title: Command line YouTube in VLC player - quality control?
body: <p>I'm trying to make a little script which involves playing YouTube videos from the command line using VLC. I'm using Windows 7 with VLC in the search path.</p>
  
  <p>Typing</p>
  
  <pre><code>vlc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0faacLn8K4
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>plays the video, but always at the highest quality. In the internet browser, appending the term '&amp;fmt=18' forces a low-resolution mode. However, using this in the command line,</p>
  
  <pre><code>vlc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0faacLn8K4&amp;fmt=18
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>gives an error:</p>
  
  <pre><code>´fmt´ is not recognized as an internal or external command,
  operable program or batch file.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I've tried quoting the url with various quotes, to no avail. The entire link gets passed to VLC, including the quotes.</p>
  
  <p>What's the solution to this? Is there a VLC switch for selecting stream quality? The <a href="http://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_command-line_help" rel="noreferrer">VLC command-line help</a> may have the answer, but understanding the meaning of all the switches is a little beyond me.</p>
  
  <p>Music credit: By Your Side by Breakbot</p>