Reino

You spoke too soon. This is not an issue at all. As commented by xpalidotious, the video is mostly static, which means a low(er) bitrate would suffice for a targeted image quality.

It does. Thank you! I can confirm, the binary works on Win11 Pro (on my brand new Framework Desktop).

Confirmed. Thanks.

https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/14456#issuecomment-3339167951: --extractor-args "youtube:player-client=default,-tv_simply"

I'm sorry if you felt my post was directed to you. It wasn't. I'm not using your binaries either. I'm on Win11, so I'm using the original ones anyway. I won't be asking this from you. I was just explaning my preference for the m3u8 HLS streams, plus I was wondering if more people experienced the bandwidth "issues" with DASH streams and if maybe something could be done to it. Btw, I know very well what you're dealing with, because with FFmpeg for WinXP I dealt with maintaining quite a number of patches to keep it all WinXP and non-SSE2 compatible. That's great! Thanks for letting us know.

Maybe I should elaborate on this a bit, because the reason why I do is (surprisingly) hardly ever mentioned. I hate ads, so I try to watch Youtube videos as much as possible directly with MPC-HC. I think only 0,1% of the time I use yt-dlp for downloading. 99,9% of the time it's just for watching: FOR /F "delims=" %A IN (' yt-dlp_20082025.exe --extractor-args "youtube:player-client=ios" -f "bv[vcodec!^=av01][width<=1920]+ba" -S "+proto" -O urls "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxxxxxxxxxx" ^| xidel -se "let $url:=x:lines($raw) return `\"C:\\Program Files\\Media\\MPC-HC\\mpc-hc64.exe\" \"{$url[1]}\" /dub \"{$url[2]}\" /close`" ') DO @%A This executes MPC-HC which opens two m3u8 HLS streams (VP9 1080p video and AAC audio). The reason why I prefer the iOS m3u8 HLS streams is because, unlike the DASH streams, they don't exhibit bandwidth "issues". What do I mean by "issues"? It's mostly prevalent with videos that have huge bandwidth fluctuations, like those from Hardware Unboxed for instance. The first halve of their videos often has a low bitrate, because of them talking with a static background. Then suddenly fast-paced gameplay footage kicks in, which sees the bitrate skyrocket. With the m3u8 HLS streams this is no issue, but when I open the DASH variants instead, it looks as though the entire video is played back with a static average bitrate. The first halve of such a video this is no problem, but the moment the fast-paced gameplay footage kicks in it starts to stutter massively, because Youtube doesn't provide/allow enough bandwidth to keep up. I take it I'm not the only one having experienced this?

I'm not that familiar with the compilation process of Python, but I don't think that's how it works. They are linked to the 'libcrypto*.a' and 'libssl*.a' files and therefore you can't just replace the dll-files and expect them to work. @cmalex has to recompile the whole thing, which he already did. I don't understand why 2 years ago and still today he wants to use the shared OpenSSL dev-files. I could be wrong, but I thought linking the static OpenSSL dev-files is much easier. I personally don't have a need for it. The only reason why I started compiling the shared OpenSSL dll-files is because Xidel needs them to open https-urls on WinXP. But since I'm now on a Win11 laptop that's not needed anymore either. I assume you do have a need for it? I've reuploaded 'openssl-3.5.2-win32-shared-dev-xpmod-sse.7z' and recompiled 'openssl-3.5.2-win32-static-dev-xpmod-sse.7z'. They now include a bin-dir with the 2 dll-files and 'openssl.exe' respectively. Can you test if the exe-file actually works on WinXP?

I hope openssl-3.1.0-win32-dev-xpmod-sse.7z would suffice. And FFmpeg: ffmpeg-6.1-588-4006c71-win32-dev-xpmod-sse.7z. @cmalex Believe it or not, only just now I suddenly realized why you needed that dev-archive. Have a look at https://rwijnsma.home.xs4all.nl/files/openssl/?C=M;O=A. I've just uploaded v3.5.2. Though I'm on Win11 nowadays, I believe it should work on WinXP.

Wow! Then in just 3 days they've pushed some pretty significant changes. One of which is "[ie/youtube] Replace ios with tv_simply in default clients (#14123)", which is a real pity, because I prefer the ios HLS formats. They've now flagged these formats as requiring a PO token, which (as far as I can tell) isn't true, because the 2025.08.20.232911 version I was using still works just fine for these formats. Now I have to snatch a PO token for these to work.

Hmm, it seems you're right. D:\>yt-dlp.exe -F "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBq_krhKbW4" [youtube] Extracting URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBq_krhKbW4 [youtube] zBq_krhKbW4: Downloading webpage [youtube] zBq_krhKbW4: Downloading tv client config [youtube] zBq_krhKbW4: Downloading tv player API JSON [youtube] zBq_krhKbW4: Downloading ios player API JSON WARNING: [youtube] zBq_krhKbW4: Some tv client https formats have been skipped as they are DRM protected. The current session may have an experiment that applies DRM to all videos on the tv client. See https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/12563 for more details. [youtube] Executing JS [youtube] [pot:phantomjs-web] Requesting webpage [youtube] [pot:phantomjs-web] Requesting webpage WARNING: [youtube] zBq_krhKbW4: Some web client https formats have been skipped as they are missing a url. YouTube is forcing SABR streaming for this client. See https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/12482 for more details [youtube] zBq_krhKbW4: Downloading m3u8 information [info] Available formats for zBq_krhKbW4: ID EXT RESOLUTION FPS CH │ FILESIZE TBR PROTO │ VCODEC VBR ACODEC ASR MORE INFO ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── sb3 mhtml 48x27 0 │ mhtml │ images storyboard sb2 mhtml 80x45 0 │ mhtml │ images storyboard sb1 mhtml 160x90 0 │ mhtml │ images storyboard sb0 mhtml 320x180 0 │ mhtml │ images storyboard 233 mp4 audio only │ m3u8 │ audio only unknown [en] Untested, Default, low 234 mp4 audio only │ m3u8 │ audio only unknown [en] Untested, Default, high 602 mp4 256x144 15 │ ~ 3.41MiB 82k m3u8 │ vp09.00.10.08 82k video only Untested 269 mp4 256x144 30 │ ~ 4.83MiB 116k m3u8 │ avc1.4D400C 116k video only Untested 603 mp4 256x144 30 │ ~ 6.96MiB 168k m3u8 │ vp09.00.11.08 168k video only Untested 229 mp4 426x240 30 │ ~ 9.37MiB 226k m3u8 │ avc1.4D4015 226k video only Untested 604 mp4 426x240 30 │ ~ 9.87MiB 238k m3u8 │ vp09.00.20.08 238k video only Untested 230 mp4 640x360 30 │ ~ 17.90MiB 432k m3u8 │ avc1.4D401E 432k video only Untested 18 mp4 640x360 30 2 │ 15.60MiB 376k https │ avc1.42001E mp4a.40.2 44k [en] 360p 605 mp4 640x360 30 │ ~ 20.36MiB 491k m3u8 │ vp09.00.21.08 491k video only Untested 231 mp4 854x480 30 │ ~ 27.63MiB 666k m3u8 │ avc1.4D401F 666k video only Untested 606 mp4 854x480 30 │ ~ 28.62MiB 690k m3u8 │ vp09.00.30.08 690k video only Untested 232 mp4 1280x720 30 │ ~ 47.83MiB 1153k m3u8 │ avc1.4D401F 1153k video only Untested 609 mp4 1280x720 30 │ ~ 45.79MiB 1104k m3u8 │ vp09.00.31.08 1104k video only Untested 270 mp4 1920x1080 30 │ ~ 86.72MiB 2090k m3u8 │ avc1.640028 2090k video only Untested 614 mp4 1920x1080 30 │ ~ 75.94MiB 1831k m3u8 │ vp09.00.40.08 1831k video only Untested 620 mp4 2560x1440 30 │ ~175.88MiB 4240k m3u8 │ vp09.00.50.08 4240k video only Untested 625 mp4 3840x2160 30 │ ~516.07MiB 12440k m3u8 │ vp09.00.50.08 12440k video only Untested This suggests both 720p formats have more or less the same video-bitrate. After having downloaded both of them however it's actually 242kbps (H.264) and 488kbps (VP9). I normally always watch the VP9 stream, so I wasn't expecting such a big difference. P.s. How lame I even have to use Microsoft Edge (my alternative browser) to create this post, because with Palemoon after having added the codeblock the window won't disappear for me to continue typing.

Source? Example video?

Can you please use some punctuation marks? This is unreadable!

You don't have to call youtube-dl twice. There are more efficient ways to go about this. Pure Batch @ECHO off :BEGIN SETLOCAL SET /P LINK=YOUTUBE LINK: IF NOT DEFINED LINK GOTO :EOF FOR /F "delims=" %%A IN (' youtube-dl -gf "bestvideo[ext=mp4][height<=720][fps<=30][vcodec^=avc]+bestaudio[ext=m4a][acodec^=mp4a]" "%LINK%" ') DO (IF NOT DEFINED VIDEOLINK (SET "VIDEOLINK=%%A") ELSE (SET "AUDIOLINK=%%A")) "%programfiles%\SMPlayer\mplayer\mplayer" -aspect 4:3 -xy 800 -vo directx -ao dsound "%VIDEOLINK%" -audiofile "%AUDIOLINK%" ENDLOCAL GOTO :BEGIN If you want the script to go in a loop with GOTO, then I suggest you use SETLOCAL and ENDLOCAL to reset all variables each loop and GOTO :EOF as an escape (to simply press <enter> to stop the script). Xidel (variable export) Xidel is an XML/HTML/JSON-parser and an extremely versatile command line tool. The latest recommended dev-builds can be found here, here, or on my own host. @ECHO off :BEGIN SETLOCAL SET /P LINK=YOUTUBE LINK: IF NOT DEFINED LINK GOTO :EOF FOR /F "delims=" %%A IN (' youtube-dl -gf "bestvideo[ext=mp4][height<=720][fps<=30][vcodec^=avc]+bestaudio[ext=m4a][acodec^=mp4a]" "%LINK%" ^| xidel -se "url:=x:lines($raw)" --output-format^=cmd ') DO %%A "%programfiles%\SMPlayer\mplayer\mplayer" -aspect 4:3 -xy 800 -vo directx -ao dsound %url[0]% -audiofile %url[1]% ENDLOCAL GOTO :BEGIN %url[0]% and %url[1]% shouldn't be quoted, because Xidel already escapes the "&" and "=". Xidel (generate string to execute) You don't need a Batch-script. You can simply enter the following (prettified) one-liner in CMD. Xidel generates the string, which the FOR-loop then executes. FOR /F "delims=" %A IN (' youtube-dl -gf "bestvideo[ext=mp4][height<=720][fps<=30][vcodec^=avc]+bestaudio[ext=m4a][acodec^=mp4a]" "<url>" ^| xidel -se "let $url:=x:lines($raw) return `\"%programfiles%\\SMPlayer\\mplayer\\mplayer\" -aspect 4:3 -xy 800 -vo directx -ao dsound \"{$url[1]}\" -audiofile \"{$url[2]}\"`" ') DO @%A Xidel (parse the JSON and generate string to execute) As Xidel is a JSON-parser, you can also let youtube-dl spit out all the info as JSON and let Xidel select the formats. Unfortunately all the necessary characters between the escaped double-quotes ( \" ) need to be escaped for CMD. FOR /F "delims=" %A IN (' youtube-dl -j "<url>" ^| xidel -se "`\"%programfiles%\\SMPlayer\\mplayer\\mplayer\" -aspect 4:3 -xy 800 -vo directx -ao dsound \"{$json/^(formats^)^(^)[ext^='mp4' and height le 720 and fps le 30 and starts-with^(vcodec^,'avc'^)][last^(^)]/url}\" -audiofile \"{$json/^(formats^)^(^)[audio_ext^='m4a' and starts-with^(acodec^,'mp4a'^)][last^(^)]/url}\"`" ') DO @%A

AMD Athlon XP 3200+.

If the e-mail-address is still the same, then it's "3DYD Soft Support <support@3dyd.com>". A couple of times, from 2017 until 2020, I've had mail-contact with a guy named Nick for some issues and feature-requests.