metadata.md

Stream metadata

The yle-dl --showmetadata option prints title, available bitrates and other metadata about a stream. The output is a JSON list consisting of a metadata object for each stream that was detected on the input page.

Example output:

[
  {
    "flavors": [
      {
        "media_type": "video",
        "bitrate": 464,
        "width": 640,
        "height": 360,
        "backends": [
          "ffmpeg",
          "wget"
        ]
      }
    ],
    "publish_timestamp": "2017-09-13T19:52:03+03:00",
    "duration_seconds": 356,
    "title": "Eurooppalainen keksint\u00f6palkinto 2016: S01E10-2017-09-13T19:52:03+03:00",
    "filename": "/video/Eurooppalainen keksint\u00f6palkinto 2016: S01E10-2017-09-13T19:52:03+03:00.mp4",
    "webpage": "https://areena.yle.fi/1-3813200",
    "region": "Finland",
    "expiration_timestamp": "2017-10-14T23:59:59+03:00",
    "subtitles": [
      {
        "language": "fin",
        "url": "https://...",
        "category": "käännöstekstitys"
      }
    ]
  }
]

The following fields may be present in the metadata. Any of the fields may be missing if it can't be extracted or if it doesn't apply to the stream.

• webpage: The address of the webpage where the stream can be viewed.
• title: The title of the stream.
• filename: The proposed name of the output file when it is not overridden by the -o option
• flavors: A list of available bitrates and resolutions. Each flavor is described by the following keys:
  • bitrate: The bitrate (kilobits per second) of the flavor.
  • width: The horizontal resoluation in pixels.
  • height: The vertical resolution in pixels.
  • media_type: Either "video" or "audio".
  • backends: A list of downloader backends which can download this stream (--backend option)
• subtitles: Subtitles of the stream
  • url: Download location of the subtitle. Usually the subtitles are also embedded in the stream, so downloading this file is not necessary. Yle-dl doesn't download this file, just the embedded subtitles.
  • language: Three-letter language code
  • category: "käännöstekstitys" or "ohjelmatekstitys"
• duration_seconds: The length of the stream in seconds.
• region: Is the stream available outside Finland? If "World", then yes. If "Finland", the stream can be accessed only in Finland.
• publish_timestamp: The instant when the stream was published in the web. May be in the future, if the stream is not yet available.
• expiration_timestamp: The instant when the stream will expire. May be in the past, if the stream has already expired.