How can I get the actual video URL of a YouTube live stream?
Is there a way to get the HLS URL for YouTube live streams like this one https://www.youtube.com/embed/WVZpCdHq3Qg
I've tried the typical get_video_info methods but they don't seem to work with live streams.
Answer
You need to get the HLS m3u8 playlist files from the video's manifest. There are ways to do this by hand, but for simplicity I'll be using the youtube-dl tool to get this information. I'll be using this live stream as an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gtc-GtLlTk
First, get the formats of the video:
➜ ~ youtube-dl --list-formats https://www.youtube.com/watch\?v\=_Gtc-GtLlTk
[youtube] _Gtc-GtLlTk: Downloading webpage
[youtube] _Gtc-GtLlTk: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] Downloading multifeed video (_Gtc-GtLlTk, aflWCT1tYL0) - add --no-playlist to just download video _Gtc-GtLlTk
[download] Downloading playlist: Southwest Florida Eagle Cam
[youtube] playlist Southwest Florida Eagle Cam: Collected 2 video ids (downloading 2 of them)
[download] Downloading video 1 of 2
[youtube] _Gtc-GtLlTk: Downloading webpage
[youtube] _Gtc-GtLlTk: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] _Gtc-GtLlTk: Extracting video information
[youtube] _Gtc-GtLlTk: Downloading formats manifest
[youtube] _Gtc-GtLlTk: Downloading DASH manifest
[info] Available formats for _Gtc-GtLlTk:
format code extension resolution note
140 m4a audio only DASH audio 144k , m4a_dash container, mp4a.40.2@128k (48000Hz)
160 mp4 256x144 DASH video 124k , avc1.42c00b, 30fps, video only
133 mp4 426x240 DASH video 258k , avc1.4d4015, 30fps, video only
134 mp4 640x360 DASH video 646k , avc1.4d401e, 30fps, video only
135 mp4 854x480 DASH video 1171k , avc1.4d401f, 30fps, video only
136 mp4 1280x720 DASH video 2326k , avc1.4d401f, 30fps, video only
137 mp4 1920x1080 DASH video 4347k , avc1.640028, 30fps, video only
151 mp4 72p HLS , h264, aac @ 24k
132 mp4 240p HLS , h264, aac @ 48k
92 mp4 240p HLS , h264, aac @ 48k
93 mp4 360p HLS , h264, aac @128k
94 mp4 480p HLS , h264, aac @128k
95 mp4 720p HLS , h264, aac @256k
96 mp4 1080p HLS , h264, aac @256k (best)
[download] Downloading video 2 of 2
[youtube] aflWCT1tYL0: Downloading webpage
[youtube] aflWCT1tYL0: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] aflWCT1tYL0: Extracting video information
[youtube] aflWCT1tYL0: Downloading formats manifest
[youtube] aflWCT1tYL0: Downloading DASH manifest
[info] Available formats for aflWCT1tYL0:
format code extension resolution note
140 m4a audio only DASH audio 144k , m4a_dash container, mp4a.40.2@128k (48000Hz)
160 mp4 256x144 DASH video 124k , avc1.42c00b, 30fps, video only
133 mp4 426x240 DASH video 258k , avc1.4d4015, 30fps, video only
134 mp4 640x360 DASH video 646k , avc1.4d401e, 30fps, video only
135 mp4 854x480 DASH video 1171k , avc1.4d401f, 30fps, video only
136 mp4 1280x720 DASH video 2326k , avc1.4d401f, 30fps, video only
151 mp4 72p HLS , h264, aac @ 24k
132 mp4 240p HLS , h264, aac @ 48k
92 mp4 240p HLS , h264, aac @ 48k
93 mp4 360p HLS , h264, aac @128k
94 mp4 480p HLS , h264, aac @128k
95 mp4 720p HLS , h264, aac @256k (best)
[download] Finished downloading playlist: Southwest Florida Eagle Cam
In this case, there are two videos because the live stream contains two cameras. From here, we need to get the HLS URL for a specific stream. Use -f to pass in the format you would like to watch, and -g to get that stream's URL:
➜ ~ youtube-dl -f 95 -g https://www.youtube.com/watch\?v\=_Gtc-GtLlTk
https://manifest.googlevideo.com/api/manifest/hls_playlist/id/_Gtc-GtLlTk.2/itag/95/source/yt_live_broadcast/requiressl/yes/ratebypass/yes/live/1/cmbypass/yes/gir/yes/dg_shard/X0d0Yy1HdExsVGsuMg.95/hls_chunk_host/r1---sn-ab5l6ne6.googlevideo.com/playlist_type/LIVE/gcr/us/pmbypass/yes/mm/32/mn/sn-ab5l6ne6/ms/lv/mv/m/pl/20/dover/3/sver/3/fexp/9408495,9410706,9416126,9418581,9420452,9422596,9422780,9423059,9423661,9423662,9425349,9425959,9426661,9426720,9427325,9428422,9429306/upn/xmL7zNht848/mt/1456412649/ip/64.125.177.124/ipbits/0/expire/1456434315/sparams/ip,ipbits,expire,id,itag,source,requiressl,ratebypass,live,cmbypass,gir,dg_shard,hls_chunk_host,playlist_type,gcr,pmbypass,mm,mn,ms,mv,pl/signature/7E48A727654105FF82E158154FCBA7569D52521B.1FA117183C664F00B7508DDB81274644F520C27F/key/dg_yt0/playlist/index.m3u8
https://manifest.googlevideo.com/api/manifest/hls_playlist/id/aflWCT1tYL0.2/itag/95/source/yt_live_broadcast/requiressl/yes/ratebypass/yes/live/1/cmbypass/yes/gir/yes/dg_shard/YWZsV0NUMXRZTDAuMg.95/hls_chunk_host/r13---sn-ab5l6n7y.googlevideo.com/pmbypass/yes/playlist_type/LIVE/gcr/us/mm/32/mn/sn-ab5l6n7y/ms/lv/mv/m/pl/20/dover/3/sver/3/upn/vdBkD9lrq8Q/fexp/9408495,9410706,9416126,9418581,9420452,9422596,9422780,9423059,9423661,9423662,9425349,9425959,9426661,9426720,9427325,9428422,9429306/mt/1456412649/ip/64.125.177.124/ipbits/0/expire/1456434316/sparams/ip,ipbits,expire,id,itag,source,requiressl,ratebypass,live,cmbypass,gir,dg_shard,hls_chunk_host,pmbypass,playlist_type,gcr,mm,mn,ms,mv,pl/signature/4E83CD2DB23C2331CE349CE9AFE806C8293A01ED.880FD2E253FAC8FA56FAA304C78BD1D62F9D22B4/key/dg_yt0/playlist/index.m3u8
These are your HLS m3u8 playlists, one for each camera associated with the live stream.
Without youtube-dl, your flow might look like this:
Take your video id and make a GET request to the get_video_info endpoint:
HTTP GET: https://www.youtube.com/get_video_info?&video_id=_Gtc-GtLlTk&el=info&ps=default&eurl=&gl=US&hl=en
In the response, the hlsvp value will be the link to the m3u8 HLS playlist:
https://manifest.googlevideo.com/api/manifest/hls_variant/maudio/1/ipbits/0/key/yt6/ip/64.125.177.124/gcr/us/source/yt_live_broadcast/upn/BYS1YGuQtYI/id/_Gtc-GtLlTk.2/fexp/9416126%2C9416984%2C9417367%2C9420452%2C9422596%2C9423039%2C9423661%2C9423662%2C9423923%2C9425346%2C9427672%2C9428946%2C9429162/sparams/gcr%2Cid%2Cip%2Cipbits%2Citag%2Cmaudio%2Cplaylist_type%2Cpmbypass%2Csource%2Cexpire/sver/3/expire/1456449859/pmbypass/yes/playlist_type/LIVE/itag/0/signature/1E6874232CCAC397B601051699A03DC5A32F66D9.1CABCD9BFC87A2A886A29B86CF877077DD1AEEAA/file/index.m3u8