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  1. Member
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    Well you guys must be teaching me something. I have been able to download a few of the American Experience shows of PBS without asking for help.

    Tried a new one today that didn't follow the same ... vidoeInfo .... format.

    Using the debugger in firefox I got :

    http://ga.video.cdn.pbs.org/videos/american-experience/17e3687c-797f-4877-941c-7684247...400-2500k.m3u8

    Using the above example you posted a while back I changed it to this ....

    ffmpeg -i "http://ga.video.cdn.pbs.org/videos/american-experience/17e3687c-797f-4877-941c-7684247cd221/168046/hd-mezzanine-16x9/01780bbd_edison_edisonsday_loc-16x9-hls-400-2500k.m3u8" -c copy 01780bbd_edison_edisonsday_loc-16x9-hls-400-2500k.ts

    IT WORKED !!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Ok so now two minor problems ...

    The video lists as an mpg2-ts-video and has a .ts file extension. Is there a way I could have captured it as an mpg2 or mpg4 ... or how can I change a .ts file to an mpg2 or mpg4? From what you have told me, this is already an mpg2 file, just the "container" is different here and I wanted to make sure all my players can read it ( not sure all recognize a .ts file extension ).

    Second, I looked and there seems to be a new copy of ffmpeg available. The last one you directed me to download last fall had an "windows batch file" attached to activate it. I downloaded the new one and after extracting the files didn't see and exe file. It may be this is just not set up to run on windows. Is there a windows version or am I just not seeing the .exe file?

    Thanks so much again ..... Mike
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  2. I'm a MEGA Super Moderator Baldrick's Avatar
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    You can download latest ffmpeg builds from http://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/ . Get the static one like http://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/win32/static/ffmpeg-20150129-git-4155f2d-win32-static.7z . In the bin folder will you find ffmpeg.exe

    You can also use ffmpeg to try remux/change to mpg,

    ffmpeg -i video.ts -vcodec copy -acodec copy newvideo.mpg
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  3. Deceased
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    Originally Posted by xtal_01 View Post
    I have been able to download a few of the American Experience shows of PBS without asking for help. Tried a new one today that didn't follow the same format.

    Using the debugger in firefox I got :
    Code:
    http://ga.video.cdn.pbs.org/videos/american-experience/17e3687c-797f-4877-941c-7684247cd221/168046/hd-mezzanine-16x9/01780bbd_edison_edisonsday_loc-16x9-hls-400-2500k.m3u8
    The video clip is available at video.pbs.org. It is almost never the case that pbs videos aren't there, even if they are featured somewhere else.

    http://video.pbs.org/video/2365409328/

    Even if you only the find the m3u8 for some reason, you can usually edit what you find to the mp4 url.
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    The link you sent me too is for the full length show. I found it last night and was able to download it using the instructions you sent me last fall .... I have followed them several times and they always work great!

    What I was trying to download was one of the "extra" features ( a 16 minute silent film from 1928) on the PBS site. Here is the original page:

    http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/bonus-video/edison-day/

    Because there is no .../video/... to change into ..../videoInfo/.... I was a bit lost.

    I tried searching using Debugger in Firefox and that is how I came up with the m3u8 link. Using the example for ffmpeg you gave me last fall, I modified the link and was able to download the file.

    Like I said, my problem now becomes what to do with a .ts file. In the earlier posts you said the "video file" will be the same in most cases but the "container" is different. So what I want to do is change the "container" from a .ts file to a .mpg2 or .mpg4 file.

    I will give it a try the the info Baldrick gave me and see what happens.

    Thanks .... Mike
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  5. Deceased
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    Originally Posted by xtal_01 View Post
    The link you sent me too is for the full length show.
    Did you actually look at the link?

    Because it is not for the full length show, it is for the bonus clip you referenced at the start of this thread.

    The flow chart to follow when looking for pbs episodes or clips;

    visit video.pbs.org

    select the show tiltle - in this case; http://video.pbs.org/program/american-experience

    select "episodes" for episodes - for this show; http://video.pbs.org/program/american-experience/episodes/
    or
    select "clips" for clips - for this show; http://video.pbs.org/program/american-experience/shorts/
    Last edited by blimey; 29th Jan 2015 at 15:12.
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  6. Member
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    Duuuuuu .... yes, I actually opened it but I was to stupid to look closely at it! Just saw the advertising start and thought it was the same link as I found.

    Thanks again for keeping me straight!

    As my dad use to tell me ... stop and read before opening you mouth and sounding stupid.

    Out of interest, from the link I had ( which was the actual page or the Edison PBS show ), how did you know where to find this link or did you just do a search?

    Thanks again ..... Mike
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  7. Deceased
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    You mentioned the show title, and I could see "edisonsday" in your m3u8 url, from there I followed the flow chart above.

    You can convert the ts to mp4 with ffmpeg;
    Code:
    ffmpeg -i "input.ts" -vcodec copy -acodec copy -absf aac_adtstoasc "output.mp4"
    But I don't recommend doing so for pbs videos, because the ts audio is inferior (for reasons that I've explained in other pbs threads here). Also, for the pbs ts sources, there is a good chance that the remuxed file (ts-->mp4) will have audio sync issues.

    01780bbd_edison_edisonsday_loc-16x9-hls-400-2500k.m3u8

    01780bbd_edison_edisonsday_loc-16x9-mp4-baseline.mp4

    Notice that the m3u8 url can be edited to the mp4 url by changing the end of the url.
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  8. Member
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    You are awesome!!!!!!!!

    I have saved a file on everything you have taught me from day one.

    I will add these notes to the file!

    I did read about the ts audio and have been able to get the mp4 files directly for everything I downloaded so far.

    I was actually on the right track ... I changed the ending from:

    01780bbd_edison_edisonsday_loc-16x9-hls-400-2500k.m3u8

    to:

    01780bbd_edison_edisonsday_loc-16x9-hls-2500k.mp4

    Close but no cigar!

    Thanks so very much for your help once again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Mike
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