Hey everyone, hope you're doing awesome. Let's talk about something that's a pet peeve for a lot of us: downloading a video you're excited to watch, only to find it looks like it was filmed with a potato. You know what I'm talking about – pixelated, blurry, just… sad. If you're using , the super-powerful command-line tool for downloading videos from YouTube & a ton of other sites, you're already ahead of the game. But even with , getting the absolute best quality isn't always as simple as just pasting a URL.

Honestly, it can be a bit of a maze with all the different formats, codecs, & resolutions. But here's the thing: it's TOTALLY worth figuring out. Once you know the right commands, you can snag crystal-clear 4K videos, with amazing audio to match. & the best part? You don't have to be a coding genius to do it.

In this guide, I'm going to break down everything you need to know about downloading high-quality video with . We'll go from the basics to some pretty advanced tricks. & for those moments when you're staring at the command line thinking, "What the heck do I type now?", I'll show you how a little help from an AI assistant can make the whole process a BREEZE.

You'd think just telling to download the "best" quality would be enough, right? & a lot of the time, it does a pretty good job. The default setting usually tries to grab the highest resolution video & the best audio, then merge them together. But here's where it gets a little tricky. "Best" can mean different things. often prioritizes newer, more efficient codecs like VP9 or AV1 over older ones like H.264, even if the H.264 file has a higher bitrate. Why? Because the newer codecs can deliver the same or even better visual quality at a smaller file size. Pretty cool, right?

But what if you need a specific format for your video editing software? Or what if you want to make sure you're getting a 60fps video for that silky-smooth playback? That's when you need to take the reins & tell EXACTLY what you want.

Before we dive into the commands, there's one CRUCIAL tool you need to have in your arsenal: FFmpeg. Seriously, if you want to download high-quality video from YouTube, you NEED FFmpeg. Here's why: for anything above 720p, YouTube serves the video & audio as separate files. can download both of these files, but it needs FFmpeg to merge them into a single, high-quality video file. Without FFmpeg, you'll be stuck with 720p at best, which is fine, but not the glorious 4K we're after.

So, before you do anything else, make sure you have FFmpeg installed on your system. A quick Google search for "install FFmpeg on [your operating system]" will get you sorted.

Alright, let's get to the fun part. Here are the essential commands for downloading high-quality video with .

This is ALWAYS your first step. Before you can tell what to download, you need to see what's available. To do that, use the flag: