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.
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.
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:
>>> 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">]
>>> 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">]
>>> 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
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.