ContentTooShortError

[goodevilgenius]

youtube-dl -v 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L44YMBxJf6U&feature=youtube_gdata' produces the following:

[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: []
[debug] Command-line args: ['-v', 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L44YMBxJf6U&feature=youtube_gdata']
[debug] Encodings: locale UTF-8, fs UTF-8, out None, pref UTF-8
[debug] youtube-dl version 2014.09.10
[debug] Python version 2.7.6 - Linux-3.13.0-35-generic-x86_64-with-Ubuntu-14.04-trusty
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[youtube] Setting language
[youtube] Confirming age
[youtube] L44YMBxJf6U: Downloading webpage
[youtube] L44YMBxJf6U: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] L44YMBxJf6U: Extracting video information
[debug] Invoking downloader on u'https://r9---sn-p5qlsns7.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?fexp=900064%2C927622%2C931983%2C932404%2C932623%2C934024%2C934030%2C936117%2C936216%2C946008%2C953801&ip=71.206.14.226&nh=IgpwcjAxLmlhZDI2KgkxMjcuMC4wLjE&mt=1410359044&mm=31&ipbits=0&requiressl=yes&signature=1344B49512C00B07940C5ECC8EB609D06EDDB739.4EE9CE94C013DA01320F3158536ED8CCD45B1F39&ratebypass=yes&source=youtube&mv=m&initcwndbps=1839000&sver=3&ms=au&itag=22&upn=OdsUGwA-hy0&sparams=id%2Cinitcwndbps%2Cip%2Cipbits%2Citag%2Cmm%2Cms%2Cmv%2Cnh%2Cratebypass%2Crequiressl%2Csource%2Cupn%2Cexpire&expire=1410380774&id=o-ALNQsNuCxpcW_gybaM8GNrY8P5Xn6Kg8pvG2hdjSI0xn&key=yt5'
[download] Destination: Job Hunters - Season 2 Episode 3 - The Heist-L44YMBxJf6U.mp4
[download] 100% of 138.17MiB in 00:0094KiB/s ETA 24:50wn ETA
ERROR: content too short (expected 144883259 bytes and served 1978)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 1035, in process_info
    success = dl(filename, info_dict)
  File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 1011, in dl
    return fd.download(name, info)
  File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/downloader/common.py", line 291, in download
    return self.real_download(filename, info_dict)
  File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/downloader/http.py", line 200, in real_download
    raise ContentTooShortError(byte_counter, int(data_len))
ContentTooShortError

I've tried this from multiple computers (on different ISPs), with the same result. I don't have this problem with any other videos.

What can I do to fix this?

[goodevilgenius]

I'm now getting the same error on several other videos. I'm guessing something changed on YouTube's end.

[ecksun]

I'm getting the same error. I also noticed that neither VLC nor Kodi can play the URL. So it does indeed sound like something changed with YouTube.

Edit: Moreover, while I dont know if it is related, I can also not play the video in higher resolution (>= 720p) in chromium (it stops and complains about flash, which I naturally do not have installed).

[naglis]

See also: #1493, #2232, #2198, #1292

[goodevilgenius]

Seems to have fixed itself for me.

Perhaps a more meaningful error message would be useful, if this sort of thing happens from time to time. Just something to let the user know that it's likely something that YouTube will fix on its own soon.