66 KiB
youtube-dlc - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms.
youtube-dlc is a fork of youtube-dl with the intention of getting features tested by the community merged in the tool faster, since youtube-dl's development seems to be slowing down. (https://web.archive.org/web/20201014194602/https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/26462)
- INSTALLATION
- UPDATE
- DESCRIPTION
- OPTIONS
- CONFIGURATION
- OUTPUT TEMPLATE - Output template and Windows batch files - Output template examples
- FORMAT SELECTION
- VIDEO SELECTION
INSTALLATION
All Platforms
Preferred way using pip:
You may want to use python3 instead of python
python -m pip install --upgrade youtube-dlc
If you want to install the current master branch
python -m pip install git+https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc
UNIX (Linux, macOS, etc.)
Using wget:
sudo wget https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/releases/latest/download/youtube-dlc -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dlc
sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dlc
Using curl:
sudo curl -L https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/releases/latest/download/youtube-dlc -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dlc
sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dlc
Windows users can download youtube-dlc.exe (do not put in C:\Windows\System32!).
Compile To build the Windows executable yourself (without version info!)
python -m pip install --upgrade pyinstaller
pyinstaller.exe youtube_dlc\__main__.py --onefile --name youtube-dlc
Or simply execute the make_win.bat if pyinstaller is installed.
There will be a youtube-dlc.exe in /dist
New way to build Windows is to use python pyinst.py (please use python3 64Bit)
For 32Bit Version use a 32Bit Version of python (3 preferred here as well) and run python pyinst32.py
For Unix:
You will need the required build tools
python, make (GNU), pandoc, zip, nosetests
Then simply type this
make
UPDATE
DO NOT UPDATE using -U ! instead download binaries again or when installed with pip use a described above when installing.
I will add some memorable short links to the binaries so you can download them easier.
DESCRIPTION
youtube-dlc is a command-line program to download videos from YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version 2.6, 2.7, or 3.2+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on your Unix box, on Windows or on macOS. It is released to the public domain, which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
youtube-dlc [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
OPTIONS
-h, --help Print this help text and exit
--version Print program version and exit
-U, --update (Doesn't work since there is no release)
Update this program to latest version. Make
sure that you have sufficient permissions
(run with sudo if needed)
-i, --ignore-errors Continue on download errors, for example to
skip unavailable videos in a playlist
(Same as --no-abort-on-error)
--abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
error occurs (Same as --no-ignore-errors)
--dump-user-agent Display the current browser identification
--list-extractors List all supported extractors
--extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
extractors
--force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
extractor
--default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
from google videos for youtube-dl "large
apple". Use the value "auto" to let
youtube-dl guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
warning when guessing). "error" just throws
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 Do not read configuration files. When given
in the global configuration file
/etc/youtube-dl.conf: Do not read the user
configuration in ~/.config/youtube-
dl/config (%APPDATA%/youtube-dl/config.txt
on Windows)
--config-location PATH Location of the configuration file; either
the path to the config or its containing
directory.
--flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
only list them.
--flat-videos Do not resolve the video urls
--no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
--mark-watched Mark videos watched (YouTube only)
--no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (YouTube only)
--no-color Do not emit color codes in output
Network Options:
--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
--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
-6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
Geo Restriction:
--geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
some geo-restricted sites. The default
proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the
option is not present) is used for the
actual downloading.
--geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
--no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
--geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
explicitly provided two-letter ISO 3166-2
country code
--geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
explicitly provided IP block in CIDR
notation
Video Selection:
--playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is 1)
--playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
--playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify
indices of the videos in the playlist
separated by commas like: "--playlist-items
1,2,5,8" if you want to download videos
indexed 1, 2, 5, 8 in the playlist. You can
specify range: "--playlist-items
1-3,7,10-13", it will download the videos
at index 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13.
--match-title REGEX Download only matching titles (regex or
caseless sub-string)
--reject-title REGEX Skip download for matching titles (regex or
caseless sub-string)
--max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
--min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
--max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
(e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
--date DATE Download only videos uploaded in this date.
The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
"(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?"
--datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
this date (i.e. inclusive). The date formats
accepted is the same as --date
--dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
this date (i.e. inclusive). The date formats
accepted is the same as --date
--min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than
COUNT views
--max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than
COUNT views
--match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Specify any key (see
the "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a list of
available keys) to match if the key is
present, !key to check if the key is not
present, key > NUMBER (like "comment_count
> 12", also works with >=, <, <=, !=, =) to
compare against a number, key = 'LITERAL'
(like "uploader = 'Mike Smith'", also works
with !=) to match against a string literal
and & to require multiple matches. Values
which are not known are excluded unless you
put a question mark (?) after the operator.
For example, to only match videos that have
been liked more than 100 times and disliked
less than 50 times (or the dislike
functionality is not available at the given
service), but who also have a description,
use --match-filter "like_count > 100 &
dislike_count <? 50 & description" .
--no-match-filter FILTER Do not use generic video filter (default)
--no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
to a video and a playlist.
--yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
a video and a playlist.
--age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
age
--download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
archive file. Record the IDs of all
downloaded videos in it.
--no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
--break-on-existing Stop the download process after attempting
to download a file that's in the archive.
--include-ads Download advertisements as well (experimental)
--no-include-ads Do not download advertisements (default)
Download Options:
-r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
(e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
-R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
"infinite".
--fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
is 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and
ISM)
--skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
hlsnative and ISM (default)
(Same as --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
--abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading if a fragment is unavailable
(Same as --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
--keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
downloading is finished
--no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after downloading
is finished (default)
--buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
(default is 1024)
--resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized from
an initial value of --buffer-size (default)
--no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer
size
--http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
downloading (e.g. 10485760 or 10M) (default
is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
(experimental)
--playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
--no-playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in default order
--playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
--xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
expected file size
--hls-prefer-native Use the native HLS downloader instead of
ffmpeg
--hls-prefer-ffmpeg Use ffmpeg instead of the native HLS
downloader
--hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos,
allowing to play the video while
downloading (some players may not be able
to play it)
--external-downloader COMMAND Use the specified external downloader.
Currently supports
aria2c,avconv,axel,curl,ffmpeg,httpie,wget
--external-downloader-args ARGS Give these arguments to the external
downloader
Filesystem Options:
-a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ('-' for
stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
with '#', ';' or ']' are considered as
comments and ignored.
-o, --output TEMPLATE Output filename template, see the "OUTPUT
TEMPLATE" for all the info
--autonumber-start NUMBER Specify the start value for %(autonumber)s
(default is 1)
--restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
filenames
--no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces
in filenames (default)
-w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite files
-c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files (default)
--no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded files
(restart from beginning)
--part Use .part files instead of writing directly
into output file (default)
--no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
into output file
--mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the
file modification time
--no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
the file modification time
--write-description Write video description to a .description
file
--no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
--write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
--no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
--write-annotations Write video annotations to a
.annotations.xml file
--no-write-annotations Do not write video annotations (default)
--load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
(created with the "--write-info-json"
option)
--cookies FILE File to read cookies from and dump cookie
jar in
--no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies (default)
--cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
can store some downloaded information
permanently. By default
$XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl or
~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the moment, only
YouTube player files (for videos with
obfuscated signatures) are cached, but that
may change.
--no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
--rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
--trim-file-name Limit the filename length (extension
excluded)
Thumbnail images:
--write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
--no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk
--write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
--list-thumbnails Simulate and list all available thumbnail
formats
Internet Shortcut Options:
--write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending on
the current platform (.url/.webloc/.desktop).
The URL may be cached by the OS.
--write-url-link Write a Windows .url internet shortcut file.
(The OS caches the URL based on the file path)
--write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut file
--write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut file
Verbosity / Simulation Options:
-q, --quiet Activate quiet mode
--no-warnings Ignore warnings
-s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
anything to disk
--skip-download Do not download the video
-g, --get-url Simulate, quiet but print URL
-e, --get-title Simulate, quiet but print title
--get-id Simulate, quiet but print id
--get-thumbnail Simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
--get-description Simulate, quiet but print video description
--get-duration Simulate, quiet but print video length
--get-filename Simulate, quiet but print output filename
--get-format Simulate, quiet but print output format
-j, --dump-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information.
See the "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a description
of available keys.
-J, --dump-single-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information
for each command-line argument. If the URL
refers to a playlist, dump the whole
playlist information in a single line.
--print-json Be quiet and print the video information as
JSON (video is still being downloaded).
--force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
another simulation switch is used.
(Same as --force-download-archive)
--newline Output progress bar as new lines
--no-progress Do not print progress bar
--console-title Display progress in console titlebar
-v, --verbose Print various debugging information
--dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
to debug problems (very verbose)
--write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
files in the current directory to debug
problems
--print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
-C, --call-home Contact the youtube-dlc server for debugging
--no-call-home Do not contact the youtube-dlc server for
debugging (default)
Workarounds:
--encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
--no-check-certificate 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
--bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
or fribidi executable in PATH
--sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
download when used alone or a lower bound
of a range for randomized sleep before each
download (minimum possible number of
seconds to sleep) when used along with
--max-sleep-interval.
--max-sleep-interval SECONDS Upper bound of a range for randomized sleep
before each download (maximum possible
number of seconds to sleep). Must only be
used along with --min-sleep-interval.
--sleep-subtitles Enforce sleep interval on subtitles as well.
Video Format Options:
-f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
for more details
-S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
"Sorting Formats" for more details
--S-force, --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
Formats" for more details
--no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
specified sort order, see "Sorting Formats"
for more details (default)
--video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged into
a single file (default)
--no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
output file
--audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged into
a single file (default)
--no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
output file
--all-formats Download all available video formats
--prefer-free-formats Prefer free video formats unless a specific
one is requested
-F, --list-formats List all available formats of requested
videos
--list-formats-as-table Present the output of -F in a more tabular form
--list-formats-old Present the output of -F in older form (default)
(Same as --no-list-formats-as-table)
--youtube-skip-dash-manifest Do not download the DASH manifests and
related data on YouTube videos
(Same as --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
--youtube-include-dash-manifest Download the DASH manifests and related data
on YouTube videos (default)
(Same as --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
--youtube-skip-hls-manifest Do not download the HLS manifests and
related data on YouTube videos
(Same as --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
--youtube-include-hls-manifest Download the HLS manifests and related data
on YouTube videos (default)
(Same as --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
--merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
Subtitle Options:
--write-sub Write subtitle file
--no-write-sub Do not write subtitle file (default)
--write-auto-sub Write automatically generated subtitle file
(YouTube only)
--no-write-auto-sub Do not write automatically generated
subtitle file (default)
--all-subs Download all the available subtitles of the
video
--list-subs List all available subtitles for the video
--sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
preference, for example: "srt" or
"ass/srt/best"
--sub-lang LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download
(optional) separated by commas, use --list-
subs for available language tags
Authentication Options:
-u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
-p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
out, youtube-dlc will ask interactively.
-2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
-n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
--video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, smotri, youku)
Adobe Pass Options:
--ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
a list of available MSOs
--ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
--ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
If this option is left out, youtube-dlc
will ask interactively.
--ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
operators
Post-processing Options:
-x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
(requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or
avprobe)
--audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format: "best", "aac",
"flac", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", "vorbis", or
"wav"; "best" by default; No effect without
-x
--audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg/avconv audio quality, insert
a value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse)
for VBR or a specific bitrate like 128K
(default 5)
--remux-video FORMAT Remux the video to another container format
if necessary (currently supported: mp4|mkv,
target container format must support video
/ audio encoding, remuxing may fail)
--recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if
necessary (currently supported:
mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv|avi)
--postprocessor-args ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessor
-k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
after post-processing
--no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
post-processing (default)
--post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
--no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
--embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
webm and mkv videos)
--no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles in the video (default)
--embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
--no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
--add-metadata Write metadata to the video file
--no-add-metadata Do not write metadata (default)
--metadata-from-title FORMAT Parse additional metadata like song title /
artist from the video title. The format
syntax is the same as --output. Regular
expression with named capture groups may
also be used. The parsed parameters replace
existing values. Example: --metadata-from-
title "%(artist)s - %(title)s" matches a
title like "Coldplay - Paradise". Example
(regex): --metadata-from-title
"(?P<artist>.+?) - (?P<title>.+)"
--xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
(using dublin core and xdg standards)
--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)
--prefer-avconv Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running the
postprocessors (Same as --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
--prefer-ffmpeg Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running the
postprocessors (default)
(Same as --no-prefer-avconv)
--ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg/avconv binary;
either the path to the binary or its
containing directory.
--exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
downloading and post-processing, similar to
find's -exec syntax. Example: --exec 'adb
push {} /sdcard/Music/ && rm {}'
--convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to other format
(currently supported: srt|ass|vtt|lrc)
SponSkrub Options (SponsorBlock)
--sponskrub Use sponskrub to mark sponsored sections with
the data available in SponsorBlock API. This
is enabled by default if the sponskrub binary
exists (Youtube only)
--sponskrub-cut Cut out the sponsor sections instead of
simply marking them
--no-sponskrub-cut Simply mark the sponsor sections, not cut
them out (default)
--sponskrub-force Allow cutting out the sponsor sections even
if the video was already downloaded.
--no-sponskrub-force Do not cut out the sponsor sections if the
video was already downloaded (default)
--sponskrub-location Location of the sponskrub binary;
either the path to the binary or its
containing directory
--sponskrub-args Give these arguments to sponskrub
Extractor Options:
--ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
(Same as --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
--allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
(Same as --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
CONFIGURATION
You can configure youtube-dlc by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. On Linux and macOS, the system wide configuration file is located at /etc/youtube-dlc.conf and the user wide configuration file at ~/.config/youtube-dlc/config. On Windows, the user wide configuration file locations are %APPDATA%\youtube-dlc\config.txt or C:\Users\<user name>\youtube-dlc.conf. Note that by default configuration file may not exist so you may need to create it yourself.
For example, with the following configuration file youtube-dlc will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under Movies directory in your home directory:
# Lines starting with # are comments
# Always extract audio
-x
# Do not copy the mtime
--no-mtime
# Use this proxy
--proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
# Save all videos under Movies directory in your home directory
-o ~/Movies/%(title)s.%(ext)s
Note that options in configuration file are just the same options aka switches used in regular command line calls thus there must be no whitespace after - or --, e.g. -o or --proxy but not - o or -- proxy.
You can use --ignore-config if you want to disable the configuration file for a particular youtube-dlc run.
You can also use --config-location if you want to use custom configuration file for a particular youtube-dlc run.
Authentication with .netrc file
You may also want to configure automatic credentials storage for extractors that support authentication (by providing login and password with --username and --password) in order not to pass credentials as command line arguments on every youtube-dlc execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell command history. You can achieve this using a .netrc file on a per extractor basis. For that you will need to create a .netrc file in your $HOME and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
touch $HOME/.netrc
chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where extractor is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
machine <extractor> login <login> password <password>
For example:
machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
To activate authentication with the .netrc file you should pass --netrc to youtube-dlc or place it in the configuration file.
On Windows you may also need to setup the %HOME% environment variable manually. For example:
set HOME=%USERPROFILE%
OUTPUT TEMPLATE
The -o option allows users to indicate a template for the output file names.
tl;dr: navigate me to examples.
The basic usage is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in youtube-dlc -o funny_video.flv "https://some/video". However, it may contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according to python string formatting operations. For example, %(NAME)s or %(NAME)05d. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations. Allowed names along with sequence type are:
id(string): Video identifiertitle(string): Video titleurl(string): Video URLext(string): Video filename extensionalt_title(string): A secondary title of the videodisplay_id(string): An alternative identifier for the videouploader(string): Full name of the video uploaderlicense(string): License name the video is licensed undercreator(string): The creator of the videorelease_date(string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was releasedtimestamp(numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became availableupload_date(string): Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)uploader_id(string): Nickname or id of the video uploaderchannel(string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded onchannel_id(string): Id of the channellocation(string): Physical location where the video was filmedduration(numeric): Length of the video in secondsview_count(numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platformlike_count(numeric): Number of positive ratings of the videodislike_count(numeric): Number of negative ratings of the videorepost_count(numeric): Number of reposts of the videoaverage_rating(numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpagecomment_count(numeric): Number of comments on the videoage_limit(numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)is_live(boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length videostart_time(numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URLend_time(numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URLformat(string): A human-readable description of the formatformat_id(string): Format code specified by--formatformat_note(string): Additional info about the formatwidth(numeric): Width of the videoheight(numeric): Height of the videoresolution(string): Textual description of width and heighttbr(numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/sabr(numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/sacodec(string): Name of the audio codec in useasr(numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertzvbr(numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/sfps(numeric): Frame ratevcodec(string): Name of the video codec in usecontainer(string): Name of the container formatfilesize(numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advancefilesize_approx(numeric): An estimate for the number of bytesprotocol(string): The protocol that will be used for the actual downloadextractor(string): Name of the extractorextractor_key(string): Key name of the extractorepoch(numeric): Unix epoch when creating the fileautonumber(numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at--autonumber-startplaylist(string): Name or id of the playlist that contains the videoplaylist_index(numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlistplaylist_id(string): Playlist identifierplaylist_title(string): Playlist titleplaylist_uploader(string): Full name of the playlist uploaderplaylist_uploader_id(string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
chapter(string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs tochapter_number(numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs tochapter_id(string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
series(string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs toseason(string): Title of the season the video episode belongs toseason_number(numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs toseason_id(string): Id of the season the video episode belongs toepisode(string): Title of the video episodeepisode_number(numeric): Number of the video episode within a seasonepisode_id(string): Id of the video episode
Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
track(string): Title of the tracktrack_number(numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disctrack_id(string): Id of the trackartist(string): Artist(s) of the trackgenre(string): Genre(s) of the trackalbum(string): Title of the album the track belongs toalbum_type(string): Type of the albumalbum_artist(string): List of all artists appeared on the albumdisc_number(numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs torelease_year(numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. Note that some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with NA.
For example for -o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s and an mp4 video with title youtube-dlc test video and id BaW_jenozKcj, this will result in a youtube-dlc test video-BaW_jenozKcj.mp4 file created in the current directory.
For numeric sequences you can use numeric related 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.
To use percent literals in an output template use %%. To output to stdout use -o -.
The current default template is %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s.
In some cases, you don't want special characters such as 中, spaces, or &, such as when transferring the downloaded filename to a Windows system or the filename through an 8bit-unsafe channel. In these cases, add the --restrict-filenames flag to get a shorter title:
Output template and Windows batch files
If you are using an output template inside a Windows batch file then you must escape plain percent characters (%) by doubling, so that -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s" should become -o "%%(title)s-%%(id)s.%%(ext)s". However you should not touch %'s that are not plain characters, e.g. environment variables for expansion should stay intact: -o "C:\%HOMEPATH%\Desktop\%%(title)s.%%(ext)s".
Output template examples
Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
$ youtube-dlc --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc
youtube-dlc test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
$ youtube-dlc --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
youtube-dlc_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
$ youtube-dlc -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
$ youtube-dlc -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
$ youtube-dlc -u user -p password -o '~/MyVideos/%(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
$ youtube-dlc -o "C:/MyVideos/%(series)s/%(season_number)s - %(season)s/%(episode_number)s - %(episode)s.%(ext)s" https://videomore.ru/kino_v_detalayah/5_sezon/367617
# Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
$ youtube-dlc -o - BaW_jenozKc
FORMAT SELECTION
By default youtube-dlc tries to download the best available quality, i.e. if you want the best quality you don't need to pass any special options, youtube-dlc will guess it for you by default.
But sometimes you may want to download in a different format, for example when you are on a slow or intermittent connection. The key mechanism for achieving this is so-called format selection based on which you can explicitly specify desired format, select formats based on some criterion or criteria, setup precedence and much more.
The general syntax for format selection is --format FORMAT or shorter -f FORMAT where FORMAT is a selector expression, i.e. an expression that describes format or formats you would like to download.
tl;dr: navigate me to examples.
The simplest case is requesting a specific format, for example with -f 22 you can download the format with format code equal to 22. You can get the list of available format codes for particular video using --list-formats or -F. Note that these format codes are extractor specific.
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 also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
-
b*,best*: Select the best quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio. -
w*,worst*: Select the worst quality format irrespective of whether it contains video or audio. -
b,best: Select the best quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent tobest*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none] -
w,worst: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent toworst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none] -
bv,bestvideo: Select the best quality video-only format. Equivalent tobest*[acodec=none] -
wv,worstvideo: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent toworst*[acodec=none] -
bv*,bestvideo*: Select the best quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent tobest*[vcodec!=none] -
wv*,worstvideo*: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent toworst*[vcodec!=none] -
ba,bestaudio: Select the best quality audio-only format. Equivalent tobest*[vcodec=none] -
wa,worstaudio: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent toworst*[vcodec=none] -
ba*,bestaudio*: Select the best quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent tobest*[acodec!=none] -
wa*,worstaudio*: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent toworst*[acodec!=none]
For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use -f worstvideo. It is however recomended to never actually use worst and related options. See sorting formats for more details.
If you want to download multiple videos and they don't have the same formats available, you can specify the order of preference using slashes. Note that formats on the left hand side are preferred, for example -f 22/17/18 will download format 22 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 17 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 18 if it's available, otherwise it will complain that no suitable formats are available for download.
If you want to download several formats of the same video use a comma as a separator, e.g. -f 22,17,18 will download all these three formats, of course if they are available. Or a more sophisticated example combined with the precedence feature: -f 136/137/mp4/bestvideo,140/m4a/bestaudio.
You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using -f <format1>+<format2>+... (requires ffmpeg or avconv installed), for example -f bestvideo+bestaudio will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg/avconv. If --no-video-multistreams is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, if --no-audio-multistreams is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. For example, -f bestvideo+best+bestaudio will download and merge all 3 given formats. The resulting file will have 2 video streams and 2 audio streams. But -f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --no-video-multistreams will download and merge only bestvideo and bestaudio. best is ignored since another format containing a video stream (bestvideo) has already been selected. The order of the formats is therefore important. -f best+bestaudio --no-audio-multistreams will download and merge both formats while -f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams will ignore best and download only bestaudio.
Filtering Formats
You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in -f "best[height=720]" (or -f "[filesize>10M]").
The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons <, <=, >, >=, = (equals), != (not equals):
filesize: The number of bytes, if known in advancewidth: Width of the video, if knownheight: Height of the video, if knowntbr: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/sabr: Average audio bitrate in KBit/svbr: Average video bitrate in KBit/sasr: Audio sampling rate in Hertzfps: Frame rate
Also filtering work for comparisons = (equals), ^= (starts with), $= (ends with), *= (contains) and following string meta fields:
ext: File extensionacodec: Name of the audio codec in usevcodec: Name of the video codec in usecontainer: Name of the container formatprotocol: The protocol that will be used for the actual download, lower-case (http,https,rtsp,rtmp,rtmpe,mms,f4m,ism,http_dash_segments,m3u8, orm3u8_native)format_id: A short description of the format
Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation ! in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g. !*= (does not contain).
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 video hoster. 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.
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]'.
Sorting Formats
You can change the criteria for being considered the best by using -S (--format-sort). The general format for this is --format-sort field1,field2.... The available fields are:
video,has_video: Gives priority to formats that has a video streamaudio,has_audio: Gives priority to formats that has a audio streamextractor,preference,extractor_preference: The format preference as given by the extractorlang,language_preference: Language preference as given by the extractorquality: The quality of the format. This is a metadata field available in some websitessource,source_preference: Preference of the source as given by the extractorproto,protocol: Protocol used for download (https/ftps>http/ftp>m3u8-native>m3u8>http-dash-segments> other >mms/rtsp> unknown >f4f/f4m)vcodec,video_codec: Video Codec (av01>vp9>h265>h264>vp8>h263>theora> other > unknown)acodec,audio_codec: Audio Codec (opus>vorbis>aac>mp4a>mp3>ac3>dts> other > unknown)codec: Equivalent tovcodec,acodecvext,video_ext: Video Extension (mp4>flv>webm> other > unknown). If--prefer-free-formatsis used,webmis prefered.aext,audio_ext: Audio Extension (m4a>aac>mp3>ogg>opus>webm> other > unknown). If--prefer-free-formatsis used, the order changes toopus>ogg>webm>m4a>mp3>aac.ext,extension: Equivalent tovext,aextfilesize: Exact filesize, if know in advance. This will be unavailable for mu38 and DASH formats.filesize_approx: Approximate filesize calculated the manifestssize,filesize_estimate: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesizeheight: Height of videowidth: Width of videores,dimension: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.fps,framerate: Framerate of videotbr,total_bitrate: Total average bitrate in KBit/svbr,video_bitrate: Average video bitrate in KBit/sabr,audio_bitrate: Average audio bitrate in KBit/sbr,bitrate: Equivalent to usingtbr,vbr,abrsamplerate,asr: Audio sample rate in Hz
All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in decending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a +. Eg: +res prefers the smallest resolution format. Additionally, you can suffix a prefered value for the fields, seperated by a :. Eg: res:720 prefers larger videos, but no larger than 720p and the smallest video if there are no videos less than 720p. For codec and ext, you can provide two prefered values, the first for video and the second for audio. Eg: +codec:avc:m4a (equivalent to +vcodec:avc,+acodec:m4a) sets the video codec preference to h264 > h265 > vp9 > av01 > vp8 > h263 > theora and audio codec preference to mp4a > aac > vorbis > opus > mp3 > ac3 > dts. You can also make the sorting prefer the nearest values to the provided by using ~ as the delimiter. Eg: filesize~1G prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.
The fields has_video, extractor_preference, language_preference, quality are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using --force-format-sort. Apart from these, the default order used by youtube-dlc is: tbr,filesize,vbr,height,width,protocol,vext,abr,aext,fps,filesize_approx,source_preference,format_id. Note that the extractors may override this default order (currently no extractor does this), but not the user-provided order.
If your format selector is worst, the last item is selected after sorting. This means it will select the format that is worst in all repects. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use -f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps.
Tip: You can use the -v -F to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
Default Format Selection
Since the end of April 2015 and version 2015.04.26, youtube-dlc uses -f bestvideo+bestaudio/best as the default format selection (see #5447, #5456). If ffmpeg or avconv are installed this results in downloading bestvideo and bestaudio separately and muxing them together into a single file giving the best overall quality available. Otherwise it falls back to best and results in downloading the best available quality served as a single file. best is also needed for videos that don't come from YouTube because they don't provide the audio and video in two different files. Note that if you use youtube-dlc to stream to stdout (and most likely to pipe it to your media player then), i.e. you explicitly specify output template as -o -, youtube-dlc still uses -f best format selection in order to start content delivery immediately to your player and not to wait until bestvideo and bestaudio are downloaded and muxed.
If you want to preserve the old format selection behavior (prior to youtube-dlc 2015.04.26), i.e. you want to download the best available quality media served as a single file, you should explicitly specify your choice with -f best. You may want to add it to the configuration file in order not to type it every time you run youtube-dlc.
Format Selection examples
Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
# Download and merge the best best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
# or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
$ youtube-dlc
# Same as above
$ youtube-dlc -f 'bestvideo+bestaudio/best'
# Download best format that contains video,
# and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
$ youtube-dlc -f 'bestvideo*+bestaudio/best' --no-audio-multistreams
# Download the worst video available
$ youtube-dlc -f 'worstvideo+worstaudio/worst'
# Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
$ youtube-dlc -S '+res'
# Download the smallest video available
$ youtube-dlc -S '+size,+bitrate'
# Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
$ youtube-dlc -f 'bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/best[ext=mp4]/bestvideo+bestaudio / best'
# Download the best video with the best extension
# (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
$ youtube-dlc -S 'ext'
# Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
# or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
$ youtube-dlc -f 'bestvideo[height<=480]+bestaudio/best[height<=480] / worstvideo+bestaudio/worst'
# 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
$ youtube-dlc -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
$ youtube-dlc -S 'res:480'
# Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
# or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
$ youtube-dlc -f 'best[filesize<50M] / worst'
# 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
$ youtube-dlc -f 'best' -S 'filesize:50M'
# Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
$ youtube-dlc -f 'best' -S 'filesize~50M'
# Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
# or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
$ youtube-dlc -f '(bestvideo+bestaudio/best)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / bestvideo+bestaudio/best'
# Download best video available via the best protocol
# (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
$ youtube-dlc -S 'protocol'
# Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
# For this case, an output template should be used since
# by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
$ youtube-dlc -f 'bestvideo,bestaudio' -o '%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s'
# Download the best video with h264 codec, or the best video if there is no such video
$ youtube-dlc -f '(bestvideo+bestaudio/best)[vcodec^=avc1] / bestvideo+bestaudio/best'
# Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
# or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
$ youtube-dlc -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
$ youtube-dlc -S '+codec:h264'
# More complex examples
# Download the best video no better than 720p prefering framerate greater than 30,
# or the worst video (prefering framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
$ youtube-dlc -f '((bestvideo[fps>30]/bestvideo)[height<=720]/(worstvideo[fps>30]/worstvideo)) + bestaudio / (best[fps>30]/best)[height<=720]/(worst[fps>30]/worst)'
# 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,
# prefering larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
$ youtube-dlc -S 'res:720,fps'
# Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
# or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
# prefering better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
$ youtube-dlc -S '+res:480,codec,br'
VIDEO SELECTION
Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options --date, --datebefore or --dateafter. They accept dates in two formats:
- Absolute dates: Dates in the format
YYYYMMDD. - Relative dates: Dates in the format
(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?
Examples:
# Download only the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
$ youtube-dlc --dateafter now-6months
# Download only the videos uploaded on January 1, 1970
$ youtube-dlc --date 19700101
$ # Download only the videos uploaded in the 200x decade
$ youtube-dlc --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20091231