Varying performance based on python version

[mokrueger]

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Checklist

• I'm asking a question and not reporting a bug or requesting a feature
• I've looked through the README
• I've verified that I have updated yt-dlp to nightly or master (update instructions)
• I've searched known issues and the bugtracker for similar questions including closed ones. DO NOT post duplicates
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Around a year ago I set up a server to download YouTube videos. The response times used to be quite fast when querying formats for a given video. Since for some Websites updates were required I updated ytdlp from time to time.

The current versions appear to be slower. Is there any particular reason? Or are there ways to run it more performant.
Also the performance varies drastically based on the python version? Any clues on why that could be?

Also back when everything ran on python 3.7 I remembered things to be a lot faster...

Given the simple benchmark script:

import time
from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL


start_time = time.perf_counter()
ydl = YoutubeDL(params={"extractor_args": {"youtube": {"player_client": ["web"]}}})
ydl.extract_info(url=r"https://youtu.be/9BansjPtOn8?feature=shared", download=False)
end_time = time.perf_counter()

elapsed_time = end_time - start_time

print(f"Elapsed time for task(): {elapsed_time} seconds")

On a raspberry pi 4 I get the following results:

Version	Time in s
Python 3.8	38s
Python 3.9	10s
Python 3.11	15s

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Small update: the most time seems to be spent in the jsinterp.py

Any ways to speed this up?

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Q2: Newbie question but why is jsinterp.py used in the first way? Isn't there an easier way to run a few lines of javascript? Or could someone explain the reason behind this :)

Kind regards

Provide verbose output that clearly demonstrates the problem

• Run your yt-dlp command with -vU flag added (yt-dlp -vU <your command line>)
• If using API, add 'verbose': True to YoutubeDL params instead
• Copy the WHOLE output (starting with [debug] Command-line config) and insert it below

Complete Verbose Output

No response

[dirkf]

Isn't there an easier way to run a few lines of javascript?

Do tell us ... see #1354.

Most other solutions involve starting up a web browser, or Node.js, to run the JS, and/or are not compatibly licensed.