Trouble understanding the pytube "first" method

Question

So if I understand correctly the first method downloads the highest quality stream available with audio. But I noticed that it seems to only download the 320p version of a video, although when I filter the same link to download a 720p video, it works.

I'm clearly missing something, but fail to understand what.

Answer 1

As in above answer The first method is not for downloading the highest quality. It only returns the first element in the list of video formats available. The solution is to sort and filter the list first, then pick a video. I am giving this answer for information purpose although it is very late. You can sort by using pytube function. It will not only check for highest resolution but also give stream which is progressive (video with audio) too.

    yt = YouTube("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERMRVORGvZM")
    stream = yt.streams.get_highest_resolution()
    stream.download()

Answer 2

TL:DR The first method is not for downloading the highest quality. It only returns the first element in the list of video formats available. The solution is to sort and filter the list first, then pick a video.

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When you take the example from the pytube documentation:

yt = YouTube('http://youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0') # or any other YouTube-link
yt.streams.order_by('resolution').desc().first().download()

It will download you the highest resolution video by doing the following steps:

1. Retrieving a list of available resolutions and formats, but out of order:

>>> yt.streams
[<Stream: itag="18" mime_type="video/mp4" res="360p" fps="24fps" vcodec="avc1.42001E" acodec="mp4a.40.2" progressive="True" type="video">, <Stream: itag="137" mime_type="video/mp4" res="1080p" fps="24fps" vcodec="avc1.640028" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="399" mime_type="video/mp4" res="1080p" fps="24fps" vcodec="av01.0.08M.08" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="136" mime_type="video/mp4" res="720p" fps="24fps" vcodec="avc1.4d401f" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="247" mime_type="video/webm" res="720p" fps="24fps" vcodec="vp9" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="398" mime_type="video/mp4" res="720p" fps="24fps" vcodec="av01.0.05M.08" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="135" mime_type="video/mp4" res="480p" fps="24fps" vcodec="avc1.4d401e" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="244" mime_type="video/webm" res="480p" fps="24fps" vcodec="vp9" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="397" mime_type="video/mp4" res="480p" fps="24fps" vcodec="av01.0.04M.08" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="134" mime_type="video/mp4" res="360p" fps="24fps" vcodec="avc1.4d401e" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="243" mime_type="video/webm" res="360p" fps="24fps" vcodec="vp9" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="396" mime_type="video/mp4" res="360p" fps="24fps" vcodec="av01.0.01M.08" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="133" mime_type="video/mp4" res="240p" fps="24fps" vcodec="avc1.4d4015" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="242" mime_type="video/webm" res="240p" fps="24fps" vcodec="vp9" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="395" mime_type="video/mp4" res="240p" fps="24fps" vcodec="av01.0.00M.08" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="160" mime_type="video/mp4" res="144p" fps="24fps" vcodec="avc1.4d400c" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="278" mime_type="video/webm" res="144p" fps="24fps" vcodec="vp9" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="394" mime_type="video/mp4" res="144p" fps="24fps" vcodec="av01.0.00M.08" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="140" mime_type="audio/mp4" abr="128kbps" acodec="mp4a.40.2" progressive="False" type="audio">, <Stream: itag="249" mime_type="audio/webm" abr="50kbps" acodec="opus" progressive="False" type="audio">, <Stream: itag="250" mime_type="audio/webm" abr="70kbps" acodec="opus" progressive="False" type="audio">, <Stream: itag="251" mime_type="audio/webm" abr="160kbps" acodec="opus" progressive="False" type="audio">]

2. Order the list by resolution with highest resolution first

>>> yt.streams.order_by('resolution').desc()
[<Stream: itag="399" mime_type="video/mp4" res="1080p" fps="24fps" vcodec="av01.0.08M.08" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="137" mime_type="video/mp4" res="1080p" fps="24fps" vcodec="avc1.640028" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="398" mime_type="video/mp4" res="720p" fps="24fps" vcodec="av01.0.05M.08" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="247" mime_type="video/webm" res="720p" fps="24fps" vcodec="vp9" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="136" mime_type="video/mp4" res="720p" fps="24fps" vcodec="avc1.4d401f" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="397" mime_type="video/mp4" res="480p" fps="24fps" vcodec="av01.0.04M.08" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="244" mime_type="video/webm" res="480p" fps="24fps" vcodec="vp9" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="135" mime_type="video/mp4" res="480p" fps="24fps" vcodec="avc1.4d401e" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="396" mime_type="video/mp4" res="360p" fps="24fps" vcodec="av01.0.01M.08" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="243" mime_type="video/webm" res="360p" fps="24fps" vcodec="vp9" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="134" mime_type="video/mp4" res="360p" fps="24fps" vcodec="avc1.4d401e" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="18" mime_type="video/mp4" res="360p" fps="24fps" vcodec="avc1.42001E" acodec="mp4a.40.2" progressive="True" type="video">, <Stream: itag="395" mime_type="video/mp4" res="240p" fps="24fps" vcodec="av01.0.00M.08" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="242" mime_type="video/webm" res="240p" fps="24fps" vcodec="vp9" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="133" mime_type="video/mp4" res="240p" fps="24fps" vcodec="avc1.4d4015" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="394" mime_type="video/mp4" res="144p" fps="24fps" vcodec="av01.0.00M.08" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="278" mime_type="video/webm" res="144p" fps="24fps" vcodec="vp9" progressive="False" type="video">, <Stream: itag="160" mime_type="video/mp4" res="144p" fps="24fps" vcodec="avc1.4d400c" progressive="False" type="video">]

3. Select the first element from that list, in this case the highest resolution one.

>>> yt.streams.order_by('resolution').desc().first()
<Stream: itag="399" mime_type="video/mp4" res="1080p" fps="24fps" vcodec="av01.0.08M.08" progressive="False" type="video">

First can also be substituted with [0] like so:

>>> yt.streams.order_by('resolution').desc()[0]
<Stream: itag="399" mime_type="video/mp4" res="1080p" fps="24fps" vcodec="av01.0.08M.08" progressive="False" type="video">

meaning that

>>> yt.streams.first() == yt.streams[0]
True

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Also, when you apply a filter the list by resolution first it will remove all videos with other resolutions from the list. Therefore first will, as you said, return the video with the desired resolution.