yt-dlp for Win7

[cholla]

I installed the fork of Node.js for Windows 7 & the latest yt-dlp for Windows 7.
I used the YouTube that Bencuri posted:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfObjX-E_g4
I like to use --list-formats & select the one I want.
For this one I started with the m3u8 that was largest & looked like the "best" choice.
As nicolaasjan posted it was smaller that the size it listed.
The m3u8 showed the total size as: 1.10GiB
Media info showed the Video size as: 765 MiB
The Audio size as:40.5 MiB
These sizes are comparable to Audio 140-1 & Video 137 in the --list-formats.
The only better Audio is OPUS at 43.24MiB if you wanted to use OPUS.
This is only a slightly larger Audio file.
You can use these codes directly with yt-dlp in command .
This is the m3u8:

yt-dlp -f 96-1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfObjX-E_g4

This is the best non OPUS:

yt-dlp -f 137+140-0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfObjX-E_g4

Using OPUS:

yt-dlp -f 137+250-1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfObjX-E_g4

Using the code I use that is the same as Bencuri's:

yt-dlp -f bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/best[ext=mp4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfObjX-E_g4

yt-dlp chooses the 399 video code instead of the 137 video code as "bestvideo".
399 is 405.95MiB
137 is 765.37MiB
It chooses the Spanish 140-1 as bestaudio. Which is fine if that is what is wanted.

The file is named: Celia： 1x03 - ¡El verano! ｜ RTVE Archivo [ZfObjX-E_g4].mp4

[nicolaasjan]

@cholla
As I said, with node you shouldn't see these m3u8 formats:

[debug] Command-line config: ['-vF', 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfObjX-E_g4']
[debug] User config "C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\yt-dlp\config.txt": ['--rm-cache-dir', '--console-title', '--js-runtimes', 'node', '-o', '~/Desktop/%(title)s.%(ext)s', '-S', 'res:1080,vcodec:vp9,acodec:opus', '--embed-thumbnail', '--add-metadata', '--convert-thumbnails', 'jpg', '--ppa', 'ffmpeg:-metadata synopsis=""', '--force-ipv4', '-N', '6', '--sponsorblock-remove', 'all']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1252, fs utf-8, pref cp1252, out cp1252 (No VT), error cp1252 (No VT), screen cp1252 (No VT)
[debug] yt-dlp version nicolaasjan/yt-dlp@2025.12.21.064937 (win_exe)
[debug] Python 3.14.2 (CPython AMD64 64bit) - Windows-7-6.1.7601-SP1 (OpenSSL 3.0.18 30 Sep 2025)
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg N-122272-g224b3ff82a-WIN7 (fdk,setts), ffprobe N-122272-g224b3ff82a-WIN7, phantomjs 2.5.0
[debug] Optional libraries: Cryptodome-3.23.0, brotli-1.2.0, certifi-2025.11.12, curl_cffi-0.13.0, mutagen-1.47.0, requests-2.32.5, sqlite3-3.50.4, urllib3-2.6.2, websockets-15.0.1, yt_dlp_ejs-0.3.2
[debug] JS runtimes: node-20.19.2
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[debug] Request Handlers: urllib, requests, websockets, curl_cffi
[debug] Plugin directories: none
[debug] Loaded 1853 extractors
Removing cache dir C:\Users\User/.cache\yt-dlp ..
[debug] [youtube] [pot] PO Token Providers: none
[debug] [youtube] [pot] PO Token Cache Providers: memory
[debug] [youtube] [pot] PO Token Cache Spec Providers: webpo
[debug] [youtube] [jsc] JS Challenge Providers: bun (unavailable), deno (unavailable), node, quickjs (unavailable)
[youtube] Extracting URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfObjX-E_g4
[youtube] ZfObjX-E_g4: Downloading webpage
[youtube] ZfObjX-E_g4: Downloading tv client config
[debug] [youtube] Forcing "main" player JS variant for player 50cc0679
        original url = /s/player/50cc0679/player_es6.vflset/en_US/base.js
[youtube] ZfObjX-E_g4: Downloading player 50cc0679-main
[youtube] ZfObjX-E_g4: Downloading tv player API JSON
[debug] [youtube] ZfObjX-E_g4: Detected a 6s ad skippable after 5s for tv
[youtube] ZfObjX-E_g4: Downloading android sdkless player API JSON
[youtube] [jsc:node] Solving JS challenges using node
[debug] [youtube] [jsc:node] Using challenge solver lib script v0.3.2 (source: python package, variant: minified)
[debug] [youtube] [jsc:node] Using challenge solver core script v0.3.2 (source: python package, variant: minified)
[debug] [youtube] [jsc:node] Running node: 'C:\Program Files\mpv\node.EXE' --experimental-permission --no-warnings=ExperimentalWarning -
[debug] Sort order given by user: res:1080, vcodec:vp9, acodec:opus
[debug] Sort order given by extractor: quality, res, fps, hdr:12, source, vcodec, channels, acodec, lang, proto
[debug] Formats sorted by: hasvid, ie_pref, res:1080(1080.0), vcodec:vp9(9), acodec:opus(12), quality, fps, hdr:12(7), source, channels, lang, proto, size, br, asr, vext, aext, hasaud, id
[SponsorBlock] Fetching SponsorBlock segments
[debug] SponsorBlock query: https://sponsor.ajay.app/api/skipSegments/fa9c?service=YouTube&categories=%5B%22filler%22%2C+%22intro%22%2C+%22music_offtopic%22%2C+%22preview%22%2C+%22hook%22%2C+%22outro%22%2C+%22interaction%22%2C+%22selfpromo%22%2C+%22sponsor%22%5D&actionTypes=%5B%22skip%22%2C+%22poi%22%2C+%22chapter%22%5D
[SponsorBlock] No matching segments were found in the SponsorBlock database
[info] Available formats for ZfObjX-E_g4:
ID      EXT   RESOLUTION FPS CH |   FILESIZE   TBR PROTO | VCODEC          VBR ACODEC      ABR ASR MORE INFO
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
sb3     mhtml 48x27        0    |                  mhtml | images                                  storyboard
sb2     mhtml 60x45        0    |                  mhtml | images                                  storyboard
sb1     mhtml 120x90       0    |                  mhtml | images                                  storyboard
sb0     mhtml 240x180      0    |                  mhtml | images                                  storyboard
139-drc m4a   audio only      2 |   15.44MiB   49k https | audio only          mp4a.40.5   49k 22k [es-US] Spanish (US) original, low, DRC, ANDR-S, m4a_dash
139-0   m4a   audio only      2 |   15.44MiB   49k https | audio only          mp4a.40.5   49k 22k [en-US] English (US) (default), low, ANDR-S, m4a_dash
139-1   m4a   audio only      2 |   15.44MiB   49k https | audio only          mp4a.40.5   49k 22k [es-US] Spanish (US) original, low, ANDR-S, m4a_dash
140-drc m4a   audio only      2 |   40.96MiB  129k https | audio only          mp4a.40.2  129k 44k [es-US] Spanish (US) original, medium, DRC, TV, m4a_dash
140-0   m4a   audio only      2 |   40.96MiB  129k https | audio only          mp4a.40.2  129k 44k [en-US] English (US) (default), medium, TV, m4a_dash
140-1   m4a   audio only      2 |   40.96MiB  129k https | audio only          mp4a.40.2  129k 44k [es-US] Spanish (US) original, medium, TV, m4a_dash
249-drc webm  audio only      2 |   15.83MiB   50k https | audio only          opus        50k 48k [es-US] Spanish (US) original, low, DRC, TV, webm_dash
250-drc webm  audio only      2 |   18.41MiB   58k https | audio only          opus        58k 48k [es-US] Spanish (US) original, low, DRC, TV, webm_dash
249-0   webm  audio only      2 |   17.70MiB   56k https | audio only          opus        56k 48k [en-US] English (US) (default), low, TV, webm_dash
250-0   webm  audio only      2 |   22.78MiB   72k https | audio only          opus        72k 48k [en-US] English (US) (default), low, TV, webm_dash
249-1   webm  audio only      2 |   15.63MiB   49k https | audio only          opus        49k 48k [es-US] Spanish (US) original, low, TV, webm_dash
250-1   webm  audio only      2 |   18.32MiB   58k https | audio only          opus        58k 48k [es-US] Spanish (US) original, low, TV, webm_dash
251-drc webm  audio only      2 |   32.67MiB  103k https | audio only          opus       103k 48k [es-US] Spanish (US) original, medium, DRC, TV, webm_dash
251-0   webm  audio only      2 |   43.24MiB  137k https | audio only          opus       137k 48k [en-US] English (US) (default), medium, TV, webm_dash
251-1   webm  audio only      2 |   32.44MiB  103k https | audio only          opus       103k 48k [es-US] Spanish (US) original, medium, TV, webm_dash
394     mp4   192x144     25    |   21.88MiB   69k https | av01.0.00M.08   69k video only          144p, TV, mp4_dash
160     mp4   192x144     25    |   19.48MiB   62k https | avc1.4d400b     62k video only          144p, TV, mp4_dash
278     webm  192x144     25    |   24.32MiB   77k https | vp9             77k video only          144p, TV, webm_dash
395     mp4   320x240     25    |   43.18MiB  136k https | av01.0.00M.08  136k video only          240p, TV, mp4_dash
133     mp4   320x240     25    |   41.22MiB  130k https | avc1.4d400d    130k video only          240p, TV, mp4_dash
242     webm  320x240     25    |   37.18MiB  118k https | vp9            118k video only          240p, TV, webm_dash
396     mp4   480x360     25    |   82.96MiB  262k https | av01.0.01M.08  262k video only          360p, TV, mp4_dash
134     mp4   480x360     25    |   84.29MiB  266k https | avc1.4d4015    266k video only          360p, TV, mp4_dash
18      mp4   480x360     25  2 |  188.16MiB  595k https | avc1.42001E         mp4a.40.2       44k [es] 360p, TV
243     webm  480x360     25    |   74.73MiB  236k https | vp9            236k video only          360p, TV, webm_dash
397     mp4   640x480     25    |  134.37MiB  425k https | av01.0.04M.08  425k video only          480p, TV, mp4_dash
135     mp4   640x480     25    |  140.00MiB  442k https | avc1.4d401e    442k video only          480p, TV, mp4_dash
244     webm  640x480     25    |  115.42MiB  365k https | vp9            365k video only          480p, TV, webm_dash
398     mp4   960x720     25    |  236.42MiB  747k https | av01.0.05M.08  747k video only          720p, TV, mp4_dash
136     mp4   960x720     25    |  241.87MiB  764k https | avc1.4d401f    764k video only          720p, TV, mp4_dash
247     webm  960x720     25    |  210.84MiB  666k https | vp9            666k video only          720p, TV, webm_dash
399     mp4   1440x1080   25    |  405.95MiB 1283k https | av01.0.08M.08 1283k video only          1080p, TV, mp4_dash
137     mp4   1440x1080   25    |  765.37MiB 2419k https | avc1.640028   2419k video only          1080p, TV, mp4_dash
248     webm  1440x1080   25    |  401.99MiB 1271k https | vp9           1271k video only          1080p, TV, webm_dash

[Bencuri]

I installed the fork of Node.js for Windows 7 & the latest yt-dlp for Windows 7.
I used the YouTube that Bencuri posted:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfObjX-E_g4

I noticed that it was because of the video selection parameter that I added for the command that resulted in the download of the lower bitrate video. If I use this command below, I get the mp4 with the highest bitrate downloaded:

yt-dlp -o "out/%%(title)s.%%(ext)s" %url% -t mp4

This is without the node that you referred to. Adding the node is still ahead for me.

The AV1 AVC issue about which is better: I do understand the point prioritizing the AV1, but there is difference and it may depend on a personal preference which is better. It may also be the case that if the viewer does not know about the difference, they will not notice anything. However I realized my recent Vegas version cannot open AV1 videos, so better to grab the mp4. This way the issue is not relevant at the moment for me.

So at the moment this is my script, this asks for the link, and downloads the highest bitrate video and audio:

download.bat

@Echo Off
set /p url=Enter video url: 
@Echo On
yt-dlp -o "out/%%(title)s.%%(ext)s" %url% -t mp4

[Brazil]

Using the code I use that is the same as Bencuri's:

yt-dlp -f bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/best[ext=mp4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfObjX-E_g4

yt-dlp chooses the 399 video code instead of the 137 video code as "bestvideo".
399 is 405.95MiB
137 is 765.37MiB

399 is AV1 while 137 is H.264/AVC.
AV1 can be muxed into MP4 and it's supposed to be better than AVC because of a smaller size for an equivalent quality, that's why it got the preference.

[cholla]

@cholla
As I said, with node you shouldn't see these m3u8 formats:

This is what it said before I installed:node.js
[debug] JS runtimes: none

After I installed one of the suggested versions for Windows 7 I got this:
[debug] JS runtimes: node not recognized then the version.
I would have posted a copy of the message but I already uninstalled that version.

I have not given up & plan to try another node version.
If that fails I will probably wait a while since I'm not having any problems downloading from YouTube currently.
Except what probably would not download anyway.
Protected copyrighted videos.

[nicolaasjan]

@cholla
As I said, with node you shouldn't see these m3u8 formats:

This is what it said before I installed:node.js
[debug] JS runtimes: none

After I installed one of the suggested versions for Windows 7 I got this:
[debug] JS runtimes: node not recognized then the version.
I would have posted a copy of the message but I already uninstalled that version.

I have not given up & plan to try another node version.
If that fails I will probably wait a while since I'm not having any problems downloading from YouTube currently.
Except what probably would not download anyway.
Protected copyrighted videos.

Did you try version 20.19.2?
It works here:

[debug] Command-line config: ['-v']
[debug] User config "C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\yt-dlp\config.txt": ['--rm-cache-dir', '--console-title', '--js-runtimes', 'node', '-o', '~/Desktop/%(title)s.%(ext)s', '-S', 'res:1080,vcodec:vp9,acodec:opus', '--embed-thumbnail', '--add-metadata', '--convert-thumbnails', 'jpg', '--ppa', 'ffmpeg:-metadata synopsis=""', '--force-ipv4', '-N', '6', '--sponsorblock-remove', 'all']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1252, fs utf-8, pref cp1252, out cp1252 (No VT), error cp1252 (No VT), screen cp1252 (No VT)
[debug] yt-dlp version nicolaasjan/yt-dlp@2025.12.31.054119 (win_exe)
[debug] Python 3.14.2 (CPython AMD64 64bit) - Windows-7-6.1.7601-SP1 (OpenSSL 3.0.18 30 Sep 2025)
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg N-122272-g224b3ff82a-WIN7 (fdk,setts), ffprobe N-122272-g224b3ff82a-WIN7, phantomjs 2.5.0
[debug] Optional libraries: Cryptodome-3.23.0, brotli-1.2.0, certifi-2025.11.12, curl_cffi-0.13.0, mutagen-1.47.0, requests-2.32.5, sqlite3-3.50.4, urllib3-2.6.2, websockets-15.0.1, yt_dlp_ejs-0.3.2
[debug] JS runtimes: node-20.19.2
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[debug] Request Handlers: urllib, requests, websockets, curl_cffi
[debug] Plugin directories: C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\yt-dlp\plugins\bgutil-ytdlp-pot-provider\yt_dlp_plugins
[debug] Loaded 1848 extractors
Removing cache dir C:\Users\User/.cache\yt-dlp ..

[cholla]

@ nicolaasjan,
I must be doing the install incorrectly.
I keep getting this message when i try to install node-v20.19.2-x86.msi .

This application is only supported on Windows 8.1,
Windows Server 2012 R2, or higher.

[nicolaasjan]

@ nicolaasjan,
I must be doing the install incorrectly.
I keep getting this message when i try to install node-v20.19.2-x86.msi .

This application is only supported on Windows 8.1,
Windows Server 2012 R2, or higher.

Oh, I used the portable zip file (node-v20.19.2-win-x86.zip) and extracted to C:\bin\node.
Then added that folder to the environment variables (PATH):
In an elevated command prompt enter:

setx /m PATH "%PATH%;C:\bin\node"

Or, if you like the GUI way:
https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000549.htm#windows7

[cholla]

@ nicolaasjan,
Thanks for all the help.
You sent me the correct link for nodejs.
I just did not download it correctly.
I started over & the second time it worked.

The node-v20.19.2-x86.msi put these entries in the Enviromental Variables: C:\Program Files\nodejs\;C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\bin

I extracted the node.js-windows-7-main.zip to its' own folder on my Desktop.
I then used the node-v20.19.2-win-x86.zip that was in the blue 20 folder.
I installed it from the extracted files from that folder.

I also use a portable yt-dlp.
I will now use two yt-dlp folders the new one that uses node & the older version that have the internal Javscript interpreter.
This will allow me to see the pre-merged m3u8 formats when I want them.
The debug report now looks like this:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.
C:\Users\User\Desktop\Vedit\yt-dlp>yt-dlp -vU --js-runtimes node --list-formats https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfObjX-E_g4
[debug] Command-line config: ['-vU', '--js-runtimes', 'node', '--list-formats', 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfObjX-E_g4']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1252, fs utf-8, pref cp1252, out utf-8 (No VT), error utf-8 (No VT), screen utf-8 (No VT)
[debug] yt-dlp version nicolaasjan/yt-dlp@2025.12.31.054119 (win7_x86_exe*)
[debug] Python 3.14.2 (CPython AMD64 32bit) - Windows-7-6.1.7601-SP1 (OpenSSL 3.6.0 1 Oct 2025)
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg N-119166-g1e5c65f539-WIN7 (fdk,setts), ffprobe N-121473-gdc39a576ad-WIN7
[debug] Optional libraries: Cryptodome-3.23.0, brotli-1.2.0, certifi-2025.11.12, mutagen-1.47.0, requests-2.32.5, sqlite3-3.50.4, urllib3-2.6.2, websockets-15.0.1, yt_dlp_ejs-0.3.2
[debug] JS runtimes: node-20.19.2
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[debug] Request Handlers: urllib, requests, websockets
[debug] Plugin directories: none
[debug] Loaded 1848 extractors
[debug] Fetching release info: https://api.github.com/repos/nicolaasjan/yt-dlp/releases/latest
Latest version: nicolaasjan/yt-dlp@2025.12.31.054119
yt-dlp is up to date (nicolaasjan/yt-dlp@2025.12.31.054119)
[debug] [youtube] [pot] PO Token Providers: none
[debug] [youtube] [pot] PO Token Cache Providers: memory
[debug] [youtube] [pot] PO Token Cache Spec Providers: webpo
[debug] [youtube] [jsc] JS Challenge Providers: bun (unavailable), deno (unavailable), node, quickjs (unavailable)
[youtube] Extracting URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfObjX-E_g4
[youtube] ZfObjX-E_g4: Downloading webpage
[youtube] ZfObjX-E_g4: Downloading tv client config
[debug] [youtube] Forcing "main" player JS variant for player 50cc0679
        original url = /s/player/50cc0679/player_es6.vflset/en_US/base.js
[youtube] ZfObjX-E_g4: Downloading player 50cc0679-main
[youtube] ZfObjX-E_g4: Downloading tv player API JSON
[debug] [youtube] ZfObjX-E_g4: Detected a 15s ad skippable after 5s for tv
[youtube] ZfObjX-E_g4: Downloading android sdkless player API JSON
[youtube] [jsc:node] Solving JS challenges using node
[debug] [youtube] [jsc:node] Using challenge solver lib script v0.3.2 (source: python package, variant: minified)
[debug] [youtube] [jsc:node] Using challenge solver core script v0.3.2 (source: python package, variant: minified)
[debug] [youtube] [jsc:node] Running node: 'C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.EXE' --experimental-permission --no-warnings=ExperimentalWarning -
[debug] Sort order given by extractor: quality, res, fps, hdr:12, source, vcodec, channels, acodec, lang, proto
[debug] Formats sorted by: hasvid, ie_pref, quality, res, fps, hdr:12(7), source, vcodec, channels, acodec, lang, proto, size, br, asr, vext, aext, hasaud, id