Use VLC to extract original sound file from youtube video

[mcewanw]

I don't know all the flags, but some are:

vq=large for 480p
vq=hd720 for 720p
vq=hd1080 for 1080p
2K and 4K also supported but don't know their flags.

These are the new ones, the old way of specifying (which may still work):

&fmt=35, &fmt=22, or &fmt=37

That's a useful trick to know.
Thanks.

William

[nic007]

VLC does both methods, ie. extracting original audio by just entering the youtube url (not having to download the video first), and extracting from a video you have already downloaded. You can of course also decide to convert to something else if you so wish. The only problem is that in some cases VLC will not accept the url to work with (you may get MRL errors). In these cases you will have to download the video first. Luckily we can download the original video without conversion (I use the html5 browser for this).

[Pete]

There are other tricks too, although youtube keeps changing them, so same may still work whilst others may not or the commands have changed.

To specify an offset to start from:
start=102 would start form 102 seconds in

There is also an "end" also in seconds from the start.

To use these on the URL:

https://blaahblaah....?start=102&end=200

Note the first ? and then any other parameters are separated by a &
This is standard for passing commands/data in the URL.

@mcewanw

Are you thinking of incorporating a download feature in your screen capture program? hint hint

[nic007]

The only problem is that in some cases VLC will not accept the url to work with (you may get MRL errors)

I've solved this problem by not using the youtube url but using the google-video url instead. Get the latter by double right-clicking in the html5 video window and select "copy video location"

[mcewanw]

@mcewanw

Are you thinking of incorporating a download feature in your screen capture program? hint hint :wink:

Probably not, because as you say, youtube keeps changing its url access formats. But, for a second (continuing) I did think of leaving space for a suitable modifiable plugin. Maybe later, if I ever publish it anyway, and if I then most likely end up having to release a further bug-fixed version...

William