--no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
specified sort order, see "Sorting Formats"
for more details (default)
+ --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged into a single file (default)
+ --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each output file
+ --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged into a single file (default)
+ --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each output file
--all-formats Download all available video formats
--prefer-free-formats Prefer free video formats unless a specific
one is requested
## Adobe Pass Options:
--ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
- provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso
- for a list of available MSOs
+ provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
+ a list of available MSOs
--ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
--ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
If this option is left out, youtube-dlc
You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
- - `best`: Select the best quality format represented by a single file with video and audio.
- - `worst`: Select the worst quality format represented by a single file with video and audio.
- - `bestvideo`: Select the best quality video-only format (e.g. DASH video). May not be available.
- - `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. May not be available.
- - `bestaudio`: Select the best quality audio only-format. May not be available.
- - `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio only-format. May not be available.
+ - `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]`
+ - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
+
+ - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
+ - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
+
+ - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
+ - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=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. See [sorting formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.
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 <format-1>+<format-2>` (requires ffmpeg or avconv installed), for example `-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg/avconv.
-
+You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using `-f <format1>+<format2>+...` (requires ffmpeg or avconv installed), for example `-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg/avconv. If `--no-video-multistreams` is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, if `--no-audio-multistreams` is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. For example, `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio` will download and merge all 3 given formats. The resulting file will have 2 video streams and 2 audio streams. But `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --no-video-multistreams` will download and merge only `bestvideo` and `bestaudio`. `best` is ignored since another format containing a video stream (`bestvideo`) has already been selected. The order of the formats is therefore important. `-f best+bestaudio --no-audio-multistreams` will download and merge both formats while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams` will ignore `best` and download only `bestaudio`.
## Filtering Formats
All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in decending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+`. Eg: `+res` prefers the smallest resolution format. 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` > `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 `has_video`, `has_audio`, `extractor_preference`, `language_preference`, `quality` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using `--force-format-sort`. Apart from these, the default order used by youtube-dlc is: `tbr,filesize,vbr,height,width,protocol,vext,abr,aext,fps,filesize_approx,source_preference,format_id`. Note that the extractors may override this default order (currently no extractor does this), but not the user-provided order.
+The fields `has_video`, `extractor_preference`, `language_preference`, `quality` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using `--force-format-sort`. Apart from these, the default order used by youtube-dlc is: `tbr,filesize,vbr,height,width,protocol,vext,abr,aext,fps,filesize_approx,source_preference,format_id`. Note that the extractors may override this default order (currently no extractor does this), but not the user-provided order.
If your format selector is `worst`, the last item is selected after sorting. This means it will select the format that is worst in all repects. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use `-f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps`.
Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
```bash
+# Download and merge the best best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
+# or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
+$ youtube-dlc
+
+# Same as above
+$ youtube-dlc -f 'bestvideo+bestaudio/best'
+
+# Download best format that contains video,
+# and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
+$ youtube-dlc -f 'bestvideo*+bestaudio/best' --no-audio-multistreams
+
+
+
# Download the worst video available
$ youtube-dlc -f 'worstvideo+worstaudio/worst'
$ youtube-dlc -S '+size,+bitrate'
+
# Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
$ youtube-dlc -f 'bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/best[ext=mp4]/bestvideo+bestaudio / best'
$ youtube-dlc -S 'ext'
+
# Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
# or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
$ youtube-dlc -f 'bestvideo[height<=480]+bestaudio/best[height<=480] / worstvideo+bestaudio/worst'
$ youtube-dlc -S 'res:480'
+
# Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
# or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
$ youtube-dlc -f 'best[filesize<50M] / worst'
$ youtube-dlc -f 'best' -S 'filesize~50M'
+
# Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
# or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
$ youtube-dlc -f '(bestvideo+bestaudio/best)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / bestvideo+bestaudio/best'
$ youtube-dlc -S 'protocol'
+
# Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
# For this case, an output template should be used since
# by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
$ youtube-dlc -f 'bestvideo,bestaudio' -o '%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s'
+
# Download the best video with h264 codec, or the best video if there is no such video
$ youtube-dlc -f '(bestvideo+bestaudio/best)[vcodec^=avc1] / bestvideo+bestaudio/best'
$ youtube-dlc -S 'res:720,fps'
+
# Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
# or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
# prefering better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
projects / yt-dlp.git / blobdiff