Youku Incorrect Handling of Format Options

[eternia478]

It seems that youtube-dl is bad with handling format options when the video is split like in the case of Youku or Tudou. For example, the following is a run that ended in an error instead of concatenation:

~$ youtube-dl -f h4 http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg==.html
[youku] XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg: Downloading JSON metadata 1
[youku] XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg: Downloading JSON metadata 2
[download] Downloading playlist: 花千骨 01
[youku] playlist 花千骨 01: Collected 21 video ids (downloading 21 of them)
[download] Downloading video 1 of 21
[download] Destination: 花千骨 01-XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg_part1.flv
[download] 100% of 13.06MiB in 00:03
[download] Downloading video 2 of 21
[download] Destination: 花千骨 01-XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg_part2.flv
[download] 100% of 13.25MiB in 00:03
[download] Downloading video 3 of 21
[download] Destination: 花千骨 01-XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg_part3.flv
[download] 100% of 13.62MiB in 00:03
[download] Downloading video 4 of 21
[download] Destination: 花千骨 01-XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg_part4.flv
[download] 100% of 12.83MiB in 00:05
[download] Downloading video 5 of 21
[download] Destination: 花千骨 01-XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg_part5.flv
[download] 100% of 15.42MiB in 00:09
[download] Downloading video 6 of 21
[download] Destination: 花千骨 01-XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg_part6.flv
[download] 100% of 12.45MiB in 00:03
[download] Downloading video 7 of 21
[download] Destination: 花千骨 01-XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg_part7.flv
[download] 100% of 11.97MiB in 00:05
[download] Downloading video 8 of 21
ERROR: requested format not available

The reason for this is because the number of videos each format is split across is different. For example, here, resolutions h4 and h3 require only 7 files, but h1 requires 21. Apparently youtube-dl will try to get all 21 even if such is not available for those formats.

~$ youtube-dl -F http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg==.html
[youku] XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg: Downloading JSON metadata 1
[youku] XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg: Downloading JSON metadata 2
[download] Downloading playlist: 花千骨 01
[youku] playlist 花千骨 01: Collected 21 video ids (downloading 21 of them)
[download] Downloading video 1 of 21
[info] Available formats for XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg_part1:
format code  extension  resolution note
h4           flv        unknown    13.06MiB
h3           mp4        unknown    24.91MiB
h2           flv        unknown    26.86MiB
h1           flv        unknown    37.29MiB (best)
[download] Downloading video 2 of 21
[info] Available formats for XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg_part2:
format code  extension  resolution note
h4           flv        unknown    13.25MiB
h3           mp4        unknown    24.77MiB
h2           flv        unknown    27.65MiB
h1           flv        unknown    37.23MiB (best)
[download] Downloading video 3 of 21
[info] Available formats for XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg_part3:
format code  extension  resolution note
h4           flv        unknown    13.62MiB
h3           mp4        unknown    22.78MiB
h2           flv        unknown    23.37MiB
h1           flv        unknown    32.56MiB (best)
[download] Downloading video 4 of 21
[info] Available formats for XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg_part4:
format code  extension  resolution note
h4           flv        unknown    12.83MiB
h3           mp4        unknown    24.52MiB
h2           flv        unknown    30.69MiB
h1           flv        unknown    28.85MiB (best)
[download] Downloading video 5 of 21
[info] Available formats for XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg_part5:
format code  extension  resolution note
h4           flv        unknown    15.42MiB
h3           mp4        unknown    29.13MiB
h2           flv        unknown    30.98MiB
h1           flv        unknown    37.00MiB (best)
[download] Downloading video 6 of 21
[info] Available formats for XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg_part6:
format code  extension  resolution note
h4           flv        unknown    12.45MiB
h3           mp4        unknown    24.62MiB
h2           flv        unknown    23.00MiB
h1           flv        unknown    37.96MiB (best)
[download] Downloading video 7 of 21
[info] Available formats for XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg_part7:
format code  extension  resolution note
h4           flv        unknown    11.97MiB
h3           mp4        unknown    26.91MiB
h2           flv        unknown    30.45MiB
h1           flv        unknown    47.14MiB (best)
[download] Downloading video 8 of 21
[info] Available formats for XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg_part8:
format code  extension  resolution note
h2           flv        unknown    21.83MiB
h1           flv        unknown    25.67MiB (best)
[download] Downloading video 9 of 21
[info] Available formats for XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg_part9:
format code  extension  resolution note
h2           flv        unknown    34.03MiB
h1           flv        unknown    30.46MiB (best)
[download] Downloading video 10 of 21
[info] Available formats for XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg_part10:
format code  extension  resolution note
h2           flv        unknown    28.26MiB
h1           flv        unknown    48.60MiB (best)
[download] Downloading video 11 of 21
[info] Available formats for XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg_part11:
format code  extension  resolution note
h2           flv        unknown    29.12MiB
h1           flv        unknown    35.45MiB (best)
[download] Downloading video 12 of 21
[info] Available formats for XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg_part12:
format code  extension  resolution note
h2           flv        unknown    25.24MiB
h1           flv        unknown    34.04MiB (best)
[download] Downloading video 13 of 21
[info] Available formats for XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg_part13:
format code  extension  resolution note
h2           flv        unknown    26.80MiB
h1           flv        unknown    41.57MiB (best)
[download] Downloading video 14 of 21
[info] Available formats for XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg_part14:
format code  extension  resolution note
h2           flv        unknown    29.61MiB
h1           flv        unknown    45.91MiB (best)
[download] Downloading video 15 of 21
[info] Available formats for XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg_part15:
format code  extension  resolution note
h1           flv        unknown    35.56MiB
[download] Downloading video 16 of 21
[info] Available formats for XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg_part16:
format code  extension  resolution note
h1           flv        unknown    41.85MiB
[download] Downloading video 17 of 21
[info] Available formats for XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg_part17:
format code  extension  resolution note
h1           flv        unknown    33.37MiB
[download] Downloading video 18 of 21
[info] Available formats for XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg_part18:
format code  extension  resolution note
h1           flv        unknown    34.01MiB
[download] Downloading video 19 of 21
[info] Available formats for XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg_part19:
format code  extension  resolution note
h1           flv        unknown    34.69MiB
[download] Downloading video 20 of 21
[info] Available formats for XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg_part20:
format code  extension  resolution note
h1           flv        unknown    27.53MiB
[download] Downloading video 21 of 21
[info] Available formats for XMTI1ODU4NzIzMg_part21:
format code  extension  resolution note
h1           flv        unknown    27.55MiB

[eternia478]

It's not as though there isn't a workaround. A quick ffmpeg -f concat works like a charm. But I think it would be better if this was automated, so that batch downloads won't run into problems.

[jaimeMF]

So with format h4 the video ends with the part 7?

[yan12125]

This is no longer an issue after the recent Youku update. Now Youku provides HLS, which is well supported by youtube-dl.