If you choose the best resolution instead of the best file size

[woainiyilin]

If you choose the best resolution instead of the best file size

[pukkandan]

There is sadly no easy way to do this.

1. You can either make a list of all format codes like this guy
   or
2. You could use a large format selection with seperate check for each resolution. Something like:
   (bestvideo[height>2160]/bestvideo[height>1080]/.../bestvideo[height>144]/bestvideo)+bestaudio...
   or
3. If you are willing to use #25959 , just use --format-sort height

[rautamiekka]

Plus even if you could do that, you shouldn't simply try to correlate resolution to quality, nor simply filesize to quality cuz the file could have a massive resolution but still be all shit (OBS Studio's default settings make for very shit-quality vids, I learnt that in my 'Arma 3' gaming), and even a massive filesize could mean the quality is all shit, I've seen both happen at least twice.

A better way would be to correlate resolution, filesize, and the format to quality, it's more likely to work, but still not a guarantee.

[pukkandan]

@rautamiekka You are correct in that there is no fool proof way to find the best quality automatically. This is why youtube-dl already provides a way for the extractors to override the default quality sorting. However, imo, this is not enough. There are many situations (like OP's question) where it is beneficial for the user to be able to specify the sorting method. My pull request is one way of doing that. I am sure there are superior ways for achieving the same, but until someone implements such a way, --format-sort is the easiest way to solve OP's issue.