Why is the youtube video downloaded via youtube-dl at a quality lesser than the maximum listed quality on youtube

[sbuhtig]

I am invoking youtube dl and using only the default settings which I understand should default to best, though I've also tried explicitly saying --max-quality FORMAT in both cases I download a 1280x720 mp4 file with stereo mpegAAC audio at a 44.1 khz sample rate, while youtube lists 1080p as the maximum quality format available for that particular video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUemKLtbHxk).

I don't know if the sound is always at 44.1 khz on youtube but I was hoping that the 1080p version might also have 48khz sound if possible.

[phihag]

The 1080p videos use a different format called DASH and lack sound, so one needs to mix and transform into a format. We are working on adding support for that automatically.

[sbuhtig]

ah right, thanks mate. So if I was to separately download the video and
audio would I get the maximum quality for each as listed

On Tue, Feb 25, 2014 at 6:46 PM, Philipp Hagemeister <
notifications@github.com> wrote:

The 1080p videos use a different format called DASH and lack sound, so one
needs to mix and transform into a format. We are working on adding support
for that automatically.

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/2458#issuecomment-35995483
.

[xubuntu4iran]

Use this:

youtube-dl -f 137+140 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUemKLtbHxk

[sbuhtig]

Wow thanks man, so as near as I can tell it downloads a video and audio only
file and then retains those files whilst also making a muxed mp4 file
wrapping both. What do the numbers refer to specifically and where are the
appropriate numbers for a given situation documented. I don't remember
seeing them in the ­help documentation.

From: xubuntu4iran notifications@github.com
Reply-To: rg3/youtube-dl
<reply+i-28237050-8c1989fb9f043c9926040594135e482155def135-6781322@reply.git
hub.com>
Date: Wednesday, 26 February 2014 9:08 PM
To: rg3/youtube-dl youtube-dl@noreply.github.com
Cc: James Clark james.21st@gmail.com
Subject: Re: [youtube-dl] Why is the youtube video downloaded via
youtube-dl at a quality lesser than the maximum listed quality on youtube
(#2458)

.

[Siddhant]

Suggestion: Until youtube-dl gets support for 1080p videos, it should at least give a warning, or a simple FYI line which warns the user of its limitations. (assuming that youtube-dl is atleast able to detect that a 1080p video is available). This will reduce the surprise for the user.

[jaimeMF]

For some time this is done bestvideo+bestaudio is automatically used if you have ffmpeg or avconv installed, so I'm closing the issue.