James Truitt (he/him)2d ago
alexwlchan

Ignore AI upscaled YouTube videos with yt-dlp: https://alexwlchan.net/til/2025/ignore-ai-scaled-videos/?ref=mastodon

YouTube have started upscaling videos using AI. If you don’t want to download those versions, you can skip them by passing a --format option to yt-dlp.

Ignore AI upscaled YouTube videos with yt-dlp

Filter for formats that don't include `-sr` ("super resolution") in their format ID.

Dec 24 at 6:15pmWeb
Show threadMisty2d ago
@alex This is helpful, thanks!
Show threadSeth Larson2d ago
@alex Oh wow, I love yt-dlp so I'll be using this in the future. Thanks!
Show threadalexwlchan2d ago

@sethmlarson I recently created my own wrapper around it, an idea you may want to copy if you don’t have one already: https://alexwlchan.net/2025/yt-dlp-wrapper/

Which already has the “don’t get AI upscaled videos” option baked in 💪

Creating a personal wrapper around yt-dlp

I've written a new script which calls yt-dlp with my preferred options, so I don't have to copy my configuration across different projects.