On 21/09/2020 23:23, Dave Lambley wrote: > Hi Budge, > >> On 09/21/2020 11:56 PM budge <aje...@errichel.co.uk> wrote: >> >> >> Please forgive the OT question but I am seeking advice on sensible >> download format for saving the audio from youtube videos which are >> available to supplement specific items from my early music collection. >> >> My preferred solution is to download the audio using youtube-dl and I >> know I could then encode the file as a flac file but this creates huge >> files, albeit lossless, so my question is, is there any point in doing >> this if the initial audio quality is limited by the youtube video >> recording system bit rate? Also, as a more senior citizen, I believe I >> am unlikely to be able to hear the difference between the flac and other >> options. >> >> I know there are members in this group who have significant knowledge >> and experience in these matters and I am hoping for suggestions for the >> best format for my purposes. > > Are you using the -x / --extract-audio option with youtube-dl? I have not > used it for a while, but last time I did, you got either AAC (in a .m4a) or > an Opus, both perfectly reasonable formats. > > It looks like you can pass an option to request m4a audio, which could help > if you want to play back on an Apple device or an older Android. It should > otherwise default to what it considers the best available. > > https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#format-selection-examples > > Is there a particular reason you wish to re-encode? > > Dave > Hi Dave, Many thanks for your reply. I do not particularly wish to re-encode but what I am doing is extracting the audio and saving it within my music library on NAS which is then served to my LAN and used by various renderers. I have two objectives, not to degrade signal further than that available on Youtube and to save the result in a format that works with my music system.
I have in the past had issues with .m4a but can try again as it has been a while. I am always suspicious of using terms such as "best" because it is not a defined term but a subjective one. If I go to mp3 then my concern is that I may be further compromising the quality. I believe the sound is encoded as AAC in the Youtube. If I am correct then which format sticks most faithfully to AAC and will work with my systems. I shall do a few tests following your reply and see how I get on. Many thanks again, Budge _______________________________________________ get_iplayer mailing list get_iplayer@lists.infradead.org http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer
