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

Question

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.

Answer 1

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 

Answer 2

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.

or here https://www.youtube.com/account_advanced