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-[](https://discord.gg/S75JaBna)
+[](https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r)
[](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits)
[](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits)
* [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
* [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
* [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
+* [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
+ * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
* [PLUGINS](#plugins)
* [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
* [MORE](#more)
* **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using `-S`. This allows for much easier format selection that what is possible by simply using `--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
-* **Merged with youtube-dl v2021.03.14**: You get all the latest features and patches of [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) in addition to all the features of [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc)
+* **Merged with youtube-dl v2021.04.01**: You get all the latest features and patches of [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) in addition to all the features of [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc)
* **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from [animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including `--get-comments`, `BiliBiliSearch`, `BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, Playlist infojson etc. Note that the NicoNico improvements are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
--break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
a file that has been filtered out
--no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
- --include-ads Download advertisements as well
- (experimental)
- --no-include-ads Do not download advertisements (default)
## Download Options:
-N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments to download
--playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
--xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
expected file size
- --hls-prefer-native Use the native HLS downloader instead of
- ffmpeg
- --hls-prefer-ffmpeg Use ffmpeg instead of the native HLS
- downloader
--hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
allowing some players to play the video
while downloading, and reducing the chance
--no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
videos. This is default when not
downloading live streams
- --external-downloader NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
- use. Currently supports aria2c, avconv,
- axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie, wget
- (Recommended: aria2c)
+ --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
+ use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
+ (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
+ use it for. Currently supports native,
+ aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
+ wget (Recommended: aria2c). You can use
+ this option multiple times to set different
+ downloaders for different protocols. For
+ example, --downloader aria2c --downloader
+ "dash,m3u8:native" will use aria2c for
+ http/ftp downloads, and the native
+ downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
+ (Alias: --external-downloader)
--downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
downloader. Specify the downloader name and
the arguments separated by a colon ":". You
stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
with '#', ';' or ']' are considered as
comments and ignored
- -P, --paths TYPE:PATH The paths where the files should be
+ -P, --paths TYPES:PATH The paths where the files should be
downloaded. Specify the type of file and
the path separated by a colon ":". All the
same types as --output are supported.
home path after download is finished. This
option is ignored if --output is an
absolute path
- -o, --output [TYPE:]TEMPLATE Output filename template, see "OUTPUT
+ -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
TEMPLATE" for details
--output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder value for unavailable meta
fields in output filename template
into a single file
--no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for
each output file (default)
- --all-formats Download all available video formats
--prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
over non-free ones of same quality. Use
with "-S ext" to strictly prefer free
Specify the postprocessor/executable name
and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
to give the argument to the specified
- postprocessor/executable. Supported
- postprocessors are: SponSkrub,
- ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
- EmbedSubtitle, Metadata, Merger,
- FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
- SubtitlesConvertor, EmbedThumbnail and
- SplitChapters. The supported executables
- are: SponSkrub, FFmpeg, FFprobe, and
- AtomicParsley. You can also specify
- "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
- specified executable only when being used
- by the specified postprocessor.
- Additionally, for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o"
- can be appended to the prefix optionally
- followed by a number to pass the argument
- before the specified input/output file. Eg:
- --ppa "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can
- use this option multiple times to give
+ postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
+ Merger, ExtractAudio, SplitChapters,
+ Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
+ SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
+ VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor, SponSkrub,
+ FixupStretched, FixupM4a and FixupM3u8. The
+ supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
+ FFmpeg, FFprobe, and SponSkrub. You can
+ also specify "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the
+ arguments to the specified executable only
+ when being used by the specified
+ postprocessor. Additionally, for
+ ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be appended
+ to the prefix optionally followed by a
+ number to pass the argument before the
+ specified input/output file. Eg: --ppa
+ "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
+ this option multiple times to give
different arguments to different
postprocessors. (Alias: --ppa)
-k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
--no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
--add-metadata Write metadata to the video file
--no-add-metadata Do not write metadata (default)
- --parse-metadata FIELD:FORMAT Parse additional metadata like title/artist
- from other fields. Give field name to
- extract data from, and format of the field
- seperated by a ":". Either regular
- expression with named capture groups or a
- similar syntax to the output template can
- also be used. The parsed parameters replace
- any existing values and can be use in
- output template. This option can be used
- multiple times. Example: --parse-metadata
- "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s" matches a
- title like "Coldplay - Paradise". Example
- (regex): --parse-metadata
- "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+?)"
+ --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
+ from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
+ for details
--xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
(using dublin core and xdg standards)
--fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
path to the binary or its containing
directory
--exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
- downloading and post-processing, similar to
- find's -exec syntax. Example: --exec 'adb
- push {} /sdcard/Music/ && rm {}'
+ downloading and post-processing. Similar
+ syntax to the output template can be used
+ to pass any field as arguments to the
+ command. An additional field "filepath"
+ that contains the final path of the
+ downloaded file is also available. If no
+ fields are passed, "%(filepath)s" is
+ appended to the end of the command
--convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
(currently supported: srt|ass|vtt|lrc)
(Alias: --convert-subtitles)
+ --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
+ (currently supported: jpg)
--split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix
can be used with "--paths" and "--output"
**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
-The basic 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). However, it may contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according to [python string formatting operations](https://docs.python.org/2/library/stdtypes.html#string-formatting). For example, `%(NAME)s` or `%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations. Date/time fields can also be formatted according to [strftime formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes) by specifying it inside the parantheses seperated from the field name using a `>`. For example, `%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`.
+The basic 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). However, it may contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according to [python string formatting operations](https://docs.python.org/2/library/stdtypes.html#string-formatting). For example, `%(NAME)s` or `%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations. Date/time fields can also be formatted according to [strftime formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes) by specifying it inside the parantheses separated from the field name using a `>`. For example, `%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`.
-Additionally, you can set different output templates for the various metadata files seperately from the general output template by specifying the type of file followed by the template seperated by a colon ":". The different filetypes supported are `subtitle`, `thumbnail`, `description`, `annotation`, `infojson`, `pl_description`, `pl_infojson`, `chapter`. For example, `-o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' -o 'thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s'` will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video.
+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 filetypes supported are `subtitle`, `thumbnail`, `description`, `annotation`, `infojson`, `pl_description`, `pl_infojson`, `chapter`. For example, `-o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' -o 'thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s'` will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video.
The available fields are:
- `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
- `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
-Available when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
+Available for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
- `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
- `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
$ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
-# Download YouTube playlist videos in seperate directories according to their uploaded year
+# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
$ yt-dlp -o '%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
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`.
-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.
+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.
**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
- `all`: Select all formats
- - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio.
- - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio.
+ - `mergeall`: Select and merge all formats (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
+ - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio
+ - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio
- `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
- `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
- `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality video-only format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
- `ba*`, `bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `best*[acodec!=none]`
- `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
-For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use `-f worstvideo`. It is however recomended to never actually use `worst` and related options. When your format selector is `worst`, the format which is worst in all respects is selected. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use `-f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps` instead of `-f worst`. See [sorting formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.
+For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use `-f worstvideo`. It is however recomended not to use `worst` and related options. When your format selector is `worst`, the format which is worst in all respects is selected. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use `-f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps` instead of `-f worst`. See [sorting formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.
+
+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.
If you want to download multiple videos and they don't have the same formats available, you can specify the order of preference using slashes. Note that formats on the left hand side are preferred, for example `-f 22/17/18` will download format 22 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 17 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 18 if it's available, otherwise it will complain that no suitable formats are available for download.
- `br`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr`
- `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
-Note that any other **numerical** field made available by the extractor can also be used. All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in decending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+`. Eg: `+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a prefered value for the fields, seperated by a `:`. Eg: `res:720` prefers larger videos, but no larger than 720p and the smallest video if there are no videos less than 720p. For `codec` and `ext`, you can provide two prefered values, the first for video and the second for audio. Eg: `+codec:avc:m4a` (equivalent to `+vcodec:avc,+acodec:m4a`) sets the video codec preference to `h264` > `h265` > `vp9` > `vp9.2` > `av01` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` and audio codec preference to `mp4a` > `aac` > `vorbis` > `opus` > `mp3` > `ac3` > `dts`. You can also make the sorting prefer the nearest values to the provided by using `~` as the delimiter. Eg: `filesize~1G` prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.
+Note that any other **numerical** field made available by the extractor can also be used. All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in decending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+`. Eg: `+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a prefered value for the fields, separated by a `:`. Eg: `res:720` prefers larger videos, but no larger than 720p and the smallest video if there are no videos less than 720p. For `codec` and `ext`, you can provide two prefered values, the first for video and the second for audio. Eg: `+codec:avc:m4a` (equivalent to `+vcodec:avc,+acodec:m4a`) sets the video codec preference to `h264` > `h265` > `vp9` > `vp9.2` > `av01` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` and audio codec preference to `mp4a` > `aac` > `vorbis` > `opus` > `mp3` > `ac3` > `dts`. You can also make the sorting prefer the nearest values to the provided by using `~` as the delimiter. Eg: `filesize~1G` prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.
The fields `hasvid`, `ie_pref`, `lang` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using `--force-format-sort`. Apart from these, the default order used is: `quality,res,fps,codec:vp9.2,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. Note that the extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
# by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
$ yt-dlp -f 'bv,ba' -o '%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s'
+# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
+# and all audio-only formats into one file
+$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]' --audio-multistreams
+
+# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
+# and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
+$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+ba+ba.2' --audio-multistreams
# The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
-# and how to use -S to achieve a similar but better result
+# and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
# Download the worst video available (old method)
$ yt-dlp -f 'wv*+wa/w'
$ yt-dlp -f '((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)'
# Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
-# or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
+# or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
# prefering larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
$ yt-dlp -S 'res:720,fps'
$ yt-dlp -S '+res:480,codec,br'
```
+# MODIFYING METADATA
+
+The metadata obtained the the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata FROM:TO`. The general syntax is to give the name of a field or a template (with similar syntax to [output template](#output-template)) to extract data from, and the format to interpret it as, separated by a colon ":". Either a [python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax) with named capture groups or a similar syntax to the [output template](#output-template) (only `%(field)s` formatting is supported) can be used for `TO`. The option can be used multiple times to parse and modify various fields.
+
+Note that any field created by this can be used in the [output template](#output-template) and will also affect the media file's metadata added when using `--add-metadata`.
+
+You can also use this to change only 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", for example.
+
+## Modifying metadata examples
+
+Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
+
+```bash
+# Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
+$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'title:%(artist)s - %(title)s'
+
+# Regex example
+$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)'
+
+# Set title as "Series name S01E05"
+$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata '%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s'
+
+# Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url
+$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)' --add-metadata
+
+```
+
# PLUGINS
Plugins are loaded from `<root-dir>/ytdlp_plugins/<type>/__init__.py`. Currently only `extractor` plugins are supported. Support for `downloader` and `postprocessor` plugins may be added in the future. See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example.
-A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
-t, --title -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
-l, --literal -o accepts literal names
+ --all-formats -f all
--autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting. Eg: %(autonumber)03d
- --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "title:FORMAT"
+ --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
--prefer-avconv avconv is no longer officially supported (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
--prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
+ --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
+ --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
--avconv-location avconv is no longer officially supported
-C, --call-home Not implemented
--no-call-home Default
+ --include-ads Not implemented
+ --no-include-ads Default
--write-srt --write-subs
--no-write-srt --no-write-subs
--srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
projects / yt-dlp.git / blobdiff