Official repository: https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp

PS: Some links in this document will not work since this is a copy of the README.md from Github

yt-dlp is a youtube-dl fork based on the now inactive youtube-dlc. The main focus of this project is adding new features and patches while also keeping up to date with the original project

* NEW FEATURES * Differences in default behavior * INSTALLATION * Update * Release Files * Dependencies * Compile * USAGE AND OPTIONS * General Options * Network Options * Geo-restriction * Video Selection * Download Options * Filesystem Options * Thumbnail Options * Internet Shortcut Options * Verbosity and Simulation Options * Workarounds * Video Format Options * Subtitle Options * Authentication Options * Post-processing Options * SponsorBlock Options * Extractor Options * CONFIGURATION * Authentication with .netrc file * OUTPUT TEMPLATE * Output template and Windows batch files * Output template examples * FORMAT SELECTION * Filtering Formats * Sorting Formats * Format Selection examples * MODIFYING METADATA * Modifying metadata examples * EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS * PLUGINS * EMBEDDING YT-DLP * DEPRECATED OPTIONS * CONTRIBUTING * Opening an Issue * Developer Instructions * MORE

# NEW FEATURES

* Based on youtube-dl 2021.06.06 commit/379f52a and youtube-dlc 2020.11.11-3 commit/98e248f: You get all the features and patches of youtube-dlc in addition to the latest youtube-dl

* SponsorBlock Integration: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in youtube videos by utilizing the SponsorBlock API

* Format Sorting: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using -S. This allows for much easier format selection than what is possible by simply using --format (examples)

* Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl: You get most of the features and improvements from animelover1984/youtube-dl including --write-comments, BiliBiliSearch, BilibiliChannel, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that the NicoNico improvements are not available. See #31 for details.

* Youtube improvements: * All Feeds (:ytfav, :ytwatchlater, :ytsubs, :ythistory, :ytrec) and private playlists supports downloading multiple pages of content * Search (ytsearch:, ytsearchdate:), search URLs and in-channel search works * Mixes supports downloading multiple pages of content * Some (but not all) age-gated content can be downloaded without cookies * Fix for n-sig based throttling * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to /video to preserve the old behaviour * 255kbps audio is extracted (if available) from youtube music when premium cookies are given * Youtube music Albums, channels etc can be downloaded (except self-uploaded music) * Download livestreams from the start using --live-from-start

* Cookies from browser: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[:PROFILE]

* Split video by chapters: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using --split-chapters

* Multi-threaded fragment downloads: Download multiple fragments of m3u8/mpd videos in parallel. Use --concurrent-fragments (-N) option to set the number of threads used

* Aria2c with HLS/DASH: You can use aria2c as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats

* New and fixed extractors: Many new extractors have been added and a lot of existing ones have been fixed. See the changelog or the list of supported sites

* New MSOs: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN

* Subtitle extraction from manifests: Subtitles can be extracted from streaming media manifests. See commit/be6202f for details

* Multiple paths and output templates: You can give different output templates and download paths for different types of files. You can also set a temporary path where intermediary files are downloaded to using --paths (-P)

* Portable Configuration: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See configuration for details

* Output template improvements: Output templates can now have date-time formatting, numeric offsets, object traversal etc. See output template for details. Even more advanced operations can also be done with the help of --parse-metadata and --replace-in-metadata

* Other new options: Many new options have been added such as --print, --wait-for-video, --sleep-requests, --convert-thumbnails, --write-link, --force-download-archive, --force-overwrites, --break-on-reject etc

* Improvements: Regex and other operators in --match-filter, multiple --postprocessor-args and --downloader-args, faster archive checking, more format selection options, merge multi-video/audio etc

* Plugins: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See plugins for details

* Self-updater: The releases can be updated using yt-dlp -U

See changelog or commits for the full list of changes

### Differences in default behavior

Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:

* The options --auto-number (-A), --title (-t) and --literal (-l), no longer work. See removed options for details * avconv is not supported as as an alternative to ffmpeg * The default output template is %(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s. There is no real reason for this change. This was changed before yt-dlp was ever made public and now there are no plans to change it back to %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s. Instead, you may use --compat-options filename * The default format sorting is different from youtube-dl and prefers higher resolution and better codecs rather than higher bitrates. You can use the --format-sort option to change this to any order you prefer, or use --compat-options format-sort to use youtube-dl's sorting order * The default format selector is bv*+ba/b. This means that if a combined video + audio format that is better than the best video-only format is found, the former will be preferred. Use -f bv+ba/b or --compat-options format-spec to revert this * Unlike youtube-dlc, yt-dlp does not allow merging multiple audio/video streams into one file by default (since this conflicts with the use of -f bv*+ba). If needed, this feature must be enabled using --audio-multistreams and --video-multistreams. You can also use --compat-options multistreams to enable both * --ignore-errors is enabled by default. Use --abort-on-error or --compat-options abort-on-error to abort on errors instead * When writing metadata files such as thumbnails, description or infojson, the same information (if available) is also written for playlists. Use --no-write-playlist-metafiles or --compat-options no-playlist-metafiles to not write these files * --add-metadata attaches the infojson to mkv files in addition to writing the metadata when used with --write-info-json. Use --no-embed-info-json or --compat-options no-attach-info-json to revert this * Some metadata are embedded into different fields when using --add-metadata as compared to youtube-dl. Most notably, comment field contains the webpage_url and synopsis contains the description. You can use --parse-metadata to modify this to your liking or use --compat-options embed-metadata to revert this * playlist_index behaves differently when used with options like --playlist-reverse and --playlist-items. See #302 for details. You can use --compat-options playlist-index if you want to keep the earlier behavior * The output of -F is listed in a new format. Use --compat-options list-formats to revert this * All experiences of a funimation episode are considered as a single video. This behavior breaks existing archives. Use --compat-options seperate-video-versions to extract information from only the default player * Youtube live chat (if available) is considered as a subtitle. Use --sub-langs all,-live_chat to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use --compat-options no-live-chat to prevent live chat from downloading * Youtube channel URLs are automatically redirected to /video. Append a /featured to the URL to download only the videos in the home page. If the channel does not have a videos tab, we try to download the equivalent UU playlist instead. Also, /live URLs raise an error if there are no live videos instead of silently downloading the entire channel. You may use --compat-options no-youtube-channel-redirect to revert all these redirections * Unavailable videos are also listed for youtube playlists. Use --compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos to remove this * If ffmpeg is used as the downloader, the downloading and merging of formats happen in a single step when possible. Use --compat-options no-direct-merge to revert this * Thumbnail embedding in mp4 is done with mutagen if possible. Use --compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley to force the use of AtomicParsley instead * Some private fields such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use --no-clean-infojson or --compat-options no-clean-infojson to revert this * When --embed-subs and --write-subs are used together, the subtitles are written to disk and also embedded in the media file. You can use just --embed-subs to embed the subs and automatically delete the separate file. See #630 (comment) for more info. --compat-options no-keep-subs can be used to revert this

For ease of use, a few more compat options are available: * --compat-options all: Use all compat options * --compat-options youtube-dl: Same as --compat-options all,-multistreams * --compat-options youtube-dlc: Same as --compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect

# INSTALLATION

You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:

### Using the release binary

You can simply download the correct binary file for your OS: [[Windows](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)] [UNIX-like]

In UNIX-like OSes (MacOS, Linux, BSD), you can also install the same in one of the following ways:

sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp

sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp

sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp

PS: The manpages, shell completion files etc. are available in yt-dlp.tar.gz

### With PIP

You can install the PyPI package with:

python3 -m pip install -U yt-dlp

You can install without any of the optional dependencies using:

python3 -m pip install --no-deps -U yt-dlp

If you want to be on the cutting edge, you can also install the master branch with:

python3 -m pip install --force-reinstall https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/archive/master.zip

Note that on some systems, you may need to use py or python instead of python3

### With Homebrew

macOS or Linux users that are using Homebrew can also install it by:

brew install yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp

## UPDATE You can use yt-dlp -U to update if you are using the provided release

If you installed with pip, simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program

If you installed using Homebrew, run brew upgrade yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp

## RELEASE FILES

#### Recommended

File|Description :---|:--- yt-dlp|Platform-independant binary. Needs Python (recommended for UNIX-like systems) yt-dlp.exe|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary (recommended for Windows)

#### Alternatives

File|Description :---|:--- yt-dlpmacos|MacOS (10.15+) standalone executable yt-dlpx86.exe|Windows (Vista SP2+) standalone x86 (32-bit) binary yt-dlpmin.exe|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary built with py2exe.
Does not contain pycryptodomex, needs VC++14 yt-dlpwin.zip|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update) yt-dlp_macos.zip|Unpackaged MacOS (10.15+) executable (no auto-update)

#### Misc

File|Description :---|:--- yt-dlp.tar.gz|Source tarball. Also contains manpages, completions, etc SHA2-512SUMS|GNU-style SHA512 sums SHA2-256SUMS|GNU-style SHA256 sums

## DEPENDENCIES Python versions 3.6+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.

While all the other dependencies are optional, ffmpeg and ffprobe are highly recommended

* ffmpeg and ffprobe - Required for merging separate video and audio files as well as for various post-processing tasks. Licence depends on the build * mutagen - For embedding thumbnail in certain formats. Licensed under GPLv2+ * pycryptodomex - For decrypting AES-128 HLS streams and various other data. Licensed under BSD2 * websockets - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under BSD3 * keyring - For decrypting cookies of chromium-based browsers on Linux. Licensed under MIT * AtomicParsley - For embedding thumbnail in mp4/m4a if mutagen is not present. Licensed under GPLv2+ * rtmpdump - For downloading rtmp streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licensed under GPLv2+ * mplayer or mpv - For downloading rstp streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licensed under GPLv2+ * phantomjs - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licensed under BSD3 * sponskrub - For using the now deprecated sponskrub options. Licensed under GPLv3+ * Any external downloader that you want to use with --downloader

To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.

The Windows and MacOS standalone release binaries are already built with the python interpreter, mutagen, pycryptodomex and websockets included.

Note: There are some regressions in newer ffmpeg versions that causes various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependency, we provide custom builds with patches for these issues at yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds. See the readme for details on the specific issues solved by these builds

## COMPILE

For Windows: To build the Windows executable, you must have pyinstaller (and optionally mutagen, pycryptodomex, websockets). Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, (optionally) build lazy extractors using devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py, and then just run pyinst.py. The executable will be built for the same architecture (32/64 bit) as the python used to build it.

py -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt py devscripts/makelazyextractors.py py pyinst.py

Note that pyinstaller does not support Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment

For Unix: You will need the required build tools: python, make (GNU), pandoc, zip, pytest
Then simply run make. You can also run make yt-dlp instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files

Note: In either platform, devscripts/update-version.py can be used to automatically update the version number

You can also fork the project on github and run your fork's build workflow to automatically build a release

# USAGE AND OPTIONS

yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]

Ctrl+F is your friend :D

## General Options: -h, --help Print this help text and exit --version Print program version and exit -U, --update Update this program to latest version. Make sure that you have sufficient permissions (run with sudo if needed) -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors. The download will be considered successful even if the postprocessing fails --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors; e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a playlist (default) --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors) --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported extractors and exit --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic extractor --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos from google videos for the search term "large apple". Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess ("autowarning" to emit a warning when guessing). "error" just throws an error. The default value "fixuperror" repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if this is not possible instead of searching --ignore-config, --no-config Disable loading any configuration files except the one provided by --config-location. When given inside a configuration file, no further configuration files are loaded. Additionally, (for backward compatibility) if this option is found inside the system configuration file, the user configuration is not loaded --config-location PATH Location of the main configuration file; either the path to the config or its containing directory --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist, only list them --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start. Currently only supported for YouTube --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time (default) --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become available. Pass the minimum number of seconds (or range) to wait between retries --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default) --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate). Currently only supported for YouTube --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default) --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc configurations by reverting some of the changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in default behavior" for details

## Network Options: --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme. For example socks5://127.0.0.1:1080/. Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for direct connection --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6

## Geo-restriction: --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the option is not present) is used for the actual downloading --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with explicitly provided two-letter ISO 3166-2 country code --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with explicitly provided IP block in CIDR notation

## Video Selection: --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is 1) --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last) --playlist-items ITEMSPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify indices of the videos in the playlist separated by commas like: "--playlist-items 1,2,5,8" if you want to download videos indexed 1, 2, 5, 8 in the playlist. You can specify range: "--playlist-items 1-3,7,10-13", it will download the videos at index 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m) --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m) --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date. The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format "(now|today)[+-]0-9(s)?" --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before this date. The date formats accepted is the same as --date --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after this date. The date formats accepted is the same as --date --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Any field (see "OUTPUT TEMPLATE") can be compared with a number or a string using the operators defined in "Filtering formats". You can also simply specify a field to match if the field is present and "!field" to check if the field is not present. In addition, Python style regular expression matching can be done using "~=", and multiple filters can be checked with "&". Use a "\" to escape "&" or quotes if needed. Eg: --match-filter "!islive & like_count>?100 & description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'" matches only videos that are not live, has a like count more than 100 (or the like field is not available), and also has a description that contains the phrase "cats & dogs" (ignoring case) --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default) --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers to a video and a playlist --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to a video and a playlist --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given age --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the archive file. Record the IDs of all downloaded videos in it --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default) --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering a file that is in the archive --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering a file that has been filtered out --break-per-input Make --break-on-existing and --break-on- reject act only on the current input URL --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and --break-on-reject terminates the entire download queue --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of the playlist is skipped

## Download Options: -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative video that should be download concurrently (default is 1) -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second (e.g. 50K or 4.2M) --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second below which throttling is assumed and the video data is re-extracted (e.g. 100K) -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or "infinite" --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM) --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH, hlsnative and ISM (default) (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment) --abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading if a fragment is unavailable (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments) --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after downloading is finished --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after downloading is finished (default) --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K) (default is 1024) --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized from an initial value of --buffer-size (default) --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP downloading (e.g. 10485760 or 10M) (default is disabled). May be useful for bypassing bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver (experimental) --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order --no-playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in default order (default) --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with expected file size --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos; allowing some players to play the video while downloading, and reducing the chance of file corruption if download is interrupted. This is enabled by default for live streams --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS videos. This is default when not downloading live streams --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to use it for. Currently supports native, aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie, wget (Recommended: aria2c). You can use this option multiple times to set different downloaders for different protocols. For example, --downloader aria2c --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads (Alias: --external-downloader) --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external downloader. Specify the downloader name and the arguments separated by a colon ":". For ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different positions using the same syntax as --postprocessor-args. You can use this option multiple times to give different arguments to different downloaders (Alias: --external-downloader-args)

## Filesystem Options: -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as comments and ignored --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default) -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be downloaded. Specify the type of file and the path separated by a colon ":". All the same types as --output are supported. Additionally, you can also provide "home" (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary files are first downloaded to the temp path and then the final files are moved over to the home path after download is finished. This option is ignored if --output is an absolute path -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder value for unavailable meta fields in output filename template (default: "NA") --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in filenames (default) --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if using Windows (default) --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding extension) to the specified number of characters -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This option includes --no-continue --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite related files (default) -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments (default) --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded fragments. If the file is not fragmented, restart download of the entire file --part Use .part files instead of writing directly into output file (default) --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into output file --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file modification time (default) --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set the file modification time --write-description Write video description to a .description file --no-write-description Do not write video description (default) --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file (this may contain personal information) --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default) --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the video metadata when using --write-info-json, --write-description etc. (default) --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using --write-info-json, --write-description etc. --clean-infojson Remove some private fields such as filenames from the infojson. Note that it could still contain some personal information (default) --no-clean-infojson Write all fields to the infojson --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the infojson. The comments are fetched even without this option if the extraction is known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments) --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the extraction is known to be quick (Alias: --no-get-comments) --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information (created with the "--write-info-json" option) --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file (default) --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[:PROFILE] Load cookies from a user profile of the given web browser. Currently supported browsers are: brave, chrome, chromium, edge, firefox, opera, safari, vivaldi. You can specify the user profile name or directory using "BROWSER:PROFILENAME" or "BROWSER:PROFILEPATH". If no profile is given, the most recently accessed one is used --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default) --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl can store some downloaded information (such as client ids and signatures) permanently. By default $XDGCACHEHOME/yt-dlp or ~/.cache/yt-dlp --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files

## Thumbnail Options: --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default) --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is used

## Internet Shortcut Options: --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending on the current platform (.url, .webloc or .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The OS caches the URL based on the file path --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut

## Verbosity and Simulation Options: -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose, print the log to stderr --no-warnings Ignore warnings -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write anything to disk --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing options are used --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for extracting metadata even if the videos are not actually available for download (experimental) --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video formats are found (default) --skip-download Do not download the video but write all related files (Alias: --no-download) -O, --print TEMPLATE Quiet, but print the given fields for each video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is used. Either a field name or same syntax as the output template can be used -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a description of available keys -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each url or infojson passed. Simulate unless --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to a playlist, the whole playlist information is dumped in a single line --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written as far as no errors occur, even if -s or another simulation option is used (Alias: --force-download-archive) --newline Output progress bar as new lines --no-progress Do not print progress bar --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode --console-title Display progress in console titlebar --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Template for progress outputs, optionally prefixed with one of "download:" (default), "download-title:" (the console title), "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:". The video's fields are accessible under the "info" key and the progress attributes are accessible under "progress" key. E.g.: --console-title --progress-template "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s" -v, --verbose Print various debugging information --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64 to debug problems (very verbose) --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files in the current directory to debug problems --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic

## Workarounds: --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental) --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve information about the video (Currently supported only for YouTube) --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video access is restricted to one domain --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value, separated by a colon ":". You can use this option multiple times --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv or fribidi executable in PATH --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests during data extraction --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each download. This is the minimum time to sleep when used along with --max-sleep-interval (Alias: --min-sleep-interval) --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only be used along with --min-sleep-interval --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each subtitle download

## Video Format Options: -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION" for more details -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see "Sorting Formats" for more details --S-force, --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have precedence over all fields, see "Sorting Formats" for more details --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user specified sort order (default), see "Sorting Formats" for more details --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged into a single file --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each output file (default) --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged into a single file --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each output file (default) --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers over non-free ones of same quality. Use with "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers irrespective of quality --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free containers (default) --check-formats Check that the selected formats are actually downloadable --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are actually downloadable --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually downloadable -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is used --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g. bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg, webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required

## Subtitle Options: --write-subs Write subtitle file --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default) --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file (Alias: --write-automatic-subs) --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs) --list-subs List available subtitles of each video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is used --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats preference, for example: "srt" or "ass/srt/best" --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can be regex) or "all" separated by commas. (Eg: --sub-langs "en.*,ja") You can prefix the language code with a "-" to exempt it from the requested languages. (Eg: --sub- langs all,-live_chat) Use --list-subs for a list of available language tags

## Authentication Options: -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask interactively -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data; either the path or its containing directory. Defaults to ~/.netrc --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku) --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for a list of available MSOs --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password. If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask interactively --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators

## Post-Processing Options: -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe) --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format to convert the audio to when -x is used. Currently supported formats are: best (default) or one of best|aac|flac|mp3|m4a|opus|vorbis|wav|alac --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality, insert a value between 0 (best) and 10 (worst) for VBR or a specific bitrate like 128K (default 5) --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if necessary (currently supported: mp4|mkv|flv |webm|mov|avi|mp3|mka|m4a|ogg|opus). If target container does not support the video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You can specify multiple rules; Eg. "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a, mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv. --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if re-encoding is necessary. The syntax and supported formats are the same as --remux-video --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors. Specify the postprocessor/executable name and the arguments separated by a colon ":" to give the argument to the specified postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are: Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters, ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor, Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail, SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor, FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8, FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The supported executables are: AtomicParsley, FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the specified executable only when being used by the specified postprocessor. Additionally, for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "i"/"o" can be appended to the prefix optionally followed by a number to pass the argument before the specified input/output file. Eg: --ppa "Merger+ffmpegi1:-v quiet". You can use this option multiple times to give different arguments to different postprocessors. (Alias: --ppa) -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk after post-processing --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after post-processing (default) --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default) --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4, webm and mkv videos) --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default) --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default) --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also embeds chapters/infojson if present unless --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are used (Alias: --add-metadata) --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default) (Alias: --no-add-metadata) --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file (Alias: --add-chapters) --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias: --no-add-chapters) --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to mkv/mka video files --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment to the video file --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA" for details --replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE Replace text in a metadata field using the given regex. This option can be used multiple times --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs (using dublin core and xdg standards) --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only emit a warning), detectorwarn (the default; fix file if we can, warn otherwise), force (try fixing even if file already exists --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the path to the binary or its containing directory --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after downloading and post-processing. Same syntax as the output template can be used to pass any field as arguments to the command. An additional field "filepath" that contains the final path of the downloaded file is also available. If no fields are passed, %(filepath)q is appended to the end of the command. This option can be used multiple times --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec --exec-before-download CMD Execute a command before the actual download. The syntax is the same as --exec but "filepath" is not available. This option can be used multiple times --no-exec-before-download Remove any previously defined --exec-before-download --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format (currently supported: srt|vtt|ass|lrc) (Alias: --convert-subtitles) --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format (currently supported: jpg|png) --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set the output filename for the split files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default) --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the given regular expression. Time ranges prefixed by a "*" can also be used in place of chapters to remove the specified range. Eg: --remove-chapters "*10:15-15:00" --remove-chapters "intro". This option can be used multiple times --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file (default) --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes around the chapters before removing/splitting them. Requires a re-encode and thus is very slow, but the resulting video may have fewer artifacts around the cuts --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters when cutting/splitting (default) --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS] The (case sensitive) name of plugin postprocessors to be enabled, and (optionally) arguments to be passed to it, separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE. The "when" argument determines when the postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of "preprocess" (after extraction), "beforedl" (before video download), "postprocess" (after video download; default) or "after_move" (after moving file to their final locations). This option can be used multiple times to add different postprocessors

## SponsorBlock Options: Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor, introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the SponsorBlock API

--sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters for, separated by commas. Available categories are all, default(=all), sponsor, intro, outro, selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction, musicofftopic, poihighlight. You can prefix the category with a "-" to exempt it. See [1] for description of the categories. Eg: --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview [1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/SegmentCategories --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from the video file, separated by commas. If a category is present in both mark and remove, remove takes precedence. The syntax and available categories are the same as for --sponsorblock-mark except that "default" refers to "all,-filler" and poihighlight is not available --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE The title template for SponsorBlock chapters created by --sponsorblock-mark. The same syntax as the output template is used, but the only available fields are starttime, endtime, category, categories, name, categorynames. Defaults to "[SponsorBlock]: %(categorynames)l" --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and --sponsorblock-remove --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to https://sponsor.ajay.app

## Extractor Options: --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors (default is 3), or "infinite" --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default) (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd) --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd) --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks (default) --extractor-args KEY:ARGS Pass these arguments to the extractor. See "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You can use this option multiple times to give arguments for different extractors

# CONFIGURATION

You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:

1. Main Configuration: The file given by --config-location 1. Portable Configuration: yt-dlp.conf in the same directory as the bundled binary. If you are running from source-code (<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py), the root directory is used instead. 1. Home Configuration: yt-dlp.conf in the home path given by -P "home:<path>", or in the current directory if no such path is given 1. User Configuration: * %XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config (recommended on Linux/macOS) * %XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf * %APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config (recommended on Windows) * %APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt * ~/yt-dlp.conf * ~/yt-dlp.conf.txt

%XDG_CONFIG_HOME% defaults to ~/.config if undefined. On windows, %APPDATA% generally points to C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming and ~ points to %HOME% if present, %USERPROFILE% (generally C:\Users\<user name>), or %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH% 1. System Configuration: /etc/yt-dlp.conf

For example, with the following configuration file yt-dlp will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory:

# Lines starting with # are comments

# Always extract audio
-x

# Do not copy the mtime
--no-mtime

# Use this proxy
--proxy 127.0.0.1:3128

# Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
-o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s

Note that options in configuration file are just the same options aka switches used in regular command line calls; thus there must be no whitespace after - or --, e.g. -o or --proxy but not - o or -- proxy.

You can use --ignore-config if you want to disable all configuration files for a particular yt-dlp run. If --ignore-config is found inside any configuration file, no further configuration will be loaded. For example, having the option in the portable configuration file prevents loading of home, user, and system configurations. Additionally, (for backward compatibility) if --ignore-config is found inside the system configuration file, the user configuration is not loaded.

### Authentication with .netrc file

You may also want to configure automatic credentials storage for extractors that support authentication (by providing login and password with --username and --password) in order not to pass credentials as command line arguments on every yt-dlp execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell command history. You can achieve this using a .netrc file on a per extractor basis. For that you will need to create a .netrc file in --netrc-location and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:

touch $HOME/.netrc
chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc

After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where extractor is the name of the extractor in lowercase:

machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>

For example:

machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password

To activate authentication with the .netrc file you should pass --netrc to yt-dlp or place it in the configuration file.

The default location of the .netrc file is $HOME (~) in UNIX. On Windows, it is %HOME% if present, %USERPROFILE% (generally C:\Users\<user name>) or %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%

# OUTPUT TEMPLATE

The -o option is used to indicate a template for the output file names while -P option is used to specify the path each type of file should be saved to.

tl;dr: navigate me to examples.

The simplest usage of -o is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in yt-dlp -o funny_video.flv "https://some/video" (hard-coding file extension like this is not recommended and could break some post-processing).

It may however also contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according to Python string formatting operations. For example, %(NAME)s or %(NAME)05d. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations.

The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting: 1. Object traversal: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a . (dot) separator. You can also do python slicing using :. Eg: %(tags.0)s, %(subtitles.en.-1.ext)s, %(id.3:7:-1)s, %(formats.:.format_id)s. %()s refers to the entire infodict. Note that all the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use -j to see such fields

1. Addition: Addition and subtraction of numeric fields can be done using + and - respectively. Eg: %(playlist_index+10)03d, %(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d

1. Date/time Formatting: Date/time fields can be formatted according to strftime formatting by specifying it separated from the field name using a >. Eg: %(duration>%H-%M-%S)s, %(upload_date>%Y-%m-%d)s, %(epoch-3600>%H-%M-%S)s

1. Alternatives: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a ,. Eg: %(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s

1. Replacement: A replacement value can specified using a & separator. If the field is not empty, this replacement value will be used instead of the actual field content. This is done after alternate fields are considered; thus the replacement is used if any of the alternative fields is not empty.

1. Default: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a | separator. This overrides --output-na-template. Eg: %(uploader|Unknown)s

1. More Conversions: In addition to the normal format types diouxXeEfFgGcrs, B, j, l, q can be used for converting to Bytes, json (flag # for pretty-printing), a comma separated list (flag # for \n newline-separated) and a string quoted for the terminal (flag # to split a list into different arguments), respectively

1. Unicode normalization: The format type U can be used for NFC unicode normalization. The alternate form flag (#) changes the normalization to NFD and the conversion flag + can be used for NFKC/NFKD compatibility equivalence normalization. Eg: %(title)+.100U is NFKC

To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:

%(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type

    Additionally, you can set different output templates for the various metadata files separately from the general output template by specifying the type of file followed by the template separated by a colon `:`. The different file types supported are `subtitle`, `thumbnail`, `description`, `annotation` (deprecated), `infojson`, `link`, `pl_thumbnail`, `pl_description`, `pl_infojson`, `chapter`. For example, `-o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s"`  will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video. If any of the templates (except default) is empty, that type of file will not be written. Eg: `--write-thumbnail -o "thumbnail:"` will write thumbnails only for playlists and not for video.

    The available fields are:

     - `id` (string): Video identifier
     - `title` (string): Video title
     - `url` (string): Video URL
     - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
     - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
     - `description` (string): The description of the video
     - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
     - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
     - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
     - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
     - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
     - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
     - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released
     - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
     - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
     - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
     - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
     - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
     - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
     - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
     - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
     - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
     - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
     - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
     - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
     - `comment_count` (numeric): Number of comments on the video (For some extractors, comments are only downloaded at the end, and so this field cannot be used)
     - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
     - `live_status` (string): One of "is_live", "was_live", "is_upcoming", "not_live"
     - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
     - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
     - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
     - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
     - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
     - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
     - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
     - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by `--format`
     - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
     - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
     - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
     - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
     - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
     - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
     - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
     - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
     - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
     - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
     - `dynamic_range` (string): The dynamic range of the video
     - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
     - `container` (string): Name of the container format
     - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
     - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
     - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
     - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
     - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
     - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch when creating the file
     - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`
     - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
     - `playlist` (string): Name or id of the playlist that contains the video
     - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
     - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
     - `playlist_id` (string): Playlist identifier
     - `playlist_title` (string): Playlist title
     - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
     - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
     - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
     - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
     - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
     - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)

    Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:

     - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
     - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
     - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to

    Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:

     - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
     - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
     - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
     - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
     - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
     - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
     - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode

    Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:

     - `track` (string): Title of the track
     - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
     - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
     - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
     - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
     - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
     - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
     - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
     - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
     - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released

    Available for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:

     - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
     - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
     - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
     - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds

    Available only when used in `--print`:

     - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
     - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the actual filename may be different due to post-processing. Use `--exec echo` to get the name after all postprocessing is complete

    Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:

     - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
     - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
     - `categories` (list): The SponsorBlock categories the chapter belongs to
     - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
     - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
     - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category

    Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. For example for `-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title `yt-dlp test video` and id `BaW_jenozKc`, this will result in a `yt-dlp test video-BaW_jenozKc.mp4` file created in the current directory.

    Note that some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with placeholder value provided with `--output-na-placeholder` (`NA` by default).

    **Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL

    For numeric sequences you can use [numeric related formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting), for example, `%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to 5 characters, like in `00042`.

    Output templates can also contain arbitrary hierarchical path, e.g. `-o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s"` which will result in downloading each video in a directory corresponding to this path template. Any missing directory will be automatically created for you.

    To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.

    The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.

    In some cases, you don't want special characters such as 中, spaces, or &, such as when transferring the downloaded filename to a Windows system or the filename through an 8bit-unsafe channel. In these cases, add the `--restrict-filenames` flag to get a shorter title.

    <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
    #### Output template and Windows batch files

    If you are using an output template inside a Windows batch file then you must escape plain percent characters (`%`) by doubling, so that `-o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"` should become `-o "%%(title)s-%%(id)s.%%(ext)s"`. However you should not touch `%`'s that are not plain characters, e.g. environment variables for expansion should stay intact: `-o "C:\%HOMEPATH%\Desktop\%%(title)s.%%(ext)s"`.
    <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->

    #### Output template examples
    <div class="codehilite">
    <pre><span></span><code>$<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>--get-filename<span class="w"> </span>-o<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;test video.%(ext)s&quot;</span><span class="w"> </span>BaW_jenozKc
    <span class="nb">test</span><span class="w"> </span>video.webm<span class="w">    </span><span class="c1"># Literal name with correct extension</span>

    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>--get-filename<span class="w"> </span>-o<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;%(title)s.%(ext)s&quot;</span><span class="w"> </span>BaW_jenozKc
    youtube-dl<span class="w"> </span><span class="nb">test</span><span class="w"> </span>video<span class="w"> </span><span class="s1">&#39;&#39;</span>_ä↭𝕐.webm<span class="w">    </span><span class="c1"># All kinds of weird characters</span>

    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>--get-filename<span class="w"> </span>-o<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;%(title)s.%(ext)s&quot;</span><span class="w"> </span>BaW_jenozKc<span class="w"> </span>--restrict-filenames
    youtube-dl_test_video_.webm<span class="w">    </span><span class="c1"># Restricted file name</span>

    <span class="c1"># Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-o<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s&quot;</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re&quot;</span>

    <span class="c1"># Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-o<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;%(upload_date&gt;%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s&quot;</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re&quot;</span>

    <span class="c1"># Prefix playlist index with &quot; - &quot; separator, but only if it is available</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-o<span class="w"> </span><span class="s1">&#39;%(playlist_index|)s%(playlist_index&amp; - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s&#39;</span><span class="w"> </span>BaW_jenozKc<span class="w"> </span>https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists

    <span class="c1"># Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-o<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s&quot;</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists&quot;</span>

    <span class="c1"># Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-u<span class="w"> </span>user<span class="w"> </span>-p<span class="w"> </span>password<span class="w"> </span>-P<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;~/MyVideos&quot;</span><span class="w"> </span>-o<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;%(playlist)s/%(chapter_number)s - %(chapter)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s&quot;</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;https://www.udemy.com/java-tutorial&quot;</span>

    <span class="c1"># Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-P<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;C:/MyVideos&quot;</span><span class="w"> </span>-o<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;%(series)s/%(season_number)s - %(season)s/%(episode_number)s - %(episode)s.%(ext)s&quot;</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;https://videomore.ru/kino_v_detalayah/5_sezon/367617&quot;</span>

    <span class="c1"># Stream the video being downloaded to stdout</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-o<span class="w"> </span>-<span class="w"> </span>BaW_jenozKc
    </code></pre>
    </div>


    # FORMAT SELECTION

    By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
    This is generally equivalent to using `-f bestvideo*+bestaudio/best`. However, if multiple audiostreams is enabled (`--audio-multistreams`), the default format changes to `-f bestvideo+bestaudio/best`. Similarly, if ffmpeg is unavailable, or if you use yt-dlp to stream to `stdout` (`-o -`), the default becomes `-f best/bestvideo+bestaudio`.

    **Deprecation warning**: Latest versions of yt-dlp can stream multiple formats to the stdout simultaneously using ffmpeg. So, in future versions, the default for this will be set to `-f bv*+ba/b` similar to normal downloads. If you want to preserve the `-f b/bv+ba` setting, it is recommended to explicitly specify it in the configuration options.

    The general syntax for format selection is `-f FORMAT` (or `--format FORMAT`) where `FORMAT` is a *selector expression*, i.e. an expression that describes format or formats you would like to download.

    <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
    **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
    <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->

    The simplest case is requesting a specific format, for example with `-f 22` you can download the format with format code equal to 22. You can get the list of available format codes for particular video using `--list-formats` or `-F`. Note that these format codes are extractor specific.

    You can also use a file extension (currently `3gp`, `aac`, `flv`, `m4a`, `mp3`, `mp4`, `ogg`, `wav`, `webm` are supported) to download the best quality format of a particular file extension served as a single file, e.g. `-f webm` will download the best quality format with the `webm` extension served as a single file.

    You can use `-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*

    You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:

     - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
     - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
     - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio
     - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
     - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
     - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
     - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
     - `ba*`, `bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that **contains audio**. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `best*[acodec!=none]`
     - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
     - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
     - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
     - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
     - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
     - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`

    For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use `-f worstvideo`. It is however recommended not to use `worst` and related options. When your format selector is `worst`, the format which is worst in all respects is selected. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use `-f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps` instead of `-f worst`. See [sorting formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.

    You can select the n'th best format of a type by using `best<type>.<n>`. For example, `best.2` will select the 2nd best combined format. Similarly, `bv*.3` will select the 3rd best format that contains a video stream.

    If you want to download multiple videos and they don't have the same formats available, you can specify the order of preference using slashes. Note that formats on the left hand side are preferred, for example `-f 22/17/18` will download format 22 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 17 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 18 if it's available, otherwise it will complain that no suitable formats are available for download.

    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`.

    You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using `-f <format1>+<format2>+...` (requires ffmpeg installed), for example `-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg.

    **Deprecation warning**: Since the *below* described behavior is complex and counter-intuitive, this will be removed and multistreams will be enabled by default in the future. A new operator will be instead added to limit formats to single audio/video

    Unless `--video-multistreams` is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, unless `--audio-multistreams` is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. For example, `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --video-multistreams --audio-multistreams` will download and merge all 3 given formats. The resulting file will have 2 video streams and 2 audio streams. But `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --no-video-multistreams` will download and merge only `bestvideo` and `bestaudio`. `best` is ignored since another format containing a video stream (`bestvideo`) has already been selected. The order of the formats is therefore important. `-f best+bestaudio --no-audio-multistreams` will download and merge both formats while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams` will ignore `best` and download only `bestaudio`.

    ## Filtering Formats

    You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"`).

    The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):

     - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
     - `width`: Width of the video, if known
     - `height`: Height of the video, if known
     - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
     - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
     - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
     - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
     - `fps`: Frame rate

    Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains) and following string meta fields:

     - `ext`: File extension
     - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
     - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
     - `container`: Name of the container format
     - `protocol`: The protocol that will be used for the actual download, lower-case (`http`, `https`, `rtsp`, `rtmp`, `rtmpe`, `mms`, `f4m`, `ism`, `http_dash_segments`, `m3u8`, or `m3u8_native`)
     - `format_id`: A short description of the format
     - `language`: Language code

    Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation `!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g. `!*=` (does not contain).

    Note that none of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by the website. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.

    Formats for which the value is not known are excluded unless you put a question mark (`?`) after the operator. You can combine format filters, so `-f "[height<=?720][tbr>500]"` selects up to 720p videos (or videos where the height is not known) with a bitrate of at least 500 KBit/s. You can also use the filters with `all` to download all formats that satisfy the filter. For example, `-f "all[vcodec=none]"` selects all audio-only formats.

    Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses, for example if you want to download the best pre-merged mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480 you can use `-f "(mp4,webm)[height<480]"`.

    ## Sorting Formats

    You can change the criteria for being considered the `best` by using `-S` (`--format-sort`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...`.

    The available fields are:

     - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
     - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
     - `ie_pref`: The format preference as given by the extractor
     - `lang`: Language preference as given by the extractor
     - `quality`: The quality of the format as given by the extractor
     - `source`: Preference of the source as given by the extractor
     - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > other > `mms`/`rtsp` > unknown > `f4f`/`f4m`)
     - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other > unknown)
     - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other > unknown)
     - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
     - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `webm` > `flv` > other > unknown). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is preferred.
     - `aext`: Audio Extension (`m4a` > `aac` > `mp3` > `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > other > unknown). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to `opus` > `ogg` > `webm` > `m4a` > `mp3` > `aac`.
     - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
     - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
     - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
     - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
     - `height`: Height of video
     - `width`: Width of video
     - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
     - `fps`: Framerate of video
     - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
     - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
     - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
     - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
     - `br`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr`
     - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz

    **Deprecation warning**: Many of these fields have (currently undocumented) aliases, that may be removed in a future version. It is recommended to use only the documented field names.

    All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in descending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+`. Eg: `+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a preferred value for the fields, separated by a `:`. Eg: `res:720` prefers larger videos, but no larger than 720p and the smallest video if there are no videos less than 720p. For `codec` and `ext`, you can provide two preferred values, the first for video and the second for audio. Eg: `+codec:avc:m4a` (equivalent to `+vcodec:avc,+acodec:m4a`) sets the video codec preference to `h264` > `h265` > `vp9` > `vp9.2` > `av01` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` and audio codec preference to `mp4a` > `aac` > `vorbis` > `opus` > `mp3` > `ac3` > `dts`. You can also make the sorting prefer the nearest values to the provided by using `~` as the delimiter. Eg: `filesize~1G` prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.

    The fields `hasvid` and `ie_pref` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using `--format-sort-force`. Apart from these, the default order used is: `lang,quality,res,fps,hdr:12,codec:vp9.2,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. The extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.

    Note that the default has `codec:vp9.2`; i.e. `av1` is not preferred. Similarly, the default for hdr is `hdr:12`; i.e. dolby vision is not preferred. These choices are made since DV and AV1 formats are not yet fully compatible with most devices. This may be changed in the future as more devices become capable of smoothly playing back these formats.

    If your format selector is `worst`, the last item is selected after sorting. This means it will select the format that is worst in all respects. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use `-f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps`.

    **Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).

    ## Format Selection examples
    <div class="codehilite">
    <pre><span></span><code><span class="c1"># Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,</span>
    <span class="c1"># or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-f<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;bv+ba/b&quot;</span>

    <span class="c1"># Download best format that contains video,</span>
    <span class="c1"># and if it doesn&#39;t already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-f<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;bv*+ba/b&quot;</span>

    <span class="c1"># Same as above</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp

    <span class="c1"># Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them</span>
    <span class="c1"># For this case, an output template should be used since</span>
    <span class="c1"># by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-f<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;bv,ba&quot;</span><span class="w"> </span>-o<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s&quot;</span>

    <span class="c1"># Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,</span>
    <span class="c1"># and all audio-only formats into one file</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-f<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]&quot;</span><span class="w"> </span>--audio-multistreams

    <span class="c1"># Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,</span>
    <span class="c1"># and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-f<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;bv*+ba+ba.2&quot;</span><span class="w"> </span>--audio-multistreams


    <span class="c1"># The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection</span>
    <span class="c1"># and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result</span>

    <span class="c1"># Download the worst video available (old method)</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-f<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;wv*+wa/w&quot;</span>

    <span class="c1"># Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-S<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;+res&quot;</span>

    <span class="c1"># Download the smallest video available</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-S<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;+size,+br&quot;</span>



    <span class="c1"># Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-f<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b&quot;</span>

    <span class="c1"># Download the best video with the best extension</span>
    <span class="c1"># (For video, mp4 &gt; webm &gt; flv. For audio, m4a &gt; aac &gt; mp3 ...)</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-S<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;ext&quot;</span>



    <span class="c1"># Download the best video available but no better than 480p,</span>
    <span class="c1"># or the worst video if there is no video under 480p</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-f<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;bv*[height&lt;=480]+ba/b[height&lt;=480] / wv*+ba/w&quot;</span>

    <span class="c1"># Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,</span>
    <span class="c1"># or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-S<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;height:480&quot;</span>

    <span class="c1"># Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,</span>
    <span class="c1"># or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p</span>
    <span class="c1"># Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.</span>
    <span class="c1"># So this works correctly for vertical videos as well</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-S<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;res:480&quot;</span>



    <span class="c1"># Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,</span>
    <span class="c1"># or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-f<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;b[filesize&lt;50M] / w&quot;</span>

    <span class="c1"># Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,</span>
    <span class="c1"># or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-f<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;b&quot;</span><span class="w"> </span>-S<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;filesize:50M&quot;</span>

    <span class="c1"># Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-f<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;b&quot;</span><span class="w"> </span>-S<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;filesize~50M&quot;</span>



    <span class="c1"># Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,</span>
    <span class="c1"># or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-f<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)&quot;</span>

    <span class="c1"># Download best video available via the best protocol</span>
    <span class="c1"># (https/ftps &gt; http/ftp &gt; m3u8_native &gt; m3u8 &gt; http_dash_segments ...)</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-S<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;proto&quot;</span>



    <span class="c1"># Download the best video with h264 codec, or the best video if there is no such video</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-f<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;(bv*+ba/b)[vcodec^=avc1] / (bv*+ba/b)&quot;</span>

    <span class="c1"># Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,</span>
    <span class="c1"># or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-S<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;codec:h264&quot;</span>

    <span class="c1"># Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,</span>
    <span class="c1"># or the best video with best codec if there is no such video</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-S<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;+codec:h264&quot;</span>



    <span class="c1"># More complex examples</span>

    <span class="c1"># Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,</span>
    <span class="c1"># or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-f<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;((bv*[fps&gt;30]/bv*)[height&lt;=720]/(wv*[fps&gt;30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps&gt;30]/b)[height&lt;=720]/(w[fps&gt;30]/w)&quot;</span>

    <span class="c1"># Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,</span>
    <span class="c1"># or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,</span>
    <span class="c1"># preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-S<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;res:720,fps&quot;</span>



    <span class="c1"># Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,</span>
    <span class="c1"># or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,</span>
    <span class="c1"># preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>-S<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;+res:480,codec,br&quot;</span>
    </code></pre>
    </div>


    # MODIFYING METADATA

    The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`

    `--replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE` is used to replace text in any metadata field using [python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax). [Backreferences](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html?highlight=backreferences#re.sub) can be used in the replace string for advanced use.

    The general syntax of `--parse-metadata FROM:TO` is to give the name of a field or an [output template](#output-template) to extract data from, and the format to interpret it as, separated by a colon `:`. Either a [python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax) with named capture groups or a similar syntax to the [output template](#output-template) (only `%(field)s` formatting is supported) can be used for `TO`. The option can be used multiple times to parse and modify various fields.

    Note that any field created by this can be used in the [output template](#output-template) and will also affect the media file's metadata added when using `--add-metadata`.

    This option also has a few special uses:
    * You can download an additional URL based on the metadata of the currently downloaded video. To do this, set the field `additional_urls` to the URL that you want to download. Eg: `--parse-metadata "description:(?P<additional_urls>https?://www\.vimeo\.com/\d+)` will download the first vimeo video found in the description
    * You can use this to change the metadata that is embedded in the media file. To do this, set the value of the corresponding field with a `meta_` prefix. For example, any value you set to `meta_description` field will be added to the `description` field in the file. For example, you can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis". Any value set to the `meta_` field will overwrite all default values.

    For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:

    Metadata fields|From
    :---|:---
    `title`|`track` or `title`
    `date`|`upload_date`
    `description`,  `synopsis`|`description`
    `purl`, `comment`|`webpage_url`
    `track`|`track_number`
    `artist`|`artist`, `creator`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
    `genre`|`genre`
    `album`|`album`
    `album_artist`|`album_artist`
    `disc`|`disc_number`
    `show`|`series`
    `season_number`|`season_number`
    `episode_id`|`episode` or `episode_id`
    `episode_sort`|`episode_number`
    `language` of each stream|From the format's `language`
    **Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields


    ## Modifying metadata examples
    <div class="codehilite">
    <pre><span></span><code><span class="c1"># Interpret the title as &quot;Artist - Title&quot;</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>--parse-metadata<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;title:%(artist)s - %(title)s&quot;</span>

    <span class="c1"># Regex example</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>--parse-metadata<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;description:Artist - (?P&lt;artist&gt;.+)&quot;</span>

    <span class="c1"># Set title as &quot;Series name S01E05&quot;</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>--parse-metadata<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s&quot;</span>

    <span class="c1"># Set &quot;comment&quot; field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>--parse-metadata<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;description:(?s)(?P&lt;meta_comment&gt;.+)&quot;</span><span class="w"> </span>--add-metadata

    <span class="c1"># Remove &quot;formats&quot; field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>--parse-metadata<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;:(?P&lt;formats&gt;)&quot;</span><span class="w"> </span>-j

    <span class="c1"># Replace all spaces and &quot;_&quot; in title and uploader with a `-`</span>
    $<span class="w"> </span>yt-dlp<span class="w"> </span>--replace-in-metadata<span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;title,uploader&quot;</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;[ _]&quot;</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="s2">&quot;-&quot;</span>
    </code></pre>
    </div>


    # EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS

    Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS`. `ARGS` is a `;` (semicolon) separated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2`. Eg: `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_agegate,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`

    The following extractors use this feature:

    #### youtube
    * `skip`: `hls` or `dash` (or both) to skip download of the respective manifests
    * `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web`, `android`, `ios`, `mweb`. These also have `_music`, `_embedded`, `_agegate`, and `_creator` variants (Eg: `web_embedded`) (`mweb` has only `_agegate`). By default, `android,web` is used, but the agegate and creator variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com` urls. You can also use `all` to use all the clients, and `default` for the default clients.
    * `player_skip`: Skip some network requests that are generally needed for robust extraction. One or more of `configs` (skip client configs), `webpage` (skip initial webpage), `js` (skip js player). While these options can help reduce the number of requests needed or avoid some rate-limiting, they could cause some issues. See [#860](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/860) for more details
    * `include_live_dash`: Include live dash formats even without `--live-from-start` (These formats don't download properly)
    * `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
    * `max_comments`: Limit the amount of comments to gather. Comma-separated list of integers representing `max-comments,max-parents,max-replies,max-replies-per-thread`. Default is `all,all,all,all`.
        * E.g. `all,all,1000,10` will get a maximum of 1000 replies total, with up to 10 replies per thread. `1000,all,100` will get a maximum of 1000 comments, with a maximum of 100 replies total.
    * `max_comment_depth` Maximum depth for nested comments. YouTube supports depths 1 or 2 (default)
        * **Deprecated**: Set `max-replies` to `0` or `all` in `max_comments` instead (e.g. `max_comments=all,all,0` to get no replies) 

    #### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
    * `skip`: One or more of `webpage` (skip initial webpage download), `authcheck` (allow the download of playlists requiring authentication when no initial webpage is downloaded. This may cause unwanted behavior, see [#1122](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/1122) for more details)

    #### funimation
    * `language`: Languages to extract. Eg: `funimation:language=english,japanese`
    * `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`

    #### crunchyroll
    * `language`: Languages to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:language=jaJp`
    * `hardsub`: Which hard-sub versions to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:hardsub=None,enUS`

    #### vikichannel
    * `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`

    #### youtubewebarchive
    * `check_all`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails`, `captures`

    NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility

    <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->


    # PLUGINS

    Plugins are loaded from `<root-dir>/ytdlp_plugins/<type>/__init__.py`; where `<root-dir>` is the directory of the binary (`<root-dir>/yt-dlp`), or the root directory of the module if you are running directly from source-code (`<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`). Plugins are currently not supported for the `pip` version

    Plugins can be of `<type>`s `extractor` or `postprocessor`. Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it. Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME`.

    See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example plugins.

    Note that **all** plugins are imported even if not invoked, and that **there are no checks** performed on plugin code. Use plugins at your own risk and only if you trust the code

    If you are a plugin author, add [ytdlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/ytdlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability



    # EMBEDDING YT-DLP

    yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.

    Your program should avoid parsing the normal stdout since they may change in future versions. Instead they should use options such as `-J`, `--print`, `--progress-template`, `--exec` etc to create console output that you can reliably reproduce and parse.

    From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
    <div class="codehilite">
    <pre><span></span><code><span class="kn">from</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">yt_dlp</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="n">YoutubeDL</span>

    <span class="n">ydl_opts</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">{</span><span class="s1">&#39;format&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s1">&#39;bestaudio&#39;</span><span class="p">}</span>
    <span class="k">with</span> <span class="n">YoutubeDL</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">ydl_opts</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">ydl</span><span class="p">:</span>
        <span class="n">ydl</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">download</span><span class="p">([</span><span class="s1">&#39;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc&#39;</span><span class="p">])</span>
    </code></pre>
    </div>


    Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of options available, have a look at [`yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py`](yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py#L162).

    Here's a more complete example demonstrating various functionality:
    <div class="codehilite">
    <pre><span></span><code><span class="kn">import</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">json</span>
    <span class="kn">import</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nn">yt_dlp</span>


    <span class="k">class</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nc">MyLogger</span><span class="p">:</span>
        <span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nf">debug</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">):</span>
            <span class="c1"># For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug</span>
            <span class="c1"># You can distinguish them by the prefix &#39;[debug] &#39;</span>
            <span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">msg</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">startswith</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;[debug] &#39;</span><span class="p">):</span>
                <span class="k">pass</span>
            <span class="k">else</span><span class="p">:</span>
                <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">info</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">)</span>

        <span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nf">info</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">):</span>
            <span class="k">pass</span>

        <span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nf">warning</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">):</span>
            <span class="k">pass</span>

        <span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nf">error</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">):</span>
            <span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">msg</span><span class="p">)</span>


    <span class="c1"># ℹ️ See the docstring of yt_dlp.postprocessor.common.PostProcessor</span>
    <span class="k">class</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nc">MyCustomPP</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">yt_dlp</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">postprocessor</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">PostProcessor</span><span class="p">):</span>
        <span class="c1"># ℹ️ See docstring of yt_dlp.postprocessor.common.PostProcessor.run</span>
        <span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nf">run</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">self</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">info</span><span class="p">):</span>
            <span class="bp">self</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">to_screen</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;Doing stuff&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>
            <span class="k">return</span> <span class="p">[],</span> <span class="n">info</span>


    <span class="c1"># ℹ️ See &quot;progress_hooks&quot; in the docstring of yt_dlp.YoutubeDL</span>
    <span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nf">my_hook</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">d</span><span class="p">):</span>
        <span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">d</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">&#39;status&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="s1">&#39;finished&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span>
            <span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;Done downloading, now converting ...&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>


    <span class="k">def</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nf">format_selector</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">ctx</span><span class="p">):</span>
    <span class="w">    </span><span class="sd">&quot;&quot;&quot; Select the best video and the best audio that won&#39;t result in an mkv.</span>
    <span class="sd">    This is just an example and does not handle all cases &quot;&quot;&quot;</span>

        <span class="c1"># formats are already sorted worst to best</span>
        <span class="n">formats</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">ctx</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">get</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;formats&#39;</span><span class="p">)[::</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">]</span>

        <span class="c1"># acodec=&#39;none&#39; means there is no audio</span>
        <span class="n">best_video</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="nb">next</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">f</span> <span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">f</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">formats</span>
                          <span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">f</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">&#39;vcodec&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">!=</span> <span class="s1">&#39;none&#39;</span> <span class="ow">and</span> <span class="n">f</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">&#39;acodec&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="s1">&#39;none&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>

        <span class="c1"># find compatible audio extension</span>
        <span class="n">audio_ext</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">{</span><span class="s1">&#39;mp4&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s1">&#39;m4a&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">&#39;webm&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s1">&#39;webm&#39;</span><span class="p">}[</span><span class="n">best_video</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">&#39;ext&#39;</span><span class="p">]]</span>
        <span class="c1"># vcodec=&#39;none&#39; means there is no video</span>
        <span class="n">best_audio</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="nb">next</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">f</span> <span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">f</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">formats</span> <span class="k">if</span> <span class="p">(</span>
            <span class="n">f</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">&#39;acodec&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">!=</span> <span class="s1">&#39;none&#39;</span> <span class="ow">and</span> <span class="n">f</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">&#39;vcodec&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="s1">&#39;none&#39;</span> <span class="ow">and</span> <span class="n">f</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">&#39;ext&#39;</span><span class="p">]</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="n">audio_ext</span><span class="p">))</span>

        <span class="k">yield</span> <span class="p">{</span>
            <span class="c1"># These are the minimum required fields for a merged format</span>
            <span class="s1">&#39;format_id&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="sa">f</span><span class="s1">&#39;</span><span class="si">{</span><span class="n">best_video</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s2">&quot;format_id&quot;</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="si">}</span><span class="s1">+</span><span class="si">{</span><span class="n">best_audio</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s2">&quot;format_id&quot;</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="si">}</span><span class="s1">&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
            <span class="s1">&#39;ext&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">best_video</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">&#39;ext&#39;</span><span class="p">],</span>
            <span class="s1">&#39;requested_formats&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="n">best_video</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">best_audio</span><span class="p">],</span>
            <span class="c1"># Must be + separated list of protocols</span>
            <span class="s1">&#39;protocol&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="sa">f</span><span class="s1">&#39;</span><span class="si">{</span><span class="n">best_video</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s2">&quot;protocol&quot;</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="si">}</span><span class="s1">+</span><span class="si">{</span><span class="n">best_audio</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="s2">&quot;protocol&quot;</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="si">}</span><span class="s1">&#39;</span>
        <span class="p">}</span>


    <span class="c1"># ℹ️ See docstring of yt_dlp.YoutubeDL for a description of the options</span>
    <span class="n">ydl_opts</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">{</span>
        <span class="s1">&#39;format&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">format_selector</span><span class="p">,</span>
        <span class="s1">&#39;postprocessors&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="p">[{</span>
            <span class="c1"># Embed metadata in video using ffmpeg.</span>
            <span class="c1"># ℹ️ See yt_dlp.postprocessor.FFmpegMetadataPP for the arguments it accepts</span>
            <span class="s1">&#39;key&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s1">&#39;FFmpegMetadata&#39;</span><span class="p">,</span>
            <span class="s1">&#39;add_chapters&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="kc">True</span><span class="p">,</span>
            <span class="s1">&#39;add_metadata&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="kc">True</span><span class="p">,</span>
        <span class="p">}],</span>
        <span class="s1">&#39;logger&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="n">MyLogger</span><span class="p">(),</span>
        <span class="s1">&#39;progress_hooks&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="n">my_hook</span><span class="p">],</span>
    <span class="p">}</span>


    <span class="c1"># Add custom headers</span>
    <span class="n">yt_dlp</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">utils</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">std_headers</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">update</span><span class="p">({</span><span class="s1">&#39;Referer&#39;</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s1">&#39;https://www.google.com&#39;</span><span class="p">})</span>

    <span class="c1"># ℹ️ See the public functions in yt_dlp.YoutubeDL for for other available functions.</span>
    <span class="c1"># Eg: &quot;ydl.download&quot;, &quot;ydl.download_with_info_file&quot;</span>
    <span class="k">with</span> <span class="n">yt_dlp</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">YoutubeDL</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">ydl_opts</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">as</span> <span class="n">ydl</span><span class="p">:</span>
        <span class="n">ydl</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">add_post_processor</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">MyCustomPP</span><span class="p">())</span>
        <span class="n">info</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">ydl</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">extract_info</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">&#39;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc&#39;</span><span class="p">)</span>

        <span class="c1"># ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable</span>
        <span class="nb">print</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">json</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">dumps</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">ydl</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">sanitize_info</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">info</span><span class="p">)))</span>
    </code></pre>
    </div>


    **Tip**: If you are porting your code from youtube-dl to yt-dlp, one important point to look out for is that we do not guarantee the return value of `YoutubeDL.extract_info` to be json serializable, or even be a dictionary. It will be dictionary-like, but if you want to ensure it is a serializable dictionary, pass it through `YoutubeDL.sanitize_info` as shown in the example above


    <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->

    # DEPRECATED OPTIONS

    These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect

    #### Redundant options
    While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use

        --get-description                --print description
        --get-duration                   --print duration_string
        --get-filename                   --print filename
        --get-format                     --print format
        --get-id                         --print id
        --get-thumbnail                  --print thumbnail
        -e, --get-title                  --print title
        -g, --get-url                    --print urls
        -j, --dump-json                  --print "%()j"
        --match-title REGEX              --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
        --reject-title REGEX             --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
        --min-views COUNT                --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
        --max-views COUNT                --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"


    #### Not recommended
    While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same

        --all-formats                    -f all
        --all-subs                       --sub-langs all --write-subs
        --print-json                     -j --no-simulate
        --autonumber-size NUMBER         Use string formatting. Eg: %(autonumber)03d
        --autonumber-start NUMBER        Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
        --id                             -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
        --metadata-from-title FORMAT     --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
        --hls-prefer-native              --downloader "m3u8:native"
        --hls-prefer-ffmpeg              --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
        --list-formats-old               --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
        --list-formats-as-table          --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
        --youtube-skip-dash-manifest     --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
        --youtube-skip-hls-manifest      --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
        --youtube-include-dash-manifest  Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
        --youtube-include-hls-manifest   Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)


    #### Developer options
    These options are not intended to be used by the end-user

        --test                           Download only part of video for testing extractors
        --youtube-print-sig-code         For testing youtube signatures
        --allow-unplayable-formats       List unplayable formats also
        --no-allow-unplayable-formats    Default


    #### Old aliases
    These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons

        --avconv-location                --ffmpeg-location
        --cn-verification-proxy URL      --geo-verification-proxy URL
        --dump-headers                   --print-traffic
        --dump-intermediate-pages        --dump-pages
        --force-write-download-archive   --force-write-archive
        --load-info                      --load-info-json
        --no-split-tracks                --no-split-chapters
        --no-write-srt                   --no-write-subs
        --prefer-unsecure                --prefer-insecure
        --rate-limit RATE                --limit-rate RATE
        --split-tracks                   --split-chapters
        --srt-lang LANGS                 --sub-langs LANGS
        --trim-file-names LENGTH         --trim-filenames LENGTH
        --write-srt                      --write-subs
        --yes-overwrites                 --force-overwrites

    #### Sponskrub Options
    Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock` options

        --sponskrub                      --sponsorblock-mark all
        --no-sponskrub                   --no-sponsorblock
        --sponskrub-cut                  --sponsorblock-remove all
        --no-sponskrub-cut               --sponsorblock-remove -all
        --sponskrub-force                Not applicable
        --no-sponskrub-force             Not applicable
        --sponskrub-location             Not applicable
        --sponskrub-args                 Not applicable

    #### No longer supported
    These options may no longer work as intended

        --prefer-avconv                  avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
        --prefer-ffmpeg                  Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
        -C, --call-home                  Not implemented
        --no-call-home                   Default
        --include-ads                    No longer supported
        --no-include-ads                 Default
        --write-annotations              No supported site has annotations now
        --no-write-annotations           Default

    #### Removed
    These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed

        -A, --auto-number                -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
        -t, --title                      -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
        -l, --literal                    -o accepts literal names

    # CONTRIBUTING
    See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp) for instructions on [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue) and [Contributing code to the project](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)

    # MORE
    For FAQ see the [youtube-dl README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)