[![YT-DLP](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master/.github/banner.svg)](#readme)
-[![Release version](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?color=blue&label=&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest)
-[![CI Status](https://img.shields.io/github/workflow/status/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/Core%20Tests/master?label=&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions)
-[![License: Unlicense](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Unlicense-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge)](LICENSE)
-[![Donate](https://img.shields.io/badge/_-Donate-red.svg?logo=githubsponsors&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](Collaborators.md#collaborators)
-[![Supported Sites](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Supported_Sites-brightgreen.svg?style=for-the-badge)](supportedsites.md)
-[![Discord](https://img.shields.io/discord/807245652072857610?color=blue&label=&logo=discord&style=for-the-badge)](https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r)
-[![Doc Status](https://readthedocs.org/projects/yt-dlp/badge/?version=latest&style=for-the-badge)](https://yt-dlp.readthedocs.io)
-[![Commits](https://img.shields.io/github/commit-activity/m/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?label=commits&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits)
-[![Last Commit](https://img.shields.io/github/last-commit/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master?label=&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits)
-[![Downloads](https://img.shields.io/github/downloads/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/total?style=for-the-badge&color=blue)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest)
-[![PyPi Downloads](https://img.shields.io/pypi/dm/yt-dlp?label=PyPi&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
+[![Release version](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?color=brightgreen&label=Download&style=for-the-badge)](#release-files "Release")
+[![PyPi](https://img.shields.io/badge/-PyPi-blue.svg?logo=pypi&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp "PyPi")
+[![Donate](https://img.shields.io/badge/_-Donate-red.svg?logo=githubsponsors&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](Collaborators.md#collaborators "Donate")
+[![Matrix](https://img.shields.io/matrix/yt-dlp:matrix.org?color=brightgreen&labelColor=555555&label=&logo=element&style=for-the-badge)](https://matrix.to/#/#yt-dlp:matrix.org "Matrix")
+[![Discord](https://img.shields.io/discord/807245652072857610?color=blue&labelColor=555555&label=&logo=discord&style=for-the-badge)](https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r "Discord")
+[![Supported Sites](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Supported_Sites-brightgreen.svg?style=for-the-badge)](supportedsites.md "Supported Sites")
+[![License: Unlicense](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Unlicense-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge)](LICENSE "License")
+[![CI Status](https://img.shields.io/github/workflow/status/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/Core%20Tests/master?label=Tests&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions "CI Status")
+[![Commits](https://img.shields.io/github/commit-activity/m/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?label=commits&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
+[![Last Commit](https://img.shields.io/github/last-commit/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master?label=&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
</div>
<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
* [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
* [PLUGINS](#plugins)
* [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
+ * [Embedding examples](#embedding-examples)
* [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
* [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
* [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
# NEW FEATURES
-* Based on **youtube-dl 2021.06.06 [commit/379f52a](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/379f52a4954013767219d25099cce9e0f9401961)** and **youtube-dlc 2020.11.11-3 [commit/98e248f](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/98e248faa49e69d795abc60f7cdefcf91e2612aa)**: 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)
+* Based on **youtube-dl 2021.12.17 [commit/6508688](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/6508688e88c83bb811653083db9351702cd39a6a)** ([exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21)) and **youtube-dlc 2020.11.11-3 [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
* **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using `-S`. This allows for much easier format selection than what is possible by simply using `--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
-* **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from [animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including `--write-comments`, `BiliBiliSearch`, `BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that the NicoNico improvements are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
+* **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from [animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including `--write-comments`, `BiliBiliSearch`, `BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that the NicoNico livestreams are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
* **Youtube improvements**:
- * All Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`) and private playlists supports downloading multiple pages of content
+ * All Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`, `:ytnotif`) and private playlists supports downloading multiple pages of content
* Search (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`), search URLs and in-channel search works
* Mixes supports downloading multiple pages of content
* Some (but not all) age-gated content can be downloaded without cookies
* Redirect channel's home URL automatically to `/video` to preserve the old behaviour
* `255kbps` audio is extracted (if available) from youtube music when premium cookies are given
* Youtube music Albums, channels etc can be downloaded ([except self-uploaded music](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/723))
+ * Download livestreams from the start using `--live-from-start` (experimental)
+ * Support for downloading stories (`ytstories:<channel UCID>`)
-* **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[:PROFILE]`
+* **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE]`
* **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
* **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
-* **New and fixed extractors**: Many new extractors have been added and a lot of exisiting ones have been fixed. See the [changelog](Changelog.md) or the [list of supported sites](supportedsites.md)
+* **New and fixed extractors**: Many new extractors have been added and a lot of existing ones have been fixed. See the [changelog](Changelog.md) or the [list of supported sites](supportedsites.md)
* **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN
* **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`
-* **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as `--print`, `--wait-for-video`, `--sleep-requests`, `--convert-thumbnails`, `--write-link`, `--force-download-archive`, `--force-overwrites`, `--break-on-reject` etc
+* **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as `--concat-playlist`, `--print`, `--wait-for-video`, `--sleep-requests`, `--convert-thumbnails`, `--write-link`, `--force-download-archive`, `--force-overwrites`, `--break-on-reject` etc
-* **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in `--match-filter`, multiple `--postprocessor-args` and `--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection), merge multi-video/audio etc
+* **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in `--format`/`--match-filter`, multiple `--postprocessor-args` and `--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection), merge multi-video/audio, multiple `--config-locations`, `--exec` at different stages, etc
* **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
* The options `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
-* `avconv` is not supported as as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
+* `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
* 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 prefered. Use `-f bv+ba/b` or `--compat-options format-spec` to revert this
+* 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
* Unlike youtube-dlc, yt-dlp does not allow merging multiple audio/video streams into one file by default (since this conflicts with the use of `-f bv*+ba`). If needed, this feature must be enabled using `--audio-multistreams` and `--video-multistreams`. You can also use `--compat-options multistreams` to enable both
-* `--ignore-errors` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
+* `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
* When writing metadata files such as thumbnails, description or infojson, the same information (if available) is also written for playlists. Use `--no-write-playlist-metafiles` or `--compat-options no-playlist-metafiles` to not write these files
* `--add-metadata` attaches the `infojson` to `mkv` files in addition to writing the metadata when used with `--write-info-json`. Use `--no-embed-info-json` or `--compat-options no-attach-info-json` to revert this
-* 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`](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp#modifying-metadata) to modify this to your liking or use `--compat-options embed-metadata` 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
* Youtube live chat (if available) is considered as a subtitle. Use `--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use `--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent live chat 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. 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
+* 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
* 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 seperate 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
+* 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 helpfull, 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
For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
+
* `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options
* `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams`
* `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
### Using the release binary
-You can simply download the [correct binary file](#release-files) for your OS: **[[Windows](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)] [[UNIX-like](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)]**
+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)
+[![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)
+[![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 aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
+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
```
-PS: The manpages, shell completion files etc. are available in [yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
### With [PIP](https://pypi.org/project/pip)
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.zip
+python3 -m pip install --force-reinstall https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/archive/master.tar.gz
```
Note that 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:
File|Description
:---|:---
-[yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independant binary. Needs Python (recommended for **UNIX-like systems**)
+[yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independant binary. Needs Python (recommended for **Linux/BSD**)
[yt-dlp.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary (recommended for **Windows**)
+[yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|MacOS (10.15+) standalone executable (recommended for **MacOS**)
#### Alternatives
File|Description
:---|:---
-[yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|MacOS (10.15+) standalone executable
[yt-dlp_x86.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_x86.exe)|Windows (Vista SP2+) standalone x86 (32-bit) binary
-[yt-dlp_min.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_min.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary built with `py2exe`.<br/> Does not contain `pycryptodomex`, needs VC++14
+[yt-dlp_min.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_min.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary built with `py2exe`.<br/> Does not contain `pycryptodomex`/`certifi`, needs VC++14
[yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
[yt-dlp_macos.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos.zip)|Unpackaged MacOS (10.15+) executable (no auto-update)
On windows, [Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86)](https://download.microsoft.com/download/1/6/5/165255E7-1014-4D0A-B094-B6A430A6BFFC/vcredist_x86.exe) is also necessary to run yt-dlp. You probably already have this, but if the executable throws an error due to missing `MSVCR100.dll` you need to install it manually.
-->
-While all the other dependancies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
-
-* [**ffmpeg** and **ffprobe**](https://www.ffmpeg.org) - Required for [merging seperate video and audio files](#format-selection) as well as for various [post-processing](#post-processing-options) tasks. Licence [depends on the build](https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html)
-* [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen) - For embedding thumbnail in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
-* [**pycryptodomex**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome) - For decrypting AES-128 HLS streams and various other data. Licensed under [BSD2](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
-* [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets) - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD3](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
-* [**keyring**](https://github.com/jaraco/keyring) - For decrypting cookies of chromium-based browsers on Linux. Licensed under [MIT](https://github.com/jaraco/keyring/blob/main/LICENSE)
-* [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For embedding thumbnail in mp4/m4a if mutagen is not present. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
+While all the other dependencies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
+
+* [**ffmpeg** and **ffprobe**](https://www.ffmpeg.org) - Required for [merging separate video and audio files](#format-selection) as well as for various [post-processing](#post-processing-options) tasks. License [depends on the build](https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html)
+* [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For embedding thumbnail in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
+* [**pycryptodomex**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome)\* - For decrypting AES-128 HLS streams and various other data. Licensed under [BSD-2-Clause](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
+* [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
+* [**secretstorage**](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage) - For accessing the Gnome keyring while decrypting cookies of Chromium-based browsers on Linux. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage/blob/master/LICENSE)
+* [**brotli**](https://github.com/google/brotli)\* or [**brotlicffi**](https://github.com/python-hyper/brotlicffi) - [Brotli](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brotli) content encoding support. Both licensed under MIT <sup>[1](https://github.com/google/brotli/blob/master/LICENSE) [2](https://github.com/python-hyper/brotlicffi/blob/master/LICENSE) </sup>
+* [**certifi**](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi)\* - Provides Mozilla's root certificate bundle. Licensed under [MPLv2](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi/blob/master/LICENSE)
+* [**xattr**](https://github.com/xattr/xattr), [**pyxattr**](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr) or [**setfattr**](http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/attr) - For writing xattr metadata on Linux. Licensed under [MIT](https://github.com/xattr/xattr/blob/master/LICENSE.txt), [LGPL2.1](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr/blob/master/COPYING) and [GPLv2+](http://git.savannah.nongnu.org/cgit/attr.git/tree/doc/COPYING) respectively
+* [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For embedding thumbnail in mp4/m4a if mutagen/ffmpeg cannot. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
* [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
* [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or [**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading `rstp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
-* [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licensed under [BSD3](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
+* [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
* [**sponskrub**](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) - For using the now **deprecated** [sponskrub options](#sponskrub-options). Licensed under [GPLv3+](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub/blob/master/LICENCE.md)
* Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
-The Windows and MacOS standalone release binaries are already built with the python interpreter, mutagen, pycryptodomex and websockets included.
+The Windows and MacOS standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with \* included.
-**Note**: There are some regressions in newer ffmpeg versions that causes various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependancy, we provide [custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds/wiki/Latest#latest-autobuilds) with patches for these issues at [yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds). See [the readme](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#patches-applied) for details on the specifc issues solved by these builds
+<!-- TODO: ffmpeg has merged this patch. Remove this note once there is new release -->
+**Note**: There are some regressions in newer ffmpeg versions that causes various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependency, we provide [custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#ffmpeg-static-auto-builds) with patches for these issues at [yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds). See [the readme](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#patches-applied) for details on the specific issues solved by these builds
## COMPILE
**For Windows**:
-To build the Windows executable, you must have pyinstaller (and optionally mutagen, pycryptodomex, websockets). Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, (optionally) build lazy extractors using `devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py`, and then just run `pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (32/64 bit) as the python used to build it.
+To build the Windows executable, you must have pyinstaller (and any of yt-dlp's optional dependencies if needed). Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, (optionally) build lazy extractors using `devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py`, and then just run `pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (32/64 bit) as the python used to build it.
py -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
## General Options:
-h, --help Print this help text and exit
--version Print program version and exit
- -U, --update Update this program to latest version. Make
- sure that you have sufficient permissions
- (run with sudo if needed)
+ -U, --update Update this program to latest version
-i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
The download will be considered successful
even if the postprocessing fails
an error. The default value "fixup_error"
repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
this is not possible instead of searching
- --ignore-config, --no-config Disable loading any configuration files
- except the one provided by --config-location.
- When given inside a configuration
- file, no further configuration files are
- loaded. Additionally, (for backward
- compatibility) if this option is found
- inside the system configuration file, the
- user configuration is not loaded
- --config-location PATH Location of the main configuration file;
+ --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
+ except those given by --config-locations.
+ For backward compatibility, if this option
+ is found inside the system configuration
+ file, the user configuration is not loaded.
+ (Alias: --no-config)
+ --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
+ (default). When given inside a
+ configuration file, ignore all previous
+ --config-locations defined in the current
+ file
+ --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
either the path to the config or its
- containing directory
+ containing directory. Can be used multiple
+ times and inside other configuration files
--flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
only list them
--no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
+ --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
+ Currently only supported for YouTube
+ (Experimental)
+ --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
+ (default)
--wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
available. Pass the minimum number of
seconds (or range) to wait between retries
--no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
- --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate).
- Currently only supported for YouTube
+ --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
--no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
--no-colors Do not emit color codes in output
--compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
--proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy.
To enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper
scheme. For example
- socks5://127.0.0.1:1080/. Pass in an empty
- string (--proxy "") for direct connection
+ 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
option is not present) is used for the
actual downloading
--geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
- X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
+ X-Forwarded-For HTTP header (default)
--no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
--geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
(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)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?"
+ [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
+ Eg: --date today-2weeks
--datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
this date. The date formats accepted is the
same as --date
--dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
this date. The date formats accepted is the
same as --date
- --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Any field (see
+ --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any field (see
"OUTPUT TEMPLATE") can be compared with a
number or a string using the operators
defined in "Filtering formats". You can
also simply specify a field to match if the
- field is present and "!field" to check if
- the field is not present. In addition,
- Python style regular expression matching
- can be done using "~=", and multiple
- filters can be checked with "&". Use a "\"
- to escape "&" or quotes if needed. Eg:
- --match-filter "!is_live & like_count>?100
- & description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'"
- matches only videos that are not live, has
- a like count more than 100 (or the like
- field is not available), and also has a
- description that contains the phrase "cats
- & dogs" (ignoring case)
+ 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
+ !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?100 &
+ description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'"
+ matches only videos that are not live OR
+ those that have a like count more than 100
+ (or the like field is not available) and
+ also has a description that contains the
+ phrase "cats & dogs" (ignoring case). Use
+ "--match-filter -" to interactively ask
+ whether to download each video
--no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
--no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
to a video and a playlist
## Download Options:
-N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
- video that should be download concurrently
- (default is 1)
+ 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)
--throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
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)
(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
+ wget. 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 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 ":". For
different positions using the same syntax
as --postprocessor-args. You can use this
option multiple times to give different
- arguments to different downloaders
- (Alias: --external-downloader-args)
+ arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
+ --external-downloader-args)
## Filesystem Options:
- -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ('-' for
+ -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
- with '#', ';' or ']' are considered as
+ with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
comments and ignored
--no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
-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.
+ same TYPES as --output are supported.
Additionally, you can also provide "home"
(default) and "temp" paths. All
intermediary files are first downloaded to
--write-description etc. (default)
--no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
--write-info-json, --write-description etc.
- --clean-infojson Remove some private fields such as
+ --clean-info-json Remove some private fields such as
filenames from the infojson. Note that it
could still contain some personal
information (default)
- --no-clean-infojson Write all fields to the infojson
+ --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
--write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
infojson. The comments are fetched even
without this option if the extraction is
known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
--no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
- extraction is known to be quick
- (Alias: --no-get-comments)
+ extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
+ --no-get-comments)
--load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
(created with the "--write-info-json"
option)
from and dump cookie jar in
--no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
(default)
- --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[:PROFILE]
- Load cookies from a user profile of the
- given web browser. Currently supported
- browsers are: brave, chrome, chromium,
- edge, firefox, opera, safari, vivaldi. You
- can specify the user profile name or
- directory using "BROWSER:PROFILE_NAME" or
- "BROWSER:PROFILE_PATH". If no profile is
- given, the most recently accessed one is
- used
+ --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
--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
formats are found (default)
--skip-download Do not download the video but write all
related files (Alias: --no-download)
- -O, --print TEMPLATE Quiet, but print the given fields for each
- video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
- used. Either a field name or same syntax as
- the output template can be used
+ -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
+ screen, optionally prefixed with when to
+ print it, separated by a ":". Supported
+ values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
+ --use-postprocessor, and "video" (default).
+ Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
+ --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
+ used. This option can be used multiple
+ times
+ --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
+ Append given template to the file. The
+ values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as
+ that of --print. FILE uses the same syntax
+ as the output template. This option can be
+ used multiple times
-j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
## Workarounds:
--encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
+ --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to
+ servers that do not support RFC 5746 secure
+ renegotiation
--no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
--prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
information about the video (Currently
supported only for YouTube)
- --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
- --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video
- access is restricted to one domain
--add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
separated by a colon ":". You can use this
option multiple times
containers irrespective of quality
--no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
containers (default)
- --check-formats Check that the selected formats are
- actually downloadable
+ --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
+ those that are actually downloadable
--check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
actually downloadable
--no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
be regex) or "all" separated by commas.
(Eg: --sub-langs "en.*,ja") You can prefix
the language code with a "-" to exempt it
- from the requested languages. (Eg: --sub-
- langs all,-live_chat) Use --list-subs for a
- list of available language tags
+ from the requested languages. (Eg:
+ --sub-langs all,-live_chat) Use --list-subs
+ for a list of available language tags
## Authentication Options:
-u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
interactively
--ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
operators
+ --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
+ format. May include the private key
+ --client-certificate-key KEYFILE Path to private key file for client
+ certificate
+ --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
+ Password for client certificate private
+ key, if encrypted. If not provided and the
+ key is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask
+ interactively
## Post-Processing Options:
-x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
(requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
--audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format to convert the audio
to when -x is used. Currently supported
- formats are: best (default) or one of
- best|aac|flac|mp3|m4a|opus|vorbis|wav|alac
- --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality, insert a
+ formats are: best (default) or one of aac,
+ flac, mp3, m4a, opus, vorbis, wav, alac
+ --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
+ converting the audio with -x. Insert a
value 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|mp3|mka|m4a|ogg|opus). If
+ necessary (currently supported: mp4, mkv,
+ flv, webm, mov, avi, mka, ogg, aac, flac,
+ mp3, m4a, opus, vorbis, wav, alac). If
target container does not support the
video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
can specify multiple rules; Eg.
multiple times
--xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
(using dublin core and xdg standards)
+ --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
+ "never", "always", or "multi_video"
+ (default; only when the videos form a
+ single show). All the video files must have
+ same codecs and number of streams to be
+ concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
+ used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
+ the output filename for the concatenated
+ files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
--fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
default; fix file if we can, warn
otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
- already exists
+ already exists)
--ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
path to the binary or its containing
directory
- --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
- downloading and post-processing. Same
- syntax as the output template can be used
- to pass any field as arguments to the
- command. An additional field "filepath"
+ --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
+ when to execute it (after_move if
+ unspecified), separated by a ":". Supported
+ values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
+ --use-postprocessor. Same syntax as the
+ output template can be used to pass any
+ field as arguments to the command. After
+ download, an additional field "filepath"
that contains the final path of the
- downloaded file is also available. If no
- fields are passed, %(filepath)q is appended
- to the end of the command. This option can
- be used multiple times
- --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
- --exec-before-download CMD Execute a command before the actual
- download. The syntax is the same as --exec
- but "filepath" is not available. This
+ downloaded file is also available, and if
+ no fields are passed, %(filepath)q is
+ appended to the end of the command. This
option can be used multiple times
- --no-exec-before-download Remove any previously defined
- --exec-before-download
+ --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
--convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
- (currently supported: srt|vtt|ass|lrc)
+ (currently supported: srt, vtt, ass, lrc)
(Alias: --convert-subtitles)
--convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
- (currently supported: jpg|png)
+ (currently supported: jpg, png, webp)
--split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix
can be used with "--paths" and "--output"
(default)
--force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes around the chapters before
removing/splitting them. Requires a
- reencode and thus is very slow, but the
+ re-encode and thus is very slow, but the
resulting video may have fewer artifacts
around the cuts
--no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
--use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS] The (case sensitive) name of plugin
postprocessors to be enabled, and
(optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
- seperated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
+ separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
The "when" argument determines when the
postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
- "pre_process" (after extraction),
- "before_dl" (before video download),
- "post_process" (after video download;
- default) or "after_move" (after moving file
- to their final locations). This option can
- be used multiple times to add different
- postprocessors
+ "pre_process" (after video extraction),
+ "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
+ "before_dl" (before each video download),
+ "post_process" (after each video download;
+ default), "after_move" (after moving video
+ file to it's final locations),
+ "after_video" (after downloading and
+ processing all formats of a video), or
+ "playlist" (at end of playlist). This
+ option can be used multiple times to add
+ different postprocessors
## SponsorBlock Options:
Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1. **Main Configuration**: The file given by `--config-location`
1. **Portable Configuration**: `yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the bundled binary. If you are running from source-code (`<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`), the root directory is used instead.
-1. **Home Configuration**: `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by `-P "home:<path>"`, or in the current directory if no such path is given
+1. **Home Configuration**: `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by `-P`, or in the current directory if no such path is given
1. **User Configuration**:
* `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
* `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
* `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
* `~/yt-dlp.conf`
* `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
-
+
`%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%` defaults to `~/.config` if undefined. On windows, `%APPDATA%` generally points to `C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming` and `~` points to `%HOME%` if present, `%USERPROFILE%` (generally `C:\Users\<user name>`), or `%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
+
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:
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.
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. **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. **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. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified seperated with a `,`. Eg: `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
+1. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a `,`. Eg: `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
-1. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a `|` seperator. This overrides `--output-na-template`. Eg: `%(uploader|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. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types `diouxXeEfFgGcrs`, `B`, `j`, `l`, `q` can be used for converting to **B**ytes, **j**son (flag `#` for pretty-printing), a comma seperated **l**ist (flag `#` for `\n` newline-seperated) and a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag `#` to split a list into different arguments), respectively
+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. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types `diouxXeEfFgGcrs`, `B`, `j`, `l`, `q`, `D`, `S` can be used for converting to **B**ytes, **j**son (flag `#` for pretty-printing), a comma separated **l**ist (flag `#` for `\n` newline-separated), a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag `#` to split a list into different arguments), to add **D**ecimal suffixes (Eg: 10M) (flag `#` to use 1024 as factor), and to **S**anitize as filename (flag `#` for restricted), respectively
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
To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
```
-%(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
+%(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`. 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 (except default) 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`. 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.
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
- `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
- `creator` (string): The creator of the video
- `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
- - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
- - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released
+ - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
- `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
+ - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
+ - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
+ - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
- `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
- `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
- `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
+ - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
- `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
- `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
- `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
- `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 "is_live", "was_live", "is_upcoming", "not_live"
- `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'
+ - `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
- `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 when creating the file
+ - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
- `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`
+ - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
- `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
- - `playlist` (string): Name or id of the playlist that contains the video
+ - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
+ - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
+ - `playlist` (string): `playlist_id` or `playlist_title`
+ - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
- `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
- `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
- - `playlist_id` (string): Playlist identifier
- - `playlist_title` (string): Playlist title
- `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
- `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
- `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
- `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
- `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the actual filename may be different due to post-processing. Use `--exec echo` to get the name after all postprocessing is complete
+ - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by `--list-formats`
+ - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by `--list-thumbnails`
+ - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
+ - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
+
Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
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`.
-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.
+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.
To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
#### Output template examples
-Note that on Windows you need to use double quotes instead of single.
-
```bash
-$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o 'test video.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc
+$ yt-dlp --get-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 --get-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 --get-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
-$ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
+$ 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 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
+$ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
+
+# Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
+$ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist_index|)s%(playlist_index& - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
-$ yt-dlp -o '%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists
+$ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
# Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
-$ yt-dlp -u user -p password -P '~/MyVideos' -o '%(playlist)s/%(chapter_number)s - %(chapter)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.udemy.com/java-tutorial/
+$ yt-dlp -u user -p password -P "~/MyVideos" -o "%(playlist)s/%(chapter_number)s - %(chapter)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.udemy.com/java-tutorial"
# Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
-$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -o "%(series)s/%(season_number)s - %(season)s/%(episode_number)s - %(episode)s.%(ext)s" https://videomore.ru/kino_v_detalayah/5_sezon/367617
+$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -o "%(series)s/%(season_number)s - %(season)s/%(episode_number)s - %(episode)s.%(ext)s" "https://videomore.ru/kino_v_detalayah/5_sezon/367617"
+
+# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
+# and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
+$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
+
+# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
+$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "subtitle:%(uploader)s/subs/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --write-subs
# Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
$ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
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.
+You can use `-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
+
You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
- `all`: Select **all formats** separately
- `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]`
- `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
- - `ba*`, `bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that **contains audio**. It may also contain video. 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]` ([Do not use!](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/979#issuecomment-919629354))
- `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
- `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
- `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=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 `-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 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.
- `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
- `fps`: Frame rate
-Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains) and following string meta fields:
+Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains), `~=` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
- `ext`: File extension
- `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
- `format_id`: A short description of the format
- `language`: Language code
-Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation `!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g. `!*=` (does not contain).
+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.
-Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses, for example if you want to download the best mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480 you can use `-f '(mp4,webm)[height<480]'`.
+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]"`.
## Sorting Formats
- `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
- `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
- - `ie_pref`: The format preference as given by the extractor
- - `lang`: Language preference as given by the extractor
- - `quality`: The quality of the format as given by the extractor
- - `source`: Preference of the source as given by the extractor
- - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > other > `mms`/`rtsp` > unknown > `f4f`/`f4m`)
- - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other > unknown)
- - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other > unknown)
+ - `ie_pref`: The format preference
+ - `lang`: The language preference
+ - `quality`: The quality of the format
+ - `source`: The preference of the source
+ - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > `mms`/`rtsp` > `f4f`/`f4m`)
+ - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other)
+ - `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 > unknown). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is prefered.
- - `aext`: Audio Extension (`m4a` > `aac` > `mp3` > `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > other > unknown). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to `opus` > `ogg` > `webm` > `m4a` > `mp3` > `aac`.
+ - `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`.
- `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
- `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
- `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
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.
-Note that the default has `codec:vp9.2`; i.e. `av1` is not prefered. Similarly, the default for hdr is `hdr:12`; i.e. dolby vision is not prefered. 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 `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.
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`.
## Format Selection examples
-Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
-
```bash
# Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
# or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
-$ yt-dlp -f 'bv+ba/b'
+$ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
# Download best format that contains video,
# and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
-$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+ba/b'
+$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
# Same as above
$ yt-dlp
# 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.
-$ yt-dlp -f 'bv,ba' -o '%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s'
+$ 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
+$ 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
+$ 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 (generally) better result
# Download the worst video available (old method)
-$ yt-dlp -f 'wv*+wa/w'
+$ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
# Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
-$ yt-dlp -S '+res'
+$ yt-dlp -S "+res"
# Download the smallest video available
-$ yt-dlp -S '+size,+br'
+$ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
# Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
-$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b'
+$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
# Download the best video with the best extension
# (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
-$ yt-dlp -S 'ext'
+$ yt-dlp -S "ext"
# Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
# or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
-$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w'
+$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
# Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
-$ yt-dlp -S 'height:480'
+$ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
# Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
# Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
# So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
-$ yt-dlp -S 'res:480'
+$ yt-dlp -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
-$ yt-dlp -f 'b[filesize<50M] / w'
+$ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
# Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
# or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
-$ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize:50M'
+$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
# Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
-$ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize~50M'
+$ yt-dlp -f "b" -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
-$ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)'
+$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
# Download best video available via the best protocol
# (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
-$ yt-dlp -S 'proto'
+$ yt-dlp -S "proto"
-# Download the best video with h264 codec, or the best video if there is no such video
-$ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[vcodec^=avc1] / (bv*+ba/b)'
+# Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
+# or the best video if there is no such video
+$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
# Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
# or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
-$ yt-dlp -S 'codec:h264'
+$ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
# Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
# or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
-$ yt-dlp -S '+codec:h264'
+$ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
# Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
# or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
-$ yt-dlp -f '((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/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,
# preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
-$ yt-dlp -S 'res:720,fps'
+$ yt-dlp -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,
# preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
-$ yt-dlp -S '+res:480,codec,br'
+$ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
```
# MODIFYING METADATA
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`.
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 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". 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. 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.
+
+**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.
For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
-Metadata fields|From
-:---|:---
-`title`|`track` or `title`
-`date`|`upload_date`
-`description`, `synopsis`|`description`
-`purl`, `comment`|`webpage_url`
-`track`|`track_number`
-`artist`|`artist`, `creator`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
-`genre`|`genre`
-`album`|`album`
-`album_artist`|`album_artist`
-`disc`|`disc_number`
-`show`|`series`
-`season_number`|`season_number`
-`episode_id`|`episode` or `episode_id`
-`episode_sort`|`episode_number`
-`language` of each stream|From the format's `language`
+Metadata fields | From
+:--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
+`title` | `track` or `title`
+`date` | `upload_date`
+`description`, `synopsis` | `description`
+`purl`, `comment` | `webpage_url`
+`track` | `track_number`
+`artist` | `artist`, `creator`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
+`genre` | `genre`
+`album` | `album`
+`album_artist` | `album_artist`
+`disc` | `disc_number`
+`show` | `series`
+`season_number` | `season_number`
+`episode_id` | `episode` or `episode_id`
+`episode_sort` | `episode_number`
+`language` of each stream | the format's `language`
+
**Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
## 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'
+$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
# Regex example
-$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)'
+$ 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'
+$ 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
+# Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
+$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --add-metadata
+
+# Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
+# handling multiple lines correctly
+$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --add-metadata
# Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
-$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ':(?P<formats>)' -j
+$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<formats>)" -j
# Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
-$ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata 'title,uploader' '[ _]' '-'
+$ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
```
# 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_agegate,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`. Eg: `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_embedded,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
The following extractors use this feature:
#### youtube
-* `skip`: `hls` or `dash` (or both) to skip download of the respective manifests
-* `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web`, `android`, `ios`, `mweb`. These also have `_music`, `_embedded`, `_agegate`, and `_creator` variants (Eg: `web_embedded`) (`mweb` has only `_agegate`). By default, `android,web` is used, but the agegate and creator variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com` urls. You can also use `all` to use all the clients, and `default` for the default clients.
+* `skip`: One or more of `hls`, `dash` or `translated_subs` to skip extraction of the m3u8 manifests, dash manifests and auto-translated subtitles 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_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 (These formats don't download properly)
+* `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-seperated 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.
-* `max_comment_depth` Maximum depth for nested comments. YouTube supports depths 1 or 2 (default)
- * **Deprecated**: Set `max-replies` to `0` or `all` in `max_comments` instead (e.g. `max_comments=all,all,0` to get no replies)
+* `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
#### 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. Eg: `crunchyroll:language=jaJp`
* `hardsub`: Which hard-sub versions to extract. Eg: `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`
+
#### vikichannel
* `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
+#### niconico
+* `segment_duration`: Segment duration in milliseconds for HLS-DMC formats. Use it at your own risk since this feature **may result in your account termination.**
+
#### youtubewebarchive
* `check_all`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails`, `captures`
+#### gamejolt
+* `comment_sort`: `hot` (default), `you` (cookies needed), `top`, `new` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
+
+#### hotstar
+* `res`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd`, `hd`, `fhd`
+* `vcodec`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264`, `h265`, `dvh265`
+* `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`)
+
+#### rokfinchannel
+* `tab`: Which tab to download. One of `new`, `top`, `videos`, `podcasts`, `streams`, `stacks`. (E.g. `rokfinchannel:tab=streams`)
+
+
NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
```python
from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
-ydl_opts = {'format': 'bestaudio'}
-with YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
- ydl.download(['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
+URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
+with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
+ ydl.download(URLS)
```
-Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of options available, have a look at [`yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py`](yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py#L162).
+Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of options available, have a look at [`yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py`](yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py#L181).
+
+**Tip**: If you are porting your code from youtube-dl to yt-dlp, one important point to look out for is that we do not guarantee the return value of `YoutubeDL.extract_info` to be json serializable, or even be a dictionary. It will be dictionary-like, but if you want to ensure it is a serializable dictionary, pass it through `YoutubeDL.sanitize_info` as shown in the [example below](#extracting-information)
+
+## Embedding examples
-Here's a more complete example demonstrating various functionality:
+#### Extracting information
```python
import json
import yt_dlp
+URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
+
+# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
+ydl_opts = {}
+with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
+ info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
+
+ # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
+ print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
+```
+#### Download using an info-json
+
+```python
+import yt_dlp
+
+INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
+
+with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
+ error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
+
+print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
+ else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
+```
+
+#### Extract audio
+
+```python
+import yt_dlp
+
+URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
+
+ydl_opts = {
+ 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
+ # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
+ 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
+ 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
+ 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
+ }]
+}
+
+with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
+ error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
+```
+
+#### Filter videos
+
+```python
+import yt_dlp
+
+URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
+
+def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
+ """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
+ duration = info.get('duration')
+ if duration and duration < 60:
+ return 'The video is too short'
+
+ydl_opts = {
+ 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
+}
+
+with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
+ error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
+```
+
+#### Adding logger and progress hook
+
+```python
+import yt_dlp
+
+URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
class MyLogger:
def debug(self, msg):
- # For compatability with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
+ # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
# You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
pass
print(msg)
-# ℹ️ See the docstring of yt_dlp.postprocessor.common.PostProcessor
+# ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
+def my_hook(d):
+ if d['status'] == 'finished':
+ print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
+
+
+ydl_opts = {
+ 'logger': MyLogger(),
+ 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
+}
+
+with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
+ ydl.download(URLS)
+```
+
+#### Add a custom PostProcessor
+
+```python
+import yt_dlp
+
+URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
+
+# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
- # ℹ️ See docstring of yt_dlp.postprocessor.common.PostProcessor.run
def run(self, info):
self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
return [], info
-# ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in the docstring of yt_dlp.YoutubeDL
-def my_hook(d):
- if d['status'] == 'finished':
- print('Done downloading, now converting ...')
+with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
+ ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP())
+ ydl.download(URLS)
+```
+#### Use a custom format selector
+
+```python
+import yt_dlp
+
+URL = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
+
def format_selector(ctx):
""" Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
- This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
+ NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
# formats are already sorted worst to best
formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
+ # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
yield {
- # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
'ext': best_video['ext'],
'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
- # Must be + seperated list of protocols
+ # Must be + separated list of protocols
'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
}
-# ℹ️ See docstring of yt_dlp.YoutubeDL for a description of the options
ydl_opts = {
'format': format_selector,
- 'postprocessors': [{
- # Embed metadata in video using ffmpeg.
- # ℹ️ See yt_dlp.postprocessor.FFmpegMetadataPP for the arguments it accepts
- 'key': 'FFmpegMetadata',
- 'add_chapters': True,
- 'add_metadata': True,
- }],
- 'logger': MyLogger(),
- 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
}
-
-# Add custom headers
-yt_dlp.utils.std_headers.update({'Referer': 'https://www.google.com'})
-
-# ℹ️ See the public functions in yt_dlp.YoutubeDL for for other available functions.
-# Eg: "ydl.download", "ydl.download_with_info_file"
with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
- ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP())
- info = ydl.extract_info('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc')
-
- # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
- print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
+ ydl.download(URLS)
```
-**Tip**: If you are porting your code from youtube-dl to yt-dlp, one important point to look out for is that we do not guarantee the return value of `YoutubeDL.extract_info` to be json serializable, or even be a dictionary. It will be dictionary-like, but if you want to ensure it is a serializable dictionary, pass it through `YoutubeDL.sanitize_info` as shown in the example above
-
-
<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
# DEPRECATED OPTIONS
These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
+#### Almost redundant options
+While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
+
+ -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
+ -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
+ --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
+ --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
+
#### Redundant options
While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
--get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
-e, --get-title --print title
-g, --get-url --print urls
- -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
--match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
--reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
--min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
--max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
+ --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
+ --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
#### Not recommended
While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
+ --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
These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
--avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
+ --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
--cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
--dump-headers --print-traffic
--dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
--force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
--load-info --load-info-json
+ --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
--no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
--no-write-srt --no-write-subs
--prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
-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
+ -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
# 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)