For each language the extractor builds a list with the available formats sorted (like for video formats), then YoutubeDL selects one of them using the '--sub-format' option which now allows giving the format preferences (for example 'ass/srt/best').
For each format the 'url' field can be set so that we only download the contents if needed, or if the contents needs to be processed (like in crunchyroll) the 'data' field can be used.
The reasons for this change are:
* We weren't checking that the format given with '--sub-format' was available, checking it in each extractor would be repetitive.
* It allows to easily support giving a format preference.
* The subtitles were automatically downloaded in the extractor, but I think that if you use for example the '--dump-json' option you want to finish as fast as possible.
Currently only the ted extractor has been updated, but the old system still works.
Instead of having to configure PPs in code, this allows us and embedding programs not to worry about imports or finer details, similarly to how we handle IEs.
Series of videos are typically uploaded to YouTube playlists in
chronological order. By default, these videos are downloaded
latest-to-earliest; this is great for seeing the latest videos in a
series, but prevents streaming video in the order that the videos were
produced. Add an option to download videos in reverse order,
earliest-to-latest.
Conflicts:
youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py
youtube_dl/__init__.py
utils is large enough without these compatibility functions.
Everything that is present in newer versions of Python (i.e. with dev Python it's just an import) goes into compat.py .
Everything else (i.e. youtube-dl-specific helpers) goes into utils.py .
That's what the help messages say.
Previously it would only set '--skip-download', which would write thumbnail,
descriptions or subtitles if they were requested (for example you may have set
'--write-thumbnail' in the config file).
Philipp Hagemeister