You Are A Pirate

youtube-dl-mux.md

How To Become A Pirate

1. Install youtube-dl via Homebrew. Don't have Homebrew? Follow the easy one-step instructions here)
2. Install ffmpeg via Homebrew.
3. Execute the following command to determine available formats to download as: youtube-dl -F [link to video]
4. Select format type and execute: youtube-dl -f [format] [link to video]
5. You now have a downloaded (and automatically-converted-to standard-m4a rip)
6. For an MP3 version execute: ffmpeg -i [input].m4a -acodec libmp3lame -ab [bit rate] [output].mp3
7. Done

Note: If your M4A file isn't converted from DASH automatically (this is why you need to install ffmpeg) then execute the following to convert:

ffmpeg -i [input].m4a -vn -c:a copy [output].m4a

Example for Jay Park - On It

Step 3

• The command is: youtube-dl -F [link to video]
• So we substitute [link to video] with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm_oV72tufE
• The result is youtube-dl -F https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm_oV72tufE

Execute the above command and record the number next to the format you want, in this case 141 for 257k DASH audio only.

tsujp @babo 0/ Desktop % youtube-dl -F https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm_oV72tufE
[youtube] vm_oV72tufE: Downloading webpage
[youtube] vm_oV72tufE: Extracting video information
[youtube] vm_oV72tufE: Downloading DASH manifest
[info] Available formats for vm_oV72tufE:
format code  extension  resolution note
171          webm       audio only DASH audio  120k , audio@128k (44100Hz), 3.01MiB
140          m4a        audio only DASH audio  131k , m4a_dash container, aac  @128k (44100Hz), 3.68MiB
141          m4a        audio only DASH audio  257k , m4a_dash container, aac  @256k (44100Hz), 7.30MiB
160          mp4        256x144    DASH video  110k , 12fps, video only, 3.13MiB
278          webm       256x144    DASH video  114k , webm container, VP9, 12fps, video only, 2.75MiB
133          mp4        426x240    DASH video  248k , 24fps, video only, 7.03MiB
242          webm       426x240    DASH video  274k , 24fps, video only, 6.79MiB
243          webm       640x360    DASH video  494k , 24fps, video only, 12.51MiB
134          mp4        640x360    DASH video  611k , 24fps, video only, 16.86MiB
244          webm       854x480    DASH video  911k , 24fps, video only, 22.45MiB
135          mp4        854x480    DASH video 1119k , 24fps, video only, 30.91MiB
247          webm       1280x720   DASH video 1838k , 24fps, video only, 44.62MiB
136          mp4        1280x720   DASH video 2234k , 24fps, video only, 61.71MiB
248          webm       1920x1080  DASH video 3295k , 24fps, video only, 79.19MiB
137          mp4        1920x1080  DASH video 4233k , 24fps, video only, 115.81MiB
17           3gp        176x144    
36           3gp        320x240    
5            flv        400x240    
43           webm       640x360    
18           mp4        640x360    
22           mp4        1280x720   (best)

Step 4

The command for this step is the same except for the lower case f; -F becomes -f and the special number after the lower case f is closed with the same YouTube url as before.

The command becomes: youtube-dl -f 141 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm_oV72tufE

• ffmpeg will automatically convert this from DASH m4a to standard-m4a for us, the output should resemble this:

tsujp @babo 0/ Desktop % youtube-dl -f 141 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm_oV72tufE
[youtube] vm_oV72tufE: Downloading webpage
[youtube] vm_oV72tufE: Extracting video information
[youtube] vm_oV72tufE: Downloading DASH manifest
[download] Destination: 박재범 JAY PARK - ON IT (Feat.DJ WEGUN) Prod.by GRAY-vm_oV72tufE.m4a
[download] 100% of 7.30MiB in 00:05
[ffmpeg] Correcting container in "박재범 JAY PARK - ON IT (Feat.DJ WEGUN) Prod.by GRAY-vm_oV72tufE.m4a"

Note: The last line there is the automatic conversion.

Step 6

You're almost done! For the MP3 version just plug in the name of the input file (the .m4a you downloaded) and the ouput name you want.

In my case:

ffmpeg -i [input].m4a -acodec libmp3lame -ab [bit rate] [output].mp3

becomes

ffmpeg -i input.m4a -acodec libmp3lame -ab 256k output.mp3

The two reasons behind this:

1. I used input.m4a and output.mp3 as actual file names to keep things simple.

2. Remember at the start when we selected 141? You can see on the same row it tells us the quality of the audio: @256k (44100Hz). MP3 comes sampled at a few common bit-rates, 320, 256, and 128. In this case it matches (to 256) so we simply select that. There's no point encoding 320 if that information never existed in the first place.

   • If the quality was say.. @290 or above I'd select 320.