Video stream can be read with VLC but download stops after a few MB

[abolibibelot]

Hi,
I'm trying to download this video from a catch-up TV service :
https://arteptweb-a.akamaihd.net/am/ptweb/041000/041100/041140-000-A_SQ_0_VO-STF_04606...EmWt17N3UZ.mp4
Normally it's no longer available on the original website as the delay has expired, but I found the direct link here :
https://www.vavideo.de/inhalt?id=2507212
If I try to download it, it stops after about 26MB -- I tried through the browser, then with with curl.exe and the "Convert/Record" module in VLC Media Player. Yet I can play it with VLC Media Player beyond that point (sometimes it stops, but I can fast-forward to seemingly any point all the way to the end). So is there a way to download the whole video ?
Please reply ASAP, as the link may become invalid anytime soon.
Thanks.

[abolibibelot]

So, I managed to get the whole stream with good old NetTransport 1.94, by resuming repeatedly when the download stopped (sometimes it worked right away, sometimes I had to retry several times, or wait a few seconds, it stopped 10-15 times in about 25 minutes).
But I would still be interested in a method which would deal with that kind of situation automatically. I then retried curl with the --retry parameter, but it still stopped at the first transmission issue.

I:\captvty-2.8.4-autoextract\tools>curl --insecure --retry 100 --retry-delay 5 https://arteptweb-a.akamaihd.net/am/ptweb/041000/041100/041140-000-A_SQ_0_VO-STF_04606927_MP4-2200_AMM-PTWEB_1EmWt17N3UZ.mp4 -o "I:\Broken curl retry.mp4"
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
  1 1853M    1 30.0M    0     0  1191k      0  0:26:33  0:00:25  0:26:08 1211k
curl: (18) transfer closed with 1911761429 bytes remaining to read

[therain]

streamlink

C:\Users\Test>streamlink https://arteptweb-vh.akamaihd.net/i/am/ptweb/041000/0411
00/041140-000-A_EXT_1_VA-STA_AMM-PTWEB_EXTRAIT_XQ.1E3a5165ved.smil/master.m3u8 b
est -o "D:/Testing01.ts"
[cli][info] Found matching plugin hls for URL https://arteptweb-vh.akamaihd.net/
i/am/ptweb/041000/041100/041140-000-A_EXT_1_VA-STA_AMM-PTWEB_EXTRAIT_XQ.1E3a5165
ved.smil/master.m3u8
[cli][info] Available streams: 61k (worst), 216p, 360p, 406p, 720p (best)
[cli][info] Opening stream: 720p (hls)
[download][Testing01.ts] Written 47.0 MB (40s @ 1.4 MB/s)
[cli][info] Stream ended
[cli][info] Closing currently open stream...

[abolibibelot]

Thanks for the reply. I didn't try the M3U8 stream, as the direct HTTP stream was available (albeit barely).
But the link you tested with actually points to a short excerpt, not the whole video. On this website, when the availability delay has expired (generally 7 days), the original JSON page no longer displays the links to the full length streams, but instead those of short excerpts (as shown by "EXT" and "EXTRAIT"). The website linked above (vavideo.de) apparently stores the original links (including the one I copied above, for the best quality 720p stream in non-dubbed and french subtitled version, the resulting file is 1.80 GB / 1h39min), which may still work for a while even though they're no longer referenced. And it stores only the direct HTTP links, so I couldn't even have tried the M3U8 link in that case.

So, again, is there a method, with curl or any other tool, which can deal with such a situation where a video stream randomly ceases to transmit, and resume the download automatically until the file is complete ? With curl, what is the --retry option for if not precisely for that very purpose ?

[abolibibelot]

(Sorry, double post... I'm currently trying to solve a completely unrelated and much more complicated issue on my main computer, and posting from my older computer using IE11.)