Downloader plugin - How to control file format with youtube dl (.mp4 instead of .webm)?

Hi guys,

I am using the Downloader plugin for the first time and did several tries to download some videos with the youtube-dl.

Although I gave the filename the extension '.mp4', some files were downloaded as '.webm' file and not as '.mp4'. Also it seems the .webm files are much bigger then .mp4.

But I know there are other (web) tools which allows to set the resoluton and the file type of a youtube download

Is something similar possible in the Downloader plugin?

Zitat von ryecoaaron

If you figure out what the command line options are, I could modify the plugin.

Hello @ryecoaaron, thank you for your response. I did some research about the command line options of the youtube-dl. Most of the information I found here: https://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/youtube-dl/
Unfortunately this site is in German language.

youtube-dl -F YOUTUBE_URL returns a list of available video- and audio-formats, each with a certain format code.
Example:

# youtube-dl -F https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGwWNGJdvx8
[youtube] JGwWNGJdvx8: Downloading webpage
[youtube] JGwWNGJdvx8: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] JGwWNGJdvx8: Extracting video information
[info] Available formats for JGwWNGJdvx8:
format code  extension  resolution note
249          webm       audio only DASH audio   56k , opus @ 50k, 1.55MiB
250          webm       audio only DASH audio   79k , opus @ 70k, 2.07MiB
140          m4a        audio only DASH audio  128k , m4a_dash container, mp4a.40.2@128k, 3.99MiB
171          webm       audio only DASH audio  130k , vorbis@128k, 3.72MiB
251          webm       audio only DASH audio  153k , opus @160k, 4.06MiB
278          webm       256x144    144p  126k , webm container, vp9, 24fps, video only, 2.98MiB
160          mp4        256x144    144p  127k , avc1.4d400c, 24fps, video only, 3.47MiB
242          webm       426x240    240p  270k , vp9, 24fps, video only, 5.29MiB
243          webm       640x360    360p  479k , vp9, 24fps, video only, 9.58MiB
134          mp4        640x360    360p  512k , avc1.4d401e, 24fps, video only, 8.93MiB
133          mp4        426x240    240p  600k , avc1.4d4015, 24fps, video only, 7.86MiB
244          webm       854x480    480p  839k , vp9, 24fps, video only, 15.75MiB
135          mp4        854x480    480p 1154k , avc1.4d401e, 24fps, video only, 17.77MiB
247          webm       1280x720   720p 1605k , vp9, 24fps, video only, 29.90MiB
136          mp4        1280x720   720p 2412k , avc1.4d401f, 24fps, video only, 33.08MiB
248          webm       1920x1080  1080p 2922k , vp9, 24fps, video only, 52.31MiB
137          mp4        1920x1080  1080p 4260k , avc1.640028, 24fps, video only, 60.52MiB
271          webm       2560x1440  1440p 8370k , vp9, 24fps, video only, 122.91MiB
264          mp4        2560x1440  1440p 8447k , avc1.640032, 24fps, video only, 167.64MiB
313          webm       3840x2160  2160p 19500k , vp9, 24fps, video only, 418.52MiB
17           3gp        176x144    small , mp4v.20.3, mp4a.40.2@ 24k
36           3gp        320x180    small , mp4v.20.3, mp4a.40.2
43           webm       640x360    medium , vp8.0, vorbis@128k
18           mp4        640x360    medium , avc1.42001E, mp4a.40.2@ 96k
22           mp4        1280x720   hd720 , avc1.64001F, mp4a.40.2@192k (best)

A certain video/audio format can be downloaded by
youtube-dl -f FORMAT_CODE YOUTUBE_URL, eg.
 youtube-dl -f 22 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGwWNGJdvx8, which in this case is mp4 1280x720 hd720 , avc1.64001F, mp4a.40.2@192k.
The problem is that the format codes are different for any of the videos.

There is an option in youtube-dl to always download the best audio and best video format:
youtube-dl -f bestvideo+bestaudio YOUTUBE_URL

I think this is the default setting in the Downloader plugin. Maybe therefore the .webm format is loaded although a .mp4 file extension is added to the file name.

There is another option to be independant of any format code and load the best audio and video format for a certain file format nevertheless:
 youtube-dl -f bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a] YOUTUBE_URL
That means: Load the best mp4-video format with the best m4a-audio format. Then a separate video and audio file are downloaded and afterwards merged with ffmpeg at the end. The original files then are deleted.

I discovered one drawback: It is necessary to define a video AND an audio format together. I tried it with [ext=mp4] only. In this case an .mkv file was created with video only and no audio.

I hope this information is helpful for you. Maybe an option could be added to select the desired video and audio format.

If you think about enhancing the downloader plugin may I express a second request?
Is there any possibility to download more than one file at a time without using a playlist? Maybe there could be another plugin enhancement to be able to define a list of URLs in the plugin instead of the playlist and in this case using the default name which is provided by the youtube-dl, instead of defining a name in the Filename field. Just an idea.

omv-downloader plugin 3.5
Hi @ryecoaaron, the new plugin version is great! Many thanks for that.

I think during playing with it, I may have found two very small bugs or inconsistencies. If you have added a multiple download and then try to edit it afterwards you get this window, where the Download type "multiple" is selected.

If you then open the dropdown dialog you get a list only with aria2, curl and youtube-dl. If you ever change to one of them, you never can select 'multiple' again, because it´s missing in the list.

And the second case is if Download Type 'multiple' is selected, the line 'Filename' doesn´t make quite sense. I would suggest to hide it.

Greetings
cabrio_leo