youtube-dl will not download, reports "Format X not available" instead

[Richard Griswold]

Binary package hint: youtube-dl

1) The release of Ubuntu you are using, via 'lsb_release -rd' or System -> About Ubuntu.

> lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS
Release: 10.04

2) The version of the package you are using, via 'apt-cache policy packagename' or by checking in Synaptic.

> apt-cache policy youtube-dl
youtube-dl:
  Installed: 2010.04.04-1
  Candidate: 2010.04.04-1
  Version table:
 *** 2010.04.04-1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid/universe Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

3) What you expected to happen

a) Run: youtube-dl -b -o Foo.mp4 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OebUzEhSLBI'
b) Program downloads video from YouTube and saves it as Foo.mp4

4) What happened instead

a) Run: youtube-dl -b -o Foo.mp4 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OebUzEhSLBI'
b) Got:

[youtube] Setting language
[youtube] OebUzEhSLBI: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] OebUzEhSLBI: Extracting video information
[youtube] OebUzEhSLBI: Format 37 not available
[youtube] OebUzEhSLBI: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] OebUzEhSLBI: Extracting video information
[youtube] OebUzEhSLBI: Format 22 not available
[youtube] OebUzEhSLBI: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] OebUzEhSLBI: Extracting video information
[youtube] OebUzEhSLBI: Format 35 not available
[youtube] OebUzEhSLBI: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] OebUzEhSLBI: Extracting video information
[youtube] OebUzEhSLBI: Format 18 not available
[youtube] OebUzEhSLBI: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] OebUzEhSLBI: Extracting video information
[youtube] OebUzEhSLBI: Format 34 not available
[youtube] OebUzEhSLBI: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] OebUzEhSLBI: Extracting video information
[youtube] OebUzEhSLBI: Format 5 not available
[youtube] OebUzEhSLBI: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] OebUzEhSLBI: Extracting video information
[youtube] OebUzEhSLBI: Format 17 not available
[youtube] OebUzEhSLBI: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] OebUzEhSLBI: Extracting video information
[youtube] OebUzEhSLBI: Format 13 not available

If I remove the '-b' (best quality) flag, I get:

[youtube] Setting language
[youtube] OebUzEhSLBI: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] OebUzEhSLBI: Extracting video information
ERROR: format not available for video

Version 2010.08.04 of youtube-dl (currently the latest version) works correctly. It's available from http://bitbucket.org/rg3/youtube-dl/wiki/Home, but it isn't available as a .deb in the Ubuntu repositories yet.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: youtube-dl 2010.04.04-1
Uname: Linux 2.6.34-020634-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: vboxnetadp vboxnetflt vboxdrv
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sat Aug 28 16:03:37 2010
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/zsh
SourcePackage: youtube-dl

[Rogério Theodoro de Brito (rbrito)]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA384

Dear Richard,

On 08/28/2010 08:10 PM, Richard Griswold wrote:
> ** Attachment added: "Dependencies.txt"
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/626051/+attachment/1525988/+files/Dependencies.txt

I don't think that people in MOTU will be able to keep up with me
following the upstream development, documenting stuff and making the debs.

You can always grab the latest version that I have packaged from
Debian's sid. [1] I'm also thinking of putting the package on my ppa. [2]

[1] http://packages.debian.org/sid/youtube-dl
[2] https://launchpad.net/~rbrito/+archive/ppa/

Regards,

- --
Rogério Brito : rbrito@{ime.usp.br,gmail.com} : GPG key 1024D/7C2CAEB8
http://rb.doesntexist.org : Packages for LaTeX : algorithms.berlios.de
DebianQA: http://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=rbrito%40ime.usp.br

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[zpletan (zpletan)]

Try installing python-gdata - that worked for me

[zpletan (zpletan)]

Ignore all comments on python-gdata - the solution for me was ACTUALLY getting latest youtube-dl

[Rogério Theodoro de Brito (rbrito)]

On Sep 01 2010, Zachary Pletan wrote:
> Try installing python-gdata - that worked for me

Can you please give more details regarding why you need python-gdata?

> Version 2010.08.04 of youtube-dl (currently the latest version) works
> correctly. It's available from
> http://bitbucket.org/rg3/youtube-dl/wiki/Home, but it isn't available
> as a .deb in the Ubuntu repositories yet.

It is not available in the Ubuntu repositories yet, but that's because
the MOTU can't keep up with my packaging and I have not been contacted
by anybody.

OTOH, for Debian, I am always keeping the version in sid updated:

    http://packages.debian.org/sid/youtube-dl

Regards,

--
Rogério Brito : rbrito@{ime.usp.br,gmail.com} : GPG key 4096R/BCFCAAAA
http://rb.doesntexist.org : Packages for LaTeX : algorithms.berlios.de
DebianQA: http://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=rbrito%40ime.usp.br

[zpletan (zpletan)]

python-gdata is not needed for me (and I marked my bug to that effect invalid). What was needed was for bash to get youtube-dl out of ~/bin like 'which' said it would, rather than /usr/bin. 2010.08.04 works perfectly! (Again, sorry for wasting your time with my overzealous troubleshooting.)