youtube-dl DASH video and audio in highest quality without human intervention
With youtube-dl I first look what video quality is available and then in second step I download highest possible quality (in this example -f 137+140). Youtube-dl will automatically merge audio and video stream (DASH format)
How to automate that with shell script? With every URL, choose highest audio and video quality?
> youtube-dl -F 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAdRBLyjLRQ&feature=youtu.be&t=8m14s'
[youtube] Downloading login page
[youtube] Logging in
[youtube] VAdRBLyjLRQ: Downloading webpage
[youtube] VAdRBLyjLRQ: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] VAdRBLyjLRQ: Extracting video information
[youtube] VAdRBLyjLRQ: Downloading DASH manifest
[youtube] VAdRBLyjLRQ: Downloading DASH manifest
[info] Available formats for VAdRBLyjLRQ:
format code extension resolution note
249 webm audio only DASH audio , opus @ 50k
250 webm audio only DASH audio , opus @ 70k
251 webm audio only DASH audio , opus @160k
171 webm audio only DASH audio 117k , vorbis@128k (44100Hz), 7.68MiB
140 m4a audio only DASH audio 128k , m4a_dash container, aac @128k (44100Hz), 11.58MiB
160 mp4 256x144 DASH video 112k , avc1.4d400c, 15fps, video only, 9.94MiB
278 webm 256x144 DASH video 136k , webm container, VP9, 15fps, video only, 9.10MiB
133 mp4 426x240 DASH video 248k , avc1.4d4015, 30fps, video only, 22.27MiB
242 webm 426x240 DASH video 316k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 22.20MiB
243 webm 640x360 DASH video 557k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 41.05MiB
134 mp4 640x360 DASH video 609k , avc1.4d401e, 30fps, video only, 52.94MiB
244 webm 854x480 DASH video 1021k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 74.05MiB
135 mp4 854x480 DASH video 1115k , avc1.4d401f, 30fps, video only, 97.02MiB
247 webm 1280x720 DASH video 2011k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 150.61MiB
136 mp4 1280x720 DASH video 2282k , avc1.4d401f, 30fps, video only, 189.40MiB
248 webm 1920x1080 DASH video 3838k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 286.61MiB
137 mp4 1920x1080 DASH video 4209k , avc1.640028, 30fps, video only, 354.19MiB
17 3gp 176x144
36 3gp 320x240
5 flv 400x240
43 webm 640x360
18 mp4 640x360
22 mp4 1280x720 (best)
> youtube-dl -f 137+140 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAdRBLyjLRQ&feature=youtu.be&t=8m14s'
[youtube] Downloading login page
[youtube] Logging in
[youtube] VAdRBLyjLRQ: Downloading webpage
[youtube] VAdRBLyjLRQ: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] VAdRBLyjLRQ: Extracting video information
(...)
Answer
Just use -f bestvideo+bestaudio/best for highest resulting quality available.
If you wanted to prefer MP4 format containers instead of WebM, use:
-f bestvideo[ext!=webm]+bestaudio[ext!=webm]/best[ext!=webm].