youtube-dl: Does not support URLs used in embedded videos

deekerman commented

2026-02-20 20:59:28 -05:00

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Originally created by @rg3 on GitHub (Nov 1, 2010).

Was: http://bitbucket.org/rg3/youtube-dl/issue/69/

Hi, Ricardo.

I am maintaining a Debian package of youtube-dl (and, as a consequence, also a package on Ubuntu, indirectly) and one user has made an enhancement request on Debian's bug

http://bugs.debian.org/495164

It seems that just a little parsing of the command line options would be sufficient, wouldn't it?

If you could give any feedback here, that would certainly be appreciated.

(I see that you already updated youtube-dl with the format for 1080p videos, for which I made a patch on the package).

Regards, Rogério Brito.

Originally created by @rg3 on GitHub (Nov 1, 2010). Was: http://bitbucket.org/rg3/youtube-dl/issue/69/ Hi, Ricardo. I am maintaining a Debian package of youtube-dl (and, as a consequence, also a package on Ubuntu, indirectly) and one user has made an enhancement request on Debian's bug http://bugs.debian.org/495164 It seems that just a little parsing of the command line options would be sufficient, wouldn't it? If you could give any feedback here, that would certainly be appreciated. (I see that you already updated youtube-dl with the format for 1080p videos, for which I made a patch on the package). Regards, Rogério Brito.

deekerman

2026-02-20 20:59:28 -05:00

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deekerman commented

2026-02-20 20:59:31 -05:00

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@rg3 commented on GitHub (Nov 1, 2010):

I guess modifying the URL would be enough, but I need more information. Usually, embedded videos let you copy the URL easily to a format youtube-dl knows. If you don't have flash in your browser and need to peek at the page source or someting else to find out the URL of the object, you can copy the video identifier as easily.

So this will be a "wontfix" until more info is available and it's proved that it's much easier to copy that URL than anything else.

By the way, if new info is available be sure to post it in this issue thread. I will not be monitoring the debian bug page.

@rg3 commented on GitHub (Nov 1, 2010): I guess modifying the URL would be enough, but I need more information. Usually, embedded videos let you copy the URL easily to a format youtube-dl knows. If you don't have flash in your browser and need to peek at the page source or someting else to find out the URL of the object, you can copy the video identifier as easily. So this will be a "wontfix" until more info is available and it's proved that it's much easier to copy that URL than anything else. By the way, if new info is available be sure to post it in this issue thread. I will not be monitoring the debian bug page.

deekerman commented

2026-02-20 20:59:32 -05:00

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@rg3 commented on GitHub (Nov 1, 2010):

Originally by anonymous:

Copying the whole URI just requires right-clicking on the URI in the source and choosing "copy"; attempting to copy part of the URI proves difficult without clicking on it in the view source window. (Also, ideally having support for this URI format would allow youtube-dl to detect it by just giving the URI of the page embedding the video, but I can live with having to use view source.)

And to answer the original question, I use youtube-dl specifically because I don't have flash.

(And, also, if you use adblock plus, you can just right-click on the "block" tab and choose "copy link location".)

That said, apparently youtube-dl does now support URLs used for embedded videos, so this bug seems fixed. Thanks! :)

@rg3 commented on GitHub (Nov 1, 2010): Originally by anonymous: Copying the whole URI just requires right-clicking on the URI in the source and choosing "copy"; attempting to copy part of the URI proves difficult without clicking on it in the view source window. (Also, ideally having support for this URI format would allow youtube-dl to detect it by just giving the URI of the page embedding the video, but I can live with having to use view source.) And to answer the original question, I use youtube-dl specifically because I don't have flash. (And, also, if you use adblock plus, you can just right-click on the "block" tab and choose "copy link location".) That said, apparently youtube-dl _does_ now support URLs used for embedded videos, so this bug seems fixed. Thanks! :)

deekerman commented

2026-02-20 20:59:32 -05:00

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@rg3 commented on GitHub (Nov 1, 2010):

Originally by "andreambu":

I've just tried youtube-dl with the video reported on bugs.debian and it's not working for me. Anyway if all embedded videos look like that changing a regex should be enough to support that kind of url.

You can find a patch as attachment.

@rg3 commented on GitHub (Nov 1, 2010): Originally by "andreambu": I've just tried youtube-dl with the video reported on bugs.debian and it's not working for me. Anyway if all embedded videos look like that changing a regex should be enough to support that kind of url. You can find a patch as attachment.

deekerman commented

2026-02-20 20:59:32 -05:00

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@rg3 commented on GitHub (Nov 1, 2010):

Thanks for the patch. I'll handle the issue states. It's not resolved until it's in my repository. I won't change the regex until I have a use case for that type of URL.

Edit: clarification: when I'm browsing the web and there's a YouTube video embedded in a webpage, I get a temporary Flashblock placeholder (I use Flashblock with Firefox). When I right-click on it, I can choose "Copy flash location" and the URL copied to the clipboard has the form "http://www.youtube.com/v/VIDEO_ID", so I'm not sure where the original user in the Debian bug report got the other type of URL. In my case, the webpage source looks like this:

<embed
    width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
    src="http://www.youtube.com/v/VIDEO_ID "></embed>

@rg3 commented on GitHub (Nov 1, 2010): Thanks for the patch. I'll handle the issue states. It's not resolved until it's in my repository. I won't change the regex until I have a use case for that type of URL. Edit: clarification: when I'm browsing the web and there's a YouTube video embedded in a webpage, I get a temporary Flashblock placeholder (I use Flashblock with Firefox). When I right-click on it, I can choose "Copy flash location" and the URL copied to the clipboard has the form "http://www.youtube.com/v/VIDEO_ID", so I'm not sure where the original user in the Debian bug report got the other type of URL. In my case, the webpage source looks like this: <pre> <embed width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/VIDEO_ID "></embed> </pre>

deekerman commented

2026-02-20 20:59:33 -05:00

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@rg3 commented on GitHub (Dec 30, 2010):

I'm closing this issue due to lack of information and proper explanation of the use case, and for the reasons described in the post above.

@rg3 commented on GitHub (Dec 30, 2010): I'm closing this issue due to lack of information and proper explanation of the use case, and for the reasons described in the post above.

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youtube-dl: Does not support URLs used in embedded videos #7