diff --git a/DOCS/man/options.rst b/DOCS/man/options.rst
index 5ffc16cf89..f0543c7275 100644
--- a/DOCS/man/options.rst
+++ b/DOCS/man/options.rst
@@ -837,13 +837,18 @@ Program Behavior
     formats like HLS and DASH, if available, allowing for video/audio selection
     in runtime. It's disabled ("no") by default for performance reasons.
 
-``--ytdl-format=<best|worst|mp4|webm|...>``
+``--ytdl-format=<ytdl|best|worst|mp4|webm|...>``
     Video format/quality that is directly passed to youtube-dl. The possible
     values are specific to the website and the video, for a given url the
     available formats can be found with the command
     ``youtube-dl --list-formats URL``. See youtube-dl's documentation for
     available aliases.
-    (Default: youtube-dl's default, currently ``bestvideo+bestaudio/best``)
+    (Default: ``bestvideo+bestaudio/best``)
+
+    The ``ytdl`` value does not pass a ``--format`` option to youtube-dl at all,
+    and thus does not override its default. Note that sometimes youtube-dl
+    returns a format that mpv cannot use, and in these cases the mpv default
+    may work better.
 
 ``--ytdl-raw-options=<key>=<value>[,<key>=<value>[,...]]``
     Pass arbitrary options to youtube-dl. Parameter and argument should be
diff --git a/player/lua/ytdl_hook.lua b/player/lua/ytdl_hook.lua
index 8822299671..3526d907ea 100644
--- a/player/lua/ytdl_hook.lua
+++ b/player/lua/ytdl_hook.lua
@@ -519,8 +519,11 @@ function run_ytdl_hook(url)
     if (format == "") then
         format = "bestvideo+bestaudio/best"
     end
-    table.insert(command, "--format")
-    table.insert(command, format)
+
+    if format ~= "ytdl" then
+        table.insert(command, "--format")
+        table.insert(command, format)
+    end
 
     for param, arg in pairs(raw_options) do
         table.insert(command, "--" .. param)