youtube-dl complains about outdated avconv on Debian

[rincebrain]

Make sure you are using the latest version: run youtube-dl --version and ensure your version is 2016.09.15. 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 Issues with outdated version will be rejected.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 2016.09.15

Before submitting an issue make sure you have:

• 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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The following sections concretize particular purposed issues, you can erase any section (the contents between triple ---) not applicable to your issue

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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 -v 'http://www.cc.com/full-episodes/oqhari/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-september-14--2016---hannah-hart-season-21-ep-21153'
[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: []
[debug] Command-line args: [u'-v', u'http://www.cc.com/full-episodes/oqhari/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-september-14--2016---hannah-hart-season-21-ep-21153']
[debug] Encodings: locale UTF-8, fs UTF-8, out UTF-8, pref UTF-8
[debug] youtube-dl version 2016.09.15
[debug] Python version 2.7.9 - Linux-4.5.0-0.bpo.2-amd64-x86_64-with-debian-8.5
[debug] exe versions: avconv 2.6.9, avprobe 2.6.9, ffmpeg 2.6.9, ffprobe 2.6.9, rtmpdump 2.4
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[ComedyCentral] the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-september-14--2016---hannah-hart-season-21-ep-21153: Downloading webpage
[ComedyCentral] 6a95eb1a-bf13-453a-97c2-dbb01e774f4a: Downloading info
[ComedyCentral] 98bf6757-1d25-4585-94de-0a4b42dbc077: Extracting information
[ComedyCentral] 98bf6757-1d25-4585-94de-0a4b42dbc077: Downloading video urls
[ComedyCentral] be5b7144-a6e2-4efc-9265-d1f91a7adc95: Extracting information
[ComedyCentral] be5b7144-a6e2-4efc-9265-d1f91a7adc95: Downloading video urls
[ComedyCentral] 66615bd2-93f8-4a9e-ab19-fadc642257a0: Extracting information
[ComedyCentral] 66615bd2-93f8-4a9e-ab19-fadc642257a0: Downloading video urls
[ComedyCentral] a6e78047-c0cb-4162-9a13-455af372d1cb: Extracting information
[ComedyCentral] a6e78047-c0cb-4162-9a13-455af372d1cb: Downloading video urls
[download] Downloading playlist: September 14, 2016 - Hannah Hart
[ComedyCentral] playlist September 14, 2016 - Hannah Hart: Collected 4 video ids (downloading 4 of them)
[download] Downloading video 1 of 4
WARNING: Your copy of avconv is outdated and unable to properly mux separate video and audio files, youtube-dl will download single file media. Update avconv to version 10-0 or newer to fix this.
[debug] Invoking downloader on u'http://viacommtvstrmfs.fplive.net/gsp.comedystor/com/dailyshow/TDS/Season_21/21153/ds_21_153_act1_2a0gi8r18t_1920x1080_5128.mp4'
[download] The Daily Show with Trevor Noah_September 14, 2016_21_21153_September 14, 2016 - Hannah Hart_Act 1-98bf6757-1d25-4585-94de-0a4b42dbc077.mp4 has already been downloaded
[download] 100% of 234.77MiB
[download] Downloading video 2 of 4
WARNING: Your copy of avconv is outdated and unable to properly mux separate video and audio files, youtube-dl will download single file media. Update avconv to version 10-0 or newer to fix this.
[debug] Invoking downloader on u'http://viacommtvstrmfs.fplive.net/gsp.comedystor/com/dailyshow/TDS/Season_21/21153/ds_21_153_act2_ltrb8juyp2_1920x1080_5128.mp4'
[download] The Daily Show with Trevor Noah_September 14, 2016_21_21153_September 14, 2016 - Hannah Hart_Act 2-be5b7144-a6e2-4efc-9265-d1f91a7adc95.mp4 has already been downloaded
[download] 100% of 167.62MiB
[download] Downloading video 3 of 4
WARNING: Your copy of avconv is outdated and unable to properly mux separate video and audio files, youtube-dl will download single file media. Update avconv to version 10-0 or newer to fix this.
[debug] Invoking downloader on u'http://viacommtvstrmfs.fplive.net/gsp.comedystor/com/dailyshow/TDS/Season_21/21153/ds_21_153_act3_d20heeqqlf_1920x1080_5128.mp4'
[download] The Daily Show with Trevor Noah_September 14, 2016_21_21153_September 14, 2016 - Hannah Hart_Act 3-66615bd2-93f8-4a9e-ab19-fadc642257a0.mp4 has already been downloaded
[download] 100% of 174.49MiB
[download] Downloading video 4 of 4
WARNING: Your copy of avconv is outdated and unable to properly mux separate video and audio files, youtube-dl will download single file media. Update avconv to version 10-0 or newer to fix this.
[debug] Invoking downloader on u'http://viacommtvstrmfs.fplive.net/gsp.comedystor/com/dailyshow/TDS/Season_21/21153/ds_21_153_act4_10jl2re3zw_1920x1080_5128.mp4'
[download] The Daily Show with Trevor Noah_September 14, 2016_21_21153_September 14, 2016 - Hannah Hart_Act 4-a6e78047-c0cb-4162-9a13-455af372d1cb.mp4 has already been downloaded
[download] 100% of 94.59MiB
[download] Finished downloading playlist: September 14, 2016 - Hannah Hart

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Description of your issue, suggested solution and other information

On Debian, avconv and friends get symlinked to ffmpeg when you have ffmpeg installed, instead of libav.

youtube-dl therefore tries to use avconv preferentially by default, but notices the version string is not what it would prefer, yielding things like the above log, where it concludes the version of avconv is stale, and changes its behavior.

I can work around this by defining --prefer-ffmpeg in ~/.config/youtube-dl.conf, but it would be nice if youtube-dl could, in addition to parsing the version string out of the first line of the {av,ff}* utilities, parse the utility name out of the first line, and decide that it's not executing the utility it thinks it is (e.g. determining that libav is not actually available on the system when avconv/avplay/etc report ffmpeg/ffplay/..., versus reporting the same version string for both).

[yan12125]

Yeah it's a known bug. #8720 tries to fix it but there are still some problems.

[urbanqc]

Been Strugling with this warning. If this can temporary help as it remove your warning and install latest version
went on ffmpeg website and follow those steps (debian based distro)

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mc3man/trusty-media
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

[larryhastings]

I've submitted a new PR to fix this, #15108. I took a slightly more sophisticated approach than #8720. It works like this:

If the user doesn't express a preference between ffmpeg and avconv, examine the versions of those programs. If avconv is outdated, but ffmpget isn't outdated, us ffmpeg. In all other cases, continue to default to avconv.

[mfrasca]

would it be viable, including the following check (writing it in bash):

if [ $(avconv 2>&1 | head -n1 | grep -o '^.*?\>')==ffmpeg ]
then
  echo prefer-ffmpeg
fi

I mean: the system clearly prefers ffmpeg, since avconv is symlinked to it.