BBC video download is unplayable in quicktime for mac

[crhuber]

I am using youtube-dl that was installed using homebrew on a mac.

When I use youtube-dl for a video hosted on BBC.co.uk It downloads a mp4 file that is unplayable in quicktime for desktop or on iOS. However, I can browse to the webpage on iOS and it streams the video fine or using VLC on the desktop also works fine.

The details of the downloaded file are:
H264 - Mpeg-4 AVC (part 10)
Decoded format: Planar 4:2:0 YUV

How do I get it to download in a way thats playable natively on the mac or ios?

[dstftw]

Post the full output of youtube-dl when run with --verbose option.

[crhuber]

@dstftw

Here is the verbose output

youtube-dl --verbose http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-34972375

[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: []
[debug] Command-line args: [u'--verbose', u'http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-34972375']
[debug] Encodings: locale UTF-8, fs utf-8, out UTF-8, pref UTF-8
[debug] youtube-dl version 2015.11.24
[debug] Python version 2.7.10 - Darwin-15.2.0-x86_64-i386-64bit
[debug] exe versions: none
[debug] Proxy map: {'no': ',192.168.99.100,192.168.99.101'}
[bbc] world-asia-china-34972375: Downloading webpage
[bbc] p039s7d3: Downloading media selection XML
[bbc] p039s7d3: Downloading m3u8 information
[bbc] p039s7d3: Downloading m3u8 information
[download] Downloading playlist: China smog: "The air is so polluted it's darkened the sky"
[bbc] playlist China smog: "The air is so polluted it's darkened the sky": Collected 1 video ids (downloading 1 of them)
[download] Downloading video 1 of 1
[debug] Invoking downloader on u'http://cp401491-vh.akamaihd.net/i/,mps_h264_med/public/news/world/1211000/1211018_h264_800k,mps_h264_hi/public/news/world/1211000/1211018_h264_1500k,.mp4.csmil/index_1_av.m3u8'
[hlsnative] Downloading m3u8 manifest
[hlsnative] Total fragments: 10
[download] Destination: Celia Hatton in Beijing - 'The air is so polluted it's darkened the sky'-p039s7d3.mp4
[download] 100% of 17.50MiB in 00:02
[download] Finished downloading playlist: China smog: "The air is so polluted it's darkened the sky"

Result:

QuickTime Player can't open "Celia Hatton in Beijing - 'The air is so polluted it's darkened the sky'-p039s7d3.mp4".

[human-bean]

Maybe youtube-dl --exec 'ffmpeg -i {} -c copy -bsf:a aac_adtstoasc {}.new.mp4' http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-34972375

[remitamine]

i can play it using mpv, vlc, totem and kodi.
but the output of ffprobe contain an error(non-existing SPS 0 referenced in buffering period) may be this is why quicktime can't play the video:

ffprobe Celia\ Hatton\ in\ Beijing\ -\ \'The\ air\ is\ so\ polluted\ it\'s\ darkened\ the\ sky\'-p039s7d3.mp4 
ffprobe version 2.8.4 Copyright (c) 2007-2015 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 5.3.0 (GCC)
  configuration: --prefix=/usr --disable-debug --disable-static --disable-stripping --enable-avisynth --enable-avresample --enable-fontconfig --enable-gnutls --enable-gpl --enable-ladspa --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libdcadec --enable-libfreetype --enable-libfribidi --enable-libgsm --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore_amrnb --enable-libopencore_amrwb --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-libpulse --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libssh --enable-libtheora --enable-libv4l2 --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxvid --enable-shared --enable-version3 --enable-x11grab
  libavutil      54. 31.100 / 54. 31.100
  libavcodec     56. 60.100 / 56. 60.100
  libavformat    56. 40.101 / 56. 40.101
  libavdevice    56.  4.100 / 56.  4.100
  libavfilter     5. 40.101 /  5. 40.101
  libavresample   2.  1.  0 /  2.  1.  0
  libswscale      3.  1.101 /  3.  1.101
  libswresample   1.  2.101 /  1.  2.101
  libpostproc    53.  3.100 / 53.  3.100
[h264 @ 0x5648b7c0d9a0] non-existing SPS 0 referenced in buffering period
    Last message repeated 1 times
Input #0, mpegts, from 'Celia Hatton in Beijing - 'The air is so polluted it's darkened the sky'-p039s7d3.mp4':
  Duration: 00:01:33.56, start: 0.100511, bitrate: 1568 kb/s
  Program 1 
    Stream #0:0[0x100]: Video: h264 (Main) ([27][0][0][0] / 0x001B), yuv420p, 704x396 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 25 fps, 25 tbr, 90k tbn, 50 tbc
    Stream #0:1[0x101]: Audio: aac (LC) ([15][0][0][0] / 0x000F), 44100 Hz, mono, fltp, 96 kb/s
[h264 @ 0x5648b7c0f400] non-existing SPS 0 referenced in buffering period