ytsearch - feature request

[l3uddz]

hi, regarding the ytsearch feature of youtube-dl, would it be possible to have it so you can specify e.g. --bestaudio and it would check all of the results returned that match the --match-title paramater, and then determine & download the result with best audio? then you could have it search for a video and return 20 results or so (ytsearch20) and then have it download the one with the best audio.

[phihag]

What exactly would the --bestaudio feature do, i.e. how would you define the result with best audio? While one could look at all formats of all returned videos, that would only very rarely help, as virtually all videos are offered in the same formats. There are some exceptions, for instance cooperations with YouTube, and some 4K videos, where there is a difference in audio bitrate and format.

But for virtually all videos, sound quality will not be limited by the encoding, but the recording. Even if you could impose a clear definition of quality (i.e. is live video better than concert video, or is live video better than the cut and modified version present on a CD?) , there is no way to determine the best quality without having to download all videos.

[phihag]

I'm closing this issue. As I mentioned, the behavior is under-specified, and even if it weren't, you'd probably need some quite of sophisticated sound analysis, which is really outside the scope of youtube-dl. Please comment if you think this issue should be reopened.