whom to blame for not good information while downloading a file, youtube-dl or ffmpeg ?

[shirishag75]

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Make sure you are using the latest version: run youtube-dl --version and ensure your version is 2016.10.21.1. If it's not read this FAQ entry and update. Issues with outdated version will be rejected.

• [yes ] I've verified and I assure that I'm running youtube-dl 2016.10.21.1

[$] youtube-dl --version
2016.10.21.1

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)
• [Yes] Question
• Other

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 ```):

Why is ffmpeg used when downloading files. I get the following when downloading in Debian testing -

[HotStar] xxxxxxxxxxx: Downloading JSON metadata
[HotStar] xxxxxxxxxxx: Downloading TABLET JSON metadata
[HotStar] xxxxxxxxxxx: Downloading m3u8 information
[download] Destination: xxxxxxxx!-xxxxxxxxxxx.mp4
ffmpeg version 3.1.4-1 Copyright (c) 2000-2016 the FFmpeg developers
built with gcc 6.2.0 (Debian 6.2.0-6) 20161010
configuration: --prefix=/usr --extra-version=1 --toolchain=hardened --libdir=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu --incdir=/usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu --enable-gpl --enable-shared --disable-libtesseract --disable-stripping --disable-decoder=libschroedinger --enable-avresample --enable-avisynth --enable-gnutls --enable-ladspa --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libcdio --enable-libebur128 --enable-libflite --enable-libfontconfig --enable-libfreetype --enable-libfribidi --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-libpulse --enable-librubberband --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libshine --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libssh --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx265 --enable-libxvid --enable-libzmq --enable-libzvbi --enable-openal --enable-opengl --enable-x11grab --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libiec61883 --enable-frei0r --enable-chromaprint --enable-libopencv --enable-libx264
libavutil 55. 28.100 / 55. 28.100
libavcodec 57. 48.101 / 57. 48.101
libavformat 57. 41.100 / 57. 41.100
libavdevice 57. 0.101 / 57. 0.101
libavfilter 6. 47.100 / 6. 47.100
libavresample 3. 0. 0 / 3. 0. 0
libswscale 4. 1.100 / 4. 1.100
libswresample 2. 1.100 / 2. 1.100
libpostproc 54. 0.100 / 54. 0.100
[h264 @ 0x207f8a0] non-existing SPS 0 referenced in buffering period
[h264 @ 0x207f8a0] SPS unavailable in decode_picture_timing
[h264 @ 0x207f8a0] non-existing SPS 0 referenced in buffering period
[h264 @ 0x207f8a0] SPS unavailable in decode_picture_timing
[hls,applehttp @ 0x1bbed60] No longer receiving playlist 0
[hls,applehttp @ 0x1bbed60] Now receiving playlist 0, segment 1
Input #0, hls,applehttp, from 'https://staragvod3-vh.akamaihd.net/i/videos/lifeok/sain/1858/xxxxxxxxxxx_,16,180,400,800,1300,2000,_STAR.mp4.csmil/index_5_av.m3u8?null=0&id=AgB1w2uVaF++Fz25DFgkx8PkKfTYNEvgHtaM0inzxM15ZcVodMGV5yZjUyicFzwkcdYTv%2f+0ZQ9rsA%3d%3d':
Duration: 00:41:46.76, start: 0.100667, bitrate: 0 kb/s
Program 0
Metadata:
variant_bitrate : 0
Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (Main) ([27][0][0][0] / 0x001B), yuv420p, 1280x720 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 25 fps, 25 tbr, 90k tbn, 50 tbc
Stream #0:1: Audio: aac (LC) ([15][0][0][0] / 0x000F), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 65 kb/s
[mp4 @ 0x20c4980] Using AVStream.codec to pass codec parameters to muxers is deprecated, use AVStream.codecpar instead.
Last message repeated 1 times
Output #0, mp4, to 'file:xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx.mp4.part':
Metadata:
encoder : Lavf57.41.100
Stream #0:0: Video: h264 ([33][0][0][0] / 0x0021), yuv420p, 1280x720 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], q=2-31, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 90k tbn, 90k tbc
Stream #0:1: Audio: aac (LC) ([64][0][0][0] / 0x0040), 48000 Hz, stereo, 65 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (copy)
Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (copy)
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
[mpegts @ 0x206f420] DTS 9090 < 545490 out of order
[hls,applehttp @ 0x1bbed60] DTS 9090 < 545490 out of order

and then multiple instances of statements like these - 

[mp4 @ 0x20c4980] Non-monotonous DTS in output stream 0:0; previous: 536430, current: 30; changing to 536431. This may result in incorrect timestamps in the output file.
[mp4 @ 0x20c4980] Non-monotonous DTS in output stream 0:1; previous: 287744, current: 0; changing to 287745. This may result in incorrect timestamps in the output file.
[mp4 @ 0x20c4980] Non-monotonous DTS in output stream 0:1; previous: 287745, current: 1024; changing to 287746. This may result in incorrect timestamps in the output file.

With the status at - 

frame=62819 fps= 11 q=-1.0 Lsize= 633804kB time=00:41:46.75 bitrate=2071.3kbits/s speed=0.428x
video:614305kB audio:18835kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: 0.104869%
[ffmpeg] Downloaded 649015556 bytes
[download] 100% of 618.95MiB

Now it is only at the very end that you come to know what is the time of the whole stream (apart from the beginning if you have looked at) and the bitrate is in kbits sa well as speed which doesn't tell what the speed is about. Can all of this be done in some better way ?

I'm looking for better representation of the status in terms of size (from kB to mB), bitrate from (kbits from Kbytes) and speed which makes some sense. Is there a way to achieve that ?

Just to share here's the verbose output of an empty youtube-dl -

[$] youtube-dl -v
[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: []
[debug] Command-line args: [u'-v']
[debug] Encodings: locale UTF-8, fs UTF-8, out UTF-8, pref UTF-8
[debug] youtube-dl version 2016.10.21.1
[debug] Python version 2.7.12+ - Linux-4.7.0-1-amd64-x86_64-with-debian-stretch-sid
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg 3.1.4-1, ffprobe 3.1.4-1, rtmpdump 2.4
[debug] Proxy map: {}
Usage: youtube-dl [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]

youtube-dl: error: You must provide at least one URL.
Type youtube-dl --help to see a list of all options.

Looking forward to know. 

[yan12125]

HotStar uses HLS. There's a built-in downloader for HLS, while ffmpeg supports it better, so by default ffmpeg is used. You can switch to the built-in downloader by:

youtube-dl --hls-prefer-native <the URL>

[shirishag75]

This is much much better.