Unlock the Full Potential of yt-dlp: Comprehensive Guide and Advanced Techniques
yt-dlp provides a variety of commands and options that you can use to extract information about videos or to customize your downloads. Explore advanced techniques to optimize your video downloading workflow.
Download Zara Larsson with Enforcment highest quality (4K)
yt-dlp -f "bestvideo[height=2160]+bestaudio/best[height=2160]" -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_Ns0r02iik
Discover the available formats for a specific video and choose the one that best suits your needs.
List avialable formats for an url
yt-dlp --list-formats https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-_93i5Yy38
[youtube] Extracting URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-_93i5Yy38
[youtube] f-_93i5Yy38: Downloading webpage
[youtube] f-_93i5Yy38: Downloading ios player API JSON
[youtube] f-_93i5Yy38: Downloading android player API JSON
[youtube] f-_93i5Yy38: Downloading m3u8 information
[info] Available formats for f-_93i5Yy38:
ID EXT RESOLUTION FPS CH │ FILESIZE TBR PROTO │ VCODEC VBR ACODEC ABR ASR MORE INFO
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
sb3 mhtml 48x27 1 │ mhtml │ images storyboard
sb2 mhtml 60x45 1 │ mhtml │ images storyboard
sb1 mhtml 120x90 1 │ mhtml │ images storyboard
sb0 mhtml 240x180 1 │ mhtml │ images storyboard
233 mp4 audio only │ m3u8 │ audio only unknown Default
234 mp4 audio only │ m3u8 │ audio only unknown Default
139 m4a audio only 2 │ 643.49KiB 48k https │ audio only mp4a.40.5 48k 22k low, m4a_dash
249 webm audio only 2 │ 1005.18KiB 76k https │ audio only opus 76k 48k low, webm_dash
250 webm audio only 2 │ 1.15MiB 89k https │ audio only opus 89k 48k low, webm_dash
140 m4a audio only 2 │ 1.67MiB 129k https │ audio only mp4a.40.2 129k 44k medium, m4a_dash
251 webm audio only 2 │ 1.82MiB 140k https │ audio only opus 140k 48k medium, webm_dash
17 3gp 176x144 12 1 │ 903.28KiB 68k https │ mp4v.20.3 mp4a.40.2 22k 144p
269 mp4 192x144 13 │ ~ 2.34MiB 176k m3u8 │ avc1.4D400C 176k video only
160 mp4 192x144 13 │ 1.36MiB 105k https │ avc1.4D400C 105k video only 144p, mp4_dash
603 mp4 192x144 25 │ ~ 1.48MiB 111k m3u8 │ vp09.00.11.08 111k video only
278 webm 192x144 25 │ 422.23KiB 32k https │ vp09.00.11.08 32k video only 144p, webm_dash
229 mp4 320x240 25 │ ~ 4.66MiB 350k m3u8 │ avc1.4D400D 350k video only
133 mp4 320x240 25 │ 2.82MiB 218k https │ avc1.4D400D 218k video only 240p, mp4_dash
604 mp4 320x240 25 │ ~ 2.54MiB 191k m3u8 │ vp09.00.20.08 191k video only
242 webm 320x240 25 │ 645.08KiB 49k https │ vp09.00.20.08 49k video only 240p, webm_dash
230 mp4 480x360 25 │ ~ 5.95MiB 447k m3u8 │ avc1.4D4015 447k video only
134 mp4 480x360 25 │ 1.60MiB 124k https │ avc1.4D4015 124k video only 360p, mp4_dash
18 mp4 480x360 25 2 │ ≈ 3.33MiB 250k https │ avc1.42001E mp4a.40.2 44k 360p
605 mp4 480x360 25 │ ~ 5.00MiB 376k m3u8 │ vp09.00.21.08 376k video only
243 webm 480x360 25 │ 916.84KiB 69k https │ vp09.00.21.08 69k video only 360p, webm_dash
231 mp4 640x480 25 │ ~ 9.99MiB 751k m3u8 │ avc1.4D401E 751k video only
135 mp4 640x480 25 │ 3.19MiB 247k https │ avc1.4D401E 247k video only 480p, mp4_dash
606 mp4 640x480 25 │ ~ 8.26MiB 621k m3u8 │ vp09.00.30.08 621k video only
244 webm 640x480 25 │ 1.47MiB 113k https │ vp09.00.30.08 113k video only 480p, webm_dash
Customization Options
| Command Options | Description |
|---|---|
| –list-formats or -F | This command lists all available formats for the video. |
| –write-description | Saves the video description to a .description file. |
| –write-info-json | Writes video metadata to a JSON file. |
| –write-annotations | Writes video annotations to an .annotations.xml file. |
| –write-thumbnail | Downloads the video thumbnail image. |
| –write-sub | Downloads the subtitle file(s) if available. |
| –all-subs | Downloads all the available subtitles of the video. |
| –skip-download | Retrieves all information (like descriptions, thumbnails, subtitles) without downloading the video. |
| –print-json | Prints video metadata in JSON format to the console instead of downloading. |
| –get-description | Gets video description and prints it to the console. |
| –get-thumbnail | Prints the URL of the thumbnail to the console. |
| –get-title | Prints the video title to the console. |
| –get-id | Prints the video ID to the console. |
| –get-duration | Prints the video duration in seconds to the console. |
| –get-filename | Prints the final filename (after all processing) to the console. |
| –get-format | Prints the format string that will be used for downloading to the console. |
Audio Extraction
- If you prefer a different format, like the WEBM format with a bitrate of
140kbps
yt-dlp -f 251 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-_93i5Yy38
- Here is a simple command in yt-dlp to always pick the highest quality audio available and extract it
yt-dlp -x --audio-format opus -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" "URL" && \
for f in *.opus; do \
newname=$(echo "$f" | sed -e 's/ /_/g' -e 's/_-_/ - /g' -e 's/\[[^][]*\]//g' -e 's/__*/_/g' -e 's/_\.opus$/.opus/' | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]'); \
mv -- "$f" "$newname"; \
done
Video Download
- To download the best available video quality using yt-dlp, you can use the bestvideo argument.
yt-dlp -f bestvideo+bestaudio --merge-output-format mkv "URL"
- Download videos with the best available quality or specify a specific resolution, like 720p.
yt-dlp -f 'bestvideo[height<=720]+bestaudio/best' --merge-output-format mp4 "URL"