-f best not downloading the best

[donmiyamar]

*I searched all open issues for -f best and found no issues that reported this issue directly, but many issues that included the flag in their command. Issue #22988 is the opposite of this issue.

Checklist

• I'm reporting a broken site support issue
• I've verified that I'm running youtube-dl version 2019.12.25
• I've checked that all provided URLs are alive and playable in a browser
• I've checked that all URLs and arguments with special characters are properly quoted or escaped
• I've searched the bugtracker for similar bug reports including closed ones
• I've read bugs section in FAQ

Verbose log

youtube-dl.exe -v -f best "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfyhcnF7y1o"
[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: []
[debug] Custom config: []
[debug] Command-line args: ['-v', '-f', 'best', 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfyhcnF7y1o']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1252, fs mbcs, out cp437, pref cp1252
[debug] youtube-dl version 2019.12.25
[debug] Python version 3.4.4 (CPython) - Windows-10-10.0.18362
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg git-2019-10-21-a174e5f, ffprobe git-2019-10-21-a174e5f
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[youtube] yfyhcnF7y1o: Downloading webpage
[youtube] yfyhcnF7y1o: Downloading video info webpage
[debug] Invoking downloader on 'https://r2---sn-hp57yn7r.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?expire=1577481627&ei=OyEGXrbuHcqs4QTgsKWYAQ&ip=2600%3A1700%3Adda1%3A3fa0%3A3da7%3Aabf6%3Ac1d1%3A5323&id=o-AD2hFJwD9RG4FRlenA1m69GA8eqZyCHcnEGpiwYXkqy8&itag=22&source=youtube&requiressl=yes&mm=31%2C26&mn=sn-hp57yn7r%2Csn-5ualdnl7&ms=au%2Conr&mv=m&mvi=1&pl=43&initcwndbps=1436250&mime=video%2Fmp4&ratebypass=yes&dur=571.234&lmt=1577352685493967&mt=1577459949&fvip=2&fexp=23842630&c=WEB&txp=5532232&sparams=expire%2Cei%2Cip%2Cid%2Citag%2Csource%2Crequiressl%2Cmime%2Cratebypass%2Cdur%2Clmt&sig=ALgxI2wwRAIgWCnliV8wLAXRVUlKj6rAXxDSbtTZznkXhYu3lXdVCg0CIEWX9GMuJL2cVEUg4UXnP2AJ8pusUHYuOzvd1fKhnqS0&lsparams=mm%2Cmn%2Cms%2Cmv%2Cmvi%2Cpl%2Cinitcwndbps&lsig=AHylml4wRQIgD7CXEM2bm7htDgYcyXQK60AQM362mCEAU5zaWEnVGxMCIQDbyTYmt4uBKgON30O2PDB8zTtihHFlZewyMkNhqWnedg%3D%3D'
[download] Destination: Beijing 360º - Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City-yfyhcnF7y1o.mp4
[download] 100% of 163.43MiB in 01:27

Description

Attempting to download a YouTube video with 5K (2880) output, but it only downloads the 720 version.

youtube-dl.exe -v -F "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfyhcnF7y1o"
[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: []
[debug] Custom config: []
[debug] Command-line args: ['-v', '-F', 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfyhcnF7y1o']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1252, fs mbcs, out cp437, pref cp1252
[debug] youtube-dl version 2019.12.25
[debug] Python version 3.4.4 (CPython) - Windows-10-10.0.18362
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg git-2019-10-21-a174e5f, ffprobe git-2019-10-21-a174e5f
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[youtube] yfyhcnF7y1o: Downloading webpage
[youtube] yfyhcnF7y1o: Downloading video info webpage
[info] Available formats for yfyhcnF7y1o:
format code  extension  resolution note
249          webm       audio only tiny   52k , opus @ 50k (48000Hz), 3.16MiB
250          webm       audio only tiny   68k , opus @ 70k (48000Hz), 4.16MiB
140          m4a        audio only tiny  130k , m4a_dash container, mp4a.40.2@128k (44100Hz), 8.82MiB
251          webm       audio only tiny  133k , opus @160k (48000Hz), 8.35MiB
278          webm       256x144    144s  105k , webm container, vp9, 30fps, video only, 6.58MiB
160          mp4        256x144    144s  117k , avc1.4d400c, 30fps, video only, 7.50MiB
242          webm       424x240    240s  230k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 15.03MiB
133          mp4        424x240    240s  249k , avc1.4d4015, 30fps, video only, 16.31MiB
243          webm       640x360    360s  478k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 28.73MiB
134          mp4        640x360    360s  637k , avc1.4d401e, 30fps, video only, 42.65MiB
244          webm       852x480    480s  817k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 51.95MiB
135          mp4        852x480    480s 1154k , avc1.4d401f, 30fps, video only, 78.18MiB
247          webm       1280x720   720s 1863k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 106.98MiB
136          mp4        1280x720   720s 2313k , avc1.4d401f, 30fps, video only, 156.36MiB
248          webm       1920x1080  1080s 3578k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 193.54MiB
137          mp4        1920x1080  1080s 4333k , avc1.640028, 30fps, video only, 292.37MiB
271          webm       2560x1440  1440s 9144k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 601.10MiB
264          mp4        2560x1440  1440s 10400k , avc1.640032, 30fps, video only, 697.57MiB
313          webm       3840x2160  2160s 17919k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 1.18GiB
272          webm       5760x2880  2880s 19910k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 950.76MiB
266          mp4        3840x2160  2160s 23210k , avc1.640033, 30fps, video only, 1.50GiB
138          mp4        5760x2880  2880s 39271k , avc1.64003c, 30fps, video only, 2.56GiB
43           webm       640x360    360s , vp8.0, vorbis@128k, 73.26MiB
18           mp4        640x360    360s  781k , avc1.42001E, mp4a.40.2@ 96k (44100Hz), 53.20MiB
22           mp4        1280x720   720s 2400k , avc1.64001F, mp4a.40.2@192k (44100Hz) (best)

[remitamine]

read https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#format-selection.

[donmiyamar]

@remitamine The documentation isn't as clear as it could be. I had ffmpeg on my PATH, but youtube-dl needed the binaries in the same directory to properly download the best video option for YouTube. But, thank you.

I'll see if I can propose a documentation change that would make this clearer.

[dstftw]

youtube-dl needed the binaries in the same directory to properly download the best video option

Wrong.