yt-dlg video codec

[IoanPaleru]

Please follow the guide below

• You will be asked some questions and requested to provide some information, please read them carefully and answer honestly
• Put an x into all the boxes [ ] relevant to your issue (like that [x])
• Use Preview tab to see how your issue will actually look like

WARNING

All invalid issues will be rejected!!

---

Before going further

• If your problem is a bug with youtube-dl or a request for new site support please report it here

• Make sure you are using the latest yt-dlg version (Click the Settings icon and then About to view the current version)

• Make sure you are using the latest youtube-dl version (Click the Settings icon and then Update to update to the latest youtube-dl version)

• Make sure you searched the bugtracker for similar issues including closed ones

• Make sure to read the FAQs file

  • [x] I think my problem is NOT with youtube-dl
  • [x] I've verified and i assure that I'm running yt-dlg 1.X.Y
  • [x] I assure that i am using the latest version of youtube-dl
  • [x] Searched bugtracker
  • [x] I've read the FAQs file

---

What is the purpose of your issue?

• [ ] Bug report
• [ ] Feature request (request for a new functionality)
• [x] Question
• [ ] Other

Please remove any sections between (---) if they are not related to your issue

What operating system do you use ?

Windows 10 64 bit

---

When downloading videos from youtube with yt-dlg using the -f "bestvideo[height<=720][ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/bestvideo+bestaudio" command line option, yt-dlg downloads .mp4 videos with the vp09 (lavcodec vp9 dxva2) codec, instead of the avc1 (h.264/mpeg-4 avc) codec.

Is there a way to download those videos with the avc1 (h.264/mpeg-4 avc) codec, using a similar command line option to specify downloading the video with 720p for the video quality?

[oleksis]

Can check the yt-dlp Wiki:

• How do I download the best quality possible?
• How do I get an h264 encode mp4 from YouTube

[IoanPaleru]

Thanks for those links, especially https://www.reddit.com/r/youtubedl/s/GlAwPHQRyN, which contained a link to https://www.reddit.com/r/youtubedl/wiki/h264/.

It seems that after adding [vcodec^=avc] after the [ext=mp4] part of -f "bestvideo[height<=720][ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/bestvideo+bestaudio", yt-dlg downloads the .mp4 video with the proper avc1 (h.264/mpeg-4 avc) codec, instead of the vp09 (lavcodec vp9 dxva2) codec.

It would be great if you could put that information in an easier to find way in yt-dlg's documentation, or just include simple format and codec selection options in yt-dlg's gui to be able to choose to download files with different formats and codecs (like avc and vp9), which will change the command line options automatically for people who aren't very familiar with command line options.

[oleksis]

Welcome 🙏🏾 and glad the yt-dlp wiki help you. The format selection for video and audio is on features request in nexts releases. If this issue was resolved please comment your solution (command line options you use in the Extra tab in yt-dlg) and close the issue. Thanks for your comments!