Differences between normal download vs exec usage for non-youtube urls

[yafp]

I am able to download video and audio using node-youtube-dl for several supported sources if i am using .exec (see example from the project readme).

But if i try to use the normal download (which tends to offer advantages if it comes to progress etc) mode (not using .exec) it seems like only youtube content is fully working - while non-youtube urls fail.

How do they fail?

Well there is no error, but the output is only around some kb - like youtube-dl is not getting the full content, but just the header or something like that.

does this make any sense to you?

tldr:

• youtube-urls work for me in both download modes
• non-youtube-url fail after some kbs in non-exec mode

[luanlmd]

I've been having the same problem, but it also happens with longer youtube videos. Using .exec works just fine but there is no way to watch the progress.

[yafp]

@luanlmd interessting.

but it also happens with longer youtube videos

How long is long in that context? :)

[luanlmd]

@yafp while coding an example with the said video, it just happned to work example of vimeo not working: (the commented line is the yt video that didn't work at first)

const fs = require('fs');
const youtubedl = require('youtube-dl');

//const video = youtubedl('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRNIcerXzLw');
const video = youtubedl('https://vimeo.com/387590406');

video.on('info', function (info) {
    console.log('Download started')
    console.log('filename: ' + info._filename)
    console.log('size: ' + info.size)
})

video.on('error', function error(err) {
    console.log('error 2:', err)
})

video.pipe(fs.createWriteStream('file.mp4'))

output:

node example.js 
Download started
filename: LIGHT SPEED-387590406.mp4
size: 9848

[jabbink]

I noticed that this library likes to pass --dump-json which, by the documentation simulates "Simulate, quiet but print JSON information."

For some reason though, ytdl actually downloads YouTube videos with the simulate option on, for most other sites, it does not, and this library will fail to get the file/live stream.

[yafp]

@Kikobeats any insights you can give us here?

[Kikobeats]

@yafp not really – most of the time I just get the JSON version of the payload, skipping the download, so I'm not treating with this kind of problems

[jabbink]

@yafp try changing dump-json to print-json

[yafp]

@jabbink in my case i set a bunch of youtube-parameters myself.

I noticed that this library likes to pass --dump-json which, by the documentation simulates "Simulate, quiet but print JSON information."

How did you notice that? I did assume so far that it is using exactly the parameters i am giving it.

I can for sure add print-json, but i dont know how to replace dump-json which i dont set myself.

[yafp]

@Kikobeats if i do use

• the normal mode (not .exec) &
• a non youtube url (in my example: https://vimeo.com/274478457)

The download almost never works.

It

• throws no errors - jumps NOT into video.on('error', function error(error) {
• jumps into video.on('info', function (info) {
• jumps only once into video.on('data', (chunk) to report the progress is 100%
• finally jumps into video.on('end', function () {

The resulting .mp4 is 148 Bytes.

Additional infos

• the example url works if i do use .exec
• the download-code works for youtube.com urls without issues.

I have no idea why but

• this seems like a big problem to me
• it is related with the default mode of this project
• might affect several users

[ghost]

Videos actually don't get downloaded via youtube-dl. node-youtube-dl only uses the --dump-json option to fetch the URL for the mp4 file and downloads it via the request node module. If it's a HLS video the m3u8 file will be downloaded instead of the video.

To actually download a video via youtube-dl you can use a module that just wraps it. I created my own solution for this, but there are also others out there.

[masudhossain]

@ghjbnm do you have an example electrons app with your implementation? Having issues downloading twitch vods atm too

[ghost]

@masudhossain You can use it just like you would in node. If you are trying to execute it in the render process you have to enable nodeIntegration when creating the BrowserWindow. Using it in the main process should just work,

const YoutubeDlWrap = require("youtube-dl-wrap");
const youtubeDlWrap = new YoutubeDlWrap("path/to/youtube-dl/binary");
await youtubeDlWrap.execPromise(["https://www.twitch.tv/videos/vodId",
    "-f", "best", "-o", "output.mp4"]);