ytsearch fail with TypeError: can't use a string pattern on a bytes-like object (JSON problem)

[joksnet]

I don't known if it's a JSON error, or it's just that youtube-dl don't decode the bytes from the query.

$ python -m youtube_dl --verbose "ytsearch:Los Autenticos Decadentes Tu forma de ser"
[debug] youtube-dl version 2012.02.22
[debug] Git HEAD: 4be0aa3
[debug] Python version 3.3.0 - Linux-3.7.7-1-ARCH-x86_64-with-arch
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[youtube] query "Los Autenticos Decadentes Tu forma de ser": Downloading page 1
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3.3/runpy.py", line 160, in _run_module_as_main
    "__main__", fname, loader, pkg_name)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.3/runpy.py", line 73, in _run_code
    exec(code, run_globals)
  File "./youtube_dl/__main__.py", line 17, in <module>
    youtube_dl.main()
  File "./youtube_dl/__init__.py", line 516, in main
    _real_main()
  File "./youtube_dl/__init__.py", line 500, in _real_main
    retcode = fd.download(all_urls)
  File "./youtube_dl/FileDownloader.py", line 507, in download
    videos = ie.extract(url)
  File "./youtube_dl/InfoExtractors.py", line 93, in extract
    return self._real_extract(url)
  File "./youtube_dl/InfoExtractors.py", line 1443, in _real_extract
    self._download_n_results(query, 1)
  File "./youtube_dl/InfoExtractors.py", line 1479, in _download_n_results
    api_response = json.loads(data)['data']
  File "/usr/lib/python3.3/json/__init__.py", line 309, in loads
    return _default_decoder.decode(s)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.3/json/decoder.py", line 352, in decode
    obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
TypeError: can't use a string pattern on a bytes-like object

[joksnet]

Seems like this fix the problem:

--- a/youtube_dl/InfoExtractors.py
+++ b/youtube_dl/InfoExtractors.py
@@ -1472,7 +1472,7 @@ class YoutubeSearchIE(InfoExtractor):
             result_url = self._API_URL % (compat_urllib_parse.quote_plus(query), (50*pagenum)+1)
             request = compat_urllib_request.Request(result_url)
             try:
-                data = compat_urllib_request.urlopen(request).read()
+                data = compat_urllib_request.urlopen(request).read().decode('utf-8')
             except (compat_urllib_error.URLError, compat_http_client.HTTPException, socket.error) as err:
                 self._downloader.trouble(u'ERROR: unable to download API page: %s' % compat_str(err))
                 return

[phihag]

Discussed in #707.