How to get Yt-dlp to adapt to YouTube Live stream that lags.

[doctorm]

I occasionally try to download live streams on YouTube while they're live since they occasionally disappear or get edited for copyright strikes.

I've made changes to the 'retry' settings and some new ones like retry-sleep (although I'm not sure I understand it well), but it's not fixing the issue.

It frequently gives up downloading even though the stream is still running.

My current command:

yt-dlp.exe -N 4 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=1:20 -R 25 --fragment-retries 25 --restrict-filenames "%stream%" -P temp:"C:\yt-dlp\Temp" -P home:"D:\My Downloads\" --live-from-start --wait-for-video 60 -o "%%(title)s.%%(ext)s"

[stew]

try ytarchive: https://github.com/Kethsar/ytarchive

i've found it much better than yt-dlp / ffmpeg when dealing with youtube livestreams.

[doctorm]

It sounded good before I started researching the whole necessary POToken thing. Weird that the ytarchive can't manage that since yt-dlp doesn't require it.

[stew]

try it. i've not used a potoken. but youtube is getting annoying sometimes, if you dl too much or is on an IP they don't like etc.

[pcspeak]

try it. i've not used a potoken.

+1


These are my commands.

ytarchive.exe -o "D:/Movies/F1-24hours" --live-from now --threads 2 "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS0r7_7cFDI"

How far back if already started?

ytarchive.exe -o "D:/Movies/F1-24hours" --live-from -4h12m00s --threads 2 "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS0r7_7cFDI"

Start of the broadcast

::ytarchive.exe -o "D:/Movies/F1-24hours" --live-from 00:00:00 --threads 2 "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS0r7_7cFDI"

Note I'm in Win11 and yet use forward slashes for the output file path.

[doctorm]

Anything similar to --restrict-filenames? I can't find it if there is.

Also, most of what I'm trying to do aren't working. --vp9 doesn't get the vp9 codec, even though it exists. --temporary-dir doesn't work and neither does -o for that matter. Everything gets downloaded and saved in the folder with ytarchive.exe.

(I did try forward slashes as well.)

[stew]

"doesn't work" isn't giving us much to go on. show the full command(s) you say don't work.

there's no restrict filename option. if title has problematic characters, i'd avoid it. i use --add-metadata so the title is added there.

-o is for filename but supports using a folder/full path prefixed in front of the filename. i use the filename templates: -o "%(upload_date)s.%(title)s.%(id)s" but you can hardcode the filename (without extension). i tested all variations just now. make sure you quote it properly if spaces etc. i used normal windows path, i.e. backslashes.

--temporary-dir worked for me.

--vp9 didn't, but when i checked formats with yt-dlp (yt-dlp --live-from-start -F), it didn't show them either, so this might be a youtube issue as they've been restricting formats in various ways. maybe those actually require a potoken.

[doctorm]

Maybe it's a Win10 issue. Thanks.

"C:\ytarchive\ytarchive.exe" "%stream%" best --threads 2 --temporary-dir "C:\ytarchive\temp" --live-from 00:00:00 -o "D:\Incoming"

[stew]

Maybe it's a Win10 issue. Thanks.

"C:\ytarchive\ytarchive.exe" "%stream%" best --threads 2 --temporary-dir "C:\ytarchive\temp" --live-from 00:00:00 -o "D:\Incoming"

two things of note.

there's no need for --live-from-start 00:00:00, it starts there by default.

since you say the arguments aren't working, maybe that's a case of them all being after the URL and format. move %stream% best to the end.

[doctorm]

Thanks!
Moving the URL to the end fixed all the issues, including VP9 being downloaded. Weirdly yt-dlp claims it isn't superior to H.264 anymore, but I'm not sure I believe that.
Other weird things:

"C:\ytarchive\ytarchive.exe" --vp9 --threads 2 --temporary-dir "C:\ytarchive\Temp" --live-from 00:00:00 -o "D:\My Downloads\Incoming\%(title)s" "%stream%" best

The -o needs the %(title)s or it saves to 'my downloads' naming the file 'incoming'. Adding an extra backslash doesn't makes it not see the stream link and asks for it again.
--live-from-start generates an error.
The files in the temporary director aren't deleted when finished.

[stew]

yes, -o is for the filename, so using just a path is likely to fail in unintended ways.

--live-from-start is a yt-dlp argument, not a valid ytarchive argument. as i said, it starts from the beginning by default, so no need to use --live-from 00:00:00

it cleans up after itself when stream ends for me. would need to see the output of your command to troubleshoot that issue.