Difficulties with parsing youtube metadata to id3 tags

[hstntt]

Hello. First of all, I want to thank the youtube-dl and yt-dlp developers for these great tools. I especially appreciate the --split-chapters function, which is very convenient way of downloading and splitting obscure music albums from youtube. However, I'm having trouble with some aspects of the program and would appreciate if someone could help me.

--parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(album)s"
The line above successfully fills the ARTIST and ALBUM id3 tags. Based on the title of the video like "Nucleus - Roots (1973)" is it possible to add 1973 to the id3 DATE field and how to fill ALBUM ARTIST field based on ARTIST?

--parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)"
The line above does not work for audio files and id3 tags. How can I copy the description to the id3 COMMENT field?

--parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
The line above successfully removes the id3 SYNOPSIS field. I would also like to remove the DESCRIPTION, LANGUAGE, PURL fields and all chapter related fields like CHAPTER***, CHAPTER***NAME, etc. How can i achieve this?

--parse-metadata "section_title:%(title)s"
After splitting the album, i'm trying to add chapter titles to the id3 TITLE field, but the line above doesn't work.

[pukkandan]

The line above successfully fills the ARTIST and ALBUM id3 tags. Based on the title of the video like "Nucleus - Roots (1973)" is it possible to add 1973 to the id3 DATE field

either of these should work

--parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(album)s (%(upload_date)s)"
--parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(album)s (%(meta_date)s)"

and how to fill ALBUM ARTIST field based on ARTIST?

--parse-metadata "artist:%(album_artist)s" sets them to be the same

--parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)"
The line above does not work for audio files and id3 tags. How can I copy the description to the id3 COMMENT field?

I dont see why it wouldnt work. Show the entire verbose log

The line above successfully removes the id3 SYNOPSIS field. I would also like to remove the DESCRIPTION, LANGUAGE, PURL fields and all chapter related fields like CHAPTER***, CHAPTER***NAME, etc. How can i achieve this?

--parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)(?P<meta_description>)(?P<meta_purl>)" will remove description and purl as well

There is currently no way to remove the language or chapter data

--parse-metadata "section_title:%(title)s"
After splitting the album, i'm trying to add chapter titles to the id3 TITLE field, but the line above doesn't work.

All the metadata parsing is done for the main file. So there is no way to set seperate metadata for each of the split files

[hstntt]

Log

C:\Soft\yt-dlp>yt-dlp.exe --config-location C:\Soft\yt-dlp\yt-dlp-config1.txt
[debug] Custom config file: C:\Soft\yt-dlp\yt-dlp-config1.txt
[debug] Custom config: ['--batch-file', 'yt-dlp-config1-urls.txt', '-v', '--ignore-errors', '--geo-bypass', '-
-windows-filenames', '--format', 'bestaudio', '--parse-metadata', 'title:%(artist)s - %(album)s (%(meta_date)s
)', '--parse-metadata', 'album:%(title)s', '--parse-metadata', 'artist:%(album_artist)s', '--parse-metadata',
'description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)', '--parse-metadata', ':(?P<meta_synopsis>)(?P<meta_description>)(?P<met
a_purl>)', '--add-metadata', '--write-thumbnail', '--convert-thumbnails', 'jpg', '--ppa', 'ThumbnailsConvertor
+ffmpeg_o:-c:v mjpeg -vf crop="\'if(gt(ih,iw),iw,ih)\':\'if(gt(iw,ih),ih,iw)\'"', '--output', '~/Desktop/Youtu
be/Singles/%(artist)s - %(meta_date)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s', '--extract-audio', '--split-chapters', '--output',
 'chapter:~/Desktop/Youtube/Albums/%(artist)s - %(meta_date)s - %(album)s [O160]/%(section_number)02d. %(secti
on_title)s.%(ext)s', '--output', 'thumbnail:~/Desktop/Youtube/Albums/%(artist)s - %(meta_date)s - %(album)s [O
160]/cover.%(ext)s']
[debug] Command-line config: ['--config-location', 'C:\\Soft\\yt-dlp\\yt-dlp-config1.txt']
[debug] Batch file urls: ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EuC3Qxp1ME']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1252, fs utf-8, out utf-8, pref cp1252
[debug] yt-dlp version 2021.07.24 (exe)
[debug] Python version 3.8.10 (CPython 64bit) - Windows-7-6.1.7601-SP1
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg 2021-07-21-git-f614390ecc-essentials_build-www.gyan.dev, ffprobe 2021-07-21-git-f
614390ecc-essentials_build-www.gyan.dev
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[debug] [youtube] Extracting URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EuC3Qxp1ME
[youtube] 1EuC3Qxp1ME: Downloading webpage
[youtube] 1EuC3Qxp1ME: Downloading android player API JSON
[debug] Formats sorted by: hasvid, ie_pref, lang, quality, res, fps, vcodec:vp9.2(10), acodec, filesize, fs_ap
prox, tbr, vbr, abr, asr, proto, vext, aext, hasaud, source, id
[debug] Searching for r"(?P<artist>.+)\ \-\ (?P<album>.+)\ \((?P<meta_date>.+)\)" in %(title)s
[MetadataFromField] parsed artist from "%(title)s": Shigeru Suzuki
[MetadataFromField] parsed album from "%(title)s": Lagoon
[MetadataFromField] parsed meta_date from "%(title)s": 1979
[debug] Searching for r"(?P<title>.+)" in %(album)s
[MetadataFromField] parsed title from "%(album)s": Lagoon
[debug] Searching for r"(?P<album_artist>.+)" in %(artist)s
[MetadataFromField] parsed album_artist from "%(artist)s": Shigeru Suzuki
[debug] Searching for r"(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" in %(description)s
[MetadataFromField] parsed meta_comment from "%(description)s": Tracklist:

00:00 | Lady Pink Panther
02:56 | Devil Game
06:17 | Brandy Wine
09:27 | Tokyo Harbor Line
13:46 | Hawaiian
16:16 | Hashire-Rabbit
20:07 | Córdoba-Night
26:35 | Almería
8-Note Song

（＊＾－＾＊）
[debug] Searching for r"(?P<meta_synopsis>)(?P<meta_description>)(?P<meta_purl>)" in
[MetadataFromField] parsed meta_synopsis from "":
[MetadataFromField] parsed meta_description from "":
[MetadataFromField] parsed meta_purl from "":
[info] 1EuC3Qxp1ME: Downloading 1 format(s): 251
[debug] Testing thumbnail 39
[debug] Testing thumbnail 38
[debug] Testing thumbnail 36
[debug] Testing thumbnail 35
[debug] Testing thumbnail 34
[debug] Testing thumbnail 33
[debug] Testing thumbnail 32
[debug] Testing thumbnail 31
[debug] Testing thumbnail 30
[youtube] 1EuC3Qxp1ME: Downloading thumbnail  ...
[youtube] 1EuC3Qxp1ME: Writing thumbnail to: C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\Singles\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979
- Lagoon.webp
[ThumbnailsConvertor] Converting thumbnail "C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\Singles\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 -
 Lagoon.webp" to jpg
[debug] ffmpeg command line: ffmpeg -y -loglevel "repeat+info" -f image2 -pattern_type none -i "file:C:\Users\
hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\Singles\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - Lagoon.webp" "-bsf:v" mjpeg2jpeg "-c:v" mjpeg -vf "c
rop='if(gt(ih,iw),iw,ih)':'if(gt(iw,ih),ih,iw)'" "file:C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\Singles\Shigeru Suzu
ki - 1979 - Lagoon.jpg"
Deleting original file C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\Singles\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - Lagoon.webp (pass -k
 to keep)
[debug] Invoking downloader on "https://r2---sn-gvnuxaxjvh-304z.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?expire=162733329
7&ei=Uc7-YIvjFYmt7ATo7qOQAQ&ip=79.126.3.31&id=o-ADxo1kQUsqGK0dUSCYD1S0oIsNcytrngo7Q-RDMLQtwU&itag=251&source=y
outube&requiressl=yes&mh=10&mm=31%2C29&mn=sn-gvnuxaxjvh-304z%2Csn-n8v7knez&ms=au%2Crdu&mv=m&mvi=2&pcm2cms=yes&
pl=21&initcwndbps=1116250&vprv=1&mime=audio%2Fwebm&gir=yes&clen=32099365&dur=1849.041&lmt=1519890956015130&mt=
1627311410&fvip=2&keepalive=yes&fexp=24001373%2C24007246&c=ANDROID&sparams=expire%2Cei%2Cip%2Cid%2Citag%2Csour
ce%2Crequiressl%2Cvprv%2Cmime%2Cgir%2Cclen%2Cdur%2Clmt&sig=AOq0QJ8wRQIgSYvB0Sy8NAa1w2Z7jTITbwD6b4ETTT1sQiJGetc
9VToCIQC-UzxlT2vPkSWOzptrJsNAO0faNAVRwLZB7zVguKq14w%3D%3D&lsparams=mh%2Cmm%2Cmn%2Cms%2Cmv%2Cmvi%2Cpcm2cms%2Cpl
%2Cinitcwndbps&lsig=AG3C_xAwRAIgcyL9xfqs1yewYf01d5it4q1QuIf0qRF-0aRIYzoaZacCIGrWOdIDBB2Tyf89niYQK79jE7WfI5f_Li
0zel5QWsio"
[download] Destination: C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\Singles\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - Lagoon.webm
[download] 100% of 30.61MiB in 00:06
[debug] ffmpeg command line: ffprobe -show_streams "file:C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\Singles\Shigeru Su
zuki - 1979 - Lagoon.webm"
[ExtractAudio] Destination: C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\Singles\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - Lagoon.opus
[debug] ffmpeg command line: ffmpeg -y -loglevel "repeat+info" -i "file:C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\Sin
gles\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - Lagoon.webm" -vn -acodec copy "file:C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\Singles\Sh
igeru Suzuki - 1979 - Lagoon.opus"
Deleting original file C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\Singles\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - Lagoon.webm (pass -k
 to keep)
[Metadata] Adding metadata to "C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\Singles\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - Lagoon.opus"

[debug] ffmpeg command line: ffmpeg -y -loglevel "repeat+info" -i "file:C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\Sin
gles\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - Lagoon.opus" -i "file:C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\Singles\Shigeru Suzuki -
 1979 - Lagoon.meta" -map 0 -dn -c copy -metadata "title=Amiman" -metadata "date=1979" -metadata "description=
" -metadata "synopsis=" -metadata "purl=" -metadata "comment=Tracklist:

00:00 | Lady Pink Panther
02:56 | Devil Game
06:17 | Brandy Wine
09:27 | Tokyo Harbor Line
13:46 | Hawaiian
16:16 | Hashire-Rabbit
20:07 | Córdoba-Night
26:35 | Almería
8-Note Song

（＊＾－＾＊）" -metadata "artist=Shigeru Suzuki" -metadata "album=Lagoon" -metadata "album_artist=Shigeru Suzuki" 
-map_metadata 1 "file:C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\Singles\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - Lagoon.temp.opus"
[SplitChapters] Splitting video by chapters; 8 chapters found
[SplitChapters] Chapter 001; Destination: C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\Albums\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - La
goon [O160]\01. Lady Pink Panther.opus
[debug] ffmpeg command line: ffmpeg -y -loglevel "repeat+info" -ss 0.0 -t 176.0 -i "file:C:\Users\hstntt\De
sktop\Youtube\Singles\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - Lagoon.opus" -c copy "file:C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\Al
bums\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - Lagoon [O160]\01. Lady Pink Panther.opus"
[SplitChapters] Chapter 002; Destination: C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\Albums\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - La
goon [O160]\02. Devil Game.opus
[debug] ffmpeg command line: ffmpeg -y -loglevel "repeat+info" -ss 176.0 -t 201.0 -i "file:C:\Users\hstntt\
Desktop\Youtube\Singles\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - Lagoon.opus" -c copy "file:C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\
Albums\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - Lagoon [O160]\02. Devil Game.opus"
[SplitChapters] Chapter 003; Destination: C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\Albums\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - La
goon [O160]\03. Brandy Wine.opus
[debug] ffmpeg command line: ffmpeg -y -loglevel "repeat+info" -ss 377.0 -t 190.0 -i "file:C:\Users\hstntt\
Desktop\Youtube\Singles\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - Lagoon.opus" -c copy "file:C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\
Albums\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - Lagoon [O160]\03. Brandy Wine.opus"
[SplitChapters] Chapter 004; Destination: C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\Albums\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - La
goon [O160]\04. Tokyo Harbor Line.opus
[debug] ffmpeg command line: ffmpeg -y -loglevel "repeat+info" -ss 567.0 -t 259.0 -i "file:C:\Users\hstntt\
Desktop\Youtube\Singles\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - Lagoon.opus" -c copy "file:C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\
Albums\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - Lagoon [O160]\04. Tokyo Harbor Line.opus"
[SplitChapters] Chapter 005; Destination: C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\Albums\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - La
goon [O160]\05. Hawaiian.opus
[debug] ffmpeg command line: ffmpeg -y -loglevel "repeat+info" -ss 826.0 -t 150.0 -i "file:C:\Users\hstntt\
Desktop\Youtube\Singles\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - Lagoon.opus" -c copy "file:C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\
Albums\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - Lagoon [O160]\05. Hawaiian.opus"
[SplitChapters] Chapter 006; Destination: C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\Albums\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - La
goon [O160]\06. Hashire-Rabbit.opus
[debug] ffmpeg command line: ffmpeg -y -loglevel "repeat+info" -ss 976.0 -t 231.0 -i "file:C:\Users\hstntt\
Desktop\Youtube\Singles\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - Lagoon.opus" -c copy "file:C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\
Albums\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - Lagoon [O160]\06. Hashire-Rabbit.opus"
[SplitChapters] Chapter 007; Destination: C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\Albums\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - La
goon [O160]\07. Córdoba-Night.opus
[debug] ffmpeg command line: ffmpeg -y -loglevel "repeat+info" -ss 1207.0 -t 388.0 -i "file:C:\Users\hstntt
\Desktop\Youtube\Singles\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - Lagoon.opus" -c copy "file:C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube
\Albums\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - Lagoon [O160]\07. Córdoba-Night.opus"
[SplitChapters] Chapter 008; Destination: C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\Albums\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - La
goon [O160]\08. Almería.opus
[debug] ffmpeg command line: ffmpeg -y -loglevel "repeat+info" -ss 1595.0 -t 254.0 -i "file:C:\Users\hstntt
\Desktop\Youtube\Singles\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - Lagoon.opus" -c copy "file:C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube
\Albums\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - Lagoon [O160]\08. Almería.opus"
[MoveFiles] Moving file "C:\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\Singles\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - Lagoon.jpg" to "C:
\Users\hstntt\Desktop\Youtube\Albums\Shigeru Suzuki - 1979 - Lagoon [O160]\cover.jpg"
C:\Soft\yt-dlp>

[pukkandan]

From the log, I can see that we are correctly adding comment and removing description. I don't know much about id3 tags, but my guess is that what ffmpeg is calling comment is description in id3 and viceversa. If so, reversing the fields when parsing should work

As for title, it is being set from track. You can either empty it out like u did for description etc or, you can set meta_title to the title

Is it possible to include a wildcard in the template?

Not wildcards, but regex. But in that case, you cannot use the outtmpl style %(field)s and has to use the regex capture groups (?P<field>regex). So your expression becomes something like: (?P<artist>.+) [-_] (?P<album>.+) \((?P<meta_date>\d+)\) (untested)

[hstntt]

Not wildcards, but regex. So your expression becomes something like: (?P.+) [-_] (?P.+) ((?P<meta_date>\d+)) (untested)

--parse-metadata "title:(?P<artist>.+) [-\u2010-\u2015] (?P<album>.+) \((?P<meta_date>\d+)\)"
Made a few changes to include dashes from unicode table. Works like a charm.

As for title, it is being set from track. You can set meta_title to the title

--parse-metadata "album:%(meta_title)s"
Works as expected. Thanks.

From the log, I can see that we are correctly adding comment and removing description. I don't know much about id3 tags, but my guess is that what ffmpeg is calling comment is description in id3 and viceversa. If so, reversing the fields when parsing should work

I tried to swap fields and use different values ​​but couldn't get it working. Anyway, this is not a big deal, because I'm still going to use third-party tools to automatically generate the track titles based on file names. Might as well use those tools for formatting unnecessary fields.

Thank you very much for your help!

[isle9]

I tried to swap fields and use different values ​​but couldn't get it working. Anyway, this is not a big deal, because I'm still going to use third-party tools to automatically generate the track titles based on file names. Might as well use those tools for formatting unnecessary fields.

@pukkandan I'm having the same problem. I've tried everything and I still get an empty comment field. Navidrome unfortunately only detects the comment field, so I really need to use that one.

[pukkandan]

Pls open a new issue (question) with appropriate logs