Dowload YouTube videos to .avi

Question

I download videos from YouTube using youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/.... , but their format is .mp4. My TV doesn't support this format, therefore i need to have (dowload) them in .avi. Please help me :)

Answer 1

you can run the following command to convert all of your mp4 videos to avi:

for i in `find . -type f -name '*.mp4'`; do avconv -i "$i" -qscale 1 "${i/.mp4/.avi}"; done

For more info on avconv, see the manpages:

man avconv

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Alternatively, you can download as a specific format by using the --recode-video FORMAT flag like so (but the only formats supported are : mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv):

youtube-dl --recode-video flv 

for format .flv, followed by the URL.

Newer versions of youtube-dl may allow recoding to avi:

youtube-dl --recode-video avi

and newer versions of Ubuntu (15.04+) will allow you to prefer ffmpeg over avconv if ffmpeg is installed:

youtube-dl --recode-video avi --prefer-ffmpeg    

Answer 2

While mchid's answer may result in a working file on your device, re-encoding an entire video is not what you should do just because your device is picky with standard formats and therefore default to legacy non-standard formats.

Assuming that the optimal format for your device is AVI is awful and stupid. The AVI container can be used with a lot of different formats (like MKV, just older and worse) and despite it's popularity in warezing before podcasting, streaming and video on demand were widely available, it's anything but a standard meant for content distribution.

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Here is an excerpt of what avconv did in my test case:

  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (h264 -> mpeg4)
  Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (aac -> libmp3lame)

What's MPEG4? Mediainfo output:

Video
ID                                       : 0
Format                                   : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile                           : Simple@L1
Format settings, BVOP                    : No
Format settings, QPel                    : No
Format settings, GMC                     : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix                  : Default (H.263)
Codec ID                                 : FMP4
Duration                                 : 1mn 29s
Bit rate                                 : 3 479 Kbps
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate                               : 29.970 fps
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.056
Stream size                              : 36.9 MiB (100%)
Writing library                          : Lavc54.92.100

Notice the switch to the very old H.263 (Simple@L1 – you may want to study what profiles and levels mean in video encoding… or better not). A sane default when no further information is provided, but you shouldn't use H.263 on a modern device unless you're really desperate.

Comparison with original and result both mangled through JPEG, though I uploaded 1080p PNG screenshots (view full size!). And that's just a low detail scene from a video game with almost no motion.

TL;DR:

1. Get a device that isn't picky with formats and makes you waste time and energy by re-encoding.
2. Use a converter that offers templates for achieving quality with sane encoding settings, like Handbrake.
3. Try -vcodec copy to change the container, but avoid re-encoding video with avconv/ffmpeg.