1 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
4 [](#readme)
6 [](#installation "Installation")
7 []
(https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp "PyPi")
8 [](Collaborators.md#collaborators "Donate")
9 []
(https://matrix.to/#/#yt-dlp:matrix.org "Matrix")
10 []
(https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r "Discord")
11 [](supportedsites.md "Supported Sites")
12 [](LICENSE "License")
13 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions "CI Status")
14 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
15 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
18 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
20 yt-dlp is a
[youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) fork based on the now inactive
[youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc). The main focus of this project is adding new features and patches while also keeping up to date with the original project
22 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "USAGE AND OPTIONS" SECTION HERE -->
24 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
25 * [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
26 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
27 * [INSTALLATION](#installation)
28 * [Detailed instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation)
30 * [Release Files](#release-files)
31 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
33 * [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
34 * [General Options](#general-options)
35 * [Network Options](#network-options)
36 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
37 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
38 * [Download Options](#download-options)
39 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
40 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
41 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
42 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
43 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
44 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
45 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
46 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
47 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
48 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
49 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
50 * [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
51 * [Configuration file encoding](#configuration-file-encoding)
52 * [Authentication with .netrc file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
53 * [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
54 * [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
55 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
56 * [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
57 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
58 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
59 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
60 * [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
61 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
62 * [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
64 * [Installing Plugins](#installing-plugins)
65 * [Developing Plugins](#developing-plugins)
66 * [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
67 * [Embedding examples](#embedding-examples)
68 * [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
69 * [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
70 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
71 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
72 * [WIKI](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki)
73 * [FAQ](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/FAQ)
74 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
79 * Merged with **youtube-dl v2021.12
.17+
[commit/2dd6c6e](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/2dd6c6e)** (
[exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21)) and **youtube-dlc v2020.11
.11-
3+
[commit/f9401f2](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/f9401f2a91987068139c5f757b12fc711d4c0cee)**: You get all the features and patches of
[youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) in addition to the latest
[youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl)
81 * **
[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in YouTube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
83 * **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using
`-S`. This allows for much easier format selection than what is possible by simply using
`--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
85 * **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from
[animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including
`--write-comments`,
`BiliBiliSearch`,
`BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that NicoNico livestreams are not available. See
[#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
87 * **YouTube improvements**:
88 * Supports Clips, Stories (
`ytstories:<channel UCID>`), Search (including filters)**\***, YouTube Music Search, Channel-specific search, Search prefixes (
`ytsearch:`,
`ytsearchdate:`)**\***, Mixes, YouTube Music Albums/Channels (
[except self-uploaded music](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/723)), and Feeds (
`:ytfav`,
`:ytwatchlater`,
`:ytsubs`,
`:ythistory`,
`:ytrec`,
`:ytnotif`)
89 * Fix for
[n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326) **\***
90 * Supports some (but not all) age-gated content without cookies
91 * Download livestreams from the start using
`--live-from-start` (*experimental*)
92 * `255kbps` audio is extracted (if available) from YouTube Music when premium cookies are given
93 * Channel URLs download all uploads of the channel, including shorts and live
95 * **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using
`--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]`
97 * **Download time range**: Videos can be downloaded partially based on either timestamps or chapters using
`--download-sections`
99 * **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using
`--split-chapters`
101 * **Multi-threaded fragment downloads**: Download multiple fragments of m3u8/mpd videos in parallel. Use
`--concurrent-fragments` (
`-N`) option to set the number of threads used
103 * **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use
`aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
105 * **New and fixed extractors**: Many new extractors have been added and a lot of existing ones have been fixed. See the [changelog](Changelog.md) or the [list of supported sites](supportedsites.md)
107 * **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN etc.
109 * **Subtitle extraction from manifests**: Subtitles can be extracted from streaming media manifests. See
[commit/be6202f](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/be6202f12b97858b9d716e608394b51065d0419f) for details
111 * **Multiple paths and output templates**: You can give different [output templates](#output-template) and download paths for different types of files. You can also set a temporary path where intermediary files are downloaded to using
`--paths` (
`-P`)
113 * **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for details
115 * **Output template improvements**: Output templates can now have date-time formatting, numeric offsets, object traversal etc. See [output template](#output-template) for details. Even more advanced operations can also be done with the help of
`--parse-metadata` and
`--replace-in-metadata`
117 * **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as
`--alias`,
`--print`,
`--concat-playlist`,
`--wait-for-video`,
`--retry-sleep`,
`--sleep-requests`,
`--convert-thumbnails`,
`--force-download-archive`,
`--force-overwrites`,
`--break-match-filter` etc
119 * **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in
`--format`/
`--match-filter`, multiple
`--postprocessor-args` and
`--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection), merge multi-video/audio, multiple
`--config-locations`,
`--exec` at different stages, etc
121 * **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
123 * **Self updater**: The releases can be updated using
`yt-dlp -U`, and downgraded using
`--update-to` if required
125 * **Nightly builds**: [Automated nightly builds](#update-channels) can be used with
`--update-to nightly`
127 See
[changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
129 Features marked with a **\*** have been back-ported to youtube-dl
131 ### Differences in default behavior
133 Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
135 * yt-dlp supports only
[Python 3.7+](## "Windows 7"), and *may* remove support for more versions as they [become EOL](https://devguide.python.org/versions/#python-release-cycle); while
[youtube-dl still supports Python 2.6+ and 3.2+](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/30568#issue-1118238743)
136 * The options
`--auto-number` (
`-A`),
`--title` (
`-t`) and
`--literal` (
`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
137 * `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to
`ffmpeg`
138 * yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
139 * The default [output template](#output-template) is
`%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`. There is no real reason for this change. This was changed before yt-dlp was ever made public and now there are no plans to change it back to
`%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`. Instead, you may use
`--compat-options filename`
140 * The default [format sorting](#sorting-formats) is different from youtube-dl and prefers higher resolution and better codecs rather than higher bitrates. You can use the
`--format-sort` option to change this to any order you prefer, or use
`--compat-options format-sort` to use youtube-dl's sorting order
141 * The default format selector is
`bv*+ba/b`. This means that if a combined video + audio format that is better than the best video-only format is found, the former will be preferred. Use
`-f bv+ba/b` or
`--compat-options format-spec` to revert this
142 * Unlike youtube-dlc, yt-dlp does not allow merging multiple audio/video streams into one file by default (since this conflicts with the use of
`-f bv*+ba`). If needed, this feature must be enabled using
`--audio-multistreams` and
`--video-multistreams`. You can also use
`--compat-options multistreams` to enable both
143 * `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use
`--abort-on-error` or
`--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
144 * When writing metadata files such as thumbnails, description or infojson, the same information (if available) is also written for playlists. Use
`--no-write-playlist-metafiles` or
`--compat-options no-playlist-metafiles` to not write these files
145 * `--add-metadata` attaches the
`infojson` to
`mkv` files in addition to writing the metadata when used with
`--write-info-json`. Use
`--no-embed-info-json` or
`--compat-options no-attach-info-json` to revert this
146 * Some metadata are embedded into different fields when using
`--add-metadata` as compared to youtube-dl. Most notably,
`comment` field contains the
`webpage_url` and
`synopsis` contains the
`description`. You can [use
`--parse-metadata`](#modifying-metadata) to modify this to your liking or use
`--compat-options embed-metadata` to revert this
147 * `playlist_index` behaves differently when used with options like
`--playlist-reverse` and
`--playlist-items`. See
[#302](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/302) for details. You can use
`--compat-options playlist-index` if you want to keep the earlier behavior
148 * The output of
`-F` is listed in a new format. Use
`--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
149 * Live chats (if available) are considered as subtitles. Use
`--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use
`--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent any live chat/danmaku from downloading
150 * YouTube channel URLs download all uploads of the channel. To download only the videos in a specific tab, pass the tab's URL. If the channel does not show the requested tab, an error will be raised. Also,
`/live` URLs raise an error if there are no live videos instead of silently downloading the entire channel. You may use
`--compat-options no-youtube-channel-redirect` to revert all these redirections
151 * Unavailable videos are also listed for YouTube playlists. Use
`--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
152 * The upload dates extracted from YouTube are in UTC
[when available](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/89e4d86171c7b7c997c77d4714542e0383bf0db0/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L3898-L3900). Use
`--compat-options no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date` to prefer the non-UTC upload date.
153 * If
`ffmpeg` is used as the downloader, the downloading and merging of formats happen in a single step when possible. Use
`--compat-options no-direct-merge` to revert this
154 * Thumbnail embedding in
`mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use
`--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
155 * Some private fields such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use
`--no-clean-infojson` or
`--compat-options no-clean-infojson` to revert this
156 * When
`--embed-subs` and
`--write-subs` are used together, the subtitles are written to disk and also embedded in the media file. You can use just
`--embed-subs` to embed the subs and automatically delete the separate file. See
[#630 (comment)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/630#issuecomment-893659460) for more info.
`--compat-options no-keep-subs` can be used to revert this
157 * `certifi` will be used for SSL root certificates, if installed. If you want to use system certificates (e.g. self-signed), use
`--compat-options no-certifi`
158 * yt-dlp's sanitization of invalid characters in filenames is different/smarter than in youtube-dl. You can use
`--compat-options filename-sanitization` to revert to youtube-dl's behavior
159 * yt-dlp tries to parse the external downloader outputs into the standard progress output if possible (Currently implemented:
[~~aria2c~~](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/5931)). You can use
`--compat-options no-external-downloader-progress` to get the downloader output as-is
161 For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
163 * `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
164 * `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as
`--compat-options all,-multistreams`
165 * `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as
`--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
166 * `--compat-options 2021`: Same as
`--compat-options 2022,no-certifi,filename-sanitization,no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date`
167 * `--compat-options 2022`: Same as
`--compat-options no-external-downloader-progress`. Use this to enable all future compat options
172 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
173 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)
174 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
175 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)
176 []
(https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
177 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
178 [](#release-files)
179 []
(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
180 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
182 You can install yt-dlp using
[the binaries](#release-files), [PIP](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) or one using a third-party package manager. See
[the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation) for detailed instructions
186 You can use
`yt-dlp -U` to update if you are using the [release binaries](#release-files)
188 If you
[installed with PIP](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
190 For other third-party package managers, see
[the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#third-party-package-managers) or refer their documentation
192 <a id="update-channels"/>
194 There are currently two release channels for binaries,
`stable` and
`nightly`.
195 `stable` is the default channel, and many of its changes have been tested by users of the nightly channel.
196 The
`nightly` channel has releases built after each push to the master branch, and will have the most recent fixes and additions, but also have more risk of regressions. They are available in
[their own repo](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds/releases).
198 When using
`--update`/
`-U`, a release binary will only update to its current channel.
199 This release channel can be changed by using the
`--update-to` option.
`--update-to` can also be used to upgrade or downgrade to specific tags from a channel.
202 * `yt-dlp --update-to nightly` change to
`nightly` channel and update to its latest release
203 * `yt-dlp --update-to stable@2023.02.17` upgrade/downgrade to release to
`stable` channel tag
`2023.02.17`
204 * `yt-dlp --update-to 2023.01.06` upgrade/downgrade to tag
`2023.01.06` if it exists on the current channel
206 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
213 [yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independent
[zipimport](https://docs.python.org/3/library/zipimport.html) binary. Needs Python (recommended for **Linux/BSD**)
214 [yt-dlp.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary (recommended for **Windows**)
215 [yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|Universal MacOS (
10.15+) standalone executable (recommended for **MacOS**)
221 [yt-dlp_x86.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_x86.exe)|Windows (Vista SP2+) standalone x86 (
32-bit) binary
222 [yt-dlp_min.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_min.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary built with
`py2exe`<br/> ([Not recommended](#standalone-py2exe-builds-windows))
223 [yt-dlp_linux](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux)|Linux standalone x64 binary
224 [yt-dlp_linux.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux.zip)|Unpackaged Linux executable (no auto-update)
225 [yt-dlp_linux_armv7l](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_armv7l)|Linux standalone armv7l (
32-bit) binary
226 [yt-dlp_linux_aarch64](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_aarch64)|Linux standalone aarch64 (
64-bit) binary
227 [yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
228 [yt-dlp_macos.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos.zip)|Unpackaged MacOS (
10.15+) executable (no auto-update)
229 [yt-dlp_macos_legacy](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos_legacy)|MacOS (
10.9+) standalone x64 executable
235 [yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball
236 [SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
237 [SHA2-512SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA512 sums
238 [SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
239 [SHA2-256SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA256 sums
241 The public key that can be used to verify the GPG signatures is
[available here](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/public.key)
244 curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/raw/master/public.key | gpg --import
245 gpg --verify SHA2-256SUMS.sig SHA2-256SUMS
246 gpg --verify SHA2-512SUMS.sig SHA2-512SUMS
248 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
250 **Note**: The manpages, shell completion files etc. are available inside the
[source tarball](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
253 Python versions
3.7+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
255 <!-- Python
3.5+ uses VC++
14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
256 <!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=
26999 --x>
257 On windows,
[Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86)](https://download.microsoft.com/download/1/6/5/165255E7-1014-4D0A-B094-B6A430A6BFFC/vcredist_x86.exe) is also necessary to run yt-dlp. You probably already have this, but if the executable throws an error due to missing
`MSVCR100.dll` you need to install it manually.
260 While all the other dependencies are optional,
`ffmpeg` and
`ffprobe` are highly recommended
262 ### Strongly recommended
264 * [**ffmpeg** and **ffprobe**](https://www.ffmpeg.org) - Required for
[merging separate video and audio files](#format-selection) as well as for various [post-processing](#post-processing-options) tasks. License [depends on the build](https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html)
266 There are bugs in ffmpeg that causes various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependency, we provide
[custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#ffmpeg-static-auto-builds) with patches for some of these issues at
[yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds). See
[the readme](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#patches-applied) for details on the specific issues solved by these builds
268 **Important**: What you need is ffmpeg *binary*, **NOT**
[the python package of the same name](https://pypi.org/project/ffmpeg)
271 * [**certifi**](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi)\* - Provides Mozilla's root certificate bundle. Licensed under
[MPLv2](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi/blob/master/LICENSE)
272 * [**brotli**](https://github.com/google/brotli)\* or
[**brotlicffi**](https://github.com/python-hyper/brotlicffi) -
[Brotli](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brotli) content encoding support. Both licensed under MIT <sup>
[1](https://github.com/google/brotli/blob/master/LICENSE) [2](https://github.com/python-hyper/brotlicffi/blob/master/LICENSE) </sup>
273 * [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under
[BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
277 * [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For
`--embed-thumbnail` in certain formats. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
278 * [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For
`--embed-thumbnail` in
`mp4`/
`m4a` files when
`mutagen`/
`ffmpeg` cannot. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
279 * [**xattr**](https://github.com/xattr/xattr),
[**pyxattr**](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr) or
[**setfattr**](http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/attr) - For writing xattr metadata (
`--xattr`) on **Linux**. Licensed under
[MIT](https://github.com/xattr/xattr/blob/master/LICENSE.txt),
[LGPL2.1](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr/blob/master/COPYING) and
[GPLv2+](http://git.savannah.nongnu.org/cgit/attr.git/tree/doc/COPYING) respectively
283 * [**pycryptodomex**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome)\* - For decrypting AES-
128 HLS streams and various other data. Licensed under
[BSD-2-Clause](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
284 * [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licensed under
[BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
285 * [**secretstorage**](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage) - For
`--cookies-from-browser` to access the **Gnome** keyring while decrypting cookies of **Chromium**-based browsers on **Linux**. Licensed under
[BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage/blob/master/LICENSE)
286 * Any external downloader that you want to use with
`--downloader`
290 * [**avconv** and **avprobe**](https://www.libav.org) - Now **deprecated** alternative to ffmpeg. License
[depends on the build](https://libav.org/legal)
291 * [**sponskrub**](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) - For using the now **deprecated**
[sponskrub options](#sponskrub-options). Licensed under [GPLv3+](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub/blob/master/LICENCE.md)
292 * [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading
`rtmp` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with
`--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
293 * [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or
[**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading
`rstp`/
`mms` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with
`--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under
[GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
295 To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
297 The standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with **\*** included.
299 If you do not have the necessary dependencies for a task you are attempting, yt-dlp will warn you. All the currently available dependencies are visible at the top of the
`--verbose` output
304 ### Standalone PyInstaller Builds
305 To build the standalone executable, you must have Python and
`pyinstaller` (plus any of yt-dlp's [optional dependencies](#dependencies) if needed). Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, simply run
`pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (x86/ARM,
32/
64 bit) as the Python used.
307 python3 -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
308 python3 devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
311 On some systems, you may need to use
`py` or
`python` instead of
`python3`.
313 `pyinst.py` accepts any arguments that can be passed to
`pyinstaller`, such as
`--onefile/-F` or
`--onedir/-D`, which is further
[documented here](https://pyinstaller.org/en/stable/usage.html#what-to-generate).
315 **Note**: Pyinstaller versions below
4.4 [do not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment.
317 **Important**: Running
`pyinstaller` directly **without** using
`pyinst.py` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
319 ### Platform-independent Binary (UNIX)
320 You will need the build tools
`python` (
3.7+),
`zip`,
`make` (GNU),
`pandoc`\* and
`pytest`\*.
322 After installing these, simply run
`make`.
324 You can also run
`make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files. (The build tools marked with **\*** are not needed for this)
326 ### Standalone Py2Exe Builds (Windows)
328 While we provide the option to build with
[py2exe](https://www.py2exe.org), it is recommended to build [using PyInstaller](#standalone-pyinstaller-builds) instead since the py2exe builds **cannot contain
`pycryptodomex`/
`certifi` and needs VC++
14** on the target computer to run.
330 If you wish to build it anyway, install Python and py2exe, and then simply run
`setup.py py2exe`
332 py -m pip install -U py2exe -r requirements.txt
333 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
338 * **
`devscripts/update-version.py`** - Update the version number based on current date.
339 * **
`devscripts/set-variant.py`** - Set the build variant of the executable.
340 * **
`devscripts/make_changelog.py`** - Create a markdown changelog using short commit messages and update
`CONTRIBUTORS` file.
341 * **
`devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py`** - Create lazy extractors. Running this before building the binaries (any variant) will improve their startup performance. Set the environment variable
`YTDLP_NO_LAZY_EXTRACTORS=1` if you wish to forcefully disable lazy extractor loading.
343 Note: See their
`--help` for more info.
345 ### Forking the project
346 If you fork the project on GitHub, you can run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build the selected version(s) as artifacts. Alternatively, you can run the [release workflow](.github/workflows/release.yml) or enable the [nightly workflow](.github/workflows/release-nightly.yml) to create full (pre-)releases.
350 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
351 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
353 `Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
354 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
356 <!-- Auto generated -->
358 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
359 --version Print program version and exit
360 -U, --update Update this program to the latest version
361 --no-update Do not check for updates (default)
362 --update-to [CHANNEL]@[TAG] Upgrade/downgrade to a specific version.
363 CHANNEL and TAG defaults to "stable" and
364 "latest" respectively if omitted; See
365 "UPDATE" for details. Supported channels:
367 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
368 The download will be considered successful
369 even if the postprocessing fails
370 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
371 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
373 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
374 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
375 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
376 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
377 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
379 --use-extractors NAMES Extractor names to use separated by commas.
380 You can also use regexes, "all", "default"
381 and "end" (end URL matching); e.g. --ies
382 "holodex.*,end,youtube". Prefix the name
383 with a "-" to exclude it, e.g. --ies
384 default,-generic. Use --list-extractors for
385 a list of extractor names. (Alias: --ies)
386 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. E.g.
387 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
388 google videos for the search term "python".
389 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
390 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
391 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
392 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
393 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
394 possible instead of searching
395 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
396 except those given by --config-locations.
397 For backward compatibility, if this option
398 is found inside the system configuration
399 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
401 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
402 (default). When given inside a configuration
403 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
404 defined in the current file
405 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
406 either the path to the config or its
407 containing directory ("-" for stdin). Can be
408 used multiple times and inside other
410 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
412 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
413 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
414 Currently only supported for YouTube
416 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
418 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
419 available. Pass the minimum number of
420 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
421 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
422 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
423 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
424 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output (Alias:
426 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
427 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
428 configurations by reverting some of the
429 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
430 default behavior" for details
431 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
432 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
433 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
434 according to the Python string formatting
435 mini-language. E.g. --alias get-audio,-X
436 "-S=aext:{
0},abr -x --audio-format {
0}"
437 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
438 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
439 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
440 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
441 output. Alias options can trigger more
442 aliases; so be careful to avoid defining
443 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
444 alias may be triggered a maximum of
100
445 times. This option can be used multiple times
448 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
449 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme,
450 e.g. socks5://user:pass@
127.0.0.1:
1080/.
451 Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for
453 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
454 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
455 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
456 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
457 --enable-file-urls Enable file:// URLs. This is disabled by
458 default for security reasons.
461 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
462 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
463 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
464 is not present) is used for the actual
466 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
467 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header (default)
468 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
469 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
470 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
471 explicitly provided two-letter ISO
3166-
2
473 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
474 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR notation
477 -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma separated playlist_index of the items
478 to download. You can specify a range using
479 "[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
480 compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
481 Use negative indices to count from the right
482 and negative STEP to download in reverse
483 order. E.g. "-I
1:
3,
7,-
5::
2" used on a
484 playlist of size
15 will download the items
485 at index
1,
2,
3,
7,
11,
13,
15
486 --min-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is smaller than
487 SIZE, e.g.
50k or
44.6M
488 --max-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is larger than
489 SIZE, e.g.
50k or
44.6M
490 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
491 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
492 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
493 E.g. "--date today-
2weeks" downloads only
494 videos uploaded on the same day two weeks ago
495 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
496 this date. The date formats accepted is the
498 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
499 this date. The date formats accepted is the
501 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
502 field can be compared with a number or a
503 string using the operators defined in
504 "Filtering Formats". You can also simply
505 specify a field to match if the field is
506 present, use "!field" to check if the field
507 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
508 conditions. Use a "
\" to escape "&" or
509 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
510 the filter matches if atleast one of the
511 conditions are met. E.g. --match-filter
512 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?
100 &
513 description~='(?i)
\bcats \& dogs
\b'" matches
514 only videos that are not live OR those that
515 have a like count more than
100 (or the like
516 field is not available) and also has a
517 description that contains the phrase "cats &
518 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
519 interactively ask whether to download each
521 --no-match-filter Do not use any --match-filter (default)
522 --break-match-filters FILTER Same as "--match-filters" but stops the
523 download process when a video is rejected
524 --no-break-match-filters Do not use any --break-match-filters (default)
525 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
526 to a video and a playlist
527 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
528 a video and a playlist
529 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
531 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
532 archive file. Record the IDs of all
533 downloaded videos in it
534 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
535 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
536 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
537 a file that is in the archive
538 --break-per-input Alters --max-downloads, --break-on-existing,
539 --break-match-filter, and autonumber to
541 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
542 terminates the entire download queue
543 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
544 the playlist is skipped
547 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
548 video that should be downloaded concurrently
550 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second,
552 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
553 below which throttling is assumed and the
554 video data is re-extracted, e.g.
100K
555 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is
10), or
557 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
558 error (default is
3), or "infinite"
559 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
560 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
561 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR Time to sleep between retries in seconds
562 (optionally) prefixed by the type of retry
563 (http (default), fragment, file_access,
564 extractor) to apply the sleep to. EXPR can
565 be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=
1]] or
566 exp=START[:END[:BASE=
2]]. This option can be
567 used multiple times to set the sleep for the
568 different retry types, e.g. --retry-sleep
569 linear=
1::
2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=
1:
20
570 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
571 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
572 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragments)
573 --abort-on-unavailable-fragments
574 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
575 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
576 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
577 downloading is finished
578 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
579 downloading is finished (default)
580 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer, e.g.
1024 or
16K
582 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
583 from an initial value of --buffer-size
585 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
586 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
587 downloading, e.g.
10485760 or
10M (default
588 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
589 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
591 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
592 --lazy-playlist Process entries in the playlist as they are
593 received. This disables n_entries,
594 --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse
595 --no-lazy-playlist Process videos in the playlist only after
596 the entire playlist is parsed (default)
597 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
599 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
600 allowing some players to play the video
601 while downloading, and reducing the chance
602 of file corruption if download is
603 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
605 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
606 videos. This is default when not downloading
608 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters whose title matches
609 the given regular expression. Time ranges
610 prefixed by a "*" can also be used in place
611 of chapters to download the specified range.
612 Needs ffmpeg. This option can be used
613 multiple times to download multiple
614 sections, e.g. --download-sections
615 "*
10:
15-inf" --download-sections "intro"
616 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
617 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
618 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
619 use it for. Currently supports native,
620 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
621 wget. You can use this option multiple times
622 to set different downloaders for different
623 protocols. E.g. --downloader aria2c
624 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
625 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
626 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
627 (Alias: --external-downloader)
628 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
629 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
630 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
631 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
632 positions using the same syntax as
633 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
634 option multiple times to give different
635 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
636 --external-downloader-args)
638 ## Filesystem Options:
639 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
640 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
641 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
643 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
644 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
645 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
646 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
647 TYPES as --output are supported.
648 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
649 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
650 files are first downloaded to the temp path
651 and then the final files are moved over to
652 the home path after download is finished.
653 This option is ignored if --output is an
655 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
656 TEMPLATE" for details
657 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
658 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" (default: "NA")
659 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
660 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
661 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
663 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
664 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
665 using Windows (default)
666 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
667 extension) to the specified number of
669 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
670 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
671 option includes --no-continue
672 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
673 related files (default)
674 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
676 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
677 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
678 restart download of the entire file
679 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
680 into output file (default)
681 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
683 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
684 modification time (default)
685 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
686 the file modification time
687 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
688 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
689 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
690 (this may contain personal information)
691 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
692 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
693 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
694 --write-description etc. (default)
695 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
696 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
697 --clean-info-json Remove some private fields such as filenames
698 from the infojson. Note that it could still
699 contain some personal information (default)
700 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
701 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
702 infojson. The comments are fetched even
703 without this option if the extraction is
704 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
705 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
706 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
708 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
709 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
710 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
711 and dump cookie jar in
712 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
714 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]
715 The name of the browser to load cookies
716 from. Currently supported browsers are:
717 brave, chrome, chromium, edge, firefox,
718 opera, safari, vivaldi. Optionally, the
719 KEYRING used for decrypting Chromium cookies
720 on Linux, the name/path of the PROFILE to
721 load cookies from, and the CONTAINER name
722 (if Firefox) ("none" for no container) can
723 be given with their respective seperators.
724 By default, all containers of the most
725 recently accessed profile are used.
726 Currently supported keyrings are: basictext,
727 gnomekeyring, kwallet
728 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
729 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where yt-dlp can
730 store some downloaded information (such as
731 client ids and signatures) permanently. By
732 default ${XDG_CACHE_HOME}/yt-dlp
733 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
734 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
736 ## Thumbnail Options:
737 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
738 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
739 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
740 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
741 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
743 ## Internet Shortcut Options:
744 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
745 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
746 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
747 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
748 OS caches the URL based on the file path
749 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
750 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
752 ## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
753 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
754 print the log to stderr
755 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
756 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
758 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
760 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
761 extracting metadata even if the videos are
762 not actually available for download
764 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
765 formats are found (default)
766 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
767 related files (Alias: --no-download)
768 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
769 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
770 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
771 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
772 --use-postprocessor (default: video).
773 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
774 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
775 used. This option can be used multiple times
776 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
777 Append given template to the file. The
778 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
779 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
780 output template. This option can be used
782 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
783 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
784 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
785 description of available keys
786 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
787 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
788 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
789 a playlist, the whole playlist information
790 is dumped in a single line
791 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
792 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
793 another simulation option is used (Alias:
794 --force-download-archive)
795 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
796 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
797 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
798 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
799 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
800 Template for progress outputs, optionally
801 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
802 "download-title:" (the console title),
803 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
804 The video's fields are accessible under the
805 "info" key and the progress attributes are
806 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.
807 --console-title --progress-template
808 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
809 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
810 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
811 to debug problems (very verbose)
812 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
813 in the current directory to debug problems
814 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
817 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
818 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
819 that do not support RFC
5746 secure
821 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
822 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
823 information about the video (Currently
824 supported only for YouTube)
825 --add-headers FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
826 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
827 option multiple times
828 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
829 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
830 or fribidi executable in PATH
831 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
832 during data extraction
833 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
834 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
835 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
836 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
837 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
838 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
839 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
842 ## Video Format Options:
843 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
845 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
846 "Sorting Formats" for more details
847 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
848 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
849 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
850 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
851 specified sort order (default)
852 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
854 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
855 output file (default)
856 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
858 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
859 output file (default)
860 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
861 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
862 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
863 irrespective of quality
864 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
866 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
867 those that are actually downloadable
868 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
869 actually downloadable
870 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
872 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
873 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
874 --merge-output-format FORMAT Containers that may be used when merging
875 formats, separated by "/", e.g. "mp4/mkv".
876 Ignored if no merge is required. (currently
877 supported: avi, flv, mkv, mov, mp4, webm)
880 --write-subs Write subtitle file
881 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
882 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
883 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
884 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
885 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
886 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
887 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
888 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
889 e.g. "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
890 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
891 be regex) or "all" separated by commas, e.g.
892 --sub-langs "en.*,ja". You can prefix the
893 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
894 the requested languages, e.g. --sub-langs
895 all,-live_chat. Use --list-subs for a list
896 of available language tags
898 ## Authentication Options:
899 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
900 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
901 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
902 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
903 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
904 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
905 either the path or its containing directory.
907 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
908 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
909 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
910 a list of available MSOs
911 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
912 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
913 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
915 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
916 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
917 format. May include the private key
918 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
919 Path to private key file for client
921 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
922 Password for client certificate private key,
923 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
924 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
926 ## Post-Processing Options:
927 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
928 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
929 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
930 used. (currently supported: best (default),
931 aac, alac, flac, m4a, mp3, opus, vorbis,
932 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
933 similar syntax as --remux-video
934 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
935 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
936 between
0 (best) and
10 (worst) for VBR or a
937 specific bitrate like
128K (default
5)
938 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
939 necessary (currently supported: avi, flv,
940 gif, mkv, mov, mp4, webm, aac, aiff, alac,
941 flac, m4a, mka, mp3, ogg, opus, vorbis,
942 wav). If target container does not support
943 the video/audio codec, remuxing will fail.
944 You can specify multiple rules; e.g.
945 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
946 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
947 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
948 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
949 are the same as --remux-video
950 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
951 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
952 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
953 to give the argument to the specified
954 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
955 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
956 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
957 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
958 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
959 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
960 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
961 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
962 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
963 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
964 specified executable only when being used by
965 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
966 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
967 appended to the prefix optionally followed
968 by a number to pass the argument before the
969 specified input/output file, e.g. --ppa
970 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
971 this option multiple times to give different
972 arguments to different postprocessors.
974 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
975 after post-processing
976 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
977 post-processing (default)
978 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
979 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
980 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
982 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
983 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
984 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
985 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
986 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
987 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
988 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
989 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
990 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
991 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
992 (Alias: --add-chapters)
993 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
995 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
997 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
999 --parse-metadata [WHEN:]FROM:TO
1000 Parse additional metadata like title/artist
1001 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
1002 for details. Supported values of "WHEN" are
1003 the same as that of --use-postprocessor
1004 (default: pre_process)
1005 --replace-in-metadata [WHEN:]FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
1006 Replace text in a metadata field using the
1007 given regex. This option can be used
1008 multiple times. Supported values of "WHEN"
1009 are the same as that of --use-postprocessor
1010 (default: pre_process)
1011 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
1012 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
1013 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
1014 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
1015 (default; only when the videos form a single
1016 show). All the video files must have same
1017 codecs and number of streams to be
1018 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
1019 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1020 the output filename for the concatenated
1021 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1022 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
1023 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
1024 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
1025 default; fix file if we can, warn
1026 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
1028 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
1029 path to the binary or its containing directory
1030 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
1031 when to execute it, separated by a ":".
1032 Supported values of "WHEN" are the same as
1033 that of --use-postprocessor (default:
1034 after_move). Same syntax as the output
1035 template can be used to pass any field as
1036 arguments to the command. After download, an
1037 additional field "filepath" that contains
1038 the final path of the downloaded file is
1039 also available, and if no fields are passed,
1040 %(filepath,_filename|)q is appended to the
1041 end of the command. This option can be used
1043 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
1044 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
1045 (currently supported: ass, lrc, srt, vtt)
1046 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
1047 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
1048 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
1049 can specify multiple rules using similar
1050 syntax as --remux-video
1051 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
1052 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
1053 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1054 the output filename for the split files. See
1055 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1056 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
1057 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
1058 given regular expression. The syntax is the
1059 same as --download-sections. This option can
1060 be used multiple times
1061 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
1063 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
1064 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
1065 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1066 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1068 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1069 when cutting/splitting (default)
1070 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1071 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1072 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1073 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1074 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1075 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1076 The "when" argument determines when the
1077 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1078 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1079 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
1080 "video" (after --format; before
1081 --print/--output), "before_dl" (before each
1082 video download), "post_process" (after each
1083 video download; default), "after_move"
1084 (after moving video file to it's final
1085 locations), "after_video" (after downloading
1086 and processing all formats of a video), or
1087 "playlist" (at end of playlist). This option
1088 can be used multiple times to add different
1091 ## SponsorBlock Options:
1092 Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1093 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
1094 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1096 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1097 for, separated by commas. Available
1098 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1099 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
1100 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, chapter, all
1101 and default (=all). You can prefix the
1102 category with a "-" to exclude it. See [
1]
1103 for description of the categories. E.g.
1104 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1105 [
1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1106 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1107 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1108 category is present in both mark and remove,
1109 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1110 available categories are the same as for
1111 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
1112 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight,
1113 chapter are not available
1114 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
1115 An output template for the title of the
1116 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1117 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1118 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1119 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1120 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1121 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1122 --sponsorblock-remove
1123 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1124 https://sponsor.ajay.app
1126 ## Extractor Options:
1127 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1128 (default is
3), or "infinite"
1129 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1130 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1131 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1132 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1133 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1134 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1135 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1136 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1138 --extractor-args IE_KEY:ARGS Pass ARGS arguments to the IE_KEY extractor.
1139 See "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You
1140 can use this option multiple times to give
1141 arguments for different extractors
1145 You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
1147 1. **Main Configuration**:
1148 * The file given by
`--config-location`
1149 1. **Portable Configuration**: (Recommended for portable installations)
1150 * If using a binary,
`yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the binary
1151 * If running from source-code,
`yt-dlp.conf` in the parent directory of
`yt_dlp`
1152 1. **Home Configuration**:
1153 * `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by
`-P`
1154 * If
`-P` is not given, the current directory is searched
1155 1. **User Configuration**:
1156 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp.conf`
1157 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1158 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1159 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp.conf`
1160 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1161 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1163 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
1164 * `~/.yt-dlp/config`
1165 * `~/.yt-dlp/config.txt`
1167 See also: [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
1168 1. **System Configuration**:
1169 * `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
1170 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config`
1171 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1173 E.g. with the following configuration file yt-dlp will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under
`YouTube` directory in your home directory:
1175 # Lines starting with # are comments
1177 # Always extract audio
1180 # Do not copy the mtime
1184 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1186 # Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1187 -o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
1190 **Note**: 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`. They must also be quoted when necessary as-if it were a UNIX shell.
1192 You can use
`--ignore-config` if you want to disable all configuration files for a particular yt-dlp run. If
`--ignore-config` is found inside any configuration file, no further configuration will be loaded. For example, having the option in the portable configuration file prevents loading of home, user, and system configurations. Additionally, (for backward compatibility) if
`--ignore-config` is found inside the system configuration file, the user configuration is not loaded.
1194 ### Configuration file encoding
1196 The configuration files are decoded according to the UTF BOM if present, and in the encoding from system locale otherwise.
1198 If you want your file to be decoded differently, add
`# coding: ENCODING` to the beginning of the file (e.g.
`# coding: shift-jis`). There must be no characters before that, even spaces or BOM.
1200 ### Authentication with `.netrc` file
1202 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 yt-dlp execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell command history. You can achieve this using a
[`.netrc` file](https://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on a per-extractor basis. For that you will need to create a
`.netrc` file in
`--netrc-location` and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
1204 touch ${HOME}/.netrc
1205 chmod a-rwx,u+rw ${HOME}/.netrc
1207 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1209 machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
1213 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1214 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1216 To activate authentication with the
`.netrc` file you should pass
`--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
1218 The default location of the .netrc file is
`~` (see below).
1220 ### Notes about environment variables
1221 * Environment variables are normally specified as
`${VARIABLE}`/
`$VARIABLE` on UNIX and
`%VARIABLE%` on Windows; but is always shown as
`${VARIABLE}` in this documentation
1222 * yt-dlp also allow using UNIX-style variables on Windows for path-like options; e.g.
`--output`,
`--config-location`
1223 * If unset,
`${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}` defaults to
`~/.config` and
`${XDG_CACHE_HOME}` to
`~/.cache`
1224 * On Windows,
`~` points to
`${HOME}` if present; or,
`${USERPROFILE}` or
`${HOMEDRIVE}${HOMEPATH}` otherwise
1225 * On Windows,
`${USERPROFILE}` generally points to
`C:\Users\<user name>` and
`${APPDATA}` to
`${USERPROFILE}\AppData\Roaming`
1229 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.
1231 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1232 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
1233 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1235 The simplest usage of
`-o` is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in
`yt-dlp -o funny_video.flv "https://some/video"` (hard-coding file extension like this is _not_ recommended and could break some post-processing).
1237 It may however also contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according to
[Python string formatting operations](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting), e.g.
`%(NAME)s` or
`%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations.
1239 The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
1241 1. **Object traversal**: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a dot
`.` separator; e.g.
`%(tags.0)s`,
`%(subtitles.en.-1.ext)s`. You can do Python slicing with colon
`:`; E.g.
`%(id.3:7:-1)s`,
`%(formats.:.format_id)s`. Curly braces
`{}` can be used to build dictionaries with only specific keys; e.g.
`%(formats.:.{format_id,height})#j`. An empty field name
`%()s` refers to the entire infodict; e.g.
`%(.{id,title})s`. Note that all the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use
`-j` to see such fields
1243 1. **Addition**: Addition and subtraction of numeric fields can be done using
`+` and
`-` respectively. E.g.
`%(playlist_index+10)03d`,
`%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
1245 1. **Date/time Formatting**: Date/time fields can be formatted according to
[strftime formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes) by specifying it separated from the field name using a
`>`. E.g.
`%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`,
`%(upload_date>%Y-%m-%d)s`,
`%(epoch-3600>%H-%M-%S)s`
1247 1. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a
`,`. E.g.
`%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
1249 1. **Replacement**: A replacement value can be specified using a
`&` separator according to the
[`str.format` mini-language](https://docs.python.org/3/library/string.html#format-specification-mini-language). If the field is *not* empty, this replacement value will be used instead of the actual field content. This is done after alternate fields are considered; thus the replacement is used if *any* of the alternative fields is *not* empty. E.g.
`%(chapters&has chapters|no chapters)s`,
`%(title&TITLE={:>20}|NO TITLE)s`
1251 1. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a
`|` separator. This overrides
`--output-na-placeholder`. E.g.
`%(uploader|Unknown)s`
1253 1. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types
`diouxXeEfFgGcrs`, yt-dlp additionally supports converting to
`B` = **B**ytes,
`j` = **j**son (flag
`#` for pretty-printing,
`+` for Unicode),
`h` = HTML escaping,
`l` = a comma separated **l**ist (flag
`#` for
`\n` newline-separated),
`q` = a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag
`#` to split a list into different arguments),
`D` = add **D**ecimal suffixes (e.g.
10M) (flag
`#` to use
1024 as factor), and
`S` = **S**anitize as filename (flag
`#` for restricted)
1255 1. **Unicode normalization**: The format type
`U` can be used for NFC
[Unicode normalization](https://docs.python.org/3/library/unicodedata.html#unicodedata.normalize). The alternate form flag (
`#`) changes the normalization to NFD and the conversion flag
`+` can be used for NFKC/NFKD compatibility equivalence normalization. E.g.
`%(title)+.100U` is NFKC
1257 To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1259 %(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
1262 Additionally, you can set different output templates for the various metadata files separately from the general output template by specifying the type of file followed by the template separated by a colon
`:`. The different file types supported are
`subtitle`,
`thumbnail`,
`description`,
`annotation` (deprecated),
`infojson`,
`link`,
`pl_thumbnail`,
`pl_description`,
`pl_infojson`,
`chapter`,
`pl_video`. E.g.
`-o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s"` will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video. If any of the templates is empty, that type of file will not be written. E.g.
`--write-thumbnail -o "thumbnail:"` will write thumbnails only for playlists and not for video.
1264 <a id="outtmpl-postprocess-note"/>
1266 **Note**: Due to post-processing (i.e. merging etc.), the actual output filename might differ. Use
`--print after_move:filepath` to get the name after all post-processing is complete.
1268 The available fields are:
1270 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1271 - `title` (string): Video title
1272 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
1273 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1274 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
1275 - `description` (string): The description of the video
1276 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1277 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1278 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1279 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
1280 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
1281 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
1282 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
1283 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
1284 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
1285 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
1286 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1287 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1288 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
1289 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
1290 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1291 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
1292 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
1293 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1294 - `concurrent_view_count` (numeric): How many users are currently watching the video on the platform.
1295 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1296 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1297 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1298 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
1299 - `comment_count` (numeric): Number of comments on the video (For some extractors, comments are only downloaded at the end, and so this field cannot be used)
1300 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
1301 - `live_status` (string): One of "not_live", "is_live", "is_upcoming", "was_live", "post_live" (was live, but VOD is not yet processed)
1302 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
1303 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
1304 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
1305 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
1306 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1307 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
1308 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1309 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
1310 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
1311 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at
`--autonumber-start`
1312 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
1313 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
1314 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1315 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1316 - `playlist` (string):
`playlist_id` or
`playlist_title`
1317 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
1318 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1319 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
1320 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1321 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
1322 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
1323 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1324 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
1325 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as
`webpage_url` for playlist entries)
1327 All the fields in [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats) can also be used
1329 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1331 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1332 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1333 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1335 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1337 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1338 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1339 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1340 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1341 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1342 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1343 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1345 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1347 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1348 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1349 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1350 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1351 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1352 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1353 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1354 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1355 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1356 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1358 Available only when using
`--download-sections` and for
`chapter:` prefix when using
`--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
1360 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1361 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1362 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1363 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1365 Available only when used in
`--print`:
1367 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1368 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the [actual filename may differ](#outtmpl-postprocess-note)
1369 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by
`--list-formats`
1370 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by
`--list-thumbnails`
1371 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by
`--list-subs`
1372 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by
`--list-subs`
1375 Available only in
`--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1377 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1378 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1379 - `categories` (list): The
[SponsorBlock categories](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Category) the chapter belongs to
1380 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1381 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1382 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1383 - `type` (string): The
[SponsorBlock action type](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Action_Type) of the chapter
1385 Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. E.g. for
`-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title
`yt-dlp test video` and id
`BaW_jenozKc`, this will result in a
`yt-dlp test video-BaW_jenozKc.mp4` file created in the current directory.
1387 **Note**: 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).
1389 **Tip**: Look at the
`-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
1391 For numeric sequences you can use
[numeric related formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting); e.g.
`%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to
5 characters, like in
`00042`.
1393 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.
1395 To use percent literals in an output template use
`%%`. To output to stdout use
`-o -`.
1397 The current default template is
`%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
1399 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.
1401 #### Output template examples
1404 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1405 test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1407 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1408 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
1410 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
1411 youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
1413 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
1414 $ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1416 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
1417 $ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1419 # Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
1420 $ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist_index|)s%(playlist_index& - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1422 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
1423 $ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1425 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
1426 $ yt-dlp -u user -p password -P "~/MyVideos" -o "%(playlist)s/%(chapter_number)s - %(chapter)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.udemy.com/java-tutorial"
1428 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
1429 $ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -o "%(series)s/%(season_number)s - %(season)s/%(episode_number)s - %(episode)s.%(ext)s" "https://videomore.ru/kino_v_detalayah/5_sezon/367617"
1431 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1432 # and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1433 $ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1435 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1436 $ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "subtitle:%(uploader)s/subs/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --write-subs
1438 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
1439 $ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
1444 By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1445 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 yt-dlp to stream to
`stdout` (
`-o -`), the default becomes
`-f best/bestvideo+bestaudio`.
1447 **Deprecation warning**: Latest versions of yt-dlp can stream multiple formats to the stdout simultaneously using ffmpeg. So, in future versions, the default for this will be set to
`-f bv*+ba/b` similar to normal downloads. If you want to preserve the
`-f b/bv+ba` setting, it is recommended to explicitly specify it in the configuration options.
1449 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.
1451 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1452 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
1453 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1455 The simplest case is requesting a specific format; e.g. 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.
1457 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.
1459 You can use
`-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1461 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1463 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1464 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with
`--audio-multistreams`,
`--video-multistreams` or both)
1465 - `b*`,
`best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio or both (ie;
`vcodec!=none or acodec!=none`)
1466 - `b`,
`best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1467 - `bv`,
`bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec=none]`
1468 - `bv*`,
`bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec!=none]`
1469 - `ba`,
`bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to
`best*[vcodec=none]`
1470 - `ba*`,
`bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that **contains audio**. It may also contain video. Equivalent to
`best*[acodec!=none]` ([Do not use!](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/979#issuecomment-919629354))
1471 - `w*
`, `worst*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
1472 - `w
`, `worst
`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]
`
1473 - `wv
`, `worstvideo
`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]
`
1474 - `wv*
`, `worstvideo*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]
`
1475 - `wa
`, `worstaudio
`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]
`
1476 - `wa*
`, `worstaudio*
`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]
`
1478 For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use `-f worstvideo
`. It is however recommended not to use `worst
` and related options. When your format selector is `worst
`, the format which is worst in all respects is selected. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use `-S +size
` or more rigorously, `-S +size,+br,+res,+fps
` instead of `-f worst
`. See [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.
1480 You can select the n'th best format of a type by using `best<type>.<n>
`. For example, `best
.2` will select the 2nd best combined format. Similarly, `bv*
.3` will select the 3rd best format that contains a video stream.
1482 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; e.g. `-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.
1484 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
`.
1486 You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using `-f <format1>+<format2>+...
` (requires ffmpeg installed); e.g. `-f bestvideo+bestaudio
` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg.
1488 **Deprecation warning**: Since the *below* described behavior is complex and counter-intuitive, this will be removed and multistreams will be enabled by default in the future. A new operator will be instead added to limit formats to single audio/video
1490 Unless `--video-multistreams
` is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, unless `--audio-multistreams
` is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. E.g. `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --video-multistreams --audio-multistreams
` will download and merge all 3 given formats. The resulting file will have 2 video streams and 2 audio streams. But `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --no-video-multistreams
` will download and merge only `bestvideo
` and `bestaudio
`. `best
` is ignored since another format containing a video stream (`bestvideo
`) has already been selected. The order of the formats is therefore important. `-f best+bestaudio --no-audio-multistreams
` will download only `best
` while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams
` will ignore `best
` and download only `bestaudio
`.
1492 ## Filtering Formats
1494 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=
720]"
` (or `-f "[filesize>
10M]"
`).
1496 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<
`, `<=
`, `>
`, `>=
`, `=
` (equals), `!=
` (not equals):
1498 - `filesize
`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1499 - `filesize_approx
`: An estimate for the number of bytes
1500 - `width
`: Width of the video, if known
1501 - `height
`: Height of the video, if known
1502 - `aspect_ratio
`: Aspect ratio of the video, if known
1503 - `tbr
`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1504 - `abr
`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1505 - `vbr
`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1506 - `asr
`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1508 - `audio_channels
`: The number of audio channels
1509 - `stretched_ratio
`: `width:height
` of the video's pixels, if not square
1511 Also filtering work for comparisons `=
` (equals), `^=
` (starts with), `$=
` (ends with), `*=
` (contains), `~=
` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
1514 - `ext
`: File extension
1515 - `acodec
`: Name of the audio codec in use
1516 - `vcodec
`: Name of the video codec in use
1517 - `container
`: Name of the container format
1518 - `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
`)
1519 - `language
`: Language code
1520 - `dynamic_range
`: The dynamic range of the video
1521 - `format_id
`: A short description of the format
1522 - `format
`: A human-readable description of the format
1523 - `format_note
`: Additional info about the format
1524 - `resolution
`: Textual description of width and height
1526 Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation `!
` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g. `!*=
` (does not contain). The comparand of a string comparison needs to be quoted with either double or single quotes if it contains spaces or special characters other than `._-
`.
1528 **Note**: None of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by the website. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.
1530 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. You can also use the filters with `all
` to download all formats that satisfy the filter, e.g. `-f "all[vcodec=none]"
` selects all audio-only formats.
1532 Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses; e.g. `-f "(mp4,webm)[height<
480]"
` will download the best pre-merged mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480.
1536 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...
`.
1538 The available fields are:
1540 - `hasvid
`: Gives priority to formats that have a video stream
1541 - `hasaud
`: Gives priority to formats that have an audio stream
1542 - `ie_pref
`: The format preference
1543 - `lang
`: The language preference
1544 - `quality
`: The quality of the format
1545 - `source
`: The preference of the source
1546 - `proto
`: Protocol used for download (`https
`/`ftps
` > `http
`/`ftp
` > `m3u8_native
`/`m3u8
` > `http_dash_segments
`> `websocket_frag
` > `mms
`/`rtsp
` > `f4f
`/`f4m
`)
1547 - `vcodec
`: Video Codec (`av01
` > `vp9.2
` > `vp9
` > `h265
` > `h264
` > `vp8
` > `h263
` > `theora
` > other)
1548 - `acodec
`: Audio Codec (`flac
`/`alac
` > `wav
`/`aiff
` > `opus
` > `vorbis
` > `aac
` > `mp4a
` > `mp3
` > `ac4
` > `eac3
` > `ac3
` > `dts
` > other)
1549 - `codec
`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec
`
1550 - `vext
`: Video Extension (`mp4
` > `mov
` > `webm
` > `flv
` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats
` is used, `webm
` is preferred.
1551 - `aext
`: Audio Extension (`m4a
` > `aac
` > `mp3
` > `ogg
` > `opus
` > `webm
` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats
` is used, the order changes to `ogg
` > `opus
` > `webm
` > `mp3
` > `m4a
` > `aac
`
1552 - `ext
`: Equivalent to `vext,aext
`
1553 - `filesize
`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
1554 - `fs_approx
`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1555 - `size
`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
1556 - `height
`: Height of video
1557 - `width
`: Width of video
1558 - `res
`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1559 - `fps
`: Framerate of video
1560 - `hdr
`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV
` > `HDR12
` > `HDR10+
` > `HDR10
` > `HLG
` > `SDR
`)
1561 - `channels
`: The number of audio channels
1562 - `tbr
`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1563 - `vbr
`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1564 - `abr
`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1565 - `br
`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr
`
1566 - `asr
`: Audio sample rate in Hz
1568 **Deprecation warning**: Many of these fields have (currently undocumented) aliases, that may be removed in a future version. It is recommended to use only the documented field names.
1570 All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in descending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+
`. E.g. `+res
` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a preferred value for the fields, separated by a `:
`. E.g. `res:
720` prefers larger videos, but no larger than 720p and the smallest video if there are no videos less than 720p. For `codec
` and `ext
`, you can provide two preferred values, the first for video and the second for audio. E.g. `+codec:avc:m4a
` (equivalent to `+vcodec:avc,+acodec:m4a
`) sets the video codec preference to `h264
` > `h265
` > `vp9
` > `vp9.2
` > `av01
` > `vp8
` > `h263
` > `theora
` and audio codec preference to `mp4a
` > `aac
` > `vorbis
` > `opus
` > `mp3
` > `ac3
` > `dts
`. You can also make the sorting prefer the nearest values to the provided by using `~
` as the delimiter. E.g. `filesize~
1G
` prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.
1572 The fields `hasvid
` and `ie_pref
` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using `--format-sort-force
`. Apart from these, the default order used is: `lang,quality,res,fps,hdr:
12,vcodec:vp9.2,channels,acodec,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id
`. The extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
1574 Note that the default has `vcodec:vp9.2
`; i.e. `av1
` is not preferred. Similarly, the default for hdr is `hdr:
12`; i.e. dolby vision is not preferred. These choices are made since DV and AV1 formats are not yet fully compatible with most devices. This may be changed in the future as more devices become capable of smoothly playing back these formats.
1576 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 respects. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use `-f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps
`.
1578 **Tip**: You can use the `-v -F
` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1580 ## Format Selection examples
1583 # Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
1584 # or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
1585 $ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
1587 # Download best format that contains video,
1588 # and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
1589 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
1594 # Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1595 # For this case, an output template should be used since
1596 # by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
1597 $ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
1599 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1600 # and all audio-only formats into one file
1601 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
1603 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1604 # and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1605 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
1608 # The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
1609 # and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
1611 # Download the worst video available (old method)
1612 $ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
1614 # Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
1617 # Download the smallest video available
1618 $ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
1622 # Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
1623 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
1625 # Download the best video with the best extension
1626 # (For video, mp4 > mov > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
1631 # Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1632 # or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
1633 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
1635 # Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1636 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1637 $ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
1639 # Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1640 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1641 # Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1642 # So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
1643 $ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
1647 # Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1648 # or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1649 $ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
1651 # Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1652 # or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1653 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
1655 # Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
1656 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
1660 # Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1661 # or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
1662 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
1664 # Download best video available via the best protocol
1665 # (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
1670 # Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1671 # or the best video if there is no such video
1672 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
1674 # Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1675 # or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
1676 $ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
1678 # Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1679 # or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
1680 $ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
1684 # More complex examples
1686 # Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1687 # or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
1688 $ yt-dlp -f "((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)"
1690 # Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
1691 # or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
1692 # preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
1693 $ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
1697 # Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1698 # or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
1699 # preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
1700 $ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
1703 # MODIFYING METADATA
1705 The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata
` and `--replace-in-metadata
`
1707 `--replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
` is used to replace text in any metadata field using [python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax). [Backreferences](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html?highlight=backreferences#re.sub) can be used in the replace string for advanced use.
1709 The general syntax of `--parse-metadata FROM:TO
` is to give the name of a field or an [output template](#output-template) to extract data from, and the format to interpret it as, separated by a colon `:`. Either a [python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax) with named capture groups, a single field name, or a similar syntax to the [output template](#output-template) (only `%(field)s
` formatting is supported) can be used for `TO
`. The option can be used multiple times to parse and modify various fields.
1711 Note that these options preserve their relative order, allowing replacements to be made in parsed fields and viceversa. Also, any field thus created can be used in the [output template](#output-template) and will also affect the media file's metadata added when using `--embed-metadata
`.
1713 This option also has a few special uses:
1715 * You can download an additional URL based on the metadata of the currently downloaded video. To do this, set the field `additional_urls
` to the URL that you want to download. E.g. `--parse-metadata "description:(?P<additional_urls>https?://www\.vimeo\.com/\d+)
` will download the first vimeo video found in the description
1717 * You can use this to change the metadata that is embedded in the media file. To do this, set the value of the corresponding field with a `meta_
` prefix. For example, any value you set to `meta_description
` field will be added to the `description
` field in the file - you can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis". To modify the metadata of individual streams, use the `meta<n>_
` prefix (e.g. `meta1_language
`). Any value set to the `meta_
` field will overwrite all default values.
1719 **Note**: Metadata modification happens before format selection, post-extraction and other post-processing operations. Some fields may be added or changed during these steps, overriding your changes.
1721 For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1723 Metadata fields | From
1724 :--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1725 `title
` | `track
` or `title
`
1726 `date
` | `upload_date
`
1727 `description
`, `synopsis
` | `description
`
1728 `purl
`, `comment
` | `webpage_url
`
1729 `track
` | `track_number
`
1730 `artist
` | `artist
`, `creator
`, `uploader
` or `uploader_id
`
1733 `album_artist
` | `album_artist
`
1734 `disc
` | `disc_number
`
1736 `season_number
` | `season_number
`
1737 `episode_id
` | `episode
` or `episode_id
`
1738 `episode_sort
` | `episode_number
`
1739 `language
` of each stream | the format's `language
`
1741 **Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1744 ## Modifying metadata examples
1747 # Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
1748 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
1751 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
1753 # Set title as "Series name S01E05"
1754 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
1756 # Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
1757 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --embed-metadata
1759 # Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1760 # handling multiple lines correctly
1761 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --embed-metadata
1763 # Do not set any "synopsis" in the video metadata
1764 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
1766 # Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
1767 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<formats>)" -j
1769 # Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
1770 $ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
1774 # EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1776 Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS
`. `ARGS
` is a `;
` (semicolon) separated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2
`. E.g. `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_embedded,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"
`
1778 Note: In CLI, `ARG
` can use `-
` instead of `_
`; e.g. `youtube:player-client"
` becomes `youtube:player_client"
`
1780 The following extractors use this feature:
1783 * `lang
`: Prefer translated metadata (`title
`, `description
` etc) of this language code (case-sensitive). By default, the video primary language metadata is preferred, with a fallback to `en
` translated. See [youtube.py](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/c26f9b991a0681fd3ea548d535919cec1fbbd430/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L381-L390) for list of supported content language codes
1784 * `skip
`: One or more of `hls
`, `dash
` or `translated_subs
` to skip extraction of the m3u8 manifests, dash manifests and [auto-translated subtitles](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/4090#issuecomment-1158102032) respectively
1785 * `player_client
`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web
`, `android
` and `ios
` with variants `_music
`, `_embedded
`, `_embedscreen
`, `_creator
` (e.g. `web_embedded
`); and `mweb
` and `tv_embedded
` (agegate bypass) with no variants. By default, `android,web
` is used, but `tv_embedded
` and `creator
` variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly, the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com
` urls. You can use `all
` to use all the clients, and `default
` for the default clients.
1786 * `player_skip
`: Skip some network requests that are generally needed for robust extraction. One or more of `configs
` (skip client configs), `webpage
` (skip initial webpage), `js
` (skip js player). While these options can help reduce the number of requests needed or avoid some rate-limiting, they could cause some issues. See [#860](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/860) for more details
1787 * `comment_sort
`: `top
` or `new
` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
1788 * `max_comments
`: Limit the amount of comments to gather. Comma-separated list of integers representing `max-comments,max-parents,max-replies,max-replies-per-thread
`. Default is `all,all,all,all
`
1789 * E.g. `all,all,
1000,
10` will get a maximum of 1000 replies total, with up to 10 replies per thread. `1000,all,
100` will get a maximum of 1000 comments, with a maximum of 100 replies total
1790 * `include_duplicate_formats
`: Extract formats with identical content but different URLs or protocol. This is useful if some of the formats are unavailable or throttled.
1791 * `include_incomplete_formats
`: Extract formats that cannot be downloaded completely (live dash and post-live m3u8)
1792 * `innertube_host
`: Innertube API host to use for all API requests; e.g. `studio.youtube.com
`, `youtubei.googleapis.com
`. Note that cookies exported from one subdomain will not work on others
1793 * `innertube_key
`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
1795 #### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1796 * `skip
`: One or more of `webpage
` (skip initial webpage download), `authcheck
` (allow the download of playlists requiring authentication when no initial webpage is downloaded. This may cause unwanted behavior, see [#1122](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/1122) for more details)
1797 * `approximate_date
`: Extract approximate `upload_date
` and `timestamp
` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
1800 * `fragment_query
`: Passthrough any query in mpd/m3u8 manifest URLs to their fragments if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `fragment_query=VALUE
`. Does not apply to ffmpeg
1801 * `variant_query
`: Passthrough the master m3u8 URL query to its variant playlist URLs if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `variant_query=VALUE
`
1802 * `hls_key
`: An HLS AES-128 key URI *or* key (as hex), and optionally the IV (as hex), in the form of `(URI|KEY)[,IV]
`; e.g. `generic:hls_key=ABCDEF1234567980,
0xFEDCBA0987654321`. Passing any of these values will force usage of the native HLS downloader and override the corresponding values found in the m3u8 playlist
1803 * `is_live
`: Bypass live HLS detection and manually set `live_status
` - a value of `false
` will set `not_live
`, any other value (or no value) will set `is_live
`
1806 * `language
`: Audio languages to extract, e.g. `funimation:language=english,japanese
`
1807 * `version
`: The video version to extract - `uncut
` or `simulcast
`
1809 #### crunchyrollbeta (Crunchyroll)
1810 * `format
`: Which stream type(s) to extract (default: `adaptive_hls
`). Potentially useful values include `adaptive_hls
`, `adaptive_dash
`, `vo_adaptive_hls
`, `vo_adaptive_dash
`, `download_hls
`, `download_dash
`, `multitrack_adaptive_hls_v2
`
1811 * `hardsub
`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract, or `all
` (default: `None
` = no hardsubs), e.g. `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None
`
1814 * `video_types
`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes
`, `movies
`, `clips
`, `trailers
`
1817 * `segment_duration
`: Segment duration in milliseconds for HLS-DMC formats. Use it at your own risk since this feature **may result in your account termination.**
1819 #### youtubewebarchive
1820 * `check_all
`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails
`, `captures
`
1823 * `comment_sort
`: `hot
` (default), `you
` (cookies needed), `top
`, `new
` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1826 * `res
`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd
`, `hd
`, `fhd
`
1827 * `vcodec
`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264
`, `h265
`, `dvh265
`
1828 * `dr
`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr
`, `hdr10
`, `dv
`
1831 * `api_hostname
`: Hostname to use for mobile API requests, e.g. `api-h2.tiktokv.com
`
1832 * `app_version
`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version
`, e.g. `20.2.1`
1833 * `manifest_app_version
`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with, e.g. `221`
1836 * `tab
`: Which tab to download - one of `new
`, `top
`, `videos
`, `podcasts
`, `streams
`, `stacks
`
1839 * `force_graphql
`: Force usage of the GraphQL API. By default it will only be used if login cookies are provided
1841 **Note**: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
1843 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1848 Note that **all** plugins are imported even if not invoked, and that **there are no checks** performed on plugin code. **Use plugins at your own risk and only if you trust the code!**
1850 Plugins can be of `<type>
`s `extractor
` or `postprocessor
`.
1851 - Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it.
1852 - Extractor plugins take priority over builtin extractors.
1853 - Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME
`.
1856 Plugins are loaded from the namespace packages `yt_dlp_plugins.extractor
` and `yt_dlp_plugins.postprocessor
`.
1858 In other words, the file structure on the disk looks something like:
1866 yt-dlp looks for these `yt_dlp_plugins
` namespace folders in many locations (see below) and loads in plugins from **all** of them.
1868 See the [wiki for some known plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugins)
1870 ## Installing Plugins
1872 Plugins can be installed using various methods and locations.
1874 1. **Configuration directories**:
1875 Plugin packages (containing a `yt_dlp_plugins
` namespace folder) can be dropped into the following standard [configuration locations](#configuration):
1877 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1878 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
`
1879 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
` (recommended on Windows)
1880 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
`
1881 * `~/.yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
`
1882 * `~/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
`
1883 * **System Plugins**
1884 * `/etc/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
`
1885 * `/etc/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
`
1886 2. **Executable location**: Plugin packages can similarly be installed in a `yt-dlp-plugins
` directory under the executable location:
1887 * Binary: where `<root-dir>/yt-dlp.exe
`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
`
1888 * Source: where `<root-dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py
`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/
`
1890 3. **pip and other locations in `PYTHONPATH
`**
1891 * Plugin packages can be installed and managed using `pip
`. See [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) for an example.
1892 * Note: plugin files between plugin packages installed with pip must have unique filenames.
1893 * Any path in `PYTHONPATH
` is searched in for the `yt_dlp_plugins
` namespace folder.
1894 * Note: This does not apply for Pyinstaller/py2exe builds.
1897 `.zip
`, `.egg
` and `.whl
` archives containing a `yt_dlp_plugins
` namespace folder in their root are also supported as plugin packages.
1898 * e.g. `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/mypluginpkg.zip
` where `mypluginpkg.zip
` contains `yt_dlp_plugins/<type>/myplugin.py
`
1900 Run yt-dlp with `--verbose
` to check if the plugin has been loaded.
1902 ## Developing Plugins
1904 See the [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) repo for a template plugin package and the [Plugin Development](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugin-Development) section of the wiki for a plugin development guide.
1906 All public classes with a name ending in `IE
`/`PP
` are imported from each file for extractors and postprocessors repectively. This respects underscore prefix (e.g. `_MyBasePluginIE
` is private) and `__all__
`. Modules can similarly be excluded by prefixing the module name with an underscore (e.g. `_myplugin.py
`).
1908 To replace an existing extractor with a subclass of one, set the `plugin_name
` class keyword argument (e.g. `class MyPluginIE(ABuiltInIE, plugin_name='myplugin')
` will replace `ABuiltInIE
` with `MyPluginIE
`). Since the extractor replaces the parent, you should exclude the subclass extractor from being imported separately by making it private using one of the methods described above.
1910 If you are a plugin author, add [yt-dlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/yt-dlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability.
1912 See the [Developer Instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions) on how to write and test an extractor.
1916 yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1918 Your program should avoid parsing the normal stdout since they may change in future versions. Instead they should use options such as `-J
`, `--print
`, `--progress-template
`, `--exec
` etc to create console output that you can reliably reproduce and parse.
1920 From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1923 from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
1925 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1926 with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1930 Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of options available, have a look at [`yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py
`](yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py#L184).
1932 **Tip**: If you are porting your code from youtube-dl to yt-dlp, one important point to look out for is that we do not guarantee the return value of `YoutubeDL.extract_info
` to be json serializable, or even be a dictionary. It will be dictionary-like, but if you want to ensure it is a serializable dictionary, pass it through `YoutubeDL.sanitize_info
` as shown in the [example below](#extracting-information)
1934 ## Embedding examples
1936 #### Extracting information
1942 URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
1944 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
1946 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1947 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
1949 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
1950 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1952 #### Download using an info-json
1957 INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
1959 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1960 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
1962 print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
1963 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
1971 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1974 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
1975 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
1976 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
1977 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
1978 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
1982 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1983 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1991 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1993 def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
1994 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
1995 duration = info.get('duration')
1996 if duration and duration < 60:
1997 return 'The video is too short'
2000 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
2003 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2004 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
2007 #### Adding logger and progress hook
2012 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2015 def debug(self, msg):
2016 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
2017 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
2018 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
2023 def info(self, msg):
2026 def warning(self, msg):
2029 def error(self, msg):
2033 # ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
2035 if d['status'] == 'finished':
2036 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
2040 'logger': MyLogger(),
2041 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
2044 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2048 #### Add a custom PostProcessor
2053 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2055 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
2056 class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
2057 def run(self, info):
2058 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
2062 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
2063 # ℹ️ "when" can take any value in yt_dlp.utils.POSTPROCESS_WHEN
2064 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP(), when='pre_process')
2069 #### Use a custom format selector
2074 URL = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2076 def format_selector(ctx):
2077 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
2078 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
2080 # formats are already sorted worst to best
2081 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
2083 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
2084 best_video = next(f for f in formats
2085 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
2087 # find compatible audio extension
2088 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
2089 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
2090 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
2091 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
2093 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
2095 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
2096 'ext': best_video['ext'],
2097 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
2098 # Must be + separated list of protocols
2099 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
2104 'format': format_selector,
2107 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2111 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
2113 # DEPRECATED OPTIONS
2115 These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
2117 #### Almost redundant options
2118 While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
2120 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
2121 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
2122 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
2123 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
2125 #### Redundant options
2126 While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
2128 --get-description --print description
2129 --get-duration --print duration_string
2130 --get-filename --print filename
2131 --get-format --print format
2133 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
2134 -e, --get-title --print title
2135 -g, --get-url --print urls
2136 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
2137 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
2138 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
2139 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
2140 --break-on-reject Use --break-match-filter
2141 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2142 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
2143 --playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
2144 --playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
2145 --playlist-reverse -I ::-1
2146 --no-playlist-reverse Default
2149 #### Not recommended
2150 While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2152 --force-generic-extractor --ies generic,default
2153 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2154 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
2155 --all-formats -f all
2156 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
2157 --print-json -j --no-simulate
2158 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting, e.g. %(autonumber)03d
2159 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
2160 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2161 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
2162 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2163 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
2164 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2165 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
2166 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2167 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2168 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2169 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
2172 #### Developer options
2173 These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2175 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
2176 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
2177 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
2178 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2179 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
2183 These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2185 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
2186 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
2187 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2188 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2189 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2190 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2191 --load-info --load-info-json
2192 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
2193 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
2194 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
2195 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2196 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
2197 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2198 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
2199 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
2200 --write-srt --write-subs
2201 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
2203 #### Sponskrub Options
2204 Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock
` options
2206 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2207 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2208 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2209 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2210 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2211 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2212 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2213 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2215 #### No longer supported
2216 These options may no longer work as intended
2218 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2219 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2220 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2221 --no-call-home Default
2222 --include-ads No longer supported
2223 --no-include-ads Default
2224 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2225 --no-write-annotations Default
2226 --compat-options seperate-video-versions No longer needed
2229 These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2231 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2232 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2235 See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp) for instructions on [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue) and [Contributing code to the project](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
2238 See the [Wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki) for more information
projects / yt-dlp.git / blob