Can't Download YouTube Video

[lightan...@gmail.com]

I'm having mixed results trying to download a YouTube video.  Sometimes it downloads an .MKV file with audio but no video, and other times I receive error messages.  But either way, I never receive a complete video.  I'm trying to download the video in 1080 quality.

OS:  macOS 10.13.6  (High Sierra)

Firefox:  107.0.1 (64-bit)

CoApp:  1.6.3

Licensed VDH

This is the video I'm having problems with:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0UmDT5_6WQ

Tried this with both 7.6.5a3 and 7.6.6 versions, and receive the same issue.

Attached are some of the errors that I receive, please let me know if you need additional information.

Thanks!

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Short content 1355

ftypdashiso6avc1mp41 �moovlmvhd߭ ߭ _� @ (mvex trex "trak\tkhd ߭ ߭ @ � 8 �mdia mdhd߭ ߭ _�U�_hdlrvideISO Media file produced by Google Inc. Created on: 11/30/2022. 7minf$dinf dref url �stbl�stsd �avc1 � 8HH ��5avcC d(�� gd(�� � ?. � < 2� h� � stts stsc stco stsz stss vmhd qemsghttp://youtube.com/streaming/otf/durations/112015 �E��Segment-Count: 100

Segment-Durations-Ms: 5333,5200,5467,5333,5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333(r=1),5334,5333,5033,

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Could not get information from media 'Proffie length finder style - YouTube' from file '/var/folders/gd/h3_j_wtx5hv88cxw29ym5ddh0000gn/T/vdh-7355AbdMGCbrhbN.tmp'. The file might be corrupted.

{
    "file": "/var/folders/gd/h3_j_wtx5hv88cxw29ym5ddh0000gn/T/vdh-7355AbdMGCbrhbN.tmp",
    "stat": {
        "dev": 16777222,
        "mode": 33188,
        "nlink": 1,
        "uid": 501,
        "gid": 20,
        "rdev": 0,
        "blksize": 4096,
        "ino": 36361958,
        "size": 1384445,
        "blocks": 2704,
        "atimeMs": 1670665440536.7935,
        "mtimeMs": 1670665172562.8108,
        "ctimeMs": 1670665172562.8108,
        "birthtimeMs": 1670665171879.1162,
        "atime": "2022-12-10T09:44:00.537Z",
        "mtime": "2022-12-10T09:39:32.563Z",
        "ctime": "2022-12-10T09:39:32.563Z",
        "birthtime": "2022-12-10T09:39:31.879Z"
    }
}
Exit code: 1
ffprobe version n4.1.5-vdhcoapp Copyright (c) 2007-2020 the FFmpeg developers
  built with Apple LLVM version 8.0.0 (clang-800.0.42.1)
  configuration: --arch=x86_64 --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-gpl --extra-version=vdhcoapp --enable-shared --enable-pthreads --prefix=/Users/mig/localgit/vdhcoapp/converter/src-build/mac/64/converter-build --enable-version3 --extra-cflags=-I/Users/mig/localgit/vdhcoapp/converter/src-build/mac/64/deps/include --extra-ldflags='-L/Users/mig/localgit/vdhcoapp/converter/src-build/mac/64/deps/lib -L/Users/mig/localgit/vdhcoapp/converter/src-build/mac/64/zlib' --pkg-config=pkg-config --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libopus --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libx264 --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libxvid --enable-libopencore_amrnb --enable-libopencore_amrwb --enable-encoder=libvpx-vp9 --enable-libwebp --enable-zlib --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libx265 --enable-libtheora --enable-libaom --disable-doc
  libavutil      56. 22.100 / 56. 22.100
  libavcodec     58. 35.100 / 58. 35.100
  libavformat    58. 20.100 / 58. 20.100
  libavdevice    58.  5.100 / 58.  5.100
  libavfilter     7. 40.101 /  7. 40.101
  libswscale      5.  3.100 /  5.  3.100
  libswresample   3.  3.100 /  3.  3.100
  libpostproc    55.  3.100 / 55.  3.100
[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x7f956e803c00] could not find corresponding trex
[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x7f956e803c00] error reading header
/var/folders/gd/h3_j_wtx5hv88cxw29ym5ddh0000gn/T/vdh-7355AbdMGCbrhbN.tmp: Invalid data found when processing input

-------

Failed aggregating "Proffie length finder style - YouTube"

ffmpeg version n4.1.5-vdhcoapp Copyright (c) 2000-2020 the FFmpeg developers
  built with Apple LLVM version 8.0.0 (clang-800.0.42.1)
  configuration: --arch=x86_64 --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-gpl --extra-version=vdhcoapp --enable-shared --enable-pthreads --prefix=/Users/mig/localgit/vdhcoapp/converter/src-build/mac/64/converter-build --enable-version3 --extra-cflags=-I/Users/mig/localgit/vdhcoapp/converter/src-build/mac/64/deps/include --extra-ldflags='-L/Users/mig/localgit/vdhcoapp/converter/src-build/mac/64/deps/lib -L/Users/mig/localgit/vdhcoapp/converter/src-build/mac/64/zlib' --pkg-config=pkg-config --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libopus --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libx264 --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libxvid --enable-libopencore_amrnb --enable-libopencore_amrwb --enable-encoder=libvpx-vp9 --enable-libwebp --enable-zlib --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libx265 --enable-libtheora --enable-libaom --disable-doc
  libavutil      56. 22.100 / 56. 22.100
  libavcodec     58. 35.100 / 58. 35.100
  libavformat    58. 20.100 / 58. 20.100
  libavdevice    58.  5.100 / 58.  5.100
  libavfilter     7. 40.101 /  7. 40.101
  libswscale      5.  3.100 /  5.  3.100
  libswresample   3.  3.100 /  3.  3.100
  libpostproc    55.  3.100 / 55.  3.100
Input #0, matroska,webm, from '/var/folders/gd/h3_j_wtx5hv88cxw29ym5ddh0000gn/T/vdh-7354aC1UESLeuMf.tmp':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : google/video-file
  Duration: 00:08:53.06, start: -0.007000, bitrate: 87 kb/s
    Stream #0:0(eng): Audio: opus, 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp (default)
[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x7ff568801e00] could not find corresponding trex
[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0x7ff568801e00] error reading header
/var/folders/gd/h3_j_wtx5hv88cxw29ym5ddh0000gn/T/vdh-7355AbdMGCbrhbN.tmp: Invalid data found when processing input

-------

[Wild Willy]

I'm running Windows 7 64-bit, Firefox 107.0.1 64-bit, licensed VDH 7.6.5a3 beta, CoApp
1.6.3.

I went to that video & successfully downloaded the 1080p variant, but it was audio only.
Same for the 720p variant. The 480p variant failed with the errors you reported. The
360p variant downloaded successfully with both video & audio. When that one succeeded, I
stopped investigating.

This is not a problem with VDH. This is a problem with YouTube. It happens. I
encountered a situation like this just the other day for another user. It's in another
thread on here if you care to look for it. It seems that when content is uploaded at low
resolutions, YouTube makes it look like there are higher resolution versions of the
content when there are not. In this case, the best you are going to get is 360p. Suck
it up. Tough luck for you & anybody else who wants this.

About the short content errors. They are noise. I get 2 of those on every successful
download from YouTube that I ever do. I got them with all the downloads of this video I
did, 3 of the 4 of which were successful. Michel claims he's never seen them so he can't
diagnose the problem with them. Just ignore them. Delete them. They apparently don't
mean anything.

[lightan...@gmail.com]

Aight, thanks for the response  :)

[lightan...@gmail.com]

I hate to say it Willy, but I don't believe your assessment is completely accurate.

When I am watching the video on YouTube, the quality is significantly better while watching it at 1080.

You can see the difference most especially when the content creator is editing text and code around 3:30.

There is a noticeable difference when switching between the resolution levels.  1080 looks much sharper than any of the lower options.

It's possible that YouTube has changed their system to make it harder for video downloaders to acquire content from their site and VDH is getting confused.

This video was definitely originally uploaded as HIGH resolution and it's worth exploring to find out how and why YouTube is making it harder for VDH to download certain content.

Thanks!   :)

[Wild Willy]

I could easily be wrong. I'm just another user, like you & almost everybody else around
here. I don't have access to the source code of VDH. It's probable that I wouldn't
understand what I was looking at anyway. Maybe we can coax Michel to look at this
particular item & maybe he'll figure something out. All I know is that the sort of thing
I observed here is not new. I won't say it's a frequent occurrence, but it's happened
often enough that I'm not surprised when VDH downloads certain resolutions but not
others. Such reports have popped up here every so often over the past few years. As a
counter-example to this thread, have a look over here:

https://groups.google.com/g/video-downloadhelper-q-and-a/c/6h6ohu6AjSQ

That user provided a link to a video that I downloaded with VDH. First I got the 480p
variant, then the 1080p variant. No problems. Completely different from our case here.
I don't know what the deal is. Playing a video on the web page & using VDH to download
it are apparently not correlated. You'd think they would be but it seems they are not.
My attitude is that YouTube is a free site & I'm getting what I'm paying for. If some
things don't work, I shrug my shoulders & move on. I definitely don't have that attitude
about things I'm paying for. But here, meh . . .

[mjs]

That's an unusual case on that video. If you look at the hit details for the 1080p version there is a url for the video and audio.

If you open the video url no video comes up. Only the audio url works.

On the 720p version again if you open the video url it does not play any video.

If I put this YouTube video into youtube-dl it reports that the best version which contains both video and audio is the 720p version.

It does show 2 1080p variants but these are marked as video only.

[Wild Willy]

If you run through all the resolutions one by one, VDH will give you Hit Details that do
contain a URL for a video that will play in a separate tab. Most of them do not. What
does this prove? That the videos that won't play are corrupt? That they have some sort
of weird encoding that only the YouTube player within the web page can understand? I'm
not sure this is getting us anywhere. It's just YouTube. Be happy with what works &
move on to the next issue.

[Wild Willy]

Try the Baker Mayfield video mentioned in the other thread that I cite in the post right
before yours, mjs. I went through the exercise with that one. One by one I selected
every single resolution from 1080p all the way down to 144p. For each one, I looked in
the VDH Hit Details to get the audio URL & the video URL. Every single one of them
played fine. Every audio. Every video. What does that prove? That YouTube is wildly
inconsistent? That's not exactly news. YouTube doesn't seem to be particularly
forthcoming with technical specifications about their content. They seem to feel free to
change their ways on a whim, witness the recent upheaval that led to 7.6.5a3 beta &
7.6.6. I don't think Michel is working from a specification document formally & publicly
published by YouTube. I think he is using some sort of network traffic capture tool &
inspecting Internet data packets, then writing code to manipulate the data he finds. We
just need to react to each case as we encounter it. I'm grateful that the content I am
actually interested in, as opposed to examples our fellow users are reporting, all work
just fine with VDH. Do I live a charmed life? Maybe. But I am not a big fan of
YouTube. They have baked their own approach & I think we are lucky Michel is as smart as
he is.

[mjs]

Yes on Baker Mayfield video there is video and audio on every resolution. But on the video the original poster gave here something unusual

is happening with 3 of the resolutions. When I look at video urls in developer tools / network there is no &range=numbers.

And there is another part :  &dur=0.000

Is that specifying duration. On the videos that work the &dur has some numbers like the &range=

The other thing is why does VDH call it ADP.  What is ADP ?  YouTube is really using a form of dash streaming.

youtube-dl says it is MPD manifest :

[Wild Willy]

&dur sure looks like it might be a duration specification. But is it? We're just
guessing. Why are there &range specifications on some objects & not on others? I don't
know. I put it down to YouTube's general lack of consistency. ADP? I've wondered what
that means, too. Adaptive Display Protocol? Beats me. When I Googled that acronym, I
got a large number of clearly irrelevant search hits, nothing that looked likely to apply
in this context. If there is a DASH manifest, where is it? There's no MPD files in the
Network Monitor, are there? If anybody were to turn up a formal, publicly published
YouTube specification, we might find answers there. My suspicion is such a document does
not exist. That leaves us black-boxing this. All our conclusions are speculation,
guesses.