yt-dlp/README.md
Philipp Hagemeister 5a2ba45e09 Clarify README
2011-09-13 21:51:06 +02:00

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# youtube-dl
## USAGE
youtube-dl [OPTIONS] URL
## DESCRIPTION
**youtube-dl** is a small command-line program to download videos from
YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version
2.x (x being at least 5), and it is not platform specific. It should work in
your Unix box, in Windows or in Mac OS X. It is released to the public domain,
which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
## OPTIONS
-h, --help print this help text and exit
-v, --version print program version and exit
-U, --update update this program to latest version
-i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors
-r, --rate-limit LIMIT download rate limit (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
-R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is 10)
--playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is 1)
--playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
--dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
### Filesystem Options:
-t, --title use title in file name
-l, --literal use literal title in file name
-A, --auto-number number downloaded files starting from 00000
-o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template
-a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
-w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
-c, --continue resume partially downloaded files
--cookies FILE file to dump cookie jar to
--no-part do not use .part files
--no-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set the file
modification time
--write-description write video description to a .description file
--write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
### Verbosity / Simulation Options:
-q, --quiet activates quiet mode
-s, --simulate do not download video
-g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
-e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
--get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
--get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
--get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
--no-progress do not print progress bar
--console-title display progress in console titlebar
### Video Format Options:
-f, --format FORMAT video format code
--all-formats download all available video formats
--max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
### Authentication Options:
-u, --username USERNAME account username
-p, --password PASSWORD account password
-n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
### Post-processing Options:
--extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files (requires
ffmpeg and ffprobe)
--audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac" or "mp3"; best by default
## FAQ
### Can you please put the -b option back?
Most people asking this question are not aware that youtube-dl now defaults to downloading the highest available quality as reported by YouTube, which will be 1080p or 720p in some cases, so you no longer need the -b option. For some specific videos, maybe YouTube does not report them to be available in a specific high quality format you''re interested in. In that case, simply request it with the -f option and youtube-dl will try to download it.
### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What''s this?
Apparently YouTube requires you to pass a CAPTCHA test if you download too much. We''re [considering to provide a way to let you solve the CAPTCHA](https://github.com/phihag/youtube-dl/issues/8), but at the moment, your best course of action is pointing a webbrowser to the youtube URL, solving the CAPTCHA, and restart youtube-dl.
### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as [vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or [mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
### The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
The URLs youtube-dl outputs require the downloader to have the correct cookies. Use the `--cookies` option to write the required cookies into a file, and advise your downloader to read cookies from that file.
### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
youtube has switched to a new video info format in July 2011 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl with `sudo youtube-dl --update`.
## COPYRIGHT
**youtube-dl**: Copyright © 2006-2011 Ricardo Garcia Gonzalez. The program is
released into the public domain by the copyright holder. This README file was
originally written by Daniel Bolton (<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is
likewise released into the public domain.
## BUGS
Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/phihag/youtube-dl/issues>
Please include:
* Your exact command line, like `youtube-dl -t "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHlDtZ6Oc3s&feature=channel_video_title"`. A common mistake is not to escape the `&`. Putting URLs in quotes should solve this problem.
* The output of `youtube-dl --version`
* The output of `python --version`
* The name and version of your Operating System ("Ubuntu 11.04 x64" or "Windows 7 x64" is usually enough).