5 ms·

yt-dlp has been awesome, but one thing I [admittedly havent tried to solve and] don't like about it is that it seems to default to unusual container types when

by jmondi 3y ago

yt-dlp has been awesome, but one thing I [admittedly havent tried to solve and] don't like about it is that it seems to default to unusual container types when downloading. When using yt-dlp, I get a .webm file, and when asking for audio only using `-x`, I get an .opus file. Is there any reason for this?

dylan604 3y ago
i can imagine it's a bit of grandstanding for open formats vs the encumbered formats that are more popular.
- hnarn 3y ago
  No. It’s simply going for the highest quality available.
  - dylan604 3y ago
    i'll accept that. so the grandstanding is with Googs/YT in only providing the higher quality in those formats. there's no compelling reason other than pushing the other formats and trying to throw shade on the others. they are already using h.264, so just up the quality and not force a totally different codec.
ericol 3y ago
That is because by default yt-dlp tries to download the best / better format available and (I take it the context of your downloads are YT) these are the best ones available. You can customize which format to download by doing first: yt-dlp -F <url> Check what numbers are there, and then download the formats you want. You can customize both the video format & rate, and same for sound, by using yt-dlp #+# <url> Where the first hash is the id of the video stream, and the 2nd hash is the id of the audio id. Take into account that you'd probably need also ffmpeg available on the command line for this; that if you "mix" containers (Say, a webm video and an m4u audio stream) you-ll end up with an .mkv container; and finally, that all of the downloaded streams are themselves containers (.m4u, mp4 & webm).
- thaumasiotes 3y ago
  > Take into account that [...] if you "mix" containers [...] you'll end up with an .mkv container He's complaining about getting an .mkv in the first place, so this seems unlikely to solve his problem.
  - ericol 3y ago
    He can solve it if he tells yt-dlp to download a mix of .mp4 and .m4u
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
thaumasiotes 3y ago
A .webm file is an .mkv file. You can rename to .mkv without any ramifications. My guess would be that yt-dlp is giving you whatever file format it finds, with no editorializing. The default is just to go with "best quality" available. So "Is there a reason for this?" is likely a better question for whoever maintains the site(s) you're downloading from.
mdaniel 3y ago
to the best of my knowledge, that's because your system does not have ffmpeg for subsequent transcoding of the site's format into what you would consider "your" format: https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/2023.07.06/README.md#strongly-recommended https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/2023.07.06/README.md#s... (they also allow you to specify the path, if you don't have it in your $PATH, via --ffmpeg-location <https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/2023.07.06/README.md?plain=1#L1037 https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/2023.07.06/README.md?p...>)

by jmondi 3y ago

dylan604 3y ago

i can imagine it's a bit of grandstanding for open formats vs the encumbered formats that are more popular.

hnarn 3y ago
No. It’s simply going for the highest quality available.
- dylan604 3y ago
  i'll accept that. so the grandstanding is with Googs/YT in only providing the higher quality in those formats. there's no compelling reason other than pushing the other formats and trying to throw shade on the others. they are already using h.264, so just up the quality and not force a totally different codec.

ericol 3y ago

That is because by default yt-dlp tries to download the best / better format available and (I take it the context of your downloads are YT) these are the best ones available. You can customize which format to download by doing first: yt-dlp -F <url> Check what numbers are there, and then download the formats you want. You can customize both the video format & rate, and same for sound, by using yt-dlp #+# <url> Where the first hash is the id of the video stream, and the 2nd hash is the id of the audio id. Take into account that you'd probably need also ffmpeg available on the command line for this; that if you "mix" containers (Say, a webm video and an m4u audio stream) you-ll end up with an .mkv container; and finally, that all of the downloaded streams are themselves containers (.m4u, mp4 & webm).

thaumasiotes 3y ago
> Take into account that [...] if you "mix" containers [...] you'll end up with an .mkv container He's complaining about getting an .mkv in the first place, so this seems unlikely to solve his problem.
- ericol 3y ago
  He can solve it if he tells yt-dlp to download a mix of .mp4 and .m4u

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

thaumasiotes 3y ago

A .webm file is an .mkv file. You can rename to .mkv without any ramifications. My guess would be that yt-dlp is giving you whatever file format it finds, with no editorializing. The default is just to go with "best quality" available. So "Is there a reason for this?" is likely a better question for whoever maintains the site(s) you're downloading from.

mdaniel 3y ago

to the best of my knowledge, that's because your system does not have ffmpeg for subsequent transcoding of the site's format into what you would consider "your" format: https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/2023.07.06/README.md#strongly-recommended https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/2023.07.06/README.md#s... (they also allow you to specify the path, if you don't have it in your $PATH, via --ffmpeg-location <https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/2023.07.06/README.md?plain=1#L1037 https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/2023.07.06/README.md?p...>)