capturing BBC Olympic catch-up videos?

[LanceBehind]

Working via a Proxy slows down everything so much for me. Si i have downloaded the videos I needed from YouTube olympic with FFMPEG but some are missing. The missing videos I want to download from http://www.eurovisionsports.tv/london2012/index.html?video_id=7864

But I can not find the URL needed for FFMPEG.

Can somebody shine some light for me on this problem.

Thanks

Lance

[ayupduck]

If you get "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file" error when you try to install, update or start a program or file" when trying to install get_iplayer I believe I have found an answer:

Copy the get_iplayer_setup_latest.exe file to an external drive or a memory stick. This avoids the Windows file permissions errors.

Once I had this file on a memory stick, rather than my c:\ drive, it ran without error. I hope this helps others with this issue.

[samuelmorris]

Dear LanceBehind,
I am very anxious to find out how to do it, Please guide me through
THX

Start Firefox :

Go to www.youtube.com/olympic
Pick your sport and the video you want to download
Open web console (CTRL-SHIFT-K)
Optional - Unselect CSS, JS, & Logging on the menu bar
Type in "m3u8" in the filter on top right
Start the video you want to see
Click the gear icon on bottom right of video and select the quality you want (typically 1080) and you'll see a new m3u8 file appear
Copy this link to CTLR-C
Use this URL for the "-i" option of ffmpeg

Goto Start Type CMD

Move to your FFMEG directory : (for example C: and CD FFMPEG/bin)
Type in : ffmpeg -i (YOUR URL WITH m3u8 at the END (* CTLR V won't work so use right mouse button) -c copy output.ts

Hope this helps

Lance

This system was shut down yesterday, so this method will no longer be usable

If anyone knows if the system will still respond when proxied from other countries, I'd like to know.

Thanks

[iplayer_watcher]

Does anybody know how to complete the indexing or tagging of a download that has broken down in the final tagging process? When the video is all downloaded on some big files, the tagging or indexing often breaks down and the files you are left with do play, but you can't jump about in them quickly. You get "filename.default.partial.mp4.flv"

[samuelmorris]

You have to double check that the file did actually finish. There are several outcomes:

get_iplayer crashed during download (Sanity check error) -> Results in .partial.flv which is not usable
get_iplayer encountered a timeout which could not be resumed (most common) -> Results in .partial.flv which is often usable but not the full length you wanted
get_iplayer encountered a corruption which it ignored -> usually results in completed .mp4 but not the full length you wanted
get_iplayer exceeded the file size limit (4GB) -> Results in .partial.flv which is often usable but not the full length you wanted
You downloaded a time-limited file starting at t=0 -> Usually Results in .mp4 which is usable
You downloaded a time-limited file starting somewhere after t=0 -> Results in .partial.flv which is usable

When you get a .partial.flv that is usable, you will first need to transcode it, since get_iplayer partial files do not have headers for playback (so will result in incorrect playback, if any at all). Very few programs are able to deal with files that are missing headers, but one that I have had success with is Handbrake.
HandBrake is a useful tool for weeding out failed downloads that might otherwise have gone unnoticed (because the duration will never display correctly otherwise) - if a file was only half downloaded, the output file from HandBrake will only be half the length it should be. However, usually you can work this out for yourself by looking at the size of the .partial.flv.
If you transcode the file to MP4 or MKV using HandBrake, your .partial file should now be playable.
If you're splitting files into parts to get around the 4GB file size limit, remember to name your files so you know which is which!


Lastly, as a reminder, the BBC Olympic Streams are removed on JANUARY 13TH 2013. If you want to download a lot of data before then, best get a move on!

Hope this helps

Sam

[mpjmcevoy]

As of today , Jan 4, get iplayer requests seem to get a 0 programmes found response

[samuelmorris]

I had that with one particular file last night, but it certainly doesn't seem to be affecting all of them as the file I've just tried is working "fine", or as fine as get_iplayer ever has...

Perhaps it's affecting the HD streams? I'm fast running out of time to download what I need so have had to abandon the HD streams for the most part, as the unreliability means I have to download them often 6 or 7 times to get the file, which simply takes too long at the cap rate of 1200KB/s.
The SD streams don't fail quite as often, and in addition to being a smaller file size, have a higher cap of 2500KB/s, so they're easier to get (Plus of course you can download streams larger than 2h30). It's worth pointing out that the SD content and HD content are hosted with different providers.

[samuelmorris]

1 day early or 3 days early, depending on which report you read, the BBC iplayer system has now been shut down.
Due to a large number of setbacks with hard disk corruption and scheduling issues, I was only able to completely archive as far as Hockey, with a small number of odd videos scattered for the others. It's a real tragedy that this system wasn't left on for people to use long after, and also disappointing it was shut down early.

[DB83]

1 day early or 3 days early, depending on which report you read, the BBC iplayer system has now been shut down.
Due to a large number of setbacks with hard disk corruption and scheduling issues, I was only able to completely archive as far as Hockey, with a small number of odd videos scattered for the others. It's a real tragedy that this system wasn't left on for people to use long after, and also disappointing it was shut down early.

OMG !! How long do you want the UK licence-payers to keep this live for ?

I previously stated that normal i-player recording are only available for 7-30 days and you get these for almost 5 months.

[samuelmorris]

Yeah it's asking a huge amount I realise. Difference is in the vast majority of cases, all other iplayer content will be available elsewhere, either on an eventual DVD, re-aired on TV at a future time, or as a buyable episode online. The closure of the iplayer system marks the removal of more than 95% of this content from existence.

[DB83]

Well there is a 6 (or is it 8) dvd set from the BBC. Of course is does not include (and no one, or atleast very few, would buy) every single minute of the 3-week event.

Like I said, 5 months should have been enough time to grab what you want and the BBC do not run their i-player service with that in mind as recordings (in theory) are DRM protected.

[vhelp]

i have never seen an rebroadcasted (any part) of any olympic games. if you didn't d/l them by now, you would have been better off to'ov analog captured or recorded them to vhs. long story short, (because of the air time each event was broadcasted) i did not record the 2012 games to vhs like i do every olympic games. instead, i captured them--only the events i was interested in. i missed most of the "cheeky" stuff, (they place the cams on side views for the women's swimming) but lets hope that the Rio games in Brazel will be less strict in cheek showings. hey, isn't it a sex/party country? anyway, we shall see..

[CristianoA]

TubeDigger 3.1.2 can capture videos from bbc.co.uk

[DB83]

TubeDigger 3.1.2 can capture videos from bbc.co.uk

Well that information is now as useful as a rubber johnny in The Vatican as far as this topic is concerned.

And more than that it is pay-ware so why pay when the free get i-player can do the job quite adequately.