[youtube] How can I get the actual video URL of a YouTube live stream?

Is there a way to get the HLS URL for YouTube live streams like this one https://www.youtube.com/embed/WVZpCdHq3Qg

I've tried the typical get_video_info methods but they don't seem to work with live streams.

The answer is


This URL return to player actual video_id

https://www.youtube.com/embed/live_stream?channel=UCkA21M22vGK9GtAvq3DvSlA

Where UCkA21M22vGK9GtAvq3DvSlA is your channel id. You can find it inside YouTube account on "My Channel" link.


You need to get the HLS m3u8 playlist files from the video's manifest. There are ways to do this by hand, but for simplicity I'll be using the youtube-dl tool to get this information. I'll be using this live stream as an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gtc-GtLlTk

First, get the formats of the video:

?  ~ youtube-dl --list-formats https://www.youtube.com/watch\?v\=_Gtc-GtLlTk
[youtube] _Gtc-GtLlTk: Downloading webpage
[youtube] _Gtc-GtLlTk: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] Downloading multifeed video (_Gtc-GtLlTk, aflWCT1tYL0) - add --no-playlist to just download video _Gtc-GtLlTk
[download] Downloading playlist: Southwest Florida Eagle Cam
[youtube] playlist Southwest Florida Eagle Cam: Collected 2 video ids (downloading 2 of them)
[download] Downloading video 1 of 2
[youtube] _Gtc-GtLlTk: Downloading webpage
[youtube] _Gtc-GtLlTk: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] _Gtc-GtLlTk: Extracting video information
[youtube] _Gtc-GtLlTk: Downloading formats manifest
[youtube] _Gtc-GtLlTk: Downloading DASH manifest
[info] Available formats for _Gtc-GtLlTk:
format code  extension  resolution note
140          m4a        audio only DASH audio  144k , m4a_dash container, mp4a.40.2@128k (48000Hz)
160          mp4        256x144    DASH video  124k , avc1.42c00b, 30fps, video only
133          mp4        426x240    DASH video  258k , avc1.4d4015, 30fps, video only
134          mp4        640x360    DASH video  646k , avc1.4d401e, 30fps, video only
135          mp4        854x480    DASH video 1171k , avc1.4d401f, 30fps, video only
136          mp4        1280x720   DASH video 2326k , avc1.4d401f, 30fps, video only
137          mp4        1920x1080  DASH video 4347k , avc1.640028, 30fps, video only
151          mp4        72p        HLS , h264, aac  @ 24k
132          mp4        240p       HLS , h264, aac  @ 48k
92           mp4        240p       HLS , h264, aac  @ 48k
93           mp4        360p       HLS , h264, aac  @128k
94           mp4        480p       HLS , h264, aac  @128k
95           mp4        720p       HLS , h264, aac  @256k
96           mp4        1080p      HLS , h264, aac  @256k (best)
[download] Downloading video 2 of 2
[youtube] aflWCT1tYL0: Downloading webpage
[youtube] aflWCT1tYL0: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] aflWCT1tYL0: Extracting video information
[youtube] aflWCT1tYL0: Downloading formats manifest
[youtube] aflWCT1tYL0: Downloading DASH manifest
[info] Available formats for aflWCT1tYL0:
format code  extension  resolution note
140          m4a        audio only DASH audio  144k , m4a_dash container, mp4a.40.2@128k (48000Hz)
160          mp4        256x144    DASH video  124k , avc1.42c00b, 30fps, video only
133          mp4        426x240    DASH video  258k , avc1.4d4015, 30fps, video only
134          mp4        640x360    DASH video  646k , avc1.4d401e, 30fps, video only
135          mp4        854x480    DASH video 1171k , avc1.4d401f, 30fps, video only
136          mp4        1280x720   DASH video 2326k , avc1.4d401f, 30fps, video only
151          mp4        72p        HLS , h264, aac  @ 24k
132          mp4        240p       HLS , h264, aac  @ 48k
92           mp4        240p       HLS , h264, aac  @ 48k
93           mp4        360p       HLS , h264, aac  @128k
94           mp4        480p       HLS , h264, aac  @128k
95           mp4        720p       HLS , h264, aac  @256k (best)
[download] Finished downloading playlist: Southwest Florida Eagle Cam

In this case, there are two videos because the live stream contains two cameras. From here, we need to get the HLS URL for a specific stream. Use -f to pass in the format you would like to watch, and -g to get that stream's URL:

?  ~ youtube-dl -f 95 -g https://www.youtube.com/watch\?v\=_Gtc-GtLlTk
https://manifest.googlevideo.com/api/manifest/hls_playlist/id/_Gtc-GtLlTk.2/itag/95/source/yt_live_broadcast/requiressl/yes/ratebypass/yes/live/1/cmbypass/yes/gir/yes/dg_shard/X0d0Yy1HdExsVGsuMg.95/hls_chunk_host/r1---sn-ab5l6ne6.googlevideo.com/playlist_type/LIVE/gcr/us/pmbypass/yes/mm/32/mn/sn-ab5l6ne6/ms/lv/mv/m/pl/20/dover/3/sver/3/fexp/9408495,9410706,9416126,9418581,9420452,9422596,9422780,9423059,9423661,9423662,9425349,9425959,9426661,9426720,9427325,9428422,9429306/upn/xmL7zNht848/mt/1456412649/ip/64.125.177.124/ipbits/0/expire/1456434315/sparams/ip,ipbits,expire,id,itag,source,requiressl,ratebypass,live,cmbypass,gir,dg_shard,hls_chunk_host,playlist_type,gcr,pmbypass,mm,mn,ms,mv,pl/signature/7E48A727654105FF82E158154FCBA7569D52521B.1FA117183C664F00B7508DDB81274644F520C27F/key/dg_yt0/playlist/index.m3u8
https://manifest.googlevideo.com/api/manifest/hls_playlist/id/aflWCT1tYL0.2/itag/95/source/yt_live_broadcast/requiressl/yes/ratebypass/yes/live/1/cmbypass/yes/gir/yes/dg_shard/YWZsV0NUMXRZTDAuMg.95/hls_chunk_host/r13---sn-ab5l6n7y.googlevideo.com/pmbypass/yes/playlist_type/LIVE/gcr/us/mm/32/mn/sn-ab5l6n7y/ms/lv/mv/m/pl/20/dover/3/sver/3/upn/vdBkD9lrq8Q/fexp/9408495,9410706,9416126,9418581,9420452,9422596,9422780,9423059,9423661,9423662,9425349,9425959,9426661,9426720,9427325,9428422,9429306/mt/1456412649/ip/64.125.177.124/ipbits/0/expire/1456434316/sparams/ip,ipbits,expire,id,itag,source,requiressl,ratebypass,live,cmbypass,gir,dg_shard,hls_chunk_host,pmbypass,playlist_type,gcr,mm,mn,ms,mv,pl/signature/4E83CD2DB23C2331CE349CE9AFE806C8293A01ED.880FD2E253FAC8FA56FAA304C78BD1D62F9D22B4/key/dg_yt0/playlist/index.m3u8

These are your HLS m3u8 playlists, one for each camera associated with the live stream.

Without youtube-dl, your flow might look like this:

Take your video id and make a GET request to the get_video_info endpoint:

HTTP GET: https://www.youtube.com/get_video_info?&video_id=_Gtc-GtLlTk&el=info&ps=default&eurl=&gl=US&hl=en

In the response, the hlsvp value will be the link to the m3u8 HLS playlist:

https://manifest.googlevideo.com/api/manifest/hls_variant/maudio/1/ipbits/0/key/yt6/ip/64.125.177.124/gcr/us/source/yt_live_broadcast/upn/BYS1YGuQtYI/id/_Gtc-GtLlTk.2/fexp/9416126%2C9416984%2C9417367%2C9420452%2C9422596%2C9423039%2C9423661%2C9423662%2C9423923%2C9425346%2C9427672%2C9428946%2C9429162/sparams/gcr%2Cid%2Cip%2Cipbits%2Citag%2Cmaudio%2Cplaylist_type%2Cpmbypass%2Csource%2Cexpire/sver/3/expire/1456449859/pmbypass/yes/playlist_type/LIVE/itag/0/signature/1E6874232CCAC397B601051699A03DC5A32F66D9.1CABCD9BFC87A2A886A29B86CF877077DD1AEEAA/file/index.m3u8

Yes this is possible Since the question is update, this solution can only gives you the embed url not the HLS url, check @JAL answer. with the ressource search.list and the parameters:

* part: id
* channelId: UCURGpU4lj3dat246rysrWsw
* eventType: live
* type: video

Request :

GET https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/search?part=snippet&channelId=UCURGpU4lj3dat246rysrWsw&eventType=live&type=video&key={YOUR_API_KEY}

Result:

 "items": [
  {
   "kind": "youtube#searchResult",
   "etag": "\"DsOZ7qVJA4mxdTxZeNzis6uE6ck/enc3-yCp8APGcoiU_KH-mSKr4Yo\"",
   "id": {
    "kind": "youtube#video",
    "videoId": "WVZpCdHq3Qg"
   }
  },

Then get the videoID value WVZpCdHq3Qg for example and add the value to this url:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/ + videoID
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= + videoID

Examples related to youtube

Youtube - downloading a playlist - youtube-dl YouTube Autoplay not working How to embed new Youtube's live video permanent URL? How do you use youtube-dl to download live streams (that are live)? How can I get the actual video URL of a YouTube live stream? YouTube: How to present embed video with sound muted ffprobe or avprobe not found. Please install one Failed to execute 'postMessage' on 'DOMWindow': https://www.youtube.com !== http://localhost:9000 cast_sender.js error: Failed to load resource: net::ERR_FAILED in Chrome Embed YouTube video - Refused to display in a frame because it set 'X-Frame-Options' to 'SAMEORIGIN'

Examples related to youtube-api

How can I get the actual video URL of a YouTube live stream? Failed to execute 'postMessage' on 'DOMWindow': https://www.youtube.com !== http://localhost:9000 Embed YouTube video - Refused to display in a frame because it set 'X-Frame-Options' to 'SAMEORIGIN' Google OAUTH: The redirect URI in the request did not match a registered redirect URI YouTube API to fetch all videos on a channel How do I get video durations with YouTube API version 3? Youtube API Limitations Stop embedded youtube iframe? How can I get a channel ID from YouTube? Embed YouTube Video with No Ads

Examples related to youtube-data-api

How can I get the actual video URL of a YouTube live stream? java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com/fasterxml/jackson/core/JsonFactory Google OAUTH: The redirect URI in the request did not match a registered redirect URI How do I get video durations with YouTube API version 3? How do I get a YouTube video thumbnail from the YouTube API?

Examples related to http-live-streaming

How can I get the actual video URL of a YouTube live stream? FFMPEG mp4 from http live streaming m3u8 file? Playing m3u8 Files with HTML Video Tag

Examples related to youtube-livestreaming-api

How do you use youtube-dl to download live streams (that are live)? How can I get the actual video URL of a YouTube live stream?