The VideoLAN Forums

Hi,
I am having the opposite problem many other users are having it seems. I am trying to save a video with audio from Youtube. I have been able to successfully record the video from the website. However, when I play it back in VLC, there is no audio associated with that file. Maybe I need to be approaching the recording process differently.

Here's what I do:
Open network stream..., (paste web address), click Play, then at the bottom I click the red Record circle as it starts playing to record it.

I have also tried converting it after it has been recorded. I even made a custom profile of .avi/MPEG4/MP3 so I could try to play it on different players/computers.

*Also, side note: When I playback my audio-less file, the web address displays at the bottom of the frame in the beginning, how do I keep this from happening?

I really appreciate any suggestions. Thanks so much.

What does tool called Mediainfo say about that recorded file?

Media Info reveals little on this file.

The statistics tab states Audio: Decoded 0 blocks, Played 0 buffers, Lost 0 buffers. It then provides stats on Video, Input/Read, Output/Written/Sent. The codec details tab indicates Stream 0, Type: Video, Codec: Google/On2's VP8 Video (VP80), resolution and frame rate. There is nothing more than the name of the file under Extra Metadata and General tabs.

I meant http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/

Here is the text view of the MediaInfo on the file:

General
CompleteName : C:\Users\A\Videos\vlc-record-2011-11-24-20h34m43s-Peanut Festival mechanical bull ride-.avi
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
FileSize/String : 25.9 MiB
Duration/String : 4mn 58s
OverallBitRate/String : 725 Kbps

Video
ID/String : 0
Format : VP8
CodecID : VP80
Duration/String : 4mn 58s
BitRate/String : 719 Kbps
Width/String : 568 pixels
Height/String : 320 pixels
DisplayAspectRatio/String : 16:9
FrameRate/String : 31.939 fps
ColorSpace : YUV
ChromaSubsampling : 4:2:0
Compression_Mode/String : Lossy
Bits-(Pixel*Frame) : 0.124
StreamSize/String : 25.6 MiB (99%)

There weren't any details on the audio; maybe it was never recorded as part of the file. Would there be something I need to enable in VLC in order for it to capture audio as well?

You (or VLC) recorded (or in this case transcoded/remuxed) the video incorrectly. Putting VP8 inside AVI isn't a good choice.

If you just pressed red recording button, and that is what VLC did, then it is a bug.

Right. I put the address in and pressed record. This is the result before I tried to do any converting. I recorded it again just now to see what I get, the MediaInfo is below and appears to be the same result:

General
Complete name : C:\Users\Anna\Videos\vlc-record-2011-11-30-19h43m59s-Peanut Festival mechanical bull ride-.avi
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 25.9 MiB
Duration : 4mn 59s
Overall bit rate : 726 Kbps

Video
ID : 0
Format : VP8
Codec ID : VP80
Duration : 4mn 59s
Bit rate : 719 Kbps
Width : 568 pixels
Height : 320 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 31.942 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.124
Stream size : 25.6 MiB (99%)


Is there something that I can adjust or set so that I can work around this problem?

Not with recording button, but demux-dump
http://wiki.videolan.org/Demuxdump
or sout with different muxer might work.

Sorry, I'm going to need some serious hand-holding on this one. I read the Demuxdump article. This lead to further reading on multiplexing on other outside webpages. I also saw the source code link. If it is as easy as saving demuxdump.c to C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC, then I think I can handle it. Once I get this file in place, how does this change the process by which I will open and save my audio/video file?

Hi Granger
When VLC plays YouTube links it chooses the Webm format.
But it can't save that format properly.
So force it to use mp4 format instead.

Add "&fmt=18" to the URL.
Instead of this link:- You use this link:- Then it will save the mp4 file - with audio.

Hi bat999,
I added the &fmt=18 and tried to record it that way. It saved the audio only. Is there a way to get both audio and video in the same file? I used the same process as described in my earlier posts of just putting in the address (with &fmt=18) and pressing record when it played.

General
Complete name : C:\Users\A\Videos\vlc-record-2011-12-05-17h54m40s-Peanut Festival mechanical bull ride-.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom
File size : 2.70 MiB
Duration : 5mn 0s
Overall bit rate : 75.2 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2011-12-05 23:59:41
Tagged date : UTC 2011-12-05 23:59:41
Writing application : vlc 1.1.11 stream output
Comment : QuickTime 6.0 or greater

Audio
ID : 1
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 5mn 0s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 72.0 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 104 Kbps
Channel(s) : 1 channel
Channel positions : Front: C
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 2.58 MiB (96%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2011-12-05 23:59:41
Tagged date : UTC 2011-12-05 23:59:41
mdhd_Duration : 300791

Hi Granger
Previously I downloaded the mp4 file without problems using VLC-1.3.0 with Linux.

I've tried it again using Windows XP this time.
The result is like yours, audio but no video!
So it looks like VLC-1.1.11 with Windows has a problem downloading "&fmt=18" mp4 files.

But it works ok using "&fmt=34".
Both video and audio!
This is the "&fmt=34" result using VLC-1.1.11 with Windows XP.

**************
PS.
The difference between fmt18 and fmt34 is...
fmt18 uses h264 video with "baseline" profile.
fmt34 uses h264 video with "main" profile.
So the fmt34 download might not play nice in some iPods.

Major props to bat999!

Thanks so much!

There is one little thing though. The background noise doesn't quite match up with what's happening in the video when I play back my file. Looking at the MediaInfo, it also says that the audio is 2 seconds longer than the video. The duration of the audio and video are just 1-2 seconds off in three attempts. Any idea on how to refine this?

General
Complete name : C:\Users\A\Videos\Peanut Festival mechanical bull ride.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom
File size : 24.5 MiB
Duration : 5mn 0s
Overall bit rate : 683 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2011-12-06 01:48:43
Tagged date : UTC 2011-12-06 01:48:43
Writing application : vlc 1.1.11 stream output
Comment : QuickTime 6.0 or greater

Video
ID : 2
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Main@L3.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 3 frames
Format settings, GOP : M=1, N=30
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 4mn 58s
Bit rate : 599 Kbps
Width : 576 pixels
Original width : 568 pixels
Height : 320 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Original display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Variable
Frame rate : 30.000 fps
Minimum frame rate : 29.441 fps
Maximum frame rate : 30.333 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.108
Stream size : 21.3 MiB (87%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2011-12-06 01:48:43
Tagged date : UTC 2011-12-06 01:48:43
Material_Duration : 298766
Material_StreamSize : 22385224
Material_FrameCount : 8963

Audio
ID : 1
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 5mn 0s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 76.0 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 105 Kbps
Channel(s) : 1 channel
Channel positions : Front: C
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 2.72 MiB (11%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2011-12-06 01:48:43
Tagged date : UTC 2011-12-06 01:48:43

Any idea on how to refine this?

Hi
Both of my results above show differences between duration of audio and video too.
Maybe VLC is great for viewing YouTube, but not suitable for downloading it.
There are other dedicated YouTube downloader programs.

Well, I suppose VLC does pretty well for being provided free/by donation.

Thanks again!