diff --git a/brozzler/ydl.py b/brozzler/ydl.py
index 0baf8a3..8beac49 100644
--- a/brozzler/ydl.py
+++ b/brozzler/ydl.py
@@ -298,11 +298,9 @@ def _build_youtube_dl(worker, destdir, site, page):
         "postprocessor_hooks": [ydl_postprocess_hook],
         # https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp#format-selection
         # "By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality..."
-        # pre-v.2023.07.06: "format_sort": ["ext"],
         # v.2023.07.06 https://www.reddit.com/r/youtubedl/wiki/h264/?rdt=63577
         # recommended: convert working cli to api call with
         # https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/devscripts/cli_to_api.py
-        "format": "b/bv+ba",
         "format_sort": ["res:720", "vcodec:h264", "acodec:aac"],
         # skip live streams
         "match_filter": match_filter_func("!is_live"),
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 8769d49..9b753a1 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ def find_package_data(package):
 
 setuptools.setup(
     name="brozzler",
-    version="1.5.52a1",
+    version="1.5.53a1",
     description="Distributed web crawling with browsers",
     url="https://github.com/internetarchive/brozzler",
     author="Noah Levitt",