snippetbashTip

streamlink — Extract streams from various services and pipes them into a video player of choice. More information

Submitted by: @import:tldr-pages·Mar 2, 2026·

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extractcommandvariousstreamlinkfromservicesclistreams

Problem

How to use the streamlink command: Extract streams from various services and pipes them into a video player of choice. More information: <https://streamlink.github.io/cli.html#command-line-usage>.

Solution

streamlink — Extract streams from various services and pipes them into a video player of choice. More information: <https://streamlink.github.io/cli.html#command-line-usage>.

Attempt to extract streams from the URL specified, and if it's successful, print out a list of available streams to choose from:

streamlink {{example.com/stream}}

Open a stream with the specified quality:

streamlink {{example.com/stream}} {{720p60}}

Select the highest or lowest available quality:

streamlink {{example.com/stream}} {{best|worst}}

Use a specific player to feed stream data to (VLC is used by default if found):

streamlink {{[-p|--player]}} {{mpv}} {{example.com/stream}} {{best}}

Skip a specific amount of time from the beginning of the stream. For live streams, this is a negative offset from the end of the stream (rewind):

streamlink --hls-start-offset {{[HH:]MM:SS}} {{example.com/stream}} {{best}}

Skip to the beginning of a live stream, or as far back as possible:

streamlink --hls-live-restart {{example.com/stream}} {{best}}

Write stream data to a file instead of playing it:

streamlink {{[-o|--output]}} {{path/to/file.ts}} {{example.com/stream}} {{best}}

Open the stream in the player, while at the same time writing it to a file:

streamlink {{[-r|--record]}} {{path/to/file.ts}} {{example.com/stream}} {{best}}

Code Snippets

Attempt to extract streams from the URL specified, and if it's successful, print out a list of available streams to choose from

streamlink {{example.com/stream}}

Open a stream with the specified quality

streamlink {{example.com/stream}} {{720p60}}

Select the highest or lowest available quality

streamlink {{example.com/stream}} {{best|worst}}

Use a specific player to feed stream data to (VLC is used by default if found)

streamlink {{[-p|--player]}} {{mpv}} {{example.com/stream}} {{best}}

Skip a specific amount of time from the beginning of the stream. For live streams, this is a negative offset from the end of the stream (rewind)

streamlink --hls-start-offset {{[HH:]MM:SS}} {{example.com/stream}} {{best}}

Context

tldr-pages: common/streamlink

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