Dirty script to play 1080p + 480p from youtube (DASH) in mpv

mpv_youtube-dl.sh

#!/bin/bash
#
# Dirty script to play 1080p + 480p from youtube (DASH) in mpv
# --audio-file adjusted for mpv 0.4 (0.3: --audiofile)
#

video_url="$1"
youtube_dash_video_formats="137/136/135/134/133"
youtube_dash_audio_formats="172/141/171/140/139"
cache_settings="--cache=1000000"


youtube_dash () {

  title_and_video=$(youtube-dl -g -e -f "$youtube_dash_video_formats" "$video_url")
  audio=$(youtube-dl -g -f "$youtube_dash_audio_formats" "$video_url")
  mpv $(echo "$title_and_video" | sed -n 2p) \
    --title="$(echo "$title_and_video" | sed -n 1p)" \
    --audio-file $audio \
    --demuxer-lavf-o=fflags=+ignidx \
    $cache_settings
    
}

normal_playback () {

  title_and_video=$(youtube-dl -g -e $video_url)
  mpv $(echo "$title_and_video" | sed -n 2p) \
    --title="$(echo "$title_and_video" | sed -n 1p)" \
    $cache_settings

}




if [[ "$1" =~ "www.youtube.com/" ]]; then
  
  formats=$(youtube-dl -F $1)
  
  if [[ "$formats" =~ "1080" ]]; then
    
    echo "Playing: 1080p DASH"
    youtube_dash
  
  elif [[ "$formats" =~ "720" ]]; then
  
    echo "Playing: 720p"
    normal_playback
  
  elif [[ "$formats" =~ "480" ]]; then
  
    echo "Playing: 480p DASH"
    youtube_dash
    
  else
  
    echo "Playing: 360p/240p"
    normal_playback
    
  fi
  
else

normal_playback

fi

NOTE.md

You probably shouldn’t be using this any more, mpv as of version 0.7 can directly make use of youtube-dl with the --ytdl option (enabled by default in 0.7.2) You can configure what formats mpv will play with the --ytdl-format option, something similar to this script can be achieved with --ytdl-format=303+bestaudio[ext=webm]/299+bestaudio/248+bestaudio[ext=webm]/137+bestaudio/302+bestaudio[ext=webm]/298+bestaudio/22/244+bestaudio[ext=webm]/135+bestaudio/18/best

This will also prefer 60fps content over normal versions of the videos and vp9 over h264, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youtube#Quality_and_formats