How do I use yt-dlp to retrieve a streaming video?

[BosseB]

With youtube-dl I can issue the following command and it starts downloading from the stream:

youtube-dl -f hls-1180 -o yttest.mp4 https://somestreamurl/

It continues running until I stop it with Ctrl-C at which point it cleans up the .part file to .mp4
Edit: Or actually in newer versions it just stops, but the part file is a valid mp4 so renaming it by removing the .part extension makes it
a good mp4.

But when I try this instead:

yt-dlp -f hls-1180 -o yttest.mp4 https://somestreamurl/

then the download stops by itself after only a few seconds leaving a very short file.

I thought they would work approximately the same but this is a very bi difference...

[LZAA]

yt-dlp --hls-prefer-native ...

[BosseB]

yt-dlp --hls-prefer-native ...

Did not work!

yt-dlp --hls-prefer-native -f hls-1180 -o ytdlp-test.mp4 https://xxxxxxxxxxx.com/

The command should run continuously until stopped with Ctrl-C but it stops by itself after downloading 58 seconds of video.
If using youtube-dl instead this is what happens.

[mister_ nex]

maybe should be added to the yt-dlp code options
--user-agent
--referrer
--cookies-from-browser
--allow-unplayable-formats

[BosseB]

Please note that the difference between youtube-dl and yt-dlp concering the donload of a running stream is thet youtube-dl starts at current time and records the stream as it is received.
The way the yt-dlp seems to work is that it finds the latest chunk of the video stream and downloads that and then exits just as if the video url pointed to a fixed size video file rather than a live stream.

So the operation is definitely different, but the way youtube-dl works surely seems to be the best one of the two.

I do not need to use any of the options you suggest with youtube-dl at all, it just needs the format specifier (if "best" does not fit the bill"), the output file name and the URL.

The only reason I am asking this is that I saw in another thread a reference to the yt-dlp as the "successor" of youtube-dl and I hoped they would have added a built-in timeout argument so I could use that rather than the Linux timeout wrapper to get the video length I want (1 hour mostly).
But it seems not to be the case so I will probably drop this and continue using youtube-dl instead.

[codehound]

The only reason I am asking this is that I saw in another thread a reference to the yt-dlp as the "successor" of youtube-dl and I hoped they would have added a built-in timeout argument so I could use that rather than the Linux timeout wrapper to get the video length I want (1 hour mostly).
But it seems not to be the case so I will probably drop this and continue using youtube-dl instead.

youtube-dl is dead in the water with severe throttling issues just one of many issues raised and not addressed by the devps since their last activity in June.

yt-dlp is definitely the way to go over youtube-dl with a very active discord server for help (yt-dlp-help channel) where you can ask for assistance and get answered in seconds. The developer himself is active on there daily too.
https://discord.gg/u9XrQgJU

For live stream downloading I would prefer streamlink - the installer needs double clicking to install it, unlike youtube-dl and yt-dlp. You then call it from a cmd prompt in a similar way though.

If its a HLS stream, streamlink can be halted after a set period with

streamlink --hls-duration 01:00:00 "url" best -o output.ts

[BosseB]

The only reason I am asking this is that I saw in another thread a reference to the yt-dlp as the "successor" of youtube-dl and I hoped they would have added a built-in timeout argument so I could use that rather than the Linux timeout wrapper to get the video length I want (1 hour mostly).
But it seems not to be the case so I will probably drop this and continue using youtube-dl instead.

youtube-dl is dead in the water with severe throttling issues just one of many issues raised and not addressed by the devps since their last activity in June.

Do you mean that youtube-dl is no longer maintained?

yt-dlp is definitely the way to go over youtube-dl with a very active discord server for help (yt-dlp-help channel) where you can ask for assistance and get answered in seconds. The developer himself is active on there daily too.
https://discord.gg/u9XrQgJU

When you say "channel" do you mean some kind of social media? If yes then I am not interested, never going to use because of all the harm SM has done to society.

For live stream downloading I would prefer streamlink - the installer needs double clicking to install it, unlike youtube-dl and yt-dlp. You then call it from a cmd prompt in a similar way though.

How do you "double-click" in a server setting where only ssh access to the command prompt is possible?
Or is Streamlink only available on a desktop system?
Mine is a server.

If its a HLS stream, streamlink can be halted after a set period with

streamlink --hls-duration 01:00:00 "url" best -o output.ts

I can test this too provided it can run on a server.

[lomero]

youtube-dl is dead from june 21. now have mod version of this, yt-dlp indeed.
and for channel on discord is a live chat, more user, including developer and your staff.
is faster to enter and see it than talk about it here ...

[[ss]vegeta]

Do you mean that youtube-dl is no longer maintained?

Yes.

When you say "channel" do you mean some kind of social media? If yes then I am not interested, never going to use because of all the harm SM has done to society.

You are currently using social media.

How do you "double-click" in a server setting where only ssh access to the command prompt is possible?
Or is Streamlink only available on a desktop system?
Mine is a server.

Use the portable version then.
https://streamlink.github.io/install.html#windows-portable-version

[BosseB]

youtube-dl is dead from june 21. now have mod version of this, yt-dlp indeed.
and for channel on discord is a live chat, more user, including developer and your staff.
is faster to enter and see it than talk about it here ...

I tried the discord which is a live stream of comment so it is hard to find old questions of the same thing...

But I asked and got this solution, which fits my use case:

yt-dlp -S 'res:500' --downloader ffmpeg --downloader-args "ffmpeg:-t 180" -o testingytdlp-180.mp4 https://hiddenurl.com

The -S argument gives me the format 500 or lower (I want 480)
The --downloader ffmpeg argument tells yt-dlp to use ffmpeg, which apparently youtube-dl does by default
The --downloader-args "ffmpeg:-t 180" argument sends the timeout to ffmpeg.

In the end this then works to get the resolution and the duration I want and it is done using yt-dlp!