Are downloads (from YT) lossless in the default format, or re-encoded?

[RokeJulianLockhart]

When I enter a YouTube video's URI, Parabolic preselects MPEG-4. Is this lossless from what I see on YouTube (I'm aware that YT has already encoded it during upload), or does Parabolic re-encode it?

[nlogozzo]

Videos from YouTube come in WEBM and M4A formats only. Parabolic, when MP4 is selected, will take the WEBM and remux it into MP4. This allows for features such as subtitle encoding and thumbnail encoding, which WEBM does not support. If you don't care for subtitles/thumbnails and would like to keep the original YouTube file, select Audio (Generic) as the file format instead of MP4

[RokeJulianLockhart]

If you don't care for subtitles/thumbnails and would like to keep the original YouTube file, select Audio (Generic) as the file format instead of MP4

@nlogozzo, I actually wish for a videographic file (ideally, solely videographic), rather than a solely audiographic file, which is what I presume that "Audio (Generic)" would provide.

Videos from YouTube come in WEBM and M4A formats only. Parabolic, when MP4 is selected, will take the WEBM and remux it into MP4. This allows for features such as subtitle encoding and thumbnail encoding, which WEBM does not support.

In which case, can you advise which is preferable? That is, M4A or WEBM?

[nlogozzo]

@RokeJulianLockhart There is also a Video (Generic) file type that you can select instead.