ytdl-org/youtube-dl · error · ExtractorError

%s returned error code %d

Error message

%s returned error code %d

What it means

Raised by the RTVNH (Dutch regional broadcaster) extractor when the JSON from rtvnh.nl/video/json?m=<id> has a 'status' field other than 200 - the site's own envelope reports the failure, and the message interpolates that numeric code (e.g. 'RTVNH returned error code 404'). Expected=True.

Source

Thrown at youtube_dl/extractor/rtvnh.py:29

        'url': 'http://www.rtvnh.nl/video/131946',
        'md5': 'cdbec9f44550763c8afc96050fa747dc',
        'info_dict': {
            'id': '131946',
            'ext': 'mp4',
            'title': 'Grote zoektocht in zee bij Zandvoort naar vermiste vrouw',
            'thumbnail': r're:^https?:.*\.jpg$'
        }
    }

    def _real_extract(self, url):
        video_id = self._match_id(url)

        meta = self._parse_json(self._download_webpage(
            'http://www.rtvnh.nl/video/json?m=' + video_id, video_id), video_id)

        status = meta.get('status')
        if status != 200:
            raise ExtractorError(
                '%s returned error code %d' % (self.IE_NAME, status), expected=True)

        formats = []
        rtmp_formats = self._extract_smil_formats(
            'http://www.rtvnh.nl/video/smil?m=' + video_id, video_id)
        formats.extend(rtmp_formats)

        for rtmp_format in rtmp_formats:
            rtmp_url = '%s/%s' % (rtmp_format['url'], rtmp_format['play_path'])
            rtsp_format = rtmp_format.copy()
            del rtsp_format['play_path']
            del rtsp_format['ext']
            rtsp_format.update({
                'format_id': rtmp_format['format_id'].replace('rtmp', 'rtsp'),
                'url': rtmp_url.replace('rtmp://', 'rtsp://'),
                'protocol': 'rtsp',
            })
            formats.append(rtsp_format)

View on GitHub (pinned to 956b8c5855)

Solutions

  1. Check the numeric code: 404-like codes mean the clip is gone; 5xx codes mean retry later.
  2. Confirm the video on rtvnh.nl in a browser.
  3. For batch jobs, probe the JSON endpoint and skip non-200 statuses (see validation below).
  4. If the site was migrated (rtvnh merged into omroepwest/omroepbrabant brands), find the new URL.
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

import json, urllib.request
def rtvnh_ok(video_id):
    with urllib.request.urlopen('http://www.rtvnh.nl/video/json?m=' + video_id, timeout=10) as r:
        return json.load(r).get('status') == 200

Try / catch

try:
    ydl.extract_info(url)
except ExtractorError as e:
    if 'returned error code' in str(e):
        code = int(str(e).rsplit(' ', 1)[1])
        if code >= 500: retry_later(url)
        else: drop(url)
    else:
        raise

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Extracting any rtvnh.nl video id whose JSON endpoint sets status != 200: unknown id, removed news clips, or server-side errors (500 in the status field).

Common situations: Dead local-news links after clips expire from the CMS; scraped ids that were never valid.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of ytdl-org/youtube-dl@956b8c5855 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d41162d30c03ab44. Report an issue: GitHub.