"-f ba*" doesn't select best audio

Checklist

• I’m reporting a bug unrelated to a specific site
• I’ve verified that I’m running yt-dlp version 2022.03.08.1. (update instructions)
• I’ve checked that all provided URLs are alive and playable in a browser
• I’ve checked that all URLs and arguments with special characters are properly quoted or escaped
• I’ve searched the bugtracker for similar issues including closed ones. DO NOT post duplicates
• I’ve read the guidelines for opening an issue

Description

-f ba* doesn’t select best audio that may contain video but best video that contains audio because the sorting field hasvid has the highest priority unless you also use --format-sort-force and something like -S acodec or -S abr.

Examples:

1. yt-dlp.exe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iik25wqIuFo downloads format ID 248+251 (best video and best audio, correct)
2. yt-dlp.exe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iik25wqIuFo -f ba* downloads format ID 22 (best video+audio, wrong)
3. yt-dlp.exe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iik25wqIuFo -f ba* -S acodec --format-sort-force downloads format ID 251 (best audio, correct)

Using only -f ba works in this case, but what if there is a video format with better audio than an audio-only format?

Suggestion: If I want the best audio format, yt-dlp should change the default sorting order to favour better audio formats, independently of video.

I’m not sure if this only relates to Youtube, but I don’t know which other site I could test this on.

Verbose log

[debug] Command-line config: ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iik25wqIuFo', '-f', 'ba*', '-vU']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1252, fs utf-8, out utf-8, err utf-8, pref cp1252
[debug] yt-dlp version 2022.03.08.1 [c0c2c57] (win_exe)
[debug] Python version 3.8.10 (CPython 64bit) - Windows-10-10.0.22000-SP0
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg N-105919-g546afd0d49-20220313 (setts), ffprobe N-105919-g546afd0d49-20220313
[debug] Optional libraries: brotli, Cryptodome, mutagen, sqlite, websockets
[debug] Proxy map: {}
Latest version: 2022.03.08.1, Current version: 2022.03.08.1
yt-dlp is up to date (2022.03.08.1)
[debug] [youtube] Extracting URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iik25wqIuFo
[youtube] iik25wqIuFo: Downloading webpage
[youtube] iik25wqIuFo: Downloading android player API JSON
[debug] Sort order given by extractor: quality, res, fps, hdr:12, source, codec:vp9.2, lang, proto
[debug] Formats sorted by: hasvid, ie_pref, quality, res, fps, hdr:12(7), source, vcodec:vp9.2(10), acodec, lang, proto, filesize, fs_approx, tbr, vbr, abr, asr, vext, aext, hasaud, id
[info] iik25wqIuFo: Downloading 1 format(s): 22
[debug] Invoking downloader on "https://rr2---sn-5jvoxu-8pxe.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?expire=1647465486&ei=rv8xYqn2FIPp1gKn_bKIBw&ip=XXX&id=o-ANn_lYxWdx7i5pfnmNMZqe5J7h8SKKB6nvesCom0H-hF&itag=22&source=youtube&requiressl=yes&mh=lR&mm=31%2C29&mn=sn-5jvoxu-8pxe%2Csn-2gb7sn7k&ms=au%2Crdu&mv=m&mvi=2&pl=19&initcwndbps=1132500&vprv=1&mime=video%2Fmp4&ratebypass=yes&dur=7.244&lmt=1641462248093086&mt=1647443362&fvip=2&fexp=24001373%2C24007246&c=ANDROID&txp=5311224&sparams=expire%2Cei%2Cip%2Cid%2Citag%2Csource%2Crequiressl%2Cvprv%2Cmime%2Cratebypass%2Cdur%2Clmt&sig=AOq0QJ8wRAIgaU9VctCnxz21Qm69vsY5sd4qh8oiyjcTftOwZfVFwlICIFetHaFH5xrnMMBNlddLpdF2BLdTEFEXIsAL-R7WjCVW&lsparams=mh%2Cmm%2Cmn%2Cms%2Cmv%2Cmvi%2Cpl%2Cinitcwndbps&lsig=AG3C_xAwRQIhAKyTai83UGb7ZTTxZcghC_fpWxLdCWDJDsv1mZBfnB9xAiBQmOxnu9TMhfVl5CuCeSRW0rtWZzno8PDYLDTq4SdjcQ%3D%3D"
[download] Destination: Rick roll, but with different link [iik25wqIuFo].mp4
[download] 100% of 1.09MiB in 00:00

[gorbiWTF]

Well, that’s too bad.

Example 1: I just want to download a video. yt-dlp chooses the best audio-only format, the best video-only format and combines them. Example 2: I want to download the best audio (which may also contain video). But yt-dlp chooses the best video-with-audio-format. Example 3: I want to download the best audio-only format. yt-dlp chooses the best audio-only format.

I don’t get it why there is a difference between example 1 and 2. To me it seems like -f b and -f ba* yield exactly the same result.

I guess I just have to use the “longer” way. Thanks for the answer!

[gorbiWTF]

Thanks, but -x doesn’t change the downloaded format, unfortunately.

Do -x --audio-format "mp3" for that where you can replace “mp3”.

It’s not about the file I get after the download, but what format ID gets chosen by yt-dlp.