* [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
* [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
* [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
-* [MORE](#more)
+* [WIKI](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki)
<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
# NEW FEATURES
-* Merged with **youtube-dl v2021.12.17+ [commit/a03b977](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/a03b9775d544b06a5b4f2aa630214c7c22fc2229)**<!--([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)
+* Merged with **youtube-dl v2021.12.17+ [commit/ed5c44e](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/ed5c44e7b74ac77f87ca5ed6cb5e964a0c6a0678)**<!--([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)
* **[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in youtube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
* **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`)
-* **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [configuration](#configuration) for details
+* **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for details
* **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`
* The options `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
* `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
-* yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [configuration](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
+* yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
* 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`
* 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
* 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
* 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
* `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
* The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
-* All *experiences* of a funimation episode are considered as a single video. This behavior breaks existing archives. Use `--compat-options seperate-video-versions` to extract information from only the default player
* 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
* Youtube channel URLs are automatically redirected to `/video`. Append a `/featured` to the URL to download only the videos in the home page. If the channel does not have a videos tab, we try to download the equivalent `UU` playlist instead. For all other tabs, 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
* Unavailable videos are also listed for youtube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
+* 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.
* 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
* Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
* 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
* 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
* `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`
-* youtube-dl tries to remove some superfluous punctuations from filenames. While this can sometimes be helpful, it is often undesirable. So yt-dlp tries to keep the fields in the filenames as close to their original values as possible. You can use `--compat-options filename-sanitization` to revert to youtube-dl's behavior
+* 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
For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
# INSTALLATION
-You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
-
-### Using the release binary
-
-You can simply download the [correct binary file](#release-files) for your OS
-
<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
[![Windows](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Windows_x64-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=windows)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)
-[![Linux](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Linux/BSD-red.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=linux)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
+[![Unix](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Linux/BSD-red.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=linux)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
[![MacOS](https://img.shields.io/badge/-MacOS-lightblue.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=apple)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)
+[![PyPi](https://img.shields.io/badge/-PyPi-blue.svg?logo=pypi&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
[![Source Tarball](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Source_tar-green.svg?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
[![Other variants](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Other-grey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](#release-files)
[![All versions](https://img.shields.io/badge/-All_Versions-lightgrey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
-Note: The manpages, shell completion files etc. are available in the [source tarball](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
-
-<!-- TODO: Move to Wiki -->
-In UNIX-like OSes (MacOS, Linux, BSD), you can also install the same in one of the following ways:
-
-```
-sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
-sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
-```
-
-```
-sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
-sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
-```
+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
-```
-sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp --dir /usr/local/bin -o yt-dlp
-sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
-```
-
-
-### With [PIP](https://pypi.org/project/pip)
-
-You can install the [PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) with:
-```
-python3 -m pip install -U yt-dlp
-```
-
-You can install without any of the optional dependencies using:
-```
-python3 -m pip install --no-deps -U yt-dlp
-```
-
-If you want to be on the cutting edge, you can also install the master branch with:
-```
-python3 -m pip install --force-reinstall https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/archive/master.tar.gz
-```
-
-On some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`
-
-<!-- TODO: Add to Wiki, Remove Taps -->
-### With [Homebrew](https://brew.sh)
-
-macOS or Linux users that are using Homebrew can also install it by:
-
-```
-brew install yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp
-```
## UPDATE
-You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are [using the provided release](#using-the-release-binary)
+You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are [using the release binaries](#release-files)
+
+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
-If you [installed with pip](#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
+For other third-party package managers, see [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation) or refer their documentation
-If you [installed using Homebrew](#with-homebrew), run `brew upgrade yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp`
<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
## RELEASE FILES
File|Description
:---|:---
-[yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball. Also contains manpages, completions, etc
+[yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball
[SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
[SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
+
+Note: The manpages, shell completion files etc. are available in the [source tarball](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
+
## DEPENDENCIES
Python versions 3.7+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
## COMPILE
### Standalone PyInstaller Builds
-To build the Windows/MacOS 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 (32/64 bit) as the Python used.
+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.
python3 -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
python3 devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
On some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`.
-Note that pyinstaller [does not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment.
+Note that pyinstaller with 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.
**Important**: Running `pyinstaller` directly **without** using `pyinst.py` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
After installing these, simply run `make`.
-You can also run `make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files. (The dependencies marked with **\*** are not needed for this)
+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)
### Standalone Py2Exe Builds (Windows)
### Related scripts
-* **`devscripts/update-version.py`** - Update the version number based on current timestamp
+* **`devscripts/update-version.py [revision]`** - Update the version number based on current date
+* **`devscripts/set-variant.py variant [-M update_message]`** - Set the build variant of the executable
* **`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.
You can also fork the project on github and run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build a full release
## General Options:
-h, --help Print this help text and exit
--version Print program version and exit
- -U, --update Update this program to latest version
- --no-update Do not update (default)
+ -U, --update Update this program to the latest version
+ --no-update Do not check for updates (default)
-i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
The download will be considered successful
even if the postprocessing fails
--list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
--extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
extractors and exit
- --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic extractor
- --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. Eg:
+ --use-extractors NAMES Extractor names to use separated by commas.
+ You can also use regexes, "all", "default"
+ and "end" (end URL matching); e.g. --ies
+ "holodex.*,end,youtube". Prefix the name
+ with a "-" to exclude it, e.g. --ies
+ default,-generic. Use --list-extractors for
+ a list of extractor names. (Alias: --ies)
+ --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. E.g.
"gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
google videos for the search term "python".
Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
according to the Python string formatting
- mini-language. Eg: --alias get-audio,-X
+ mini-language. E.g. --alias get-audio,-X
"-S=aext:{0},abr -x --audio-format {0}"
creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
## Network Options:
--proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
- enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme.
- Eg: socks5://user:pass@127.0.0.1:1080/. Pass
- in an empty string (--proxy "") for direct
- connection
+ enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme,
+ e.g. socks5://user:pass@127.0.0.1:1080/.
+ Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for
+ direct connection
--socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
--source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
-4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
Use negative indices to count from the right
and negative STEP to download in reverse
- order. Eg: "-I 1:3,7,-5::2" used on a
+ order. E.g. "-I 1:3,7,-5::2" used on a
playlist of size 15 will download the videos
at index 1,2,3,7,11,13,15
- --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE
- (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
- --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
- (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
+ --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
+ SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
+ --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE,
+ e.g. 50k or 44.6M
--date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
[now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
- Eg: --date today-2weeks
+ E.g. --date today-2weeks
--datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
this date. The date formats accepted is the
same as --date
--match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
field can be compared with a number or a
string using the operators defined in
- "Filtering formats". You can also simply
+ "Filtering Formats". You can also simply
specify a field to match if the field is
present, use "!field" to check if the field
is not present, and "&" to check multiple
conditions. Use a "\" to escape "&" or
quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
the filter matches if atleast one of the
- conditions are met. Eg: --match-filter
+ conditions are met. E.g. --match-filter
!is_live --match-filter "like_count>?100 &
description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'" matches
only videos that are not live OR those that
a file that is in the archive
--break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
a file that has been filtered out
- --break-per-input Make --break-on-existing, --break-on-reject
- and --max-downloads act only on the current
+ --break-per-input --break-on-existing, --break-on-reject,
+ --max-downloads, and autonumber resets per
input URL
--no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
terminates the entire download queue
-N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
video that should be downloaded concurrently
(default is 1)
- -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
- (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
+ -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second,
+ e.g. 50K or 4.2M
--throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
below which throttling is assumed and the
- video data is re-extracted (e.g. 100K)
+ video data is re-extracted, e.g. 100K
-R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
"infinite"
--file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
error (default is 3), or "infinite"
--fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
- --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR An expression for the time to sleep between
- retries in seconds (optionally) prefixed by
- the type of retry (file_access, fragment,
- http (default)) to apply the sleep to. EXPR
- can be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=1]]
- or exp=START[:END[:BASE=2]]. This option can
- be used multiple times to set the sleep for
- the different retry types. Eg: --retry-sleep
+ --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR Time to sleep between retries in seconds
+ (optionally) prefixed by the type of retry
+ (http (default), fragment, file_access,
+ extractor) to apply the sleep to. EXPR can
+ be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=1]] or
+ exp=START[:END[:BASE=2]]. This option can be
+ used multiple times to set the sleep for the
+ different retry types, e.g. --retry-sleep
linear=1::2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=1:20
--skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
downloading is finished
--no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
downloading is finished (default)
- --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
+ --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer, e.g. 1024 or 16K
(default is 1024)
--resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
from an initial value of --buffer-size
(default)
--no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
--http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
- downloading (e.g. 10485760 or 10M) (default
+ downloading, e.g. 10485760 or 10M (default
is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
(experimental)
the given regular expression. Time ranges
prefixed by a "*" can also be used in place
of chapters to download the specified range.
- Eg: --download-sections "*10:15-15:00"
- --download-sections "intro". Needs ffmpeg.
- This option can be used multiple times to
- download multiple sections
+ Needs ffmpeg. This option can be used
+ multiple times to download multiple
+ sections, e.g. --download-sections
+ "*10:15-15:00" --download-sections "intro"
--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
aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
wget. You can use this option multiple times
to set different downloaders for different
- protocols. For example, --downloader aria2c
+ protocols. E.g. --downloader aria2c
--downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
and dump cookie jar in
--no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
(default)
- --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE]
- The name of the browser and (optionally) the
- name/path of the profile to load cookies
- from, separated by a ":". Currently
- supported browsers are: brave, chrome,
- chromium, edge, firefox, opera, safari,
- vivaldi. By default, the most recently
- accessed profile is used. The keyring used
- for decrypting Chromium cookies on Linux can
- be (optionally) specified after the browser
- name separated by a "+". Currently supported
- keyrings are: basictext, gnomekeyring, kwallet
+ --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]
+ The name of the browser to load cookies
+ from. Currently supported browsers are:
+ brave, chrome, chromium, edge, firefox,
+ opera, safari, vivaldi. Optionally, the
+ KEYRING used for decrypting Chromium cookies
+ on Linux, the name/path of the PROFILE to
+ load cookies from, and the CONTAINER name
+ (if Firefox) ("none" for no container) can
+ be given with their respective seperators.
+ By default, all containers of the most
+ recently accessed profile are used.
+ Currently supported keyrings are: basictext,
+ gnomekeyring, kwallet
--no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
- --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
- can store some downloaded information (such
- as client ids and signatures) permanently.
- By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/yt-dlp or
+ --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where yt-dlp can
+ store some downloaded information (such as
+ client ids and signatures) permanently. By
+ default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/yt-dlp or
~/.cache/yt-dlp
--no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
--rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
"postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
The video's fields are accessible under the
"info" key and the progress attributes are
- accessible under "progress" key. E.g.:
+ accessible under "progress" key. E.g.
--console-title --progress-template
"download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
-v, --verbose Print various debugging information
downloadable
-F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
- --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
- bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
- container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
- webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
+ --merge-output-format FORMAT Containers that may be used when merging
+ formats, separated by "/", e.g. "mp4/mkv".
+ Ignored if no merge is required. (currently
+ supported: avi, flv, mkv, mov, mp4, webm)
## Subtitle Options:
--write-subs Write subtitle file
--list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
--sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
- Eg: "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
+ e.g. "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
--sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
- be regex) or "all" separated by commas. (Eg:
- --sub-langs "en.*,ja") You can prefix the
+ be regex) or "all" separated by commas, e.g.
+ --sub-langs "en.*,ja". You can prefix the
language code with a "-" to exclude it from
- the requested languages. (Eg: --sub-langs
- all,-live_chat) Use --list-subs for a list
+ the requested languages, e.g. --sub-langs
+ all,-live_chat. Use --list-subs for a list
of available language tags
## Authentication Options:
(requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
--audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
used. (currently supported: best (default),
- mp3, aac, m4a, opus, vorbis, flac, alac,
+ aac, alac, flac, m4a, mp3, opus, vorbis,
wav). You can specify multiple rules using
similar syntax as --remux-video
--audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
between 0 (best) and 10 (worst) for VBR or a
specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
--remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
- necessary (currently supported: mp4, mkv,
- flv, webm, mov, avi, mka, ogg, mp3, aac,
- m4a, opus, vorbis, flac, alac, wav). If
+ necessary (currently supported: avi, flv,
+ mkv, mov, mp4, webm, aac, aiff, alac, flac,
+ m4a, mka, mp3, ogg, opus, vorbis, wav). If
target container does not support the
video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
- can specify multiple rules; Eg.
+ can specify multiple rules; e.g.
"aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
--recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
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
+ specified input/output file, e.g. --ppa
"Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
this option multiple times to give different
arguments to different postprocessors.
be used multiple times
--no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
--convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
- (currently supported: srt, vtt, ass, lrc)
+ (currently supported: ass, lrc, srt, vtt)
(Alias: --convert-subtitles)
--convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
(currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
music_offtopic, poi_highlight, all and
default (=all). You can prefix the category
with a "-" to exclude it. See [1] for
- description of the categories. Eg:
+ description of the categories. E.g.
--sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
[1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
--sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1. **System Configuration**: `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
-For example, 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:
+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:
```
# Lines starting with # are comments
```
machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
```
-For example:
+E.g.
```
machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
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).
-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). For example, `%(NAME)s` or `%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations.
+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.
The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
-1. **Object traversal**: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a `.` (dot) separator. You can also do python slicing using `:`. Eg: `%(tags.0)s`, `%(subtitles.en.-1.ext)s`, `%(id.3:7:-1)s`, `%(formats.:.format_id)s`. `%()s` refers to the entire infodict. Note that all the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use `-j` to see such fields
+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
-1. **Addition**: Addition and subtraction of numeric fields can be done using `+` and `-` respectively. Eg: `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
+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`
-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 `>`. Eg: `%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`, `%(upload_date>%Y-%m-%d)s`, `%(epoch-3600>%H-%M-%S)s`
+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`
-1. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a `,`. Eg: `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
+1. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a `,`. E.g. `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
1. **Replacement**: A replacement value can specified using a `&` separator. 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.
-1. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a `|` separator. This overrides `--output-na-template`. Eg: `%(uploader|Unknown)s`
+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`
-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), `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 (Eg: 10M) (flag `#` to use 1024 as factor), and `S` = **S**anitize as filename (flag `#` for restricted)
+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), `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)
-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. Eg: `%(title)+.100U` is NFKC
+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
To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
```
%(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
```
-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`. 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. If any of the templates is empty, that type of file will not be written. Eg: `--write-thumbnail -o "thumbnail:"` will write thumbnails only for playlists and not for 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 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.
The available fields are:
- `id` (string): Video identifier
- `title` (string): Video title
- `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
- - `url` (string): Video URL
- `ext` (string): Video filename extension
- `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
- `description` (string): The description of the video
- `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
- `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)
- `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
- - `live_status` (string): One of "is_live", "was_live", "is_upcoming", "not_live"
+ - `live_status` (string): One of "not_live", "is_live", "is_upcoming", "was_live", "post_live" (was live, but VOD is not yet processed)
- `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
- `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
- `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
- `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
- `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
- `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
- - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
- - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by `--format`
- - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
- - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
- - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
- - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
- - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
- - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
- - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
- - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
- - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
- - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
- - `dynamic_range` (string): The dynamic range of the video
- - `stretched_ratio` (float): `width:height` of the video's pixels, if not square
- - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
- - `container` (string): Name of the container format
- - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
- - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
- - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
- `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
- `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
- `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
- `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
- `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
- `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
+
+All the fields in [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats) can also be used
Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
- `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
- `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
-Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. For example 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.
+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.
Note that some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with placeholder value provided with `--output-na-placeholder` (`NA` by default).
**Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
-For numeric sequences you can use [numeric related formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting), for example, `%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to 5 characters, like in `00042`.
+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`.
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.
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.
-<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
-#### Output template and Windows batch files
-
-If you are using an output template inside a Windows batch file then you must escape plain percent characters (`%`) by doubling, so that `-o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"` should become `-o "%%(title)s-%%(id)s.%%(ext)s"`. However you should not touch `%`'s that are not plain characters, e.g. environment variables for expansion should stay intact: `-o "C:\%HOMEPATH%\Desktop\%%(title)s.%%(ext)s"`.
-<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
-
#### Output template examples
```bash
-$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
+$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
-$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
+$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
-$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
+$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
-The simplest case is requesting a specific format, for example with `-f 22` you can download the format with format code equal to 22. You can get the list of available format codes for particular video using `--list-formats` or `-F`. Note that these format codes are extractor specific.
+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.
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.
- `all`: Select **all formats** separately
- `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
- - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio
+ - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio or both (ie; `vcodec!=none or acodec!=none`)
- `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
- `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
- `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
- `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=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 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.
+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.
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.
+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.
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`.
-You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using `-f <format1>+<format2>+...` (requires ffmpeg installed), for example `-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg.
+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.
**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
-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. For example, `-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 and merge both formats while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams` will ignore `best` and download only `bestaudio`.
+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 and merge both formats while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams` will ignore `best` and download only `bestaudio`.
## Filtering Formats
The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
- `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
+ - `filesize_approx`: An estimate for the number of bytes
- `width`: Width of the video, if known
- `height`: Height of the video, if known
- `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
- `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
- `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
- `fps`: Frame rate
+ - `audio_channels`: The number of audio channels
+ - `stretched_ratio`: `width:height` of the video's pixels, if not square
Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains), `~=` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
+ - `url`: Video URL
- `ext`: File extension
- `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
- `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
- `container`: Name of the container format
- `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`)
- - `format_id`: A short description of the format
- `language`: Language code
+ - `dynamic_range`: The dynamic range of the video
+ - `format_id`: A short description of the format
+ - `format`: A human-readable description of the format
+ - `format_note`: Additional info about the format
+ - `resolution`: Textual description of width and height
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 `._-`.
Note that none of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by the website. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.
-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. For example, `-f "all[vcodec=none]"` selects all audio-only formats.
+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.
-Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses, for example if you want to download the best pre-merged mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480 you can use `-f "(mp4,webm)[height<480]"`.
+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.
## Sorting Formats
- `acodec`: Audio Codec (`flac`/`alac` > `wav`/`aiff` > `opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other)
- `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
- `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `webm` > `flv` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is preferred.
- - `aext`: Audio Extension (`m4a` > `aac` > `mp3` > `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to `opus` > `ogg` > `webm` > `m4a` > `mp3` > `aac`.
+ - `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`
- `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
- `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
- `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
- `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
- `fps`: Framerate of video
- `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
+ - `channels`: The number of audio channels
- `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
- `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
- `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
**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.
-All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in descending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+`. Eg: `+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a preferred 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 preferred 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.
+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.
-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,codec:vp9.2,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. The extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
+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.
-Note that the default has `codec: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.
+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.
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`.
This option also has a few special uses:
-* 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. Eg: `--parse-metadata "description:(?P<additional_urls>https?://www\.vimeo\.com/\d+)` will download the first vimeo video found in the description
+* 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
-* 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. For example, you can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis". To modify the metadata of individual streams, use the `meta<n>_` prefix (Eg: `meta1_language`). Any value set to the `meta_` field will overwrite all default values.
+* 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.
**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.
# EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
-Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS`. `ARGS` is a `;` (semicolon) separated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2`. Eg: `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_embedded,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
+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"`
The following extractors use this feature:
#### youtube
* `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
-* `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web`, `android` and `ios` with variants `_music`, `_embedded`, `_embedscreen`, `_creator` (Eg: `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.
+* `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.
* `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
* `include_live_dash`: Include live dash formats even without `--live-from-start` (These formats don't download properly)
* `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
* `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`
* 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
-* `innertube_host`: Innertube API host to use for all API requests
- * e.g. `studio.youtube.com`, `youtubei.googleapis.com`
- * Note: Cookies exported from `www.youtube.com` will not work with hosts other than `*.youtube.com`
+* `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
* `innertube_key`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
+* `lang`: Supported content language code to prefer translated metadata of this language (case-sensitive). By default, video primary language metadata is preferred, with a fallback to `en` translated.
+ * See youtube.py for list of supported content language codes.
#### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
* `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)
* `approximate_date`: Extract approximate `upload_date` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
#### funimation
-* `language`: Languages to extract. Eg: `funimation:language=english,japanese`
+* `language`: Languages to extract, e.g. `funimation:language=english,japanese`
* `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
#### crunchyroll
-* `language`: Languages to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:language=jaJp`
-* `hardsub`: Which hard-sub versions to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:hardsub=None,enUS`
+* `language`: Languages to extract, e.g. `crunchyroll:language=jaJp`
+* `hardsub`: Which hard-sub versions to extract, e.g. `crunchyroll:hardsub=None,enUS`
#### crunchyrollbeta
-* `format`: Which stream type(s) to extract. Default is `adaptive_hls` Eg: `crunchyrollbeta:format=vo_adaptive_hls`
- * Potentially useful values include `adaptive_hls`, `adaptive_dash`, `vo_adaptive_hls`, `vo_adaptive_dash`, `download_hls`, `trailer_hls`, `trailer_dash`
-* `hardsub`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract. Default is `None` (no hardsubs). Eg: `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None`
+* `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`
+* `hardsub`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract (default: `None` = no hardsubs), e.g. `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None`
#### vikichannel
* `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
* `dr`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr`, `hdr10`, `dv`
#### tiktok
-* `app_version`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version`. (e.g. `20.2.1`)
-* `manifest_app_version`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with. (e.g. `221`)
+* `app_version`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version`, e.g. `20.2.1`
+* `manifest_app_version`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with, e.g. `221`
#### rokfinchannel
-* `tab`: Which tab to download. One of `new`, `top`, `videos`, `podcasts`, `streams`, `stacks`. (E.g. `rokfinchannel:tab=streams`)
+* `tab`: Which tab to download - one of `new`, `top`, `videos`, `podcasts`, `streams`, `stacks`
NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
#### Not recommended
While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
+ --force-generic-extractor --ies generic,default
--exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
--no-exec-before-download --no-exec
--all-formats -f all
--all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
--print-json -j --no-simulate
- --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting. Eg: %(autonumber)03d
+ --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting, e.g. %(autonumber)03d
--autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
--id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
--metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
--no-include-ads Default
--write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
--no-write-annotations Default
+ --compat-options seperate-video-versions No longer needed
#### Removed
These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
# CONTRIBUTING
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)
-# MORE
-For FAQ see the [youtube-dl README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)
+# WIKI
+See the [Wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki) for more information