-f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see the "FORMAT SELECTION" for all the info
--all-formats Download all available video formats
--prefer-free-formats Prefer free video formats unless a specific one is requested
- --max-quality FORMAT Highest quality format to download
-F, --list-formats List all available formats
--youtube-skip-dash-manifest Do not download the DASH manifest on YouTube videos
--merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g. bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg, webm, flv.Ignored if no
--recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if necessary (currently supported: mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv)
-k, --keep-video Keep the video file on disk after the post-processing; the video is erased by default
--no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files; the post-processed files are overwritten by default
- --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4 videos)
+ --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mkv and mp4 videos)
--embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
--add-metadata Write metadata to the video file
--metadata-from-title FORMAT Parse additional metadata like song title / artist from the video title. The format syntax is the same as --output, the parsed
If you have installed youtube-dl with a package manager, pip, setup.py or a tarball, please use that to update. Note that Ubuntu packages do not seem to get updated anymore. Since we are not affiliated with Ubuntu, there is little we can do. Feel free to [report bugs](https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/youtube-dl/+filebug) to the [Ubuntu packaging guys](mailto:ubuntu-motu@lists.ubuntu.com?subject=outdated%20version%20of%20youtube-dl) - all they have to do is update the package to a somewhat recent version. See above for a way to update.
-### Do I always have to pass in `--max-quality FORMAT`, or `-citw`?
+### Do I always have to pass `-citw`?
-By default, youtube-dl intends to have the best options (incidentally, if you have a convincing case that these should be different, [please file an issue where you explain that](https://yt-dl.org/bug)). Therefore, it is unnecessary and sometimes harmful to copy long option strings from webpages. In particular, `--max-quality` *limits* the video quality (so if you want the best quality, do NOT pass it in), and the only option out of `-citw` that is regularly useful is `-i`.
+By default, youtube-dl intends to have the best options (incidentally, if you have a convincing case that these should be different, [please file an issue where you explain that](https://yt-dl.org/bug)). Therefore, it is unnecessary and sometimes harmful to copy long option strings from webpages. In particular, the only option out of `-citw` that is regularly useful is `-i`.
### Can you please put the -b option back?
YouTube requires an additional signature since September 2012 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. See [above](#how-do-i-update-youtube-dl) for how to update youtube-dl.
+### Video URL contains an ampersand and I'm getting some strange output `[1] 2839` or `'v' is not recognized as an internal or external command` ###
+
+That's actually the output from your shell. Since ampersand is one of the special shell characters it's interpreted by shell preventing you from passing the whole URL to youtube-dl. To disable your shell from interpreting the ampersands (or any other special characters) you have to either put the whole URL in quotes or escape them with a backslash (which approach will work depends on your shell).
+
+For example if your URL is https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc you should end up with following command:
+
+```youtube-dl 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc'```
+
+or
+
+```youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4\&v=BaW_jenozKc```
+
+For Windows you have to use the double quotes:
+
+```youtube-dl "https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc"```
+
### ExtractorError: Could not find JS function u'OF'
In February 2015, the new YouTube player contained a character sequence in a string that was misinterpreted by old versions of youtube-dl. See [above](#how-do-i-update-youtube-dl) for how to update youtube-dl.
projects / youtube-dl / blobdiff