"Unable to obtain file audio codec with ffprobe"

[TheLongLife]

I'm Noob...

When I try to download audio only from yt video:

youtube-dl -f 140 [URL]

I get .m4a file which I cannot play...

And when I try to:

youtube-dl --extract-audio --audio-format mp3 [URL]

I get this response: "Unable to obtain file audio codec with ffprobe"

I've updated youtube-dl and I do have ffmpeg and ffprobe
I'm using Windows 7

[dstftw]

Post the full output you get when running with --verbose option.

[TheLongLife]

[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: []
[debug] Command-line args: ['-v']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1252, fs mbcs, out cp437, pref cp1252
[debug] youtube-dl version 2015.01.16
[debug] Python version 2.7.8 - Windows-7-6.1.7601-SP1
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg N-69029-ge2db9a7, ffprobe N-69029-ge2db9a7
[debug] Proxy map: {}
Usage: youtube-dl [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]

[dstftw]

Post the full output with concrete URL you are trying to download.

[TheLongLife]

Sorry, I'm noob...Like this ?

C:\Users\LongLife>youtube-dl -v https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EkbZqQ1oHU [debug] System config: [] [debug] User config: [] [debug] Command-line args: ['-v', 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EkbZqQ1oHU']

[debug] Encodings: locale cp1252, fs mbcs, out cp437, pref cp1252
[debug] youtube-dl version 2015.01.16
[debug] Python version 2.7.8 - Windows-7-6.1.7601-SP1
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg N-69029-ge2db9a7, ffprobe N-69029-ge2db9a7
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[youtube] 4EkbZqQ1oHU: Downloading webpage
[youtube] 4EkbZqQ1oHU: Extracting video information
[youtube] 4EkbZqQ1oHU: Downloading DASH manifest
[debug] Invoking downloader on u'https://r2---sn-ncc-cxbl.googlevideo.com/videop
layback?fexp=900718%2C904843%2C907263%2C916645%2C927622%2C930821%2C931350%2C9349
47%2C935024%2C9406260%2C941004%2C943917%2C947209%2C947225%2C948124%2C952302%2C95
2605%2C952901%2C955301%2C957103%2C957105%2C957201%2C959701&initcwndbps=1687500&m
m=31&ratebypass=yes&sver=3&ipbits=0&signature=3870B3BE3DD1C6A483D26597CB1CD1EF9C
294039.9206A5BE1CBDFFFD9D623A1E1161B2019C0C21C8&upn=jgbXj9lFblo&id=o-ADbUqVHoVgb
-7_ja8QauYZ7BulrerDpWQG4mqeW5SgHV&sparams=dur%2Cid%2Cinitcwndbps%2Cip%2Cipbits%2
Citag%2Cmime%2Cmm%2Cms%2Cmv%2Cpl%2Cratebypass%2Crequiressl%2Csource%2Cupn%2Cexpi
re&ms=au&mt=1421613868&mv=m&key=yt5&ip=89.216.138.255&requiressl=yes&mime=video%
2Fmp4&expire=1421635497&source=youtube&dur=270.117&pl=17&itag=22'
[download] Destination: Mt Eden + Blackmill - Now-4EkbZqQ1oHU.mp4
[download] 100% of 24.04MiB in 00:08

[Reino17]

It's because the m4a-file you're downloading from Youtube is in MPEG-DASH format.
You can fix that afterwards by running ffmpeg:
ffmpeg.exe -hide_banner -i input.m4a -c:a copy output.m4a

For my own experimentation I tried to use the --exec option...

youtube-dl.exe -f 140 --exec 'ffmpeg.exe -hide_banner -i {} -c:a copy output.m4a'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EkbZqQ1oHU

...but that didn't work. How exactly does one use this --exec command in this case?

[TheLongLife]

yeap,
ffmpeg.exe -hide_banner -i input.m4a -c:a copy output.m4a

That works.

[dstftw]

Works fine with latest version.

[brycepg]

Note that I've gotten this error when ffprobe was giving an illegal instruction error due to the binary being an incorrect architecture. It might be a good for youtube-dl to output the subprocess stderr/stdout in verbose mode.

[yan12125]

@brycepg FYI: This is requested in #8230