Re: Strange change in Icecat.

[Mark H Weaver]

Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> writes:
> Can you find a way to fetch videos from an invidious proxy via tor
> from the command line?

'yt-dlp', a fork of 'youtube-dl', is my current preferred tool for
downloading videos and audio files from popular distribution platforms.
However, although it seems to recognize invidious URLs that I ask it to
download, it seems to actually fetch from youtube instead of using the
invidious proxy.

'yt-dlp' can download via Tor in one of two ways, either by running it
within 'torsocks' or by specifying an option like '--proxy
socks5://127.0.0.1:9050/'.  I haven't checked whether 'yt-dlp' generates
any non-Tor network traffic (e.g. DNS lookups), so in the examples below
I'll use 'torsocks' to be safe:

To begin, I would first run:

  torsocks -i yt-dlp -F <URL>

which will show a list of available formats.  To download, run:

  torsocks -i yt-dlp -f <format> <URL>

For example:

  torsocks -i yt-dlp -F 'https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=6TizS6SPeSI'

yields this output:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
[youtube] 6TizS6SPeSI: Downloading webpage
[youtube] 6TizS6SPeSI: Downloading android player API JSON
[info] Available formats for 6TizS6SPeSI:
ID  EXT  RESOLUTION FPS |  FILESIZE    TBR PROTO | VCODEC          VBR ACODEC   
  ABR  ASR    MORE INFO
--- ---- ---------- --- - ---------- ----- ----- - ------------- ----- 
--------- ---- ------- ---------------------------------
139 m4a  audio only     |  20.56MiB    48k https |                     
mp4a.40.5  48k 22050Hz low, m4a_dash
249 webm audio only     |  21.20MiB    50k https |                     opus     
  50k 48000Hz low, webm_dash
250 webm audio only     |  29.23MiB    69k https |                     opus     
  69k 48000Hz low, webm_dash
140 m4a  audio only     |  54.57MiB   129k https |                     
mp4a.40.2 129k 44100Hz medium, m4a_dash
251 webm audio only     |  53.35MiB   126k https |                     opus     
 126k 48000Hz medium, webm_dash
17  3gp  176x144    8   |  33.96MiB    80k https | mp4v.20.3       80k 
mp4a.40.2   0k 22050Hz 144p
394 mp4  256x144    30  |  24.76MiB    58k https | av01.0.00M.08   58k          
              144p, mp4_dash
160 mp4  256x144    30  |  13.92MiB    33k https | avc1.4d400c     33k          
              144p, mp4_dash
278 webm 256x144    30  |  25.08MiB    59k https | vp9             59k          
              144p, webm_dash
395 mp4  426x240    30  |  35.53MiB    84k https | av01.0.00M.08   84k          
              240p, mp4_dash
133 mp4  426x240    30  |  22.23MiB    52k https | avc1.4d4015     52k          
              240p, mp4_dash
242 webm 426x240    30  |  53.05MiB   125k https | vp9            125k          
              240p, webm_dash
396 mp4  640x360    30  |  68.16MiB   161k https | av01.0.01M.08  161k          
              360p, mp4_dash
134 mp4  640x360    30  |  42.41MiB   100k https | avc1.4d401e    100k          
              360p, mp4_dash
18  mp4  640x360    30  |  155.36MiB  368k https | avc1.42001E    368k 
mp4a.40.2   0k 44100Hz 360p
243 webm 640x360    30  |  100.38MiB  238k https | vp9            238k          
              360p, webm_dash
397 mp4  854x480    30  |  124.10MiB  294k https | av01.0.04M.08  294k          
              480p, mp4_dash
135 mp4  854x480    30  |  67.26MiB   159k https | avc1.4d401f    159k          
              480p, mp4_dash
244 webm 854x480    30  |  118.82MiB  281k https | vp9            281k          
              480p, webm_dash
22  mp4  1280x720   30  |             743k https | avc1.64001F    743k 
mp4a.40.2   0k 44100Hz 720p
136 mp4  1280x720   30  |  259.14MiB  614k https | avc1.4d401f    614k          
              720p (maybe throttled), mp4_dash
247 webm 1280x720   30  |  284.87MiB  675k https | vp9            675k          
              720p (maybe throttled), webm_dash
398 mp4  1280x720   60  |  388.69MiB  922k https | av01.0.08M.08  922k          
              720p60, mp4_dash
298 mp4  1280x720   60  |  132.54MiB  314k https | avc1.4d4020    314k          
              720p60, mp4_dash
302 webm 1280x720   60  |  240.51MiB  570k https | vp9            570k          
              720p60, webm_dash
399 mp4  1920x1080  60  |  801.60MiB 1902k https | av01.0.09M.08 1902k          
              1080p60, mp4_dash
299 mp4  1920x1080  60  |  527.03MiB 1250k https | avc1.64002a   1250k          
              1080p60, mp4_dash
303 webm 1920x1080  60  |  900.87MiB 2137k https | vp9           2137k          
              1080p60, webm_dash
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

If you look at the VCODEC and ACODEC columns, you'll see that for this
particular site, most of the available formats are either video-only or
audio-only.  You can ask 'yt-dlp' to download both and combine them into
one file using 'ffmpeg' by passing a format specifier like '243+251'.
For many other sites, only one format specifier is needed.

To download, run a command like this:

  torsocks -i yt-dlp -f 243+251 
'https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=6TizS6SPeSI'

You'll eventually learn which format specifiers are available on each
site, and then you can skip the first step (asking for the format list).

Note that 'yt-dlp' also supports more generic ways to specify which
formats you prefer.  For example, there's a '--prefer-free-formats'
option.  You can read more in the "FORMAT SELECTION" section of the
yt-dlp(1) man page.  I haven't learned much about this mode of usage.

      Mark

-- 
Disinformation flourishes because many people care deeply about injustice
but very few check the facts.  Ask me about <https://stallmansupport.org>.