zdf.de frequently gets audiodescription track instead of plain german

[silwol]

Checklist

• I'm reporting a broken site support
• I've verified that I'm running youtube-dl version 2020.02.16
• 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 issues including closed ones

Verbose log

$ youtube-dl --verbose "https://www.zdf.de/serien/arctic-circle-der-unsichtbare-tod/arctic-circle---der-unsichtbare-tod-1-100.html"
[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: []
[debug] Custom config: []
[debug] Command-line args: [u'--verbose', u'https://www.zdf.de/serien/arctic-circle-der-unsichtbare-tod/arctic-circle---der-unsichtbare-tod-1-100.html']
[debug] Encodings: locale UTF-8, fs UTF-8, out UTF-8, pref UTF-8
[debug] youtube-dl version 2020.02.16
[debug] Python version 2.7.17 (CPython) - Linux-5.4.0-3-amd64-x86_64-with-debian-bullseye-sid
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg 4.1.4, ffprobe 4.1.4, phantomjs 2.1.1, rtmpdump 2.4
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[debug] Using fake IP 53.35.148.45 (DE) as X-Forwarded-For.
[ZDF] arctic-circle---der-unsichtbare-tod-1-100: Downloading webpage
[ZDF] arctic-circle---der-unsichtbare-tod-1-100: Downloading JSON content
[ZDF] arctic-circle---der-unsichtbare-tod-1-100: Downloading JSON metadata
[ZDF] arctic-circle---der-unsichtbare-tod-1-100: Downloading m3u8 information
[ZDF] arctic-circle---der-unsichtbare-tod-1-100: Downloading m3u8 information
[ZDF] arctic-circle---der-unsichtbare-tod-1-100: Downloading m3u8 information
[ZDF] arctic-circle---der-unsichtbare-tod-1-100: Downloading m3u8 information
[ZDF] arctic-circle---der-unsichtbare-tod-1-100: Downloading f4m manifest
[ZDF] arctic-circle---der-unsichtbare-tod-1-100: Downloading f4m manifest
[debug] Default format spec: bestvideo+bestaudio/best
[debug] Invoking downloader on u'https://zdfvodde-vh.akamaihd.net/i/zdf/20/02/200216_2215_sendung_arc/5/200216_2215_sendung_arc_a,3a4_476k_p9,3a4_776k_p11,1a2_776k_p11,3a4_1496k_p13,3a4_2296k_p14,3a4_3296k_p15,v14.mp4.csmil/index_5_av.m3u8?null=0'
[hlsnative] Downloading m3u8 manifest
[hlsnative] Total fragments: 275
[download] Destination: Arctic Circle - Der unsichtbare Tod (1_10)-arctic-circle---der-unsichtbare-tod-1-100.fhls-2623-1.mp4
[download] 100% of 900.79MiB in 08:23
[debug] Invoking downloader on u'https://zdfvodde-vh.akamaihd.net/i/zdf/20/02/200216_2215_sendung_arc/5/200216_2215_sendung_arc_a,3a4_476k_p9,3a4_776k_p11,1a2_776k_p11,3a4_1496k_p13,v14.mp4.csmil/index_0_a.m3u8?null=0'
[hlsnative] Downloading m3u8 manifest
[hlsnative] Total fragments: 275
[download] Destination: Arctic Circle - Der unsichtbare Tod (1_10)-arctic-circle---der-unsichtbare-tod-1-100.fhls-95-3.mp4
[download] 100% of 37.32MiB in 03:07
[ffmpeg] Merging formats into "Arctic Circle - Der unsichtbare Tod (1_10)-arctic-circle---der-unsichtbare-tod-1-100.mp4"
[debug] ffmpeg command line: ffmpeg -y -loglevel 'repeat+info' -i 'file:Arctic Circle - Der unsichtbare Tod (1_10)-arctic-circle---der-unsichtbare-tod-1-100.fhls-2623-1.mp4' -i 'file:Arctic Circle - Der unsichtbare Tod (1_10)-arctic-circle---der-unsichtbare-tod-1-100.fhls-95-3.mp4' -c copy -map '0:v:0' -map '1:a:0' 'file:Arctic Circle - Der unsichtbare Tod (1_10)-arctic-circle---der-unsichtbare-tod-1-100.temp.mp4'
Deleting original file Arctic Circle - Der unsichtbare Tod (1_10)-arctic-circle---der-unsichtbare-tod-1-100.fhls-2623-1.mp4 (pass -k to keep)
Deleting original file Arctic Circle - Der unsichtbare Tod (1_10)-arctic-circle---der-unsichtbare-tod-1-100.fhls-95-3.mp4 (pass -k to keep)

$

Description

There repeatedly are videos on zdf.de which get downloaded with audiodescription track instead of the default german track without audiodescription. The example plays the default german track when I open the page with torbrowser (I'm geoblocked). youtube-dl downloads with the audiodescription track. It makes no difference if use it's built-in geoblock circumvention or torsocks for the download.

The behavior is reproducible for each individual video, but does not happen on every video available. In the example above, the audiodescription version is easily recognizable because a voice describes already the yellow logo during the first seconds of the video.

youtube-dl -F … lists several mp4 audio formats, I assume one with "Audiodeskription" gets used instead of "TV_Ton":

format code                              extension  resolution note
hls-aac-Audiodeskription-0               mp4        audio only [deu] 
hls-aac-Audiodeskription-1               mp4        audio only [deu] 
hls-aac-Audiodeskription-2               mp4        audio only [deu] 
hls-aac-Audiodeskription-3               mp4        audio only [deu] 
hls-aac-TV_Ton-0                         mp4        audio only [deu] 
hls-aac-TV_Ton-1                         mp4        audio only [deu] 
hls-aac-TV_Ton-2                         mp4        audio only [deu] 
hls-aac-TV_Ton-3                         mp4        audio only [deu] 

It seems mediathekview had a similar problem, with some discussion on https://forum.mediathekview.de/topic/2444/reich-oder-tot/22 (in german) and the bugfix on https://github.com/mediathekview/MServer/pull/504/files but I don't know if the cause for the issue is the same.

[kuco28]

just use youtube-dl -f videocode+hls-aac-TV_Ton-0 link etc.
where videocode of course is video track you want to dl

[silwol]

@kuco28 that's what I do when I discover that I downloaded with the wrong audio track. It just frequently happens that I download a series part by part and start watching when I have all episodes of a season, then discover that I downloaded the first episodes with the wrong audio track, and those are not available any more. I see no reason why the default audio track should be the one that nearly nobody uses, especially given the fact that this is completely different behavior to what the zdf.de web interface as well as other tools such as MediathekView provide. I also frequently recommend the tool to people that are not too familiar with command-line usage, but manage to type in that one single youtube-dl command with an URL appended, but don't know how to find out the details about audio and video formats. It should work for them as well.