Best audio from a Youtube HD video

[pooksahib]

Hi. A few months ago I downloaded a TV show using youtube-dl. After making my edits, I deleted it (regrettably). At the time, I downloaded the best available audio (it being a music show) which was AAC at 254 kbps.

I'm going to download the show again (I missed a scene) but the available streams are as shown in the attachment. No sign of my AAC254. I'm curious about this – does anyone know how youtube works i.e. why the streams would change? Surely, once a video is upped to youtube, that's it...

Am I right in thinking the best audio now available is the opus160k? Thanks for your time.

[sneaker]

Youtube sometimes changes the streams they provide. They might add new codecs, resolutions or framerates. Or in this case remove one that's been deemed dispensable. They store the source files so they can always go back. About Opus@160k: yes, it's likely the highest quality audio you can get right now. There's also AAC@192k but not as a separate stream. It's embed in the very last format (22).

[pooksahib]

Hi sneaker and thanks. Yes, I downloaded 22 so I knew about the AAC192. Did you got to the trouble of downloading it too or is there a way of telling what streams make up 'best'?

[pandy]

Next time or set proper width or better paste text (copy console output with help of >'filename.ext').

youtube-dl.exe -F https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmN9Btkl0rU >info.txt

[sneaker]

Hi sneaker and thanks. Yes, I downloaded 22 so I knew about the AAC192. Did you got to the trouble of downloading it too or is there a way of telling what streams make up 'best'?

My version of youtube-dl shows that. Is yours outdated?

[pooksahib]

Aye, mine was installed last August and I see there've been a hell of a lot of versions since.