YouTube is making it nearly impossible to download videos. With an updated yt-dlp, the video file would seem to begin downloading, but freeze at 1% complete. If I cancel the download and restart it, an error appears: "Did not get any blocks". Anybody else seeing this problem or know a solution?

submitted by In-the-clouds from midi.moe

sorted by:
top
newinsightfulfun
you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]0_0 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

There seems to be a problem with the default format yt-dlp chooses to download for this particular video. You can download a low-res version using this command:

yt-dlp.exe -f 17 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FUS1259dHM

If you want a better resolution you'll need to download ffmpeg and run this command:

yt-dlp.exe -f 231+140 --ffmpeg-location "c:\ffmpeg" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FUS1259dHM

Replace c:\ffmpeg with the folder path where the ffmpeg program is located.

[–]In-the-clouds[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The video downloads are acting normally today. Yesterday YouTube was giving errors for multiple videos: 403 Forbidden. But today, I am able to download them.

I appreciate the effort you put into your response. As you said, a lower-quality video was available, which I was able to download. (Today, the higher quality video is also available.)

If you would like to be able to use ffmpeg as a command, regardless of the folder it is found in, here is an excellent guide. If you already have ffmpeg installed, you can skip to step #3....

https://blog.gregzaal.com/how-to-install-ffmpeg-on-windows/