Youtube --prefer-insecure does not work correctly

[Crypto90]

Hi

The "-g --prefer-insecure" option does not work correctly anymore.
It switches from http to https in random order if I try to use it some times with the same link.

[Crypto90]

[Crypto90]

Push

[phihag]

I fail to see why this is not the correct behavior.

--prefer-insecure is documented as:

--prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve information about the video. (Currently supported only for YouTube)

I see nothing in your bug report that goes against this documentation. Note that although the extraction does not use HTTPS, the final URL may be only available over HTTPS, and YouTube has started doing exactly that.

Can you elaborate on the context of this bug report? Why are you using --prefer-insecure in the first place? It sounds like you are not interested in HTTP debugging (that's what the option is for), but an HTTP URL.

As mentioned above, I can see no sign that --prefer-insecure does not work here, so I'm closing this issue. If you provide context, we'll reopen it.

[Crypto90]

Yes its documented like that. So whats with this older discussion?:
#2364

Not every player supports https links.
Whats with this --play option thats suggested there? Any news about that?

[phihag]

As the discussion says, you can simply use -o -, like this:

youtube-dl http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc -o - | mplayer -

Since --play would not (at first) be anything more like that and there are plenty of other issues that I find more important, I think the above should be a sufficient workaround.

[Sepulep]

I have also encountered the same issue. I think it is still worthwhile to get the http link if possible (and it should be mostly; because as Crypto90 mentions, the issue happens intermittently, the same query sometimes resulting in http and sometimes in https..). The problem with using the pipe is that it adds overhead (important for embedded and less powerful systems, like openpandora and raspberry pi) and problems with seeking and playlist support of mplayer.

[Crypto90]

I solved it to implement the ssl support to the player.
I think youtube will mostly change everything to ssl. If not, I don't get the point why we get sometimes http and https results.