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Also known as itag or format codes and way back they could be specified with the fmt parameter (e.g. &fmt=22).
Depending on the age and/or popularity of the video, not all formats will be available.
DASH video
Resolution
AV1 HFR High
AV1 HFR
AV1
VP9.2 HDR HFR
VP9 HFR
VP9
H.264 HFR
H.264
MP4
MP4
MP4
WebM
WebM
WebM
MP4
MP4
4320p
402/571
272
138
2160p
701
401
337
315
(313)
(305)
(266)
1440p
700
400
336
308
(271)
(304)
(264)
1080p
699
399
335
303
(248)
299
(137)
720p
698
398
334
302
247
298
136
480p
697
397
333
244
135
360p
696
396
332
243
134
240p
695
395
331
242
133
144p
694
394
330
278
160
HFR stands for "High Framerate", which means up to 60 FPS, whereas non-HFR is limited to 30 FPS
Non-HFR 1080p+ H.264 and VP9 variants are not provided for HFR videos anymore
Same IDs are reused for 360° videos
1440p+ H.264 variants are only provided for 360° videos anymore
At the moment, AV1 variants are only provided for popular videos
All AV1 variants can be HDR (no separate non-HDR AV1 variants are offered)
AV1 HFR High: High refers to the bitrate. These variants have ~3-4 times the bitrate of their normal counterparts. Additional side effect is providing AV1 HFR variants for low resolutions (<=480p). These variants are rare even among videos with AV1 variants. Found on this video.
AV1 HFR 4320p: Format 571 has roughly 50% higher bitrate than 402. Sometimes only one of them is offered, sometimes both. Can be seen on this video.
DASH audio
Code
Container
Audio Codec
Audio Bitrate
Channels
Still offered?
139
MP4
AAC (HE v1)
48 Kbps
Stereo (2)
Rarely, YT Music
140
MP4
AAC (LC)
128 Kbps
Stereo (2)
Yes, YT Music
(141)
MP4
AAC (LC)
256 Kbps
Stereo (2)
No, YT Music*
249
WebM
Opus
(VBR) ~50 Kbps
Stereo (2)
Yes
250
WebM
Opus
(VBR) ~70 Kbps
Stereo (2)
Yes
251
WebM
Opus
(VBR) <=160 Kbps
Stereo (2)
Yes
256
MP4
AAC (HE v1)
192 Kbps
Surround (5.1)
Rarely
258
MP4
AAC (LC)
384 Kbps
Surround (5.1)
Rarely
327
MP4
AAC (LC)
256 Kbps
Surround (5.1)
?*
338
WebM
Opus
(VBR) ~480 Kbps (?)
Quadraphonic (4)
?*
Surround audio can be found on some demo videos
YT Music: These formats are offered on Youtube Music. Format 141 is only available to Premium users with High Quality option
Format 327, 338: These have been found on this Stereo 3D video
Legacy (non-DASH)
Code
Container
Video Codec
Video Res.
Audio Codec
Audio Bitrate
Channels
Still offered?
18
MP4
H.264 (Baseline, L3.0)
360p
AAC (LC)
96 Kbps
Stereo (2)
Yes, GDrive
(59)
MP4
H.264 (Main, L3.1)
480p
AAC (LC)
128 Kbps
Stereo (2)
No, GDrive
22
MP4
H.264 (High, L3.1)
720p
AAC (LC)
192 Kbps
Stereo (2)
Mostly*, GDrive
(37)
MP4
H.264 (High, L4.0)
1080p
AAC (LC)
128 Kbps
Stereo (2)
No, GDrive
Always limited to 30 FPS
GDrive: These formats are offered for Google Drive video previews. Note that the video player on GDrive displays incorrect codecs on rightclick -> stats
Format 22: Available for most videos, except music and music videos (not limited to official music channels!)
Livestreams (non-DASH)
Code
Container
Video Codec
Video Res.
Audio Codec
Audio Bitrate
Still offered?
91
MPEG-TS (HLS)
H.264 (Baseline, L1.1)
144p
AAC (HE v1)
48 Kbps
Yes
92
MPEG-TS (HLS)
H.264 (Main, L2.1)
240p
AAC (HE v1)
48 Kbps
Yes
93
MPEG-TS (HLS)
H.264 (Main, L3.0)
360p
AAC (LC)
128 Kbps
Yes
94
MPEG-TS (HLS)
H.264 (Main, L3.1)
480p
AAC (LC)
128 Kbps
Yes
95
MPEG-TS (HLS)
H.264 (Main, L3.1)
720p
AAC (LC)
256 Kbps
Yes
96
MPEG-TS (HLS)
H.264 (High, L4.0)
1080p
AAC (LC)
256 Kbps
Yes
300
MPEG-TS (HLS)
H.264 (Main, L3.2)
HFR 720p
AAC (LC)
128 Kbps
Yes
301
MPEG-TS (HLS)
H.264 (High, L4.2)
HFR 1080p
AAC (LC)
128 Kbps
Yes
Non-HFR variants are limited to 30 FPS, HFR to 60 FPS
Non-HFR variants for 720p and 1080p may not be offered if HFR is available
Livestreams are also offered through DASH video (H.264, VP9) and DASH audio (AAC) streams
Template youtube-dl formats
For archiving videos: Only choose combinations that fit WebM (VP9+Opus) or MP4 (H.264+AAC)
Afaik no. You can only force AV1 in the YouTube settings which doesn't really work either. I have it switched on and in Chrome on Win 10 clicking on the same link results in AV1 but on my Work PC with the same configuration it results in VP9.. I'd love to have a "advanced" setting where I can manually decide which available codec I want to use. But Google would never implement that.
@DerSkedda Thanks, very interesting. I have added that format (along with new AAC format 327) to the table but I have no explanation what purpose they serve, especially given their weird channel configuration and I couldn't find them on other 3D/360° videos.
I also found out what the format 338 is used for. It's purpose is for Google Cardboard/VR videos with 3 dimensional audio. That's where the quadraphonic comes from, I guess 4 channels for each virtual "corner" or something like that. No idea for 327 though.
Anybody work out what all the random characters in the video format section are for? This only appears to happen on a couple of music videos with a lot of views. I believe it may look slightly better than standard VP9, meaning it could have a higher bitrate. FYI: I'm on 4G.
OK everybody, I've got 2 new formats I've never seen before.
325: dtse @384k (48000Hz)
380: ac-3 @384k (48000Hz)
I was messing around in youtube-dl and was attempting to download the trailer you get whenever you open a film on YouTube (like here: youtube.com/watch?v=W8CXEjr0hWg). I notice the video ID in stats for nerds was different than the actual URL of the film so I copied the ID (WAyN4mQgl-4) of the trailer in stats for nerds, then I typed out 'youtu.be/VIDEOURL', replaced VIDEOURL with the ID from stats for nerds and ended up with this unlisted trailer, that was the one being used on the film itself: youtube.com/watch?v=WAyN4mQgl-4
I've always known that (official) YouTube film trailers have different formats to usual. Here's the full list of formats for this video.
Also for formats 598 and 600:
They are ultra-low-bandwidth streams. 600 sounds even worse than 249/139 and 598 runs at 144p at half the frame rate the video would have at 480p. No idea of the stream bitrates, I just know that 598 is VP9 and 600 is Opus.
Note: 139 is actually available on most videos, but is only offered on mobile clients
Also YouTube still encodes videos in itag 17 (144p 3gp) to this day ROFL
Note: 139 is actually available on most videos, but is only offered on mobile clients
Also YouTube still encodes videos in itag 17 (144p 3gp) to this day ROFL
UPDATE: 'Sintel' (the film by blender, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRsGyueVLvQ) is on YouTube in 4 (not 3) different codecs! AVC1, AV1, VP9 and VP8! (somehow). I don't know of any other videos on YouTube in VP8, please post if you know!
If you're wondering, they're standard VP8 and they play just fine in VLC.
Do you guys know any way to search for videos with a specific audio format?
Just write a youtube-dl script in python that searches for a video by keyword, then filters the resulting data based on format, eliminates videos with any other formats and returns the filtered data(videos with just that format).
Just write a youtube-dl script in python that searches for a video by keyword, then filters the resulting data based on format, eliminates videos with any other formats and returns the filtered data(videos with just that format).
Thanks for your suggestion @GuruPrasaathM! I wrote a little npm package that filter videos by codecs in case anyone needs it :)
I was watching a video and noticed it was using audio format 600. @LBSiUK said something about it but that's the only mention I can find online.
Video link: https://youtu.be/AeZr8B87a4Y
yt-dlp doesn't seem to support downloading this format yet.
@Aluminite yt-dlp actually can download itag 600, but only under MWEB (which might mean that format 600 is only whitelisted for certain Android phones)
@Raprodent If I'm understanding you correctly you are trying to download 1440p/2160p video with audio in the same file right? If so you can merge any VP9 WebM video with any opus audio track and output it as a WebM file.
This is the command I use yt-dlp -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" --add-metadata -f "bestvideo[ext=webm]+251" --merge-output-format webm [video link]
As YouTube only offered videos with embedded audio tracks on 360p (18) and 720p (22) quality.
This Youtube Video boasts that it contains NonPoint In the Air Tonight HQ 432hz HD 1080p (I guess they meant those Hz to be KHz). However, I can't find a way to get that high-resolution audio with youtube-dl.
C:\Tools>youtube-dl.exe -F https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MM8n2Ipa5c
[youtube] 0MM8n2Ipa5c: Downloading webpage
[youtube] 0MM8n2Ipa5c: Downloading MPD manifest
[info] Available formats for 0MM8n2Ipa5c:
format code extension resolution note
139 m4a audio only DASH audio 50k , m4a_dash container, mp4a.40.5 (22050Hz), 1.55MiB
251 webm audio only tiny 127k , webm_dash container, opus @127k (48000Hz), 4.13MiB
140 m4a audio only tiny 127k , m4a_dash container, mp4a.40.2@127k (44100Hz), 4.13MiB
278 webm 192x144 DASH video 95k , webm_dash container, vp9, 30fps, video only
160 mp4 192x144 DASH video 108k , mp4_dash container, avc1.4d400b, 30fps, video only
242 webm 320x240 DASH video 220k , webm_dash container, vp9, 30fps, video only
133 mp4 320x240 DASH video 242k , mp4_dash container, avc1.4d400c, 30fps, video only
134 mp4 480x360 360p 43k , mp4_dash container, avc1.4d401e@ 43k, 30fps, video only, 1.42MiB
243 webm 480x360 DASH video 405k , webm_dash container, vp9, 30fps, video only
135 mp4 640x480 480p 77k , mp4_dash container, avc1.4d401e@ 77k, 30fps, video only, 2.53MiB
244 webm 640x480 DASH video 752k , webm_dash container, vp9, 30fps, video only
18 mp4 480x360 360p 170k , avc1.42001E, 30fps, mp4a.40.2 (44100Hz) (best)
The best audio available is 4.1MB, at 48KHz which surely is not the audiophile quality that was promised. What's going on here? Maybe youtube just drops very heavy audio streams at the moment the video is uploaded? Can anybody point me to a Youtube video with a very high-quality audio track in it? Thanks.
This Youtube Video boasts that it contains NonPoint In the Air Tonight HQ 432hz HD 1080p (I guess they meant those Hz to be KHz).
Actually @pgorod, they did mean 432Hz. This isn't referring to a sample rate, but rather a tuning standard. Instruments are usually tuned using the note A4 as reference. Most of the time, A4 is considered to be 440Hz, but there are some who believe that everything sounds better when tuning A4 as 432Hz instead. You can read more about it here, if interested.
So this has nothing to do with audio quality or specs, and as such you don't find anything useful about it with youtube-dl. It's not a claim for a superior experience in a technical sense, but rather a musical sense.
Afaik no. You can only force AV1 in the YouTube settings which doesn't really work either. I have it switched on and in Chrome on Win 10 clicking on the same link results in AV1 but on my Work PC with the same configuration it results in VP9.. I'd love to have a "advanced" setting where I can manually decide which available codec I want to use. But Google would never implement that.