How do you use youtube-dl to download live streams (that are live)?

Question

Just wondering if that\'s possible or not- when I copy the video URL into YouTube-dl it spits out

[https @ 0x7fc351416080] inflate return value: -3, incorrect         


        

Answer 1

I have Written a small script to download the live youtube video, you may use as single command as well. script it can be invoked simply as,

~/ytdl_lv.sh <URL> <output file name>

e.g.

~/ytdl_lv.sh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLIGxsYLyjc myfile.mp4

script is as simple as below,

#!/bin/bash 

# ytdl_lv.sh
# Author Prashant
# 

URL=$1 
OUTNAME=$2
streamlink --hls-live-restart -o ${OUTNAME} ${URL} best

here the best is the stream quality, it also can be 144p (worst), 240p, 360p, 480p, 720p (best)

Answer 2

There is no need to pass anything to ffmpeg you can just grab the desired format, in this example, it was the "95" format.

So once you know that it is the 95, you just type:

youtube-dl -f 95  https://www.youtube.com/watch\?v\=6aXR-SL5L2o

that is to say:

youtube-dl -f <format number> <url>

It will begin generating on the working directory a <somename>.<probably mp4>.part which is the partially downloaded file, let it go and just press <Ctrl-C> to stop the capture.

The file will still be named <something>.part, rename it to <whatever>.mp4 and there it is...

The ffmpeg code:

ffmpeg -i $(youtube-dl -f <format number> -g <url>) -copy <file_name>.ts

also worked for me, but sound and video got out of sync, using just youtube-dl seemed to yield a better result although it too uses ffmpeg.

The downside of this approach is that you cannot watch the video while downloading, well you can open yet another FF or Chrome, but it seems that mplayer cannot process the video output till youtube-dl/ffmpeg are running.

Answer 3

Some websites with m3u streaming cannot be downloaded in a single youtube-dl step, you can try something like this :

$ URL=https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/078132-001-A/cosmos-une-odyssee-a-travers-l-univers/
$ youtube-dl -F $URL | grep m3u
HLS_XQ_2     m3u8       1280x720   VA-STA, Allemand 2200k 
HLS_XQ_1     m3u8       1280x720   VF-STF, Français 2200k 
$ CHOSEN_FORMAT=HLS_XQ_1
$ youtube-dl -F "$(youtube-dl -gf $CHOSEN_FORMAT)"
[generic] master: Requesting header
[generic] master: Downloading webpage
[generic] master: Downloading m3u8 information
[info] Available formats for master:
format code  extension  resolution note
61           mp4        audio only   61k , mp4a.40.2
419          mp4        384x216     419k , avc1.66.30, mp4a.40.2
923          mp4        640x360     923k , avc1.77.30, mp4a.40.2
1737         mp4        720x406    1737k , avc1.77.30, mp4a.40.2
2521         mp4        1280x720   2521k , avc1.77.30, mp4a.40.2 (best)
$ youtube-dl --hls-prefer-native -f 1737 "$(youtube-dl -gf $CHOSEN_FORMAT $URL)" -o "$(youtube-dl -f $CHOSEN_FORMAT --get-filename $URL)"
[generic] master: Requesting header
[generic] master: Downloading webpage
[generic] master: Downloading m3u8 information
[hlsnative] Downloading m3u8 manifest
[hlsnative] Total fragments: 257
[download] Destination: Cosmos_une_odyssee_a_travers_l_univers__HLS_XQ_1__078132-001-A.mp4
[download]   0.9% of ~731.27MiB at 624.95KiB/s ETA 13:13
....

Answer 4

Before, this could be downloaded with streamlink but YouTube changed HLS rewinding with DASH. Therefore the way to do it below (that Prashant Adlinge commented) no longer works for YouTube:

streamlink --hls-live-restart STREAMURL best

More info here

Answer 5

I'll be using this Live Event from NASA TV as an example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21X5lGlDOfg

First, list the formats for the video:

$  ~ youtube-dl --list-formats https://www.youtube.com/watch\?v\=21X5lGlDOfg
[youtube] 21X5lGlDOfg: Downloading webpage
[youtube] 21X5lGlDOfg: Downloading m3u8 information
[youtube] 21X5lGlDOfg: Downloading MPD manifest
[info] Available formats for 21X5lGlDOfg:
format code  extension  resolution note
91           mp4        256x144    HLS  197k , avc1.42c00b, 30.0fps, mp4a.40.5@ 48k
92           mp4        426x240    HLS  338k , avc1.4d4015, 30.0fps, mp4a.40.5@ 48k
93           mp4        640x360    HLS  829k , avc1.4d401e, 30.0fps, mp4a.40.2@128k
94           mp4        854x480    HLS 1380k , avc1.4d401f, 30.0fps, mp4a.40.2@128k
300          mp4        1280x720   3806k , avc1.4d4020, 60.0fps, mp4a.40.2 (best)

Pick the format you wish to download, and fetch the HLS m3u8 URL of the video from the manifest. I'll be using 94 mp4 854x480 HLS 1380k , avc1.4d401f, 30.0fps, mp4a.40.2@128k for this example:

➜  ~ youtube-dl -f 94 -g https://www.youtube.com/watch\?v\=21X5lGlDOfg
https://manifest.googlevideo.com/api/manifest/hls_playlist/expire/1592099895/ei/1y_lXuLOEsnXyQWYs4GABw/ip/81.190.155.248/id/21X5lGlDOfg.3/itag/94/source/yt_live_broadcast/requiressl/yes/ratebypass/yes/live/1/goi/160/sgoap/gir%3Dyes%3Bitag%3D140/sgovp/gir%3Dyes%3Bitag%3D135/hls_chunk_host/r5---sn-h0auphxqp5-f5fs.googlevideo.com/playlist_duration/30/manifest_duration/30/vprv/1/playlist_type/DVR/initcwndbps/8270/mh/N8/mm/44/mn/sn-h0auphxqp5-f5fs/ms/lva/mv/m/mvi/4/pl/16/dover/11/keepalive/yes/beids/9466586/mt/1592078245/disable_polymer/true/sparams/expire,ei,ip,id,itag,source,requiressl,ratebypass,live,goi,sgoap,sgovp,playlist_duration,manifest_duration,vprv,playlist_type/sig/AOq0QJ8wRgIhAM2dGSece2shUTgS73Qa3KseLqnf85ca_9u7Laz7IDfSAiEAj8KHw_9xXVS_PV3ODLlwDD-xfN6rSOcLVNBpxKgkRLI%3D/lsparams/hls_chunk_host,initcwndbps,mh,mm,mn,ms,mv,mvi,pl/lsig/AG3C_xAwRQIhAJCO6kSwn7PivqMW7sZaiYFvrultXl6Qmu9wppjCvImzAiA7vkub9JaanJPGjmB4qhLVpHJOb9fZyhMEeh1EUCd-3Q%3D%3D/playlist/index.m3u8

Note that link could be different and it contains expiration timestamp, in this case 1592099895 (about 6 hours).

Now that you have the HLS playlist, you can open this URL in VLC and save it using "Record", or write a small ffmpeg command:

ffmpeg -i \
https://manifest.googlevideo.com/api/manifest/hls_playlist/expire/1592099895/ei/1y_lXuLOEsnXyQWYs4GABw/ip/81.190.155.248/id/21X5lGlDOfg.3/itag/94/source/yt_live_broadcast/requiressl/yes/ratebypass/yes/live/1/goi/160/sgoap/gir%3Dyes%3Bitag%3D140/sgovp/gir%3Dyes%3Bitag%3D135/hls_chunk_host/r5---sn-h0auphxqp5-f5fs.googlevideo.com/playlist_duration/30/manifest_duration/30/vprv/1/playlist_type/DVR/initcwndbps/8270/mh/N8/mm/44/mn/sn-h0auphxqp5-f5fs/ms/lva/mv/m/mvi/4/pl/16/dover/11/keepalive/yes/beids/9466586/mt/1592078245/disable_polymer/true/sparams/expire,ei,ip,id,itag,source,requiressl,ratebypass,live,goi,sgoap,sgovp,playlist_duration,manifest_duration,vprv,playlist_type/sig/AOq0QJ8wRgIhAM2dGSece2shUTgS73Qa3KseLqnf85ca_9u7Laz7IDfSAiEAj8KHw_9xXVS_PV3ODLlwDD-xfN6rSOcLVNBpxKgkRLI%3D/lsparams/hls_chunk_host,initcwndbps,mh,mm,mn,ms,mv,mvi,pl/lsig/AG3C_xAwRQIhAJCO6kSwn7PivqMW7sZaiYFvrultXl6Qmu9wppjCvImzAiA7vkub9JaanJPGjmB4qhLVpHJOb9fZyhMEeh1EUCd-3Q%3D%3D/playlist/index.m3u8 \
-c copy output.ts