Youtube-dl best video available issue?

[pedrothelion]

Hello!
Why sometimes youtube-dl doesn't download the best available quality even though I gave the correct command?

Link: https://youtu.be/yXbjwBdVqrM

Format available:

youtube-dl -F https://youtu.be/yXbjwBdVqrM
[youtube] yXbjwBdVqrM: Downloading webpage
[youtube] yXbjwBdVqrM: Downloading MPD manifest
[info] Available formats for yXbjwBdVqrM:
format code  extension  resolution note
139          m4a        audio only DASH audio   58k , m4a_dash container, mp4a.40.5@ 48k (22050Hz)
140          m4a        audio only DASH audio  139k , m4a_dash container, mp4a.40.2@128k (44100Hz)
251          webm       audio only DASH audio  160k , webm_dash container, opus @160k (48000Hz)
278          webm       256x144    DASH video   95k , webm_dash container, vp9, 25fps, video only
160          mp4        256x144    DASH video  108k , mp4_dash container, avc1.4d400b, 25fps, video only
242          webm       426x240    DASH video  220k , webm_dash container, vp9, 25fps, video only
133          mp4        426x240    DASH video  242k , mp4_dash container, avc1.4d400c, 25fps, video only
243          webm       640x360    DASH video  405k , webm_dash container, vp9, 25fps, video only
134          mp4        640x360    DASH video  638k , mp4_dash container, avc1.4d401e, 25fps, video only
244          webm       854x480    DASH video  752k , webm_dash container, vp9, 25fps, video only
135          mp4        854x480    DASH video 1155k , mp4_dash container, avc1.4d4014, 25fps, video only
247          webm       1280x720   DASH video 1505k , webm_dash container, vp9, 25fps, video only
136          mp4        1280x720   DASH video 2310k , mp4_dash container, avc1.4d400d, 25fps, video only
248          webm       1920x1080  DASH video 2646k , webm_dash container, vp9, 25fps, video only
137          mp4        1920x1080  DASH video 5055k , mp4_dash container, avc1.640028, 25fps, video only
18           mp4        640x360    360p  414k , avc1.42001E, 25fps, mp4a.40.2@ 96k (44100Hz), 456.26MiB (best)

Command:

youtube-dl https://youtu.be/yXbjwBdVqrM -f137+251

MediaInfo:

Generale
ID univoco                              : 170282437967176500320032791189361175590 (0x801B34628747FE830CD19A640F22AC26)
Formato                                 : Matroska
Versione formato                        : Version 4
Dimensione                              : 2,92 GiB
Durata                                  : 2 o 34 min
Bitrate totale                          : 2.715 kb/s
Creato con                              : Lavf58.40.100
Compressore                             : Lavf58.40.100
ErrorDetectionType                      : Per level 1

Video
ID                                      : 1
Formato                                 : AVC
Formato/Informazioni                    : Advanced Video Codec
Profilo formato                         : High@L4
Impostazioni formato                    : CABAC / 3 Ref Frames
Impostazioni formato, CABAC             : Si
Impostazioni formato, RefFrames         : 3 frame
ID codec                                : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Durata                                  : 2 o 34 min
Larghezza                               : 1.920 pixel
Altezza                                 : 1.080 pixel
Rapporto aspetto visualizzazione        : 16:9
Modalità frame rate                     : Costante
Frame rate                              : 25,000 FPS
Spazio colore                           : YUV
Croma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Profondità bit                          : 8 bit
Tipo scansione                          : Progressivo
Titolo                                  : ISO Media file produced by Google Inc.
Default                                 : Si
Forced                                  : No
Color range                             : Limited
Colori primari                          : BT.709
Caratteristiche trasferimento           : BT.709
Coefficienti matrici                    : BT.709

Audio
ID                                      : 2
Formato                                 : Opus
ID codec                                : A_OPUS
Durata                                  : 2 o 34 min
Canali                                  : 2 canali
Channel layout                          : L R
Frequenza campionamento                 : 48,0 kHz
Profondità bit                          : 32 bit
Modo compressione                       : Con perdita
Lingua                                  : Inglese
Default                                 : Si
Forced                                  : No

Basically the tool downloaded video -f248 (2646k) instead of -f137 (5055k).

Can anyone give me an explanation?

[blimey]

See previous forum post here.

Also, you may want to try a space after the -f parameter;

-f 137+251

[butterw]

Hello!
Basically the tool downloaded video -f248 (2646k) instead of -f137 (5055k).

Not likely. The available formats bitrate list provided by Youtube is often incorrect though (actual bitrate is less than the one listed), not sure why.

[pedrothelion]

Hello!
Basically the tool downloaded video -f248 (2646k) instead of -f137 (5055k).

Not likely. The available formats bitrate list provided by Youtube is often incorrect though (actual bitrate is less than the one listed), not sure why.

I think that's exactly what it is. Also tried with...

youtube-dl https://youtu.be/yXbjwBdVqrM -f 137/mp4/bestvideo

and

youtube-dl https://youtu.be/yXbjwBdVqrM -f bestvideo[vcodec!^=avc1]

always getting the same video with lower bitrate.
Could the higher birate only be available for YouTube Premium users or is there another tool that can download at the highest quality??

[butterw]

There has been talk of downgrades to quality (initially available file gets reencoded to a lower bitrate), I don't know if this is real or related.

[blimey]

Basically the tool downloaded video -f248 (2646k) instead of -f137 (5055k).

It didn't do that, because 248 is vp9, whereas 137 is avc1 (640028,high,level:4.0).

Since you downloaded avc1 and not vp9, youtube-dl likely did download the 137 quality track. The 137 track is the only avc1 track @high/level4.0 (640028). So, you're probably downloading the correct track and not one of the other tracks listed.

Not likely. The available formats bitrate list provided by Youtube is often incorrect though (actual bitrate is less than the one listed), not sure why.

I think that's exactly what it is.

I agree. For whatever reason, youtube-dl (or whatever) is not representing the bitrate accurately in the -F listing.

[codehound]

This code below is nonsense...

youtube-dl https://youtu.be/yXbjwBdVqrM -f 137/mp4/bestvideo

Here you are telling youtube-dl to download what it assumes is "best" and will always be a complete mp4. The parameters are in the wrong place in your syntax.

With ffmpeg.exe in the same folder as youtube-dl you need to use:

youtube-dl -f 137+140 https://youtu.be/yXbjwBdVqrM

If it baulks at the mp4 format use this:

youtube-dl -f 137+140  https://youtu.be/yXbjwBdVqrM --merge-output-format mkv

[pedrothelion]

This code below is nonsense...

youtube-dl https://youtu.be/yXbjwBdVqrM -f 137/mp4/bestvideo

Here you are telling youtube-dl to download what it assumes is "best" and will always be a complete mp4. The parameters are in the wrong place in your syntax.

With ffmpeg.exe in the same folder as youtube-dl you need to use:

 youtube-dl -f 137+140 https://youtu.be/yXbjwBdVqrM

Read here:
"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".

... but as said before -f 137 returns a different bitrate from the one listed with the command -F

[codehound]

You have the syntax incorrect. By just having a space between youtube-dl and the url you are not telling it which format you want it to download.

[pedrothelion]

You have the syntax incorrect. By just having a space between youtube-dl and the url you are not telling it which format you want it to download.

So how should I write it?

[codehound]

As I have done above with -f 137+140 between youtube-dl and the URL

youtube-dl -f 137+140 https://youtu.be/yXbjwBdVqrM

As also stated above, ffmpeg.exe must be in same folder as youtube-dl.exe

Download zip
https://www.gyan.dev/ffmpeg/builds/ffmpeg-git-full.7z

Extract > look in folder BIN > copy/paste ffmpeg.exe into same folder as youtube-dl.exe