Single quotes not working in windows

[GammaPaladin]

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Make sure you are using the latest version: run youtube-dl --version and ensure your version is 2019.02.08. 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 Issues with outdated version will be rejected.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 2019.02.08

Before submitting an issue make sure you have:

• At least skimmed through the README, most notably the FAQ and BUGS sections
• Searched the bugtracker for similar issues including closed ones
• Checked that provided video/audio/playlist URLs (if any) are alive and playable in a browser

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 the -v flag to your command line you run youtube-dl with (youtube-dl -v <your command line>), 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 -F "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dxvRYO4FQY"
[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: []
[debug] Custom config: []
[debug] Command-line args: ['-v', '-F', 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dxvRYO4FQY']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1252, fs mbcs, out cp437, pref cp1252
[debug] youtube-dl version 2019.02.08
[debug] Python version 3.4.4 (CPython) - Windows-10-10.0.17763
[debug] exe versions: none
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[youtube] 8dxvRYO4FQY: Downloading webpage
[youtube] 8dxvRYO4FQY: Downloading video info webpage
[info] Available formats for 8dxvRYO4FQY:
format code  extension  resolution note
249          webm       audio only DASH audio   69k , opus @ 50k, 28.56MiB
250          webm       audio only DASH audio   87k , opus @ 70k, 37.67MiB
140          m4a        audio only DASH audio  134k , m4a_dash container, mp4a.40.2@128k, 70.56MiB
171          webm       audio only DASH audio  142k , vorbis@128k, 67.79MiB
251          webm       audio only DASH audio  160k , opus @160k, 73.99MiB
278          webm       256x144    144p  109k , webm container, vp9, 30fps, video only, 49.13MiB
160          mp4        256x144    144p  117k , avc1.4d400c, 30fps, video only, 53.29MiB
242          webm       426x240    240p  248k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 109.77MiB
133          mp4        426x240    240p  263k , avc1.4d4015, 30fps, video only, 114.87MiB
243          webm       640x360    360p  563k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 206.06MiB
134          mp4        640x360    360p  671k , avc1.4d401e, 30fps, video only, 299.72MiB
244          webm       854x480    480p 1006k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 374.09MiB
135          mp4        854x480    480p 1239k , avc1.4d401f, 30fps, video only, 563.68MiB
247          webm       1280x720   720p 2344k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 768.49MiB
136          mp4        1280x720   720p 2449k , avc1.4d401f, 30fps, video only, 1.09GiB
137          mp4        1920x1080  1080p 4558k , avc1.640028, 30fps, video only, 2.05GiB
248          webm       1920x1080  1080p 4908k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 1.38GiB
17           3gp        176x144    small   80k , mp4v.20.3, mp4a.40.2@ 24k (22050Hz), 44.13MiB
36           3gp        320x180    small  229k , mp4v.20.3, mp4a.40.2 (22050Hz), 125.05MiB
43           webm       640x360    medium , vp8.0, vorbis@128k, 479.57MiB
18           mp4        640x360    medium  727k , avc1.42001E, mp4a.40.2@ 96k (44100Hz), 396.52MiB
22           mp4        1280x720   hd720 2178k , avc1.64001F, mp4a.40.2@192k (44100Hz) (best)

youtube-dl -v -f 'bestvideo' "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dxvRYO4FQY"
[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: []
[debug] Custom config: []
[debug] Command-line args: ['-v', '-f', "'bestvideo'", 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dxvRYO4FQY']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1252, fs mbcs, out cp437, pref cp1252
[debug] youtube-dl version 2019.02.08
[debug] Python version 3.4.4 (CPython) - Windows-10-10.0.17763
[debug] exe versions: none
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[youtube] 8dxvRYO4FQY: Downloading webpage
[youtube] 8dxvRYO4FQY: Downloading video info webpage
ERROR: requested format not available
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\rg3\tmp6w61832c\build\youtube_dl\YoutubeDL.py", line 805, in extract_info
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\rg3\tmp6w61832c\build\youtube_dl\YoutubeDL.py", line 859, in process_ie_result
  File "C:\Users\dst\AppData\Roaming\Build archive\youtube-dl\rg3\tmp6w61832c\build\youtube_dl\YoutubeDL.py", line 1632, in process_video_result
youtube_dl.utils.ExtractorError: requested format not available
...
<end of log>

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If the purpose of this issue is a site support request please provide all kinds of example URLs support for which should be included (replace following example URLs by yours):

• Single video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc
• Single video: https://youtu.be/BaW_jenozKc
• Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4lCao7KL_QFVb7Iudeipvc2BCavECqzc

Note that youtube-dl does not support sites dedicated to copyright infringement. In order for site support request to be accepted all provided example URLs should not violate any copyrights.

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Description of your issue, suggested solution and other information

As you can see, when used from the windows command line, using single quotes around the format specification does not work. When I switched to using double quotes, it worked again. I was using single quotes as that's what was shown in the usage examples in the documentation. If this is a Windows issue that can't easily be solved, that should probably be noted in the documentation. so people know to use double quotes instead.

Additionally, on a separate note, while the documentation says that bestvideo+bestaudio/best is the default, I've noted that if I don't manually force -f "bestvideo+bestaudio" it defaults to the best single file rather than a merge of the actual best streams (Generally getting the 720p stream rather than the separate 1080p video stream and audio and muxing)

[dstftw]

Windows command line does not support single quotes. It's mentioned in FAQ.

documentation says that bestvideo+bestaudio/best is the default, I've noted that if I don't manually force -f "bestvideo+bestaudio" it defaults to the best single file rather than a merge of the actual best streams

Bother to read the rest of this paragraph in FAQ.