How do I find the "real" location of the streaming video?

[xtal_01]

OK ... I think I am trying to learn too much at one time.

What I wanted was to learn how to download videos from sites where plug-in's from firefox won't work.

Here is a good example: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/henryford/player/

When you use the plug in, you get the commercial in front of the video but not the video.

Two gentlemen started me in the right direction ... they suggested ffmpeg and livestreamer.

OK, so I downloaded both.

I am lost when it comes to ffmpeg. I did get liverstreamer to work ( even think I figured out how to modify the example code to download an mp4 rather than an flv in the example ...I will know in about 30 minutes if it worked).

But I need to go back a step. How do I find the stream I want to download to begin with?

I know the person who answered my post found various video and audio stream ( and he know which ones were best ) ... but how?

I tried to figure out what an m3u8 file is .... looks like it is some kind of playlist.

Anyway, if someone could start me out and help me through, I would appreciate it.

Almost forgot ... separate question .... on the FLV file I downloaded, something is wrong with the audio ... it starts, then stops, then short little clips of audio come through ... video works file ... I am using the FLC player ... any sugguestions why?

Thanks so much .... Mike

Well I am not that smart ... changing "liverstreamer -o hd-mezzanine.flv" to "livestreamer -o ht-mezzanine.mp4" did nothing. File size is exactly the same and same problems with audio not playing.

I have been searching all over the web trying to figure this out for myself ( with no luck so far ) ... but I did come across this program ( url snooper ) https://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/urlsnooper/ .... will it find the locations for the video like it says it will or is there a better program to use ?

Thanks again .... Mike

[blimey]

Details about dowloading from pbs in particular are not really generalizable so as to be able to use them to "download videos from sites where plug-in's from firefox won't work". Downloading from pbs is especially particular. Sometimes methods have general application, but it would be a poor choice to choose pbs an as example for a general method.

[xtal_01]

OK .... it's amazing how much I don't know, I just assumed ( bad on my part .... I should know better ) that there would be one method of downloading that works on all sites.

So then, to follow two different paths of questions:

1) can someone please either post the code to download the original video I was trying to from PBS in mp4 format ( I did get it in flv but like I said, it will not play at all no the windows player ... I did download the vlc codec pack .... and even on the vlc player the sound will not work ... comes off in short snippets) .... or is there a way of "fixing" the video I downloaded?

2) in general, if I find any site with video that will not download using firefox, how do I locate the original stream? Can I use that program I found (url snooper) or is there a way of using ffmpeg or liverstreamer or ?????

I am new to this board .... if I am getting into a "touchy" topic can you please send me a PM and I can send my e-mail address.

Thanks once again .... Mike

PS ... I am like this with everything, I always want to know the why and how. My wife and I have been living in an RV for 2 years while building and accessible house for us .... she is paralyzed from the shoulders down. I am building a lift to get her from the first to second floor ..... I just spent a day reading reports on epoxy cements so that I knew how to choose the right one to use for the anchor bolts.

[jagabo]

I just assumed ( bad on my part .... I should know better ) that there would be one method of downloading that works on all sites.

No. Sites work very hard at obfuscating the URL to keep you from downloading the videos. Different sites use different methods and they're changing all the time.

[blimey]

Sorry, ffmpeg was my only idea (for your particular pbs video example). But you said that you weren't able to get ffmpeg to work. It did work when I tried it. Maybe another member has some ideas.

Even after my previous reply, you asked about the "general" again. The specific question demands enough detail and explanation on its own, the demands of the vague general question makes it all overwhelming.

[xtal_01]

No, no ... I am the one who is sorry .... the problem is I don't even understand enough to ask the correct questions!

Livestreamer did not work for me ... It did pull down a file ... video is great but audio will not play correctly. I am not sure what to do with this file to make it work.

When blimey answered my last post, he originally had several pieces of code up ... then one ... then none.

I did manage to save the one example of code. I ran ffmpeg and successfully downloaded the video in .ts format. I then read up on what .ts format is and I also found an article ( while searching for answers on downloading ) that was title "10 useful features of VLC player" ... I took a quick look at it and found that the VLC player an convert files. So that is what I am doing right now .... converting the.ts to .mp4 ... says it will take 1:52:10! With luck this will work.

My problem with ffmpeg was that I thought that it could tell me what the video and locations are available from a site.

Sooooooooooo ....

I understand there is no "general" way of downloading video that works on all sites.

I guess that I am trying to figure out in my mind is a "how to" or maybe more correctly a "flow chart" of what you guys do when you come to a site and want to download video.

Even if you don't have it written down, there must be some order you go through to find out first what video is on a site, where it is coming from, quality, ... ????

I am guessing it would go something like .... go to site, try simple downloader ... if this does not work try ????? ...... did this give a manifest (playlist) ... if yes use ??? to download, if no then try ???? to see what is there .... did this give a manifest ( playlist ) .....

Again, maybe I am way off coarse.

I appreciate all the help the forum has given me ... it seems I have a lot to learn!

Mike

[xtal_01]

Hmmmmmm ......

So I am trying my best to figure this out.

I found a thread from earlier this year where you guys went through exactly this scenario with someone else.

I tried to follow step by set.

My first problem, I can't find the .m3u8 file.

Please tell me what I am doing wrong ... I went to the site, opened the debugger .... let the commercial play through and as soon as the video started, I paused it ... I then searched the scripts ( using he search box ) for m3u8 ... it found it only once and that was in a long list of file format ( just xxxx, xxxx, .3mu8, xxxx, ...) There were several areas ( listed under sources to the left of the large script box ) and I was not sure where I should be looking ... figured the "!" gave me a global search.

So am I doing something wrong or just not looking in the right place or ????

Thanks again ..... Mike

[blimey]

The audio in hls (m3u8) is a packetized form of aac, sometimes known as faad, where aac data is packed inside adts frames so as to be compliant with mpeg ts, which is basically the format used by hls. Because of the way the audio is packetized for hls, it cannot be directly written to a mp4 or flv container. The ts container is the most direct choice, mkv will also work.

In the specific case of your example, if you don't want to also download the 1200k mp4 source (which has unadulterated acc audio), then instead you could convert the faad audio (from the 2500k hls/m3u8 source) to aac (without transcoding) but the result is far from perfect.

ffmpeg -i "output.ts" -vcodec copy -acodec copy -absf aac_adtstoasc "output.mp4"

Where "output.ts" is the filename of the download saved by ffmpeg of the 2500k hls/m3u8 source.

[xtal_01]

Once again I thank you for all the information!

Through this process, I have come to realize just how complicated this really is.

I originally started this because my wife and I are living in an RV trying to build an accessible house ( she is paralyzed and with the price of housing here in VT, the only way we could get a place is if we acted as our own general contractors, contracted out the heavy work and did the rest myself).

We have limited internet and no cable ( just getting a few basic channels with an antenna ).

I have been trying to download a few programs and then watch them later. At first I didn't download them and found I either didn't have internet ( or it was way to slow and kept buffering ) when I wanted to watch them or found that PBS ( or who ever ) had already taken them down off there site.

I had no idea how much I had to learn .... heck, I don't even know the right questions to ask half the time.

I do really want to learn more about the subject.

Thanks for all your patience with me.

Mike