On Wednesday, 28 October 2020 23:15:21 GMT Dale wrote:
> David Haller wrote:
> > Hello,
> > 
> > On Tue, 27 Oct 2020, Dale wrote:
> > [..]
> > 
> >> ERROR: 'ytdl-format=bestvideo[height<=?1280]+bestaudio/best' is not a
> >> valid URL. Set --default-search "ytsearch" (or run  youtube-dl
> >> "ytsearch:ytdl-format=bestvideo[height<=?1280]+bestaudio/best" ) to
> >> search YouTube
> >> [youtube] byTOZIvyXPo: Downloading webpage
> > 
> > Please run again with -v, such as:
> > 
> > $ youtube-dl -v https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byTOZIvyXPo
> > 
> > and then check at the top for the lines:
> > 
> > [debug] System config: []
> > [debug] User config: [ .. THIS IS WHAT I'M INTERESTED IN .. ]
> > [debug] Custom config: []
> > [debug] Command-line args: [u'-v',
> > u'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzPxJK4drcc'] [..]
> > [debug] youtube-dl version 2020.09.20
> > 
> > and mail them here ... One should see there how yt-dl parses your
> > config and hopefully what goes wrong with it.
> > 
> > HTH,
> > -dnh
> 
> Finally getting thing back to normal.  Been checking out the quality of
> new power supply and the age of my mobo.  Mobo is 7 years old.  May
> start digging around for one of those soon.  o_0
> 
> Searched for test video and grabbed the first hit.  Here is the complete
> output. 
> 
> 
> dale@fireball ~/Desktop $ youtube-dl -v
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0DPdy98e4c
> [debug] System config: []
> [debug] User config: ['ytdl-format=bestvideo[height<=?1280]+bestaudio/best']
> [debug] Custom config: []
> [debug] Command-line args: ['-i', '-v',
> 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0DPdy98e4c']
> [debug] Encodings: locale UTF-8, fs utf-8, out UTF-8, pref UTF-8
> [debug] youtube-dl version 2020.06.16.1
> [debug] Python version 3.7.9 (CPython) -
> Linux-5.6.7-gentoo-x86_64-AMD_FX-tm-8350_Eight-Core_Processor-with-gentoo-2.
> 7 [debug] exe versions: ffmpeg 4.3.1, ffprobe 4.3.1
> [debug] Proxy map: {}
> ERROR: 'ytdl-format=bestvideo[height<=?1280]+bestaudio/best' is not a
> valid URL. Set --default-search "ytsearch" (or run  youtube-dl
> "ytsearch:ytdl-format=bestvideo[height<=?1280]+bestaudio/best" ) to
> search YouTube
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>   File "/usr/lib/python3.7/site-packages/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line
> 797, in extract_info
>     ie_result = ie.extract(url)
>   File
> "/usr/lib/python3.7/site-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line
> 530, in extract
>     ie_result = self._real_extract(url)
>   File
> "/usr/lib/python3.7/site-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/generic.py", line
> 2277, in _real_extract
>     % (url, url), expected=True)
> youtube_dl.utils.ExtractorError:
> 'ytdl-format=bestvideo[height<=?1280]+bestaudio/best' is not a valid
> URL. Set --default-search "ytsearch" (or run  youtube-dl
> "ytsearch:ytdl-format=bestvideo[height<=?1280]+bestaudio/best" ) to
> search YouTube
> 
> [youtube] C0DPdy98e4c: Downloading webpage
> [debug] Default format spec: bestvideo+bestaudio/best
> WARNING: Requested formats are incompatible for merge and will be merged
> into mkv.
> [debug] Invoking downloader on
> 'https://r2---sn-5uaeznd7.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?expire=1603948129&ei
> =AfqZX8i_DJPqigTpkoDYAw&ip=74.188.248.51&id=o-AH8t98t1pWRhfF0y-tZC-qs49qI_zv
> ZaKyBkU50HBe2G&itag=244&aitags=133%2C134%2C135%2C160%2C242%2C243%2C244%2C278
> %2C394%2C395%2C396%2C397&source=youtube&requiressl=yes&mh=m8&mm=31%2C26&mn=s
> n-5uaeznd7%2Csn-q4flrn7s&ms=au%2Conr&mv=m&mvi=2&pl=20&initcwndbps=1165000&vp
> rv=1&mime=video%2Fwebm&gir=yes&clen=294311&dur=16.560&lmt=1449553649983144&m
> t=1603926401&fvip=2&keepalive=yes&c=WEB&sparams=expire%2Cei%2Cip%2Cid%2Caita
> gs%2Csource%2Crequiressl%2Cvprv%2Cmime%2Cgir%2Cclen%2Cdur%2Clmt&sig=AOq0QJ8w
> RQIhAKZU6AYMDnJ3MkiGZrpNIARGZ1wcxQIuhv8RefWrUPJEAiBIWn9PA40XVnnUclzEp_nV18Ah
> 1PswHBQjNzNtA0Negg%3D%3D&lsparams=mh%2Cmm%2Cmn%2Cms%2Cmv%2Cmvi%2Cpl%2Cinitcw
> ndbps&lsig=AG3C_xAwRgIhAKvXqCZKwVUndAMo_5bv6VxIvB7fMndYKg1QSCR0Tqu2AiEAp32rZ
> ZE_hPo5cb1uRjg4PozYqTvXkkjWIaPEj7A9aog%3D&ratebypass=yes' [download]
> Destination: TEST VIDEO-C0DPdy98e4c.f244.webm
> [download] 100% of 287.41KiB in 00:02
> [debug] Invoking downloader on
> 'https://r2---sn-5uaeznd7.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?expire=1603948129&ei
> =AfqZX8i_DJPqigTpkoDYAw&ip=74.188.248.51&id=o-AH8t98t1pWRhfF0y-tZC-qs49qI_zv
> ZaKyBkU50HBe2G&itag=140&source=youtube&requiressl=yes&mh=m8&mm=31%2C26&mn=sn
> -5uaeznd7%2Csn-q4flrn7s&ms=au%2Conr&mv=m&mvi=2&pl=20&initcwndbps=1165000&vpr
> v=1&mime=audio%2Fmp4&gir=yes&clen=280597&dur=17.600&lmt=1509088061399864&mt=
> 1603926401&fvip=2&keepalive=yes&c=WEB&sparams=expire%2Cei%2Cip%2Cid%2Citag%2
> Csource%2Crequiressl%2Cvprv%2Cmime%2Cgir%2Cclen%2Cdur%2Clmt&sig=AOq0QJ8wRQIg
> Zi7NlmQITSpxyahnu-mmF0TTQU4tTrjKNeNypYfUZS0CIQC25F6S6QoiRZ8g7HJf5HI1Ch6GBVpT
> S8QogQBmpR4xWA%3D%3D&lsparams=mh%2Cmm%2Cmn%2Cms%2Cmv%2Cmvi%2Cpl%2Cinitcwndbp
> s&lsig=AG3C_xAwRgIhAKvXqCZKwVUndAMo_5bv6VxIvB7fMndYKg1QSCR0Tqu2AiEAp32rZZE_h
> Po5cb1uRjg4PozYqTvXkkjWIaPEj7A9aog%3D&ratebypass=yes' [download]
> Destination: TEST VIDEO-C0DPdy98e4c.f140.m4a
> [download] 100% of 274.02KiB in 00:02
> [ffmpeg] Merging formats into "TEST VIDEO-C0DPdy98e4c.mkv"
> [debug] ffmpeg command line: ffmpeg -y -loglevel repeat+info -i
> 'file:TEST VIDEO-C0DPdy98e4c.f244.webm' -i 'file:TEST
> VIDEO-C0DPdy98e4c.f140.m4a' -c copy -map 0:v:0 -map 1:a:0 'file:TEST
> VIDEO-C0DPdy98e4c.temp.mkv'
> Deleting original file TEST VIDEO-C0DPdy98e4c.f244.webm (pass -k to keep)
> Deleting original file TEST VIDEO-C0DPdy98e4c.f140.m4a (pass -k to keep)
> dale@fireball ~/Desktop $
> 
> 
> So you don't have to look back to old message, conf file again.
> 
> 
> --format 'bestvideo[ext=webm,ext=mp4][width<=?1280]+bestaudio/best'
> 
> 
> Question.  I have other lines in there that I commented out using the
> usual #.  Is that correct or does it use some other character for
> comments?  Maybe is is seeing those lines as active when I don't want
> them to be??  Other than that, I see the options in the user config line
> above.  It's seeing it at least. 
> 
> Thoughts? 
> 
> Dale
> 
> :-)  :-) 

Commented lines are not taken into account.

The format you specify above is correct.

The problem seems to be with the youtube-dl version you are using.  I get no 
such problems with youtube-dl version 2020.09.20.