Downloading Videos

Learn the basics of downloading videos with yt-dlp

Overview

yt-dlp makes it easy to download videos from thousands of supported sites. This guide covers the fundamental workflows for downloading videos effectively.

Basic Download

The simplest way to download a video is to provide the URL:

yt-dlp "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc"

By default, yt-dlp downloads the best available quality, equivalent to using -f bestvideo*+bestaudio/best.

yt-dlp will automatically merge video and audio streams when ffmpeg is available, giving you the best quality output.

Selecting Video Quality

1. List available formats

   View all available quality options before downloading:

   yt-dlp -F "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc"
   

   This displays a table showing format codes, resolutions, codecs, and file sizes.

2. Choose a specific format

   Download using a format code from the list:

   yt-dlp -f 22 "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc"
   
3. Use format selectors

   Select formats using criteria instead of specific codes:

   # Best video + audio, or best combined format
   yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b" URL
   
   # Best MP4 format
   yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4]" URL
   
   # Best video up to 720p
   yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=720]+ba/b" URL
   

Quality Preferences

Download best quality up to a limit

Resolution Limit

# No better than 480p
yt-dlp -S "res:480" URL

# No better than 720p
yt-dlp -S "height:720" URL

Download Multiple Videos

From a file

Create a text file with URLs (one per line):

urls.txt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
# Lines starting with # are comments

Then download all:

yt-dlp -a urls.txt

Multiple URLs directly

yt-dlp URL1 URL2 URL3

Output Location

Customize where files are saved:

Custom Directory

# Save to specific folder
yt-dlp -P ~/Downloads/Videos URL

Common Download Scenarios

Download for offline viewing

# Best quality MP4 (most compatible)
yt-dlp --merge-output-format mp4 --remux-video mp4 \
  -S "vcodec:h264,acodec:aac" URL

Quick download (smallest file)

# Smallest file size
yt-dlp -S "+size,+br" URL

High quality archival

# Best possible quality with metadata
yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba" --embed-metadata --embed-thumbnail \
  --embed-subs --write-description URL

Download with Retries

Network issues can interrupt downloads. Configure retry behavior for reliability.

# Retry up to 10 times (default)
yt-dlp --retries 10 URL

# Infinite retries
yt-dlp --retries infinite URL

# With exponential backoff
yt-dlp --retry-sleep exp=1:60 URL

Resume Interrupted Downloads

yt-dlp automatically resumes partially downloaded files:

# Continue partial downloads (default)
yt-dlp -c URL

# Force restart from beginning
yt-dlp --no-continue URL

Speed Limiting

Control download speed to avoid network congestion:

# Limit to 1 MB/s
yt-dlp -r 1M URL

# Limit to 500 KB/s
yt-dlp --limit-rate 500K URL

Batch Download Best Practices

When downloading many videos, use these options to be respectful to servers:

yt-dlp \
  --sleep-interval 5 \
  --max-sleep-interval 15 \
  --sleep-requests 1 \
  --download-archive archive.txt \
  -a urls.txt

This configuration:

• Waits 5-15 seconds between downloads
• Waits 1 second between requests
• Tracks downloaded videos to avoid duplicates

Troubleshooting

Video unavailable or private

# Ignore errors and continue
yt-dlp --ignore-errors -a urls.txt

Age-restricted content

# Use cookies from browser
yt-dlp --cookies-from-browser firefox URL

Geo-restricted content

# Use proxy
yt-dlp --proxy socks5://127.0.0.1:1080 URL

# Fake X-Forwarded-For header
yt-dlp --xff "US" URL

Next Steps

Audio Extraction

Extract audio from videos in various formats

Playlists

Download entire playlists and channels

Format Selection

Advanced format selection options

Output Templates

Customize file naming and organization