Download best quality audio available

[TriggerThumb]

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[debug] System config: []
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[debug] Command-line args: [u'-v', u'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKcj']
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[TriggerThumb]

Can someone please advise the best switch to use to capture the highest quality audio stream.

For example using the -f switch I'm looking to get the highest quality audio regardless if is available through audio only stream or a mixed audio/video stream.

Also, if this is not downloaded as an m4a file how would I remux (no conversion) the output to ensure I end up with just the m4a rather than a webm or something else?

I'm aware I can use the --extract-audio m4a switch but will this automatically look for the highest bitrate audio stream available including those in a mix of audio/video?

[dstftw]

get the highest quality audio regardless if is available through audio only stream or a mixed audio/video stream

Not possible, duplicate of #9302.

It's impossible to get m4a from webm without conversion.

--extract-audio m4a does not make any sense since --extract-audio does not accept any arguments.

-f bestaudio/best -x --audio-format m4a is best you can do.

[jjgh]

-f bestaudio/best -x --audio-format m4a is best you can do.

@dstftw, but m4a is a container isn't it? So what will youtube-dl do in this case? Call ffmpeg to convert (re-encode) the extracted audio to aac and then put it in a m4a container?

[jjgh]

sorry @dstftw but my question above arises from the fact that IMHO readme is not clear on what --audio-format actually does.

• Does it always re-encode to the given format? (and could you guys be a bit more consistent with the terminology: conversion vs re-encoding, choose one)
• What if bestaudio is already downloading the format given to --audio-format?
• What does --audio-format best do?
• Why is --audio-format accepting m4a and aac but not webm as a container for Opus/Vorbis?

Ty!