PBS subtitles in 2025

[beejaykas]

Just wondering, has PBS changed something with their subtitles recently?
I'm not a frequent user but I'm pretty sure I've managed to download subtitles before, using the traditional method
(Developer Tools in Chrome, search for .vtt files)

Let's take this video
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/trumps-comeback/

It gives me two .vtt files
https://ga.pbs-video.pbs.org/videos/frontline/8e04d2ca-0265-4308-94e2-1ee6edb18fb3/200...s_622_0_en.vtt

This is for the trailer that is somehow part of this page.

And the second is
https://ga.pbs-video.pbs.org/trick_play/frontline/8e04d2ca-0265-4308-94e2-1ee6edb18fb3...trick_play.vtt

This has timecodes only but no text.
Why such a file name? Are they trying to use tricks to hide the subtitle file, and openly stating this with the name?

Or what am I doing wrong to get a .vtt file for the whole video, not just the trailer?

[2nHxWW6GkN1l916N3ayz8HQoi]

yt-dlp + stream detector addon

yt-dlp "https://ga.pbs-video.pbs.org/videos/frontline/8e04d2ca-0265-4308-94e2-1ee6edb18fb3/2000460850/hd-16x9-mezzanine-1080p/00004311_coveop1a_v002-AABR-AVC_622.m3u8" --write-sub --skip-download

Your subtitle
https://www.swisstransfer.com/d/47d567cc-464f-4e84-b12e-db3ff1abb382

[beejaykas]

Thank you - so it's officially not as easy anymore as those guides from a few years back show? You not only need yt-dlp but also another add-on to do it?
Just looking for a .vtt file or somehow using a general video link (another guide for PBS from years ago) no longer works, ever?

[2nHxWW6GkN1l916N3ayz8HQoi]

No idea. I just gave you the first solution I found.

Edit: turns out you can just use yt-dlp with the original url

yt-dlp "https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/trumps-comeback/" --write-subs --skip-download