Why can't I download this one specific video?

[nlr818]

Hi. This may be a long message, but the reason is because I want to clearly state my problem and list all the things I've done to try and make this work.

I was able to easily download a few other videos, but not one solitary video, which I'm very much wanting to download. It's an episode of a true crime reenactment-style tv show. Basically I've bought the video on Youtube and Amazon.com, and downloaded it several times. The only option each site gives me for this video is an mp4, whereas the other videos have several format options to choose from (all of which work). But for this video, Quicktime Player won't open the file once it's finished downloading: it's just a mpeg 4 icon with no material attached to it, even though it's taken a good amount of time to download. When I try to open the file, it either brings up a message saying that the file is in a format Quicktime Player doesn't understand, even though it clearly says on the page it then sends me to that Quicktime understands mp4, a message saying that "an invalid sample description was found," or a message saying that it isn't an "executable file" and has possibly harmful or malicious content.

Like I said, neither Youtube nor Amazon gives any other format option than mp4. I've tried changing the file extension name from .mp4 to .mov or .3GP, but that didn't work. Infact when I tried .mov it still showed a message that said it wasn't a format Quicktime understands, so apparently Quicktime doesn't understand Quicktime Movie. I initially used Video Download Helper to download this video and others, and it worked for all but this one. I've tried Switch and Wondershare Video Helper to try and convert the file, but they won't convert it. I made sure I have an updated version of Quicktime. I have downloaded Google Download, but it also was not successful in downloading the video. I downloaded VLC, and it played the file (I could see the time counting) but there was no information: You couldn't see or hear anything. Same thing happened when I changed the filename to m4v and opened it in itunes. My brother thought the problem was in the audio encoding and suggested I find a program that converts ac3 to aac, so I downloaded Handbrake and Pavtube, but neither of them would identify the file to open it. And to make sure it wasn't because the video was too long, I tried downloading a video that was even longer, and that worked instantly.

At this point, I've been working on this for hours, and it truly seems that every path is blocked. Nothing is working in the area of me successfully downloading this video. I'm really wondering if it's possible that the channel the show came on has prevented its material from being downloaded, even if it's available to be watched on these sites, but my brother maintains that isn't possible. If anyone has any insight into this problem, I would massively appreciate it!

[aedipuss]

get the free program mediainfo. run it and put it into text mode. use mediainfo on the video and copy/paste the entire output here.

[nlr818]

I'm not having any luck downloading that program either. It's wanting me to open it in TextEdit when I click on the link, which is actually what's been happening when I try to open certain other software programs, but TextEdit doesn't bring up anything but a page of unreadable gibberish. I tried to have it open in Adobe Reader, Acrobat Reader and Pages, but they wouldn't open it either. Boy, this isn't my day!

[nlr818]

Okay I was able to download it. Here's what it brought up about the video:

General / Container Stream #1
Total Video Streams for this File.................1
Total Audio Streams for this File.................1
Video Codecs Used.................................AVC
Audio Codecs Used.................................AAC LC
File Format.......................................MPEG-4
Play Time.........................................43mn 35s
Total File Size...................................161 MiB
Total Stream BitRate..............................518 Kbps
Video Stream #1
Codec (Human Name)................................AVC
Codec (FourCC)....................................encv
Codec Profile.....................................Baseli ne@L3.0
Frame Width.......................................640 pixels
Frame Height......................................360 pixels
Frame Rate........................................23.976 fps
Total Frames......................................62708
Display Aspect Ratio..............................16:9
Scan Type.........................................Progr essive
Color Space.......................................YUV
Codec Settings (Summary)..........................1 Ref Frames
QF (like Gordian Knot)............................0.074
Codec Settings (CABAC)............................No
Codec Settings (Reference Frames).................1
Video Stream Length...............................43mn 35s 446ms
Video Stream BitRate..............................410 Kbps
Video Stream BitRate Mode.........................VBR
Bit Depth.........................................8 bits
Video Stream Size.................................128 MiB (79%)
Audio Stream #1
Codec............................................. AAC
Codec (FourCC)....................................40
Audio Stream Length...............................43mn 35s 426ms
Audio Stream BitRate..............................105 Kbps
Audio Stream BitRate (Nominal)....................96.0 Kbps
Audio Stream BitRate Mode.........................VBR
Number of Audio Channels..........................2
Audio Channel's Positions.........................Front: L R
Sampling Rate.....................................44.1 KHz
Audio Stream Size.................................32.6 MiB (20%)
Audio Stream Title................................IsoMedia File Produced by Google, 5-11-2011
Date of Original Encoding.........................UTC 2012-10-05 06:40:44

[davexnet]

I believe this indicates some kind of encryption:
Codec (FourCC)....................................encv

[nlr818]

Does that mean I can't download it?

[davexnet]

I assumed it was download and you couldn't play it.
How did you get the mediainfo report?

[nlr818]

Yeah, I was able to download it but it wouldn't play. Does the encryption mean it's not playable when downloaded?

I got the mediainfo report basically by googling it and going to whatever site said it had a free download - I don't even remember which site it was.

[davexnet]

If you have that video on your computer with codec 4cc indicated as "encv" you almost certainly
will not be able to play it. Perhaps you can stream it and do a screen capture.

Mediainfo is the program (which you download from this site, presumably), the "report" is the data you posted above
that lists the files details.

[nlr818]

Oh ok, yeah I just copied the file like the other person said and pasted it onto the Mediainfo text page. It brought up the report then.

I've tried the screen capture thing too, but it doesn't work either. Oh well. Thanks for the replies!

[Ai Haibara]

The version of the video from Amazon is most likely DRM-encoded, but I don't know why you'd be having problems with the YouTube videos. You might try a different Firefox extension to grab the YouTube videos, like UnPlug. They might offer you more format choices when downloading, I don't know. (I've never tried Download Helper.)

Since you're using a Mac, VideoSpec or iMediaHUD might work better for you (they're both MediaInfo shells, but I believe both have more features than the Mac version of MediaInfo).

Edit: Oh, by the way - if a file opens 'directly' as a page of code/gibberish, or wants to open in TextEdit (or whatever app you have as your default text-file handler), right-click on the link instead and choose Save As (or your browser's equivalent).

[nlr818]

Well thanks for the ideas. But I was able to download it in a .flv file with Unplug, and the same results happened: It was playing the file (I could see the time counting) but there was no content: I couldn't see or hear anything. And I tried to convert it with the Wondershare Video Converter, but it wouldn't. I tried to download the other two you mentioned, but I wasn't able to. Thanks for the tip about TextEdit.

I really think there's something to what I was talking about with the other user, as far as the video being encrypted and not possible to play. I was able to download a few other videos off of Youtube easily, with no problems at all. With this particular video I've tried everything I can possibly think of - along with the suggestions of others - and if it's this difficult then something's not letting me download it.