Who here has a Youtube-DL compile for WinXP?

[Reino]

6 hours ago, VistaLover said:

Well, this "poor quality" problem has now come back, but this time also affecting the vp9+av01 encodes  ; an issue has been filed on GitHub: 

https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/14636

Nothing can be done from a yt-dlp standpoint  ...

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.

[VistaLover]

26 minutes ago, user57 said:

that fileextd.dll a old file you dont see that often, the kernelex.dll must be a custom kernel extender

Well, both these missing DLLs are referred to as "dependencies" of wrapper DLL "kernelxp.dll"; but @cmalex has never provided them in his custom, XP-targeting, CPython assemblies, e.g. 

https://mega.nz/folder/jst2WJ5B#sknEpEBamwPomx8UULWuMA/file/igNWhbCb

so he should know better  ; in fact, I have tracked those wrapper DLLs (kernelxp.dll, ntext.dll, psapi.dll, ws2_xx.dll) inside below folder: 

https://mega.nz/folder/KxExlAiC#L9rAQ5kTCtlHgZUwaxMpgw/folder/Os1DmLgL

and the accompanying README simply states: 

Quote

1. The dll's had unknown origin.

In any case, PyInstaller just issues WARNINGs, no fatal errors, and the resultant packages function as expected; so, these warnings can be regarded as "red herrings" and can be safely ignored; just my 2c  ...

[VistaLover]

49 minutes ago, Reino said:

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

... Be that as it may, I've witnessed the same thing on my own (i.e. on clips other than the one mentioned in the linked GH issue), e.g. on "SxVNOnPyvIU": 

yt-dlp_x86 -vF "SxVNOnPyvIU" => 

95  mp4   1280x720    24    | ~23.64MiB  754k m3u8  | avc1.4D401F        mp4a.40.2           WEB-S
136 mp4   1280x720    24    |   8.67MiB  277k https | avc1.4d401f   277k video only          720p, TV, mp4_dash
247 webm  1280x720    24    |   9.30MiB  297k https | vp9           297k video only          720p, TV, webm_dash
398 mp4   1280x720    24    |   9.48MiB  302k https | av01.0.05M.08 302k video only          720p, TV, mp4_dash
96  mp4   1920x1080   24    | ~64.60MiB 2060k m3u8  | avc1.640028        mp4a.40.2           WEB-S
137 mp4   1920x1080   24    |  30.06MiB  958k https | avc1.640028   958k video only          1080p, TV, mp4_dash
248 webm  1920x1080   24    |  25.13MiB  801k https | vp9           801k video only          1080p, TV, webm_dash
399 mp4   1920x1080   24    |  16.68MiB  532k https | av01.0.08M.08 532k video only          1080p, TV, mp4_dash

ca. 300kbps for the video track for a 720p24 resolution is just too little, if you ask me; likewise for the 1080p24 resolution; notice how the Web Safari (WEB-S) formats have twice the bitrate of the TV_client (TV) formats  ...

FWIW, I don't consume that much of YT myself  ; perhaps @j7n can share more on this  ...

Regards.

[j7n]

I have not witnessed the extremely poor quality again. A live 1920*1080 video with motion is now around 3700 kbit/s. It is still low but in the ballpark of what to expect online. zBq_krhKbW4 (static scene with a speaking person and illustrations) is about 850 kbit/s in "TV-S", and I perceive it as soft and washed out.

[autodidact]

Updated FFmpeg for Windows XP.

Same libfdk-aac.

[nicolaasjan]

4 hours ago, autodidact said:

Updated FFmpeg for Windows XP.

Same libfdk-aac.

Working! 

[debug] Command-line config: ['-v']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1252, fs utf-8, pref cp1252, out cp1252 (No VT), error cp1252 (No VT), screen cp1252 (No VT)
[debug] yt-dlp version nicolaasjan/yt-dlp@2025.10.15.061641 (winXP_x86_exe*)
[debug] Python 3.11.4 (CPython x86 32bit) - Windows-XP-5.1.2600-SP3 (OpenSSL 3.5.2 5 Aug 2025)
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg N-121478-g535d4047d3-WINXP (fdk,setts), ffprobe N-121478-g535d4047d3-WINXP, phantomjs 1.9.8
[debug] Optional libraries: Cryptodome-3.23.0, brotli-1.1.0, certifi-2025.10.05, mutagen-1.47.0, requests-2.32.5, sqlite3-3.50.4, urllib3-2.5.0, websockets-15.0.1
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[debug] Request Handlers: urllib, requests, websockets
[debug] Plugin directories: none
[debug] Loaded 1839 extractors

 

[j7n]

Today downloads give 403 Forbidden. I updated to the last version here. I can get something from Safari HLS, but the format numbers seem to not be always the same.

Edited 11 hours ago by j7n

[nicolaasjan]

1 hour ago, j7n said:

Today downloads give 403 Forbidden.

Yes, this is a known issue (#14680)...

They are working hard to implement some sort of a fix.

Quote

This is caused by the pinned player beginning to stop working. This will be solved by #14157 which will require an external JavaScript runtime like deno. See also this announcement: #14404

It could be a challenge to get Deno working on Windows 7, however.

On Windows 7 64bit, I have Deno 1.27.0 working. But there are no 32bit builds (as far as I know)...

Edited 9 hours ago by nicolaasjan

[johk]

I just read the external JavaScript requirement and... I think I'll give up using it from here.

They say that a headless browsers defeats the purpose of yt-dlp, but... an engine over a hundred MiB, a half of Firefox 115 installation doesn't? Come on...

I might regret and come back to yt-dlp again, but I think I will switch to the nightmare slow downloads from web download helpers. It is more sane, from my point of view.

I'm expectant for the upcoming events...

[VistaLover]

19 hours ago, autodidact said:

Updated FFmpeg for Windows XP.

Many thanks, indeed  ; my OS is actually Windows Vista SP2 32-bit, my CPU can go up to SSSE3 instruction set, iGPU; so, I have to make do with XP-targeting builds ...

I see the linked files are hosted on VideoHelp.com  and, after searching, found out you do have an account on: 

https://forum.videohelp.com/

Is there a specific FVH.com thread that you announce/publish your FFmpeg XP/Vista builds in? There's 

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/414767-ffmpeg-7-0-1-and-Windows-7

but, as one would expect, the 32-bit compiles posted there do not run on Vista SP2 32-bit (as they target NT 6.1 +)  ; I know it'd be a lot to ask already, but do you see yourself publishing shared FFmpeg_x86 builds compatible with Vista SP2 / XP SP3 ?

yt-dlp actually wants BOTH the ffmpeg.exe+ffprobe.exe binaries for postprocessing; static builds of them have now exploded to ca. 110 MiB each, I find it too much to use 220 MiB of disk space just for remuxing purposes ...

Thanks for your efforts so far, much appreciated  ...

[johk]

2 hours ago, VistaLover said:

yt-dlp actually wants BOTH the ffmpeg.exe+ffprobe.exe binaries for postprocessing; static builds of them have now exploded to ca. 110 MiB each, I find it too much to use 220 MiB of disk space just for remuxing purposes ...

In the case of ffmpeg, as I use for more purposes, I use upx to reduce the disk size to around 50% on each file. In terms of run time, it doesn't make to work slower.

Give it a try:

https://upx.github.io/

(Don't worry to use old versions, I use an old 3.x)

Edited 2 hours ago by johk