How to download YouTube videos in VR180 format?

[chenguolin]

Great work! However, how can we download YouTube videos in VR180 format using tools such as yt-dlp? It seems that only perspective videos are available for downloading. :(

[KevinMathewT]

Hi,

I figured that you'll need to use yt-dlp version 2024.11.18. The latest released version as of today somehow does not support VR180 downloads:

pip install yt-dlp==2024.11.18

To confirm you are downloading the correct format, you can run:

yt-dlp -F <VIDEO_ID>

and you need format ID = 313:

313 webm 3840x2160 30 │ 3.00GiB 17723k https │ vp09.00.50.08 17723k video only 2160s, mesh, webm_dash

And to download vr180 format:

yt-dlp -f bestvideo+bestaudio --merge-output-format mp4 <VIDEO_ID> -o <VIDEO_ID>.mp4

Make sure you're downloading at least a 1440p-resolution video, as I find that lower resolutions like 1080p might not work correctly with the provided npz annotations.

Thanks,
Kevin

[chenguolin]

That's great! Thank you very much @KevinMathewT. I'll try it out later 😀

[chenguolin]

It does not work for me.

I found that the latest available version of yt-dlp that can return video info with mesh (by yt-dlp -F <VIDEO_ID>; it means VR180 format) is yt-dlp==2025.01.12. That is because in the version 2025.01.15 the default client changed from web_creator to web (see this PR).

We can manually set the client to web_creator by yt-dlp -f 136 CMwZrkhQ0ck -o CMwZrkhQ0ck.mp4 --cookies <MY_COOKIE_FILE>.txt --extractor-args "youtube:player-client=web_creator". However, I met 403 Forbidden error on my server after downloading an intermedia file.

Then I found it was caused by the PO Token problem, because of GVS: Google Video Server requests for VR180 format.

[KevinMathewT]

Hey, when you say "It does not work for me", have you tried yt-dlp version 2024.11.18 with the exactly same command that I mentioned? (no extra flags like --extractor-args --cookies).

Btw I think this type of question is better discussed in yt-dlp repo such as this issue instead of here.

[chenguolin]

On my personal Macbook, the mentioned version and commands indeed worked 🎉. It seems that yt-dlp could get the cookies and PO tokens automatically, so there is no need for explicit arguments.

However, when conducting the same commands on a headless server, cookies are strictly required for yt-dlp (ERROR: [youtube] CMwZrkhQ0ck: Sign in to confirm you’re not a bot. Use --cookies-from-browser or --cookies ...) and PO tokens are also strictly required unless will get 403 error.

Thank you for providing a good point about figuring out the essential problem. I understand it's better to discuss this problem in the yt-dlp repo. Just provide some information here for others to reference, which could be helpful in case.

[KevinMathewT]

Hey, this looks like a different issue - it is possible that your IP is blocked/restricted (generally happens on a public server.) - do try it on your local machine (worked for me) / use a private cloud server / wait for a few days.

[lzzyzlbb]

ID = 313 is just the mono videos instead of stereo.How do you solve this?

[lzzyzlbb]

That's great! Thank you very much @KevinMathewT. I'll try it out later 😀

Have you try it? Can you download the stereo videos?

[KevinMathewT]

Hi,

Update: I created an issue on the yt-dlp github.

It seems like you can use the latest version of yt-dlp as well.

You can use this to list the formats:

yt-dlp --extractor-arg 'youtube:player_client=ios;formats=missing_pot' -F <VIDEO_ID>

I've seen that in most cases the ID you're looking for is 313 or 315:

313 webm 3840x2160 30 │ 3.00GiB 17723k https │ vp09.00.50.08 17723k video only 2160s, mesh, webm_dash
315 webm 3840x2160 60 │ 996.21MiB 22910k https │ vp09.00.51.08 22910k video only 2160s60, mesh, MISSING POT, webm_dash

And the command to download is:

yt-dlp --extractor-arg 'youtube:player_client=ios;formats=missing_pot' -f '313/315+bestaudio' --merge-output-format mp4 <VIDEO_ID> -o <VIDEO_ID>.mp4

Also, it seems like bestvideo+bestaudio doesn't work out and downloads a lower resolution.

Thanks,
Kevin

[lzzyzlbb]

Hi,

Update: I created an issue on the yt-dlp github.

It seems like you can use the latest version of yt-dlp as well.

You can use this to list the formats:

yt-dlp --extractor-arg 'youtube:player_client=ios;formats=missing_pot' -F <VIDEO_ID>

I've seen that in most cases the ID you're looking for is 313 or 315:

313 webm 3840x2160 30 │ 3.00GiB 17723k https │ vp09.00.50.08 17723k video only 2160s, mesh, webm_dash 315 webm 3840x2160 60 │ 996.21MiB 22910k https │ vp09.00.51.08 22910k video only 2160s60, mesh, MISSING POT, webm_dash

And the command to download is:

yt-dlp --extractor-arg 'youtube:player_client=ios;formats=missing_pot' -f '313/315+bestaudio' --merge-output-format mp4 <VIDEO_ID>

Also, it seems like bestvideo+bestaudio doesn't work out and downloads a lower resolution.

Thanks, Kevin

If I use the "youtube:player_client=web", I can download the '313' videos but it is mono videos. If I use the 'youtube:player_client=ios', there is only images format. Is it the " IP is blocked"?