How to extract audio with youtube-dl on Windows

python windows ffmpeg ffprobe youtube-dl
FlyingNimbus picture FlyingNimbus · Jan 6, 2013 · Viewed 25k times · Source

I want to extract audio from a video downloaded with youtube-dl on Windows. I got youtube-dl working, but am unable to extract the audio. This problem is caused due to not having the correct audio codes installed.

When I try to extract audio it tells me the following:

WARNING: unable to obtain file audio codes with ffprobe

The youtube-dl manual says:

-x -extract-audio    convert video files to audio-only files (requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)

How do I install ffprobe or ffmpeg? Do I install this on Windows, or do I install this as a Python extension?

My OS is Windows 7.

Answer

Fredrick Brennan picture Fredrick Brennan · Jan 6, 2013

ffmpeg is not a Python module. Take a look at the code of youtube-dl in the FFmpegExtractAudioPP class.

It uses this call to figure out if the executable exists or not. It checks in your current path:

subprocess.Popen([exe, '-version'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE).communicate()

You'll need to download the Windows builds of ffmpeg and put them in your current path, probably making sure that they do not have .exe at the end of their names.

Related questions

How can I install pip on Windows?

pip is a replacement for easy_install. But should I install pip using easy_install on Windows? Is there a better way?

Read More
How to add to the PYTHONPATH in Windows, so it finds my modules/packages?

I have a directory which hosts all of my Django apps (C:\My_Projects). I want to add this directory to my PYTHONPATH so I can call the apps directly. I tried adding C:\My_Projects\; to my Windows Path …

Read More
'pip' is not recognized as an internal or external command

I'm running into a weird error when trying to install Django on my computer. This is the sequence that I typed into my command line: C:\Python34> python get-pip.py Requirement already up-to-date: pip in c:\python34\lib\site-packages …

Read More