, youtube-dlc
565 will ask interactively
566 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
569 ## Post-Processing Options:
570 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
571 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
572 --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format: "best", "aac",
573 "flac", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", "vorbis", or
574 "wav"; "best" by default; No effect without
576 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality, insert a
577 value between
0 (better) and
9 (worse) for
578 VBR or a specific bitrate like
128K
580 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
581 necessary (currently supported: mp4|mkv|flv
582 |webm|mov|avi|mp3|mka|m4a|ogg|opus). If
583 target container does not support the
584 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
585 can specify multiple rules; eg.
586 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to
587 m4a, mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv.
588 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
589 re-encoding is necessary. The supported
590 formats are the same as --remux-video
591 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
592 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
593 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
594 to give the argument to the specified
595 postprocessor/executable. Supported
596 postprocessors are: SponSkrub,
597 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
598 EmbedSubtitle, Metadata, Merger,
599 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
600 SubtitlesConvertor and EmbedThumbnail. The
601 supported executables are: SponSkrub,
602 FFmpeg, FFprobe, and AtomicParsley. You can
603 use this option multiple times to give
604 different arguments to different
605 postprocessors. You can also specify
606 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
607 specified executable only when being used
608 by the specified postprocessor. You can use
609 this option multiple times (Alias: --ppa)
610 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
611 after post-processing
612 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
613 post-processing (default)
614 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
615 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
616 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
618 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
619 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
620 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
621 --add-metadata Write metadata to the video file
622 --no-add-metadata Do not write metadata (default)
623 --parse-metadata FIELD:FORMAT Parse additional metadata like title/artist
624 from other fields. Give field name to
625 extract data from, and format of the field
626 seperated by a ":". Either regular
627 expression with named capture groups or a
628 similar syntax to the output template can
629 also be used. The parsed parameters replace
630 any existing values and can be use in
631 output templateThis option can be used
632 multiple times. Example: --parse-metadata
633 "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s" matches a
634 title like "Coldplay - Paradise". Example
635 (regex): --parse-metadata
636 "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+?)"
637 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
638 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
639 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
640 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
641 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
642 default; fix file if we can, warn
644 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
645 path to the binary or its containing
647 --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
648 downloading and post-processing, similar to
649 find's -exec syntax. Example: --exec 'adb
650 push {} /sdcard/Music/ && rm {}'
651 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to other format
652 (currently supported: srt|ass|vtt|lrc)
654 ## SponSkrub (SponsorBlock) Options:
655 [SponSkrub](https://github.com/pukkandan/SponSkrub) is a utility to
656 mark/remove sponsor segments from downloaded YouTube videos using
657 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
659 --sponskrub Use sponskrub to mark sponsored sections.
660 This is enabled by default if the sponskrub
661 binary exists (Youtube only)
662 --no-sponskrub Do not use sponskrub
663 --sponskrub-cut Cut out the sponsor sections instead of
665 --no-sponskrub-cut Simply mark the sponsor sections, not cut
667 --sponskrub-force Run sponskrub even if the video was already
669 --no-sponskrub-force Do not cut out the sponsor sections if the
670 video was already downloaded (default)
671 --sponskrub-location PATH Location of the sponskrub binary; either
672 the path to the binary or its containing
675 ## Extractor Options:
676 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
677 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
678 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
679 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
683 You can configure youtube-dlc by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
685 1. **Main Configuration**: The file given by
`--config-location`
686 1. **Portable Configuration**:
`yt-dlp.conf` or
`youtube-dlc.conf` in the same directory as the bundled binary. If you are running from source-code (
`<root dir>/youtube_dlc/__main__.py`), the root directory is used instead.
687 1. **Home Configuration**:
`yt-dlp.conf` or
`youtube-dlc.conf` in the home path given by
`-P "home:<path>"`, or in the current directory if no such path is given
688 1. **User Configuration**:
689 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
690 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
691 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
692 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
694 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
696 If none of these files are found, the search is performed again by replacing
`yt-dlp` with
`youtube-dlc`. Note that
`~` points to
`C:\Users\<user name>` on windows. Also,
`%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%` defaults to
`~/.config` if undefined
697 1. **System Configuration**:
`/etc/yt-dlp.conf` or
`/etc/youtube-dlc.conf`
699 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
`YouTube` directory in your home directory:
701 # Lines starting with # are comments
703 # Always extract audio
706 # Do not copy the mtime
710 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
712 # Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
713 -o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
716 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`.
718 You can use
`--ignore-config` if you want to disable all configuration files for a particular youtube-dlc 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.
720 ### Authentication with `.netrc` file
722 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:
725 chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
727 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
729 machine <extractor> login <login> password <password>
733 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
734 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
736 To activate authentication with the
`.netrc` file you should pass
`--netrc` to youtube-dlc or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
738 On Windows you may also need to setup the
`%HOME%` environment variable manually. For example:
740 set HOME=%USERPROFILE%
745 The
`-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.
747 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
749 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:
751 - `id` (string): Video identifier
752 - `title` (string): Video title
753 - `url` (string): Video URL
754 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
755 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
756 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
757 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
758 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
759 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
760 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released
761 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
762 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
763 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
764 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
765 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
766 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
767 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
768 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH-mm-ss)
769 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
770 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
771 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
772 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
773 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
774 - `comment_count` (numeric): Number of comments on the video
775 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
776 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
777 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
778 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
779 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
780 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by
`--format`
781 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
782 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
783 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
784 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
785 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
786 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
787 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
788 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
789 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
790 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
791 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
792 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
793 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
794 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
795 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
796 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
797 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
798 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch when creating the file
799 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at
`--autonumber-start`
800 - `playlist` (string): Name or id of the playlist that contains the video
801 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
802 - `playlist_id` (string): Playlist identifier
803 - `playlist_title` (string): Playlist title
804 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
805 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
807 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
809 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
810 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
811 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
813 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
815 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
816 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
817 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
818 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
819 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
820 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
821 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
823 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
825 - `track` (string): Title of the track
826 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
827 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
828 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
829 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
830 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
831 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
832 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
833 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
834 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
836 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 placeholder value provided with
`--output-na-placeholder` (
`NA` by default).
838 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.
840 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`.
842 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.
844 To use percent literals in an output template use
`%%`. To output to stdout use
`-o -`.
846 The current default template is
`%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
848 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:
850 #### Output template and Windows batch files
852 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"`.
854 #### Output template examples
856 Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
859 $ youtube-dlc --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc
860 youtube-dlc test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
862 $ youtube-dlc --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
863 youtube-dlc_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
865 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
866 $ youtube-dlc -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
868 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
869 $ youtube-dlc -o '%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists
871 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
872 $ 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/
874 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
875 $ 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
877 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
878 $ youtube-dlc -o - BaW_jenozKc
883 By default, youtube-dlc tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
884 This 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 youtube-dlc to stream to
`stdout` (
`-o -`), the default becomes
`-f best/bestvideo+bestaudio`.
886 The 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.
888 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
890 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.
892 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.
894 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
896 - `b*`,
`best*`: Select the best quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio.
897 - `w*`,
`worst*`: Select the worst quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio.
898 - `b`,
`best`: Select the best quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
899 - `w`,
`worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
900 - `bv`,
`bestvideo`: Select the best quality video-only format. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec=none]`
901 - `wv`,
`worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to
`worst*[acodec=none]`
902 - `bv*`,
`bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none]`
903 - `wv*`,
`worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec!=none]`
904 - `ba`,
`bestaudio`: Select the best quality audio-only format. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec=none]`
905 - `wa`,
`worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec=none]`
906 - `ba*`,
`bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec!=none]`
907 - `wa*`,
`worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to
`worst*[acodec!=none]`
909 For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use
`-f worstvideo`. It is however recomended to never actually 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.
911 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 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.
913 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`.
915 You 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. If
`--no-video-multistreams` is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, if
`--no-audio-multistreams` is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. For example,
`-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio` 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`.
919 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in
`-f "best[height=720]"` (or
`-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
921 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons
`<`,
`<=`,
`>`,
`>=`,
`=` (equals),
`!=` (not equals):
923 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
924 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
925 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
926 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
927 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
928 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
929 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
932 Also filtering work for comparisons
`=` (equals),
`^=` (starts with),
`$=` (ends with),
`*=` (contains) and following string meta fields:
934 - `ext`: File extension
935 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
936 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
937 - `container`: Name of the container format
938 - `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`)
939 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
940 - `language`: Language code
942 Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation
`!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g.
`!*=` (does not contain).
944 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. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.
946 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.
948 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]'`.
952 You can change the criteria for being considered the
`best` by using
`-S` (
`--format-sort`). The general format for this is
`--format-sort field1,field2...`. The available fields are:
954 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
955 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
956 - `ie_pref`: The format preference as given by the extractor
957 - `lang`: Language preference as given by the extractor
958 - `quality`: The quality of the format. This is a metadata field available in some websites
959 - `source`: Preference of the source as given by the extractor
960 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (
`https`/
`ftps` >
`http`/
`ftp` >
`m3u8-native` >
`m3u8` >
`http-dash-segments` > other >
`mms`/
`rtsp` > unknown >
`f4f`/
`f4m`)
961 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (
`vp9` >
`h265` >
`h264` >
`vp8` >
`h263` >
`theora` > other > unknown)
962 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (
`opus` >
`vorbis` >
`aac` >
`mp4a` >
`mp3` >
`ac3` >
`dts` > other > unknown)
963 - `codec`: Equivalent to
`vcodec,acodec`
964 - `vext`: Video Extension (
`mp4` >
`webm` >
`flv` > other > unknown). If
`--prefer-free-formats` is used,
`webm` is prefered.
965 - `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`.
966 - `ext`: Equivalent to
`vext,aext`
967 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if know in advance. This will be unavailable for mu38 and DASH formats.
968 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
969 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
970 - `height`: Height of video
971 - `width`: Width of video
972 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
973 - `fps`: Framerate of video
974 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
975 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
976 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
977 - `br`: Equivalent to using
`tbr,vbr,abr`
978 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
980 Note that any other **numerical** field made available by the extractor can also be used. All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in decending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a
`+`. Eg:
`+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a prefered value for the fields, seperated 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 prefered 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` >
`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.
982 The fields
`hasvid`,
`ie_pref`,
`lang`,
`quality` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using
`--force-format-sort`. Apart from these, the default order used is:
`res,fps,codec,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. Note that the extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
984 If your format selector is
`worst`, the last item is selected after sorting. This means it will select the format that is worst in all repects. 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`.
986 **Tip**: You can use the
`-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
988 ## Format Selection examples
990 Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
993 # Download and merge the best best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
994 # or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
995 $ youtube-dlc -f 'bv+ba/b'
997 # Download best format that contains video,
998 # and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
999 $ youtube-dlc -f 'bv*+ba/b'
1004 # Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1005 # For this case, an output template should be used since
1006 # by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
1007 $ youtube-dlc -f 'bv,ba' -o '%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s'
1011 # The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
1012 # and how to use -S to achieve a similar but better result
1014 # Download the worst video available (old method)
1015 $ youtube-dlc -f 'wv*+wa/w'
1017 # Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
1018 $ youtube-dlc -S '+res'
1020 # Download the smallest video available
1021 $ youtube-dlc -S '+size,+br'
1025 # Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
1026 $ youtube-dlc -f 'bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b'
1028 # Download the best video with the best extension
1029 # (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
1030 $ youtube-dlc -S 'ext'
1034 # Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1035 # or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
1036 $ youtube-dlc -f 'bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w'
1038 # Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1039 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1040 $ youtube-dlc -S 'height:480'
1042 # Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1043 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1044 # Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1045 # So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
1046 $ youtube-dlc -S 'res:480'
1050 # Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1051 # or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1052 $ youtube-dlc -f 'b[filesize<50M] / w'
1054 # Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1055 # or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1056 $ youtube-dlc -f 'b' -S 'filesize:50M'
1058 # Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
1059 $ youtube-dlc -f 'b' -S 'filesize~50M'
1063 # Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1064 # or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
1065 $ youtube-dlc -f '(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)'
1067 # Download best video available via the best protocol
1068 # (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
1069 $ youtube-dlc -S 'proto'
1073 # Download the best video with h264 codec, or the best video if there is no such video
1074 $ youtube-dlc -f '(bv*+ba/b)[vcodec^=avc1] / (bv*+ba/b)'
1076 # Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1077 # or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
1078 $ youtube-dlc -S 'codec:h264'
1080 # Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1081 # or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
1082 $ youtube-dlc -S '+codec:h264'
1086 # More complex examples
1088 # Download the best video no better than 720p prefering framerate greater than 30,
1089 # or the worst video (still prefering framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
1090 $ youtube-dlc -f '((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)'
1092 # Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
1093 # or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
1094 # prefering larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
1095 $ youtube-dlc -S 'res:720,fps'
1099 # Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1100 # or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
1101 # prefering better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
1102 $ youtube-dlc -S '+res:480,codec,br'
1107 Plugins are loaded from
`<root-dir>/ytdlp_plugins/<type>/__init__.py`. Currently only
`extractor` plugins are supported. Support for
`downloader` and
`postprocessor` plugins may be added in the future. See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example.
1109 **Note**:
`<root-dir>` is the directory of the binary (
`<root-dir>/youtube-dlc`), or the root directory of the module if you are running directly from source-code (
`<root dir>/youtube_dlc/__main__.py`)
1112 For FAQ, Developer Instructions etc., see the
[original README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)