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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 * **Youtube improvements**:
60 * All Youtube Feeds (
`:ytfav`,
`:ytwatchlater`,
`:ytsubs`,
`:ythistory`,
`:ytrec`) works correctly and support downloading multiple pages of content
61 * Youtube search works correctly (
`ytsearch:`,
`ytsearchdate:`) along with Search URLs
62 * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to
`/video` to preserve the old behaviour
64 * **New extractors**: AnimeLab, Philo MSO, Rcs, Gedi, bitwave.tv, mildom
66 * **Fixed extractors**: archive.org, roosterteeth.com, skyit, instagram, itv, SouthparkDe, spreaker, Vlive, tiktok, akamai, ina
68 * **Plugin support**: Extractors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
70 * **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
72 <!-- Relative link doesn't work for "#:~:text=" -->
74 * **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [configuration](#configuration) for details
76 * **Other new options**:
`--list-formats-as-table`,
`--write-link`,
`--force-download-archive`,
`--force-overwrites`,
`--break-on-reject` etc
78 * **Improvements**: Multiple
`--postprocessor-args` and
`--external-downloader-args`,
`%(duration_string)s` in
`-o`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection) etc
80 See
[changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/pukkandan/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
83 **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
85 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.
90 You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
91 * Use
[PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp):
`python -m pip install --upgrade yt-dlp`
92 * Download the binary from the
[latest release](https://github.com/pukkandan/yt-dlp/releases/latest)
93 * Use pip+git:
`python -m pip install --upgrade git+https://github.com/pukkandan/yt-dlp.git@release`
94 * Install master branch:
`python -m pip install --upgrade git+https://github.com/pukkandan/yt-dlp`
97 `-U` does not work. Simply repeat the install process to update.
102 To build the Windows executable yourself (without version info!)
104 python -m pip install --upgrade pyinstaller
105 pyinstaller.exe youtube_dlc\__main__.py --onefile --name youtube-dlc
107 Or simply execute the
`make_win.bat` if pyinstaller is installed.
108 There will be a
`youtube-dlc.exe` in
`/dist`
110 New way to build Windows is to use
`python pyinst.py` (please use python3
64Bit)
111 For
32Bit Version use a
32Bit Version of python (
3 preferred here as well) and run
`python pyinst32.py`
114 You will need the required build tools
115 python, make (GNU), pandoc, zip, nosetests
116 Then simply type this
122 **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.
124 youtube-dlc [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
128 `Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
129 <!-- Autogenerated -->
132 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
133 --version Print program version and exit
134 -U, --update [BROKEN] Update this program to latest
135 version. Make sure that you have sufficient
136 permissions (run with sudo if needed)
137 -i, --ignore-errors Continue on download errors, for example to
138 skip unavailable videos in a playlist
139 (default) (Alias: --no-abort-on-error)
140 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
141 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
142 --dump-user-agent Display the current browser identification
143 --list-extractors List all supported extractors
144 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
146 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
148 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
149 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
150 from google videos for youtube-dl "large
151 apple". Use the value "auto" to let
152 youtube-dl guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
153 warning when guessing). "error" just throws
154 an error. The default value "fixup_error"
155 repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
156 this is not possible instead of searching
157 --ignore-config, --no-config Disable loading any configuration files
158 except the one provided by --config-location.
159 When given inside a configuration
160 file, no further configuration files are
161 loaded. Additionally, (for backward
162 compatibility) if this option is found
163 inside the system configuration file, the
164 user configuration is not loaded
165 --config-location PATH Location of the main configuration file;
166 either the path to the config or its
168 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
170 --flat-videos Do not resolve the video urls
171 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
172 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (YouTube only)
173 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched
174 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output
177 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy.
178 To enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper
180 socks5://
127.0.0.1:
1080/. Pass in an empty
181 string (--proxy "") for direct connection
182 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
183 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
184 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
185 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
188 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
189 some geo-restricted sites. The default
190 proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the
191 option is not present) is used for the
193 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
194 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
195 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
196 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
197 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
198 explicitly provided two-letter ISO
3166-
2
200 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
201 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR
205 --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is
1)
206 --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
207 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify
208 indices of the videos in the playlist
209 separated by commas like: "--playlist-items
210 1,
2,
5,
8" if you want to download videos
211 indexed
1,
2,
5,
8 in the playlist. You can
212 specify range: "--playlist-items
213 1-
3,
7,
10-
13", it will download the videos
214 at index
1,
2,
3,
7,
10,
11,
12 and
13
215 --match-title REGEX Download only matching titles (regex or
217 --reject-title REGEX Skip download for matching titles (regex or
219 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
220 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
221 SIZE (e.g.
50k or
44.6m)
222 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
224 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded in this date.
225 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
226 "(now|today)[+-][
0-
9](day|week|month|year)(s)?"
227 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
228 this date. The date formats accepted is the
230 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
231 this date. The date formats accepted is the
233 --min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than
235 --max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than
237 --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Specify any key (see
238 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a list of available
239 keys) to match if the key is present, !key
240 to check if the key is not present,
241 key>NUMBER (like "comment_count >
12", also
242 works with >=, <, <=, !=, =) to compare
243 against a number, key = 'LITERAL' (like
244 "uploader = 'Mike Smith'", also works with
245 !=) to match against a string literal and &
246 to require multiple matches. Values which
247 are not known are excluded unless you put a
248 question mark (?) after the operator. For
249 example, to only match videos that have
250 been liked more than
100 times and disliked
251 less than
50 times (or the dislike
252 functionality is not available at the given
253 service), but who also have a description,
254 use --match-filter "like_count >
100 &
255 dislike_count <?
50 & description"
256 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
257 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
258 to a video and a playlist
259 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
260 a video and a playlist
261 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
263 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
264 archive file. Record the IDs of all
265 downloaded videos in it
266 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
267 a file that is in the archive
268 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
269 a file that has been filtered out
270 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
271 --include-ads Download advertisements as well
273 --no-include-ads Do not download advertisements (default)
276 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
278 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is
10), or
280 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
281 is
10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and
283 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
284 hlsnative and ISM (default)
285 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
286 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading if a fragment is unavailable
287 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
288 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
289 downloading is finished
290 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
291 downloading is finished (default)
292 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g.
1024 or
16K)
294 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
295 from an initial value of --buffer-size
297 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
298 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
299 downloading (e.g.
10485760 or
10M) (default
300 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
301 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
303 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
304 --no-playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in default order
306 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
307 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
309 --hls-prefer-native Use the native HLS downloader instead of
311 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg Use ffmpeg instead of the native HLS
313 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos,
314 allowing to play the video while
315 downloading (some players may not be able
317 --external-downloader NAME Use the specified external downloader.
318 Currently supports aria2c, avconv, axel,
319 curl, ffmpeg, httpie, wget
320 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
321 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
322 the arguments separated by a colon ":". You
323 can use this option multiple times (Alias:
324 --external-downloader-args)
326 ## Filesystem Options:
327 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ('-' for
328 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
329 with '#', ';' or ']' are considered as
331 -P, --paths TYPE:PATH The paths where the files should be
332 downloaded. Specify the type of file and
333 the path separated by a colon ":"
334 (supported: description|annotation|subtitle
335 |infojson|thumbnail). Additionally, you can
336 also provide "home" and "temp" paths. All
337 intermediary files are first downloaded to
338 the temp path and then the final files are
339 moved over to the home path after download
340 is finished. Note that this option is
341 ignored if --output is an absolute path
342 -o, --output TEMPLATE Output filename template, see "OUTPUT
343 TEMPLATE" for details
344 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder value for unavailable meta
345 fields in output filename template
347 --autonumber-start NUMBER Specify the start value for %(autonumber)s
349 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
350 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
352 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
354 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
355 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files.
356 This option includes --no-continue
357 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
358 related files (default)
359 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files (default)
360 --no-continue Restart download of partially downloaded
362 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
363 into output file (default)
364 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
366 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the
367 file modification time (default)
368 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
369 the file modification time
370 --write-description Write video description to a .description
372 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
373 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
374 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
375 --write-annotations Write video annotations to a
376 .annotations.xml file
377 --no-write-annotations Do not write video annotations (default)
378 --get-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
380 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
381 (created with the "--write-info-json"
383 --cookies FILE File to read cookies from and dump cookie
385 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies (default)
386 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
387 can store some downloaded information
388 permanently. By default
389 $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl or
390 ~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the moment, only
391 YouTube player files (for videos with
392 obfuscated signatures) are cached, but that
394 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
395 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
396 --trim-file-name LENGTH Limit the filename length (extension
400 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
401 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk
403 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
404 --list-thumbnails Simulate and list all available thumbnail
407 ## Internet Shortcut Options:
408 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
409 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
410 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
411 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
412 OS caches the URL based on the file path
413 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
414 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
416 ## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
417 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode
418 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
419 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
421 --skip-download Do not download the video
422 -g, --get-url Simulate, quiet but print URL
423 -e, --get-title Simulate, quiet but print title
424 --get-id Simulate, quiet but print id
425 --get-thumbnail Simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
426 --get-description Simulate, quiet but print video description
427 --get-duration Simulate, quiet but print video length
428 --get-filename Simulate, quiet but print output filename
429 --get-format Simulate, quiet but print output format
430 -j, --dump-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information.
431 See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a description of
433 -J, --dump-single-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information
434 for each command-line argument. If the URL
435 refers to a playlist, dump the whole
436 playlist information in a single line
437 --print-json Be quiet and print the video information as
438 JSON (video is still being downloaded)
439 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be
440 written as far as no errors occur,even if
441 -s or another simulation switch is used
442 (Alias: --force-download-archive)
443 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
444 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
445 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
446 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
447 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
448 to debug problems (very verbose)
449 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
450 files in the current directory to debug
452 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
453 -C, --call-home [Broken] Contact the youtube-dlc server for
455 --no-call-home Do not contact the youtube-dlc server for
459 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
460 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
461 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
462 information about the video. (Currently
463 supported only for YouTube)
464 --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
465 --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video
466 access is restricted to one domain
467 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
468 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
469 option multiple times
470 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
471 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
472 or fribidi executable in PATH
473 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
474 download when used alone or a lower bound
475 of a range for randomized sleep before each
476 download (minimum possible number of
477 seconds to sleep) when used along with
479 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Upper bound of a range for randomized sleep
480 before each download (maximum possible
481 number of seconds to sleep). Must only be
482 used along with --min-sleep-interval
483 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Enforce sleep interval on subtitles as well
485 ## Video Format Options:
486 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
488 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
489 "Sorting Formats" for more details
490 --S-force, --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
491 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
492 Formats" for more details
493 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
494 specified sort order (default), see
495 "Sorting Formats" for more details
496 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
498 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for
499 each output file (default)
500 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
502 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for
503 each output file (default)
504 --all-formats Download all available video formats
505 --prefer-free-formats Prefer free video formats over non-free
506 formats of same quality
507 -F, --list-formats List all available formats of requested
509 --list-formats-as-table Present the output of -F in tabular form
511 --list-formats-old Present the output of -F in the old form
512 (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
513 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Download the DASH manifests and related
514 data on YouTube videos (default) (Alias:
515 --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
516 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest Do not download the DASH manifests and
517 related data on YouTube videos (Alias:
518 --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
519 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Download the HLS manifests and related data
520 on YouTube videos (default) (Alias:
521 --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
522 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest Do not download the HLS manifests and
523 related data on YouTube videos (Alias:
524 --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
525 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
526 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
527 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
528 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
531 --write-subs Write subtitle file
532 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
533 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
535 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write automatically generated
536 subtitle file (default)
537 --all-subs Download all the available subtitles of the
539 --list-subs List all available subtitles for the video
540 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
541 preference, for example: "srt" or
543 --sub-lang LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download
544 (optional) separated by commas, use --list-
545 subs for available language tags
547 ## Authentication Options:
548 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
549 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
550 out, youtube-dlc will ask interactively
551 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
552 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
553 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
555 ## Adobe Pass Options:
556 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
557 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
558 a list of available MSOs
559 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
560 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
561 If this option is left out, youtube-dlc
562 will ask interactively
563 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
566 ## Post-Processing Options:
567 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
568 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
569 --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format: "best", "aac",
570 "flac", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", "vorbis", or
571 "wav"; "best" by default; No effect without
573 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality, insert a
574 value between
0 (better) and
9 (worse) for
575 VBR or a specific bitrate like
128K
577 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
578 necessary (currently supported: mp4|mkv).
579 If target container does not support the
580 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
581 can specify multiple rules; eg.
582 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to
583 m4a, mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv.
584 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
585 re-encoding is necessary (currently
586 supported: mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv|avi)
587 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
588 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
589 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
590 to give the argument to the specified
591 postprocessor/executable. Supported
592 postprocessors are: SponSkrub,
593 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
594 EmbedSubtitle, Metadata, Merger,
595 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
596 SubtitlesConvertor and EmbedThumbnail. The
597 supported executables are: SponSkrub,
598 FFmpeg, FFprobe, and AtomicParsley. You can
599 use this option multiple times to give
600 different arguments to different
601 postprocessors. You can also specify
602 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
603 specified executable only when being used
604 by the specified postprocessor. You can use
605 this option multiple times (Alias: --ppa)
606 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
607 after post-processing
608 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
609 post-processing (default)
610 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
611 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
612 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
614 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
615 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
616 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
617 --add-metadata Write metadata to the video file
618 --no-add-metadata Do not write metadata (default)
619 --parse-metadata FIELD:FORMAT Parse additional metadata like title/artist
620 from other fields. Give field name to
621 extract data from, and format of the field
622 seperated by a ":". The format syntax is
623 the same as --output. Regular expression
624 with named capture groups may also be used.
625 The parsed parameters replace existing
626 values. This option can be used multiple
627 times. Example: --parse-metadata
628 "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s" matches a
629 title like "Coldplay - Paradise". Example
630 (regex): --parse-metadata
631 "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+?)"
632 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
633 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
634 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
635 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
636 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
637 default; fix file if we can, warn
639 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
640 path to the binary or its containing
642 --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
643 downloading and post-processing, similar to
644 find's -exec syntax. Example: --exec 'adb
645 push {} /sdcard/Music/ && rm {}'
646 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to other format
647 (currently supported: srt|ass|vtt|lrc)
649 ## SponSkrub (SponsorBlock) Options:
650 [SponSkrub](https://github.com/pukkandan/SponSkrub) is a utility to
651 mark/remove sponsor segments from downloaded YouTube videos using
652 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
654 --sponskrub Use sponskrub to mark sponsored sections.
655 This is enabled by default if the sponskrub
656 binary exists (Youtube only)
657 --no-sponskrub Do not use sponskrub
658 --sponskrub-cut Cut out the sponsor sections instead of
660 --no-sponskrub-cut Simply mark the sponsor sections, not cut
662 --sponskrub-force Run sponskrub even if the video was already
664 --no-sponskrub-force Do not cut out the sponsor sections if the
665 video was already downloaded (default)
666 --sponskrub-location PATH Location of the sponskrub binary; either
667 the path to the binary or its containing
670 ## Extractor Options:
671 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
672 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
673 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
674 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
678 You can configure youtube-dlc by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
680 1. **Main Configuration**: The file given by
`--config-location`
681 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.
682 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
683 1. **User Configuration**:
684 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
685 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
686 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
687 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
689 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
691 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
692 1. **System Configuration**:
`/etc/yt-dlp.conf` or
`/etc/youtube-dlc.conf`
694 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:
696 # Lines starting with # are comments
698 # Always extract audio
701 # Do not copy the mtime
705 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
707 # Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
708 -o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
711 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`.
713 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.
715 ### Authentication with `.netrc` file
717 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:
720 chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
722 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
724 machine <extractor> login <login> password <password>
728 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
729 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
731 To activate authentication with the
`.netrc` file you should pass
`--netrc` to youtube-dlc or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
733 On Windows you may also need to setup the
`%HOME%` environment variable manually. For example:
735 set HOME=%USERPROFILE%
740 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.
742 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
744 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:
746 - `id` (string): Video identifier
747 - `title` (string): Video title
748 - `url` (string): Video URL
749 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
750 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
751 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
752 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
753 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
754 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
755 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released
756 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
757 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
758 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
759 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
760 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
761 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
762 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
763 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH-mm-ss)
764 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
765 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
766 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
767 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
768 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
769 - `comment_count` (numeric): Number of comments on the video
770 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
771 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
772 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
773 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
774 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
775 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by
`--format`
776 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
777 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
778 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
779 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
780 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
781 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
782 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
783 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
784 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
785 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
786 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
787 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
788 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
789 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
790 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
791 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
792 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
793 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch when creating the file
794 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at
`--autonumber-start`
795 - `playlist` (string): Name or id of the playlist that contains the video
796 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
797 - `playlist_id` (string): Playlist identifier
798 - `playlist_title` (string): Playlist title
799 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
800 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
802 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
804 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
805 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
806 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
808 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
810 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
811 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
812 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
813 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
814 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
815 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
816 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
818 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
820 - `track` (string): Title of the track
821 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
822 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
823 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
824 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
825 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
826 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
827 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
828 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
829 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
831 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).
833 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.
835 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`.
837 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.
839 To use percent literals in an output template use
`%%`. To output to stdout use
`-o -`.
841 The current default template is
`%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
843 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:
845 #### Output template and Windows batch files
847 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"`.
849 #### Output template examples
851 Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
854 $ youtube-dlc --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc
855 youtube-dlc test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
857 $ youtube-dlc --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
858 youtube-dlc_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
860 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
861 $ youtube-dlc -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
863 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
864 $ youtube-dlc -o '%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists
866 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
867 $ 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/
869 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
870 $ 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
872 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
873 $ youtube-dlc -o - BaW_jenozKc
878 By default, youtube-dlc tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
879 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`.
881 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.
883 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
885 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.
887 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.
889 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
891 - `b*`,
`best*`: Select the best quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio.
892 - `w*`,
`worst*`: Select the worst quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio.
893 - `b`,
`best`: Select the best quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
894 - `w`,
`worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
895 - `bv`,
`bestvideo`: Select the best quality video-only format. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec=none]`
896 - `wv`,
`worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to
`worst*[acodec=none]`
897 - `bv*`,
`bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none]`
898 - `wv*`,
`worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec!=none]`
899 - `ba`,
`bestaudio`: Select the best quality audio-only format. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec=none]`
900 - `wa`,
`worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to
`worst*[vcodec=none]`
901 - `ba*`,
`bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec!=none]`
902 - `wa*`,
`worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to
`worst*[acodec!=none]`
904 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.
906 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.
908 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`.
910 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`.
914 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in
`-f "best[height=720]"` (or
`-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
916 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons
`<`,
`<=`,
`>`,
`>=`,
`=` (equals),
`!=` (not equals):
918 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
919 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
920 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
921 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
922 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
923 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
924 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
927 Also filtering work for comparisons
`=` (equals),
`^=` (starts with),
`$=` (ends with),
`*=` (contains) and following string meta fields:
929 - `ext`: File extension
930 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
931 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
932 - `container`: Name of the container format
933 - `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`)
934 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
935 - `language`: Language code
937 Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation
`!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g.
`!*=` (does not contain).
939 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.
941 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.
943 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]'`.
947 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:
949 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
950 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
951 - `ie_pref`: The format preference as given by the extractor
952 - `lang`: Language preference as given by the extractor
953 - `quality`: The quality of the format. This is a metadata field available in some websites
954 - `source`: Preference of the source as given by the extractor
955 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (
`https`/
`ftps` >
`http`/
`ftp` >
`m3u8-native` >
`m3u8` >
`http-dash-segments` > other >
`mms`/
`rtsp` > unknown >
`f4f`/
`f4m`)
956 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (
`vp9` >
`h265` >
`h264` >
`vp8` >
`h263` >
`theora` > other > unknown)
957 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (
`opus` >
`vorbis` >
`aac` >
`mp4a` >
`mp3` >
`ac3` >
`dts` > other > unknown)
958 - `codec`: Equivalent to
`vcodec,acodec`
959 - `vext`: Video Extension (
`mp4` >
`webm` >
`flv` > other > unknown). If
`--prefer-free-formats` is used,
`webm` is prefered.
960 - `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`.
961 - `ext`: Equivalent to
`vext,aext`
962 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if know in advance. This will be unavailable for mu38 and DASH formats.
963 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
964 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
965 - `height`: Height of video
966 - `width`: Width of video
967 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
968 - `fps`: Framerate of video
969 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
970 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
971 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
972 - `br`: Equivalent to using
`tbr,vbr,abr`
973 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
975 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.
977 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.
979 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`.
981 **Tip**: You can use the
`-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
983 ## Format Selection examples
985 Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
988 # Download and merge the best best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
989 # or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
990 $ youtube-dlc -f 'bv+ba/b'
992 # Download best format that contains video,
993 # and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
994 $ youtube-dlc -f 'bv*+ba/b'
999 # Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1000 # For this case, an output template should be used since
1001 # by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
1002 $ youtube-dlc -f 'bv,ba' -o '%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s'
1006 # The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
1007 # and how to use -S to achieve a similar but better result
1009 # Download the worst video available (old method)
1010 $ youtube-dlc -f 'wv*+wa/w'
1012 # Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
1013 $ youtube-dlc -S '+res'
1015 # Download the smallest video available
1016 $ youtube-dlc -S '+size,+br'
1020 # Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
1021 $ youtube-dlc -f 'bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b'
1023 # Download the best video with the best extension
1024 # (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
1025 $ youtube-dlc -S 'ext'
1029 # Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1030 # or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
1031 $ youtube-dlc -f 'bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w'
1033 # Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1034 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1035 $ youtube-dlc -S 'height:480'
1037 # Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1038 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1039 # Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1040 # So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
1041 $ youtube-dlc -S 'res:480'
1045 # Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1046 # or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1047 $ youtube-dlc -f 'b[filesize<50M] / w'
1049 # Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1050 # or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1051 $ youtube-dlc -f 'b' -S 'filesize:50M'
1053 # Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
1054 $ youtube-dlc -f 'b' -S 'filesize~50M'
1058 # Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1059 # or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
1060 $ youtube-dlc -f '(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)'
1062 # Download best video available via the best protocol
1063 # (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
1064 $ youtube-dlc -S 'proto'
1068 # Download the best video with h264 codec, or the best video if there is no such video
1069 $ youtube-dlc -f '(bv*+ba/b)[vcodec^=avc1] / (bv*+ba/b)'
1071 # Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1072 # or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
1073 $ youtube-dlc -S 'codec:h264'
1075 # Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1076 # or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
1077 $ youtube-dlc -S '+codec:h264'
1081 # More complex examples
1083 # Download the best video no better than 720p prefering framerate greater than 30,
1084 # or the worst video (still prefering framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
1085 $ youtube-dlc -f '((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)'
1087 # Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
1088 # or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
1089 # prefering larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
1090 $ youtube-dlc -S 'res:720,fps'
1094 # Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1095 # or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
1096 # prefering better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
1097 $ youtube-dlc -S '+res:480,codec,br'
1102 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.
1104 **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`)
1107 For FAQ, Developer Instructions etc., see the
[original README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)