iPlayer downloads fail with 404 if you specify a bitrate.

[DavidCWGA]

Make sure you are using the latest version: run youtube-dl --version and ensure your version is 2016.08.06. If it's not read this FAQ entry and update. Issues with outdated version will be rejected.

• I've verified and I assure that I'm running youtube-dl 2016.08.06

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• At least skimmed through README and most notably FAQ and BUGS sections
• Searched the bugtracker for similar issues including closed ones

What is the purpose of your issue?

• Bug report (encountered problems with youtube-dl)
• Site support request (request for adding support for a new site)
• Feature request (request for a new functionality)
• Question
• Other

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If the purpose of this issue is a bug report, site support request or you are not completely sure provide the full verbose output as follows:

Add -v flag to your command line you run youtube-dl with, copy the whole output and insert it here. It should look similar to one below (replace it with your log inserted between triple ```):

$ youtube-dl --verbose -f "[vbr<4000]" http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07mzrxt/olympic-ceremonies-2016-opening-ceremony
[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: []
[debug] Command-line args: [u'--verbose', u'-f', u'[vbr<4000]', u'http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07mzrxt/olympic-ceremonies-2016-opening-ceremony']
[debug] Encodings: locale US-ASCII, fs US-ASCII, out US-ASCII, pref US-ASCII
[debug] youtube-dl version 2016.08.06
[debug] Python version 2.7.12 - FreeBSD-10.2-RELEASE-p18-amd64-64bit-ELF
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg 2.8.7, ffprobe 2.8.7, rtmpdump 2.4
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[bbc.co.uk] b07mzrxt: Downloading video page
[bbc.co.uk] b07mzrx1: Downloading media selection XML
[bbc.co.uk] b07mzrx1: Downloading m3u8 information
[bbc.co.uk] b07mzrx1: Downloading m3u8 information
[bbc.co.uk] b07mzrx1: Downloading m3u8 information
[bbc.co.uk] b07mzrx1: Downloading m3u8 information
[bbc.co.uk] b07mzrx1: Downloading m3u8 information
[debug] Invoking downloader on u'http://cp401489-vh.akamaihd.net/i/iplayerstream/secure_auth/,800kbps/modav/p042h4rb_b07mzrx1_1470475175178,1500kbps/modav/p042h4rb_b07mzrx1_1470475172698,3200kbps/modav/p042h4rb_b07mzrx1_1470475175553,.mp4.csmil/index_2_av.m3u8'
[hlsnative] Downloading m3u8 manifest
[hlsnative] Total fragments: 1601
[download] Destination: Olympic Ceremonies, 2016 - Opening Ceremony-b07mzrx1.mp4
[download]   0.1% of ~5.26GiB at 56.45MiB/s ETA 03:44ERROR: unable to download video data: HTTP Error 404: Not Found
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 1683, in process_info
    success = dl(filename, info_dict)
  File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 1625, in dl
    return fd.download(name, info)
  File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/downloader/common.py", line 350, in download
    return self.real_download(filename, info_dict)
  File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/downloader/hls.py", line 98, in real_download
    success = ctx['dl'].download(frag_filename, {'url': frag_url})
  File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/downloader/common.py", line 350, in download
    return self.real_download(filename, info_dict)
  File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/downloader/http.py", line 58, in real_download
    data = self.ydl.urlopen(request)
  File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 1985, in urlopen
    return self._opener.open(req, timeout=self._socket_timeout)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 435, in open
    response = meth(req, response)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 548, in http_response
    'http', request, response, code, msg, hdrs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 473, in error
    return self._call_chain(*args)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 407, in _call_chain
    result = func(*args)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 556, in http_error_default
    raise HTTPError(req.get_full_url(), code, msg, hdrs, fp)
HTTPError: HTTP Error 404: Not Found

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Description of your issue, suggested solution and other information

Adding -f "[vbr<4000]" causes an iPlayer download to fail with a 404 error. This has been working ever since I started using youtube-dl, but started failing yesterday, as far as I can tell. I don't think I updated youtube-dl yesterday, so I guess it's a change with the iPlayer itself.

If you specify a specific format from the -F list instead, the download completes successfully, but you seem to get the wrong version. For example, formats listed as HD end up being in SD.

[dstftw]

With -f "[vbr<4000]" you select the format that has missing fragments. Either select different format or use --hls-prefer-native. Note also that vbr extracted from hls manifest is not always reported correct by BBC.