How to save videos from Pluto TV/Chrome cache

[xonathan]

Hello everyone,

I'm trying to save/capture some video from the free app Pluto TV. I've tried screen captures but I don't like the results. I go to pluto.tv/live-tv/ and I want to save it directly from the stream. Using VideoCacheView I can see the bits of stream in mp2t files. But I've tried opening them with VLC, MPC, even merging them and nothing. The cache files do not open. VLC just crashes. Is there any other way to download the streams from this app? Other program to capture the stream? What's a good screen capture that's lite and keeps resolution? Thanks

[jagabo]

Get the m3u8 url for the channel with a web browser's Developer Tools (F12). Then use vlc to save the streamed video (Media -> Convert/Save...).

[xonathan]

Thank you. What browser should I use to get the Developer Tools? Sorry, this is new to me

[jagabo]

All the major browers have Developer Tools built in. Press F12 to get to it. Go to the Network tab to see a list of all the files opened by the browser (you may have to refresh the web page if you've already opened it). For Pluto.tv filter for "master.m3u8" and you'll see URL you need. Right click on it and copy to the paste buffer.

[xonathan]

Thank you that did it!

[Beatlemoe82]

Ok, I have tried this trick and it has worked. My question is when converting the video to MP4 format. I get the first part of the video up until the first commercial ad, then it stops. I can’t get the rest of the stream to convert. What do I need to do?

[ChezBompaLawijt]

Ok, I have tried this trick and it has worked. My question is when converting the video to MP4 format. I get the first part of the video up until the first commercial ad, then it stops. I can’t get the rest of the stream to convert. What do I need to do?

Videolink?

[Denver70]

Did you ever find an answer for this? I am trying to solve the same problem. Streamlink works and is elegant, but the ads get saved into the final file. I've found no way to skip them with the StreamLink Pluto plugin. VLC made a mess out of the saved Ts file and it cut off several segments anyway, much like OPs.

Does anyone have a better solution? You can go to any Pluto VOD (not live) stream to see what happens. I have tried several different VOD programs from there, and they all come out the same way.

[ladydarbanville]

hello

I'm french thanks for your help with Pluto tv

For rakuten tv please help me, not "master.m3u8"

thanks

[lomero]

write video link

[jagabo]

For rakuten tv please help me, not "master.m3u8"

I don't have an account so I couldn't watch any full length material. But I was able to download a trailer via an mpd link.

youtube-dl https://prod-kami.wuaki.tv/v1/delivery/dash/magazine/d214b94f-e413-4755-afdf-1fcba5fff8fa.mpd

The mpd link may change periodically so you may have to get a fresh one with Developer Tools.

[ladydarbanville]

It's possible tio s

[stauffacher]

Did you ever find an answer for this?

I've recently tried to download a video from pluto.tv on-demand by running "youtube-dl https://fullpath/playlist.m3u8". It turned out that youtube-dl was not able to read the m3u8 file. From my experience, if you cannot download playlist/manifest manually, then it is not accessible to youtube-dl / ffmpeg.

In this case, the playlist was in the request body.
It seems not possible to download the request body from devtools, but one can copy it to the clipboard and then save as a file.

In Chrome, press F12 or Ctrl-Shift-i, navigate to you page with the video, press the "play" button. In Developper Tools choose the "Network" tab and type "playlist.m3u8" into the search field. You will see several links to the playlist. Reload if the request list is empty. Some links are damaged or empty. Sort them by size and choose the largest one. Click left mouse button on the link, on the right side appears a new panel. Choose "Response" - you will see the content of the playlist, copy it and save as an m3u8-file. You can also click right mouse button and select "Copy -> Copy response". Play it back with vlc or download the video by running "ffmpeg -i file.m3u8 -c copy video.mp4".