youtube-dl DASH video and audio in highest quality without human intervention
Solution 1
Just use -f bestvideo+bestaudio/best for highest resulting quality available.
If you wanted to prefer MP4 format containers instead of WebM, use:
-f bestvideo[ext!=webm]+bestaudio[ext!=webm]/best[ext!=webm].
Solution 2
I've found some weird cases where the default (see #5447, #5456) bestvideo+bestaudio/best would download 720p video even when a 1080p was available. The reason that the bitrate on the 720p was very slightly higher, therefore it seemed better quality for youtube-dl. I prefer the higher res, also all other fancy youtube downloader applications downloaded the 1080p (as control).
Therefore I propose and use this:
-f ("bestvideo[width>=1920]"/bestvideo)+bestaudio/best
It will look for the best, at least 1920 wide video. If that's not available, it'll resort to what it would normally choose. The /best part at the end is part of the default config.
On a side note I recommend putting the %(format_id)s somewhere in the filename, so you know what that file is using. If you later want to re-download a bunch of videos without using archive, with --no-overwrites, a better/different quality will form a new filename next to the old one (so you can compare or whatever).
Solution 3
Or you could just use,
youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blabla
This will download the highest quality video and audio and merge them automatically. And I think I have heard somewhere that you need ffmpeg installed to have this automatic behavior. But I bet most systems have it already.
Solution 4
youtube-dl -f best 'youtube_URL'
or,
youtube-dl -f 'bestvideo+bestaudio/bestvideo+bestaudio' --merge-output-format mp4 'youtube_URL'
or,
youtube-dl -f 'bestvideo[ext=webm]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/bestvideo+bestaudio' --merge-output-format mp4 'youtube_URL'
Hope it helps!
Solution 5
Since the numbers of format are limited I did:
youtube-dl -f 299+140 "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9pzm5b6FFY"
youtube-dl -f 137+140 "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9pzm5b6FFY"
youtube-dl -f best "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9pzm5b6FFY"
If the 299+140 has been downloaded the 137+140 won't be and if none of those have you'll have the best starting with 22. The only problem is that you'll have the best in webm as a duplicate but you can use the ext!=webm to avoid this.
Of course you can start at 313+140 or whatever higher format you want.
Sybil
Updated on July 15, 2022Comments
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Sybil almost 2 years
With youtube-dl I first look what video quality is available and then in second step I download highest possible quality (in this example
-f 137+140). Youtube-dl will automatically merge audio and video stream (DASH format)How to automate that with shell script? With every URL, choose highest audio and video quality?
> youtube-dl -F 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAdRBLyjLRQ&feature=youtu.be&t=8m14s' [youtube] Downloading login page [youtube] Logging in [youtube] VAdRBLyjLRQ: Downloading webpage [youtube] VAdRBLyjLRQ: Downloading video info webpage [youtube] VAdRBLyjLRQ: Extracting video information [youtube] VAdRBLyjLRQ: Downloading DASH manifest [youtube] VAdRBLyjLRQ: Downloading DASH manifest [info] Available formats for VAdRBLyjLRQ: format code extension resolution note 249 webm audio only DASH audio , opus @ 50k 250 webm audio only DASH audio , opus @ 70k 251 webm audio only DASH audio , opus @160k 171 webm audio only DASH audio 117k , vorbis@128k (44100Hz), 7.68MiB 140 m4a audio only DASH audio 128k , m4a_dash container, aac @128k (44100Hz), 11.58MiB 160 mp4 256x144 DASH video 112k , avc1.4d400c, 15fps, video only, 9.94MiB 278 webm 256x144 DASH video 136k , webm container, VP9, 15fps, video only, 9.10MiB 133 mp4 426x240 DASH video 248k , avc1.4d4015, 30fps, video only, 22.27MiB 242 webm 426x240 DASH video 316k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 22.20MiB 243 webm 640x360 DASH video 557k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 41.05MiB 134 mp4 640x360 DASH video 609k , avc1.4d401e, 30fps, video only, 52.94MiB 244 webm 854x480 DASH video 1021k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 74.05MiB 135 mp4 854x480 DASH video 1115k , avc1.4d401f, 30fps, video only, 97.02MiB 247 webm 1280x720 DASH video 2011k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 150.61MiB 136 mp4 1280x720 DASH video 2282k , avc1.4d401f, 30fps, video only, 189.40MiB 248 webm 1920x1080 DASH video 3838k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 286.61MiB 137 mp4 1920x1080 DASH video 4209k , avc1.640028, 30fps, video only, 354.19MiB 17 3gp 176x144 36 3gp 320x240 5 flv 400x240 43 webm 640x360 18 mp4 640x360 22 mp4 1280x720 (best) > youtube-dl -f 137+140 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAdRBLyjLRQ&feature=youtu.be&t=8m14s' [youtube] Downloading login page [youtube] Logging in [youtube] VAdRBLyjLRQ: Downloading webpage [youtube] VAdRBLyjLRQ: Downloading video info webpage [youtube] VAdRBLyjLRQ: Extracting video information (...) -
Sybil over 8 yearshowto get only MP4? No WebM?
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dstftw over 8 years
-f bestvideo[ext!=webm]+bestaudio[ext!=webm]/best[ext!=webm]. -
Adrian Frühwirth over 8 yearsSince version
2015.04.26this is the default (see here) so there's no need to specify it manually. -
TNT about 7 yearsAs shown in the screenshot "best" is in this sample case (as often) 1280x720. And that would be what you get this way. I can't afford to downvote this answer as it would deserve...
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Lilylakshi about 7 years@TNT Actually no. The best in parenthesis implies the best complete video. But if you do not provide a quality, it actually goes ahead and downloads the best video and best audio separately. And combines them to form the final output and deletes the original video and audio files afterward. These steps are actually displayed in the terminal. And I have experienced the output firsthand. The OP would get a 1080p video in this example.
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TNT about 7 years@Lilytakshi Sorry, you're right! Fortunately I didn't downvote your answer. Shame on me! I upvoted now.
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gerry3 almost 7 yearsAs suggested, I had to installffmpegfor it to grab the best files separately and merge them -
Redoman over 6 yearsIt will not necessarily download the best audio. Since 2015, youtube-dl uses-f bestvideo+bestaudio/bestas the default format. This means It will try to download thebestaudiostream served as a single file (DASH) when available, but if it doesn't exist it will download thebestaudio-video stream and extract the audio from it. The thing is that for some YT vids the (DASH) audio stream quality is lower than the audio found in thebestaudio-video stream. There is an ongoing discussion on whether this should be addressed at github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/9302 -
Redoman over 6 yearsIt will not necessarily download the best audio. Since 2015, youtube-dl uses
-f bestvideo+bestaudio/bestas the default format. This means It will try to download thebestaudiostream served as a single file (DASH) when available, but if it doesn't exist it will download thebestaudio-video stream and extract the audio from it. The thing is that for some YT vids the highest quality DASH audio stream has a lower bitrate than the audio found in thebestaudio-video stream. There is an ongoing discussion on whether this should be addressed at github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/9302
