Youtube-dl Invalid parameters

Youtube-dl is not working like it used to.

andy@7_~/Downloads$ youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvxQ57BvAQQ
[youtube] PvxQ57BvAQQ: Downloading webpage
[youtube] PvxQ57BvAQQ: Downloading video info webpage
ERROR: PvxQ57BvAQQ: YouTube said: Invalid parameters.

Whatever version of youtube-dl is this anyway?

You can check with the command:

youtube-dl --version

Generally speaking, if it's more than three months old, youtube-dl will fail to function since YouTube changes their site a lot.

you must add -f (number code)
example:
youtube-dl -f 18 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvxQ57BvAQQ
18 is for 640x360 video

for others code use -F to check it
youtube-dl -F https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvxQ57BvAQQ

I got invalid parameters with both your examples.

The version is 2018.03.14

youtube-dl is already the newest version (2018.03.14-1ubuntu18.04.1).

Seems strange that a 2 yr version is the newest?

try to update your youtube-dl first.
this is from youtube-dl github webpages
sudo -H pip install --upgrade youtube-dl
latest version is youtube-dl-2020.6.16.1

sudo -H pip install --upgrade youtube-dl
sudo: pip: command not found

This should fix.
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/python

More info

install pip
sudo apt install python3-pip

Still Invalid parameters.

Appreciate your help.

ClipGrab can download the videos using a GUI.

sorry!
not python3-pip but
sudo apt install python-pip
once again sorry, my bad :frowning:

after doing that, you can update your youtube-dl using:
sudo -H pip install --upgrade youtube-dl

2 Likes

Sucess. :slight_smile:

youtube-dl -f 18 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvxQ57BvAQQ

Where does the 18 come from?

youtube-dl -F https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvxQ57BvAQQ
[youtube] PvxQ57BvAQQ: Downloading webpage
[info] Available formats for PvxQ57BvAQQ:
format code  extension  resolution note
249          webm       audio only tiny   53k , opus @ 50k (48000Hz), 1.41MiB
250          webm       audio only tiny   66k , opus @ 70k (48000Hz), 1.79MiB
140          m4a        audio only tiny  130k , m4a_dash container, mp4a.40.2@128k (44100Hz), 3.97MiB
251          webm       audio only tiny  145k , opus @160k (48000Hz), 4.01MiB
278          webm       192x144    144p   76k , webm container, vp9, 30fps, video only, 2.06MiB
160          mp4        192x144    144p   84k , avc1.4d400c, 30fps, video only, 1.39MiB
242          webm       320x240    240p  163k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 3.25MiB
133          mp4        320x240    240p  184k , avc1.4d400d, 30fps, video only, 2.44MiB
243          webm       480x360    360p  300k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 5.44MiB
134          mp4        480x360    360p  475k , avc1.4d401e, 30fps, video only, 5.70MiB
244          webm       640x480    480p  552k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 8.80MiB
135          mp4        640x480    480p  871k , avc1.4d401e, 30fps, video only, 11.08MiB
18           mp4        480x360    360p  393k , avc1.42001E, 30fps, mp4a.40.2@ 96k (44100Hz), 12.07MiB (best)
1 Like

Screenshot at 2020-07-10 17-56-09

1 Like