I have questions about downloading from .m3u8

[cns00]

Sometimes I need to download videos which are only available on .m3u8. I am using a web browser extension called videodownloadhelper to get the download link of .m3u8 file and then I am pasting that link in another web browser extension called m3u8 downloader https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/m3u8-downloader/pibnhedpldjakfpnfkabbnifhmokakfb and I am clicking on download .ts and when the download finishes I am using a program called Avidemux to convert from .ts to .mp4 and I am doing it by copying the video and audio.

Long ago I tried to download videos from m3u8 by using videodownloadhelper in firefox. It worked and I was able to download a .mp4 file but I noticed that when I played that .mp4 file it was choppy in some areas and the audio didn't properly play. There is no choppy audio if I download a .ts file by using m3u8 downloader and then converting .ts to mp4. So then does this mean that this method is ok? I know that there are many methods to do it. I just need confirmation that my method is ok and it doesn't corrupt anything in the video.

I want to ask why did I get choppy audio when I directly tried to download a .mp4 file from m3u8 by using videodownloadhelper?

[lomero]

idk. however simply solution: download mkvmerge (better or download MKVToolNix and use GUI), put on same folder with .ts file, open cmd and paste this command:

mkvmerge -o video.mkv video.ts --language 0:en audio.m4a

-o video.mkv is final output. you can edit as you want

--language 0:en audio.m4a is your audio file en language. if another language you can use --language 0:und (und is for Not defined)

[cns00]

Converting from .ts to .mp4 is not the issue. The issue is downloading from .m3u8. Is the way that I am doing it ok?

[white_snake]

Converting from .ts to .mp4 is not the issue. The issue is downloading from .m3u8. Is the way that I am doing it ok?

No, you shouldn't expect a browser extension to do a good job with that. Use yt-dlp instead. Install it and in your command line run:

yt-dlp https://blabla.com/pathto/playlist.m3u8

[cns00]

No, you shouldn't expect a browser extension to do a good job with that.

I don't know. We each have our own preferred way of downloading from m3u8. I have been using the extension m3u8 downloader for many years and I never had any issues. It will download all the chunks and then it combines them into a .ts file.

[white_snake]

No, you shouldn't expect a browser extension to do a good job with that.

I don't know. We each have our own preferred way of downloading from m3u8. I have been using the extension m3u8 downloader for many years and I never had any issues. It will download all the chunks and then it combines them into a .ts file.

You opened a thread asking for others' opinions, I gave you mine. My opinion is, again, that browser extensions are not reliable for this type of stuff, I've had them fail many times especially with large sizes (5+ GiB). Not only that, but they're very limited compared to the tons of options that downloaders like yt-dlp and N_m3u8DL-RE give you. They can download + decrypt (if needed) + mux into a single file all in one go.

Plus, it's impossible to answer your initial question. If you provided the link to the video that downloaded badly for you, I could prove it works better with a proper downloader, but you didn't so...

[cns00]

I've had them fail many times especially with large sizes (5+ GiB)

I am not downloading large files by using m3u8 downloader extension. I mostly download short videos which are under 30 minutes and the file size is small by using the extension and it's perfect for that. I know that there issues with the extension and it's not as advanced as what you use. Sometimes it failed to decrypt the m3u8 link and it said no source found. That's ok and I tried another source for the video.

Plus, it's impossible to answer your initial question. If you provided the link to the video that downloaded badly for you, I could prove it works better with a proper downloader, but you didn't so...

That happened a very long time ago. I tried to download from m3u8 by using the extension videodownloadhelper and I got an mp4 with choppy audio.

[lomero]

again. forget videodownloadhelper and download from m3u8 with N_m3u8DL-RE

[akdev000]

This method seems to work when you receive 403 Forbidden errors while downloading the video (it emulates the same headers that your browser sends):

Using Firefox, open Developer Tools using Ctrl + Shift + I, or click on the 3-line hamburger menu in the top-right (1.) > More Tools (2.) > Web Developer Tools (3.).

Screenshot of Firefox: 3-line Hamburger Menu > More Tools:

[Attachment 82778 - Click to enlarge]

Screenshot of Firefox: More Tools > Developer Tools:

[Attachment 82779 - Click to enlarge]

Go to the Network tab (4.), reload the page, find the appropriate .m3u8 entry, typically named stream.m3u8 or something similar (5.), right-click on it, Copy Value (6.) > Copy as cURL (7.).

Screenshot of Firefox: right-click on stream.m3u8: Copy Value > Copy as cURL

[Attachment 82780 - Click to enlarge]

Then paste the resulting cURL command into here: https://windyakin.github.io/curl2ffmpeg. Download and install the free, open source FFMpeg tool from https://www.ffmpeg.org/ if you don't already have it, paste the resulting ffmpeg command into your commandline (you may have to add a .exe suffix, eg: ffmpeg becomes ffmpeg.exe if you are using Windows) and enjoy the video!