A download issue [discovery+]

[CrymanChen]

[Attachment 65685 - Click to enlarge]

I found this mpd file, and tried to download it because I've already got the keys.

But ytdlp gave an http 403 error.

Any solution? Thanks~


[Attachment 65686 - Click to enlarge]

[CrymanChen]

I also added "--allow-u" to download unplayable formats and "--cookies-from-browser chrome" to extract cookies from chrome in case of authentication needed.

[lomero]

try to add -o video.mp4
and also --referer "http:\\link"

but from mpd i see date Prod_5April2021&exp=.... i think it's expired mpd link

[Axel Slingerland]

I've never done anything like that on Discovery+, I just put addresses of videos in a batch file like so:

@echo off
cd Movies

yt-dlp.exe --cookies c:\yt-dlp\cookies.txt --output %%(title)s.%%(ext)s https://www.discoveryplus.com/video/path-to-video-1
yt-dlp.exe --cookies c:\yt-dlp\cookies.txt --output %%(title)s.%%(ext)s https://www.discoveryplus.com/video/path-to-video-2
yt-dlp.exe --cookies c:\yt-dlp\cookies.txt --output %%(title)s.%%(ext)s https://www.discoveryplus.com/video/path-to-video-3

pause

All I had to do was log in and copy the cookies in advance (I used a Google Chrome addon called "Get Cookies.txt" to accomplish that), run the batch file and it downloads them all, without any fuss. No digging for links, keys or CLI command typing needed. A membership is required. I've been using youtube-dl, youtube-dl-gui and later yt-dlp to download, and Discovery+ is one of the very few sites that no download has ever failed, except when my ISP has been playing yo-yo with my connection. A simple restart of the batch file usually gets it running again.

[CrymanChen]

try to add -o video.mp4
and also --referer "http:\\link"

but from mpd i see date Prod_5April2021&exp=.... i think it's expired mpd link

Thanks. I'll give it another try later~

[CrymanChen]

I've never done anything like that on Discovery+, I just put addresses of videos in a batch file like so:

@echo off
cd Movies

yt-dlp.exe --cookies c:\yt-dlp\cookies.txt --output %%(title)s.%%(ext)s https://www.discoveryplus.com/video/path-to-video-1
yt-dlp.exe --cookies c:\yt-dlp\cookies.txt --output %%(title)s.%%(ext)s https://www.discoveryplus.com/video/path-to-video-2
yt-dlp.exe --cookies c:\yt-dlp\cookies.txt --output %%(title)s.%%(ext)s https://www.discoveryplus.com/video/path-to-video-3

pause

All I had to do was log in and copy the cookies in advance (I used a Google Chrome addon called "Get Cookies.txt" to accomplish that), run the batch file and it downloads them all, without any fuss. No digging for links, keys or CLI command typing needed. A membership is required. I've been using youtube-dl, youtube-dl-gui and later yt-dlp to download, and Discovery+ is one of the very few sites that no download has ever failed, except when my ISP has been playing yo-yo with my connection. A simple restart of the batch file usually gets it running again.

Many thanks to your reply from which I have learned a lot.

[srt4bob]

Discovery+ has made a larger push rolling out their DRM over the past 24 hours..

[Axel Slingerland]

As in what, specifically? It doesn't seem like they would actually replace all of their shows, of which they claimed when they started that they had 55,000 episodes of many different TV shows, and I know they have a lot more than that now.

Edit: I get it... AT&T struck again. WarnerMedia and Discovery+ have merged. Whether it's a good or a bad thing remains to be seen.

[monsterbubble]

use youtube-dl and add --verbose --cookies <insert cookies.txt> <add website link from the video you want>

[CrymanChen]

Folks,
issue solved.
Just use "ytdlp <this website url> --cookies-from-browser <type the browser that you have logged in to paramountplus> -N 6"
Weird that in paramountplus, you donot need to input the mpd url, just the website url is OK.
Picture below.

[Attachment 65735 - Click to enlarge]

[Axel Slingerland]

use youtube-dl and add --verbose --cookies <insert cookies.txt> <add website link from the video you want>

So far, I've never used --verbose. What can I say? What would I do with debugging information?

Weird that in paramountplus, you donot need to input the mpd url, just the website url is OK.

I don't even have a membership there and can download a good bit of stuff. Like most sites I go to, there are some DRM files I can't download, but most of what I've tried has worked. I think that's their way of preventing people from having entire TV series they can release on DVDs somewhere...

[ElCap]

Folks,
issue solved.
Just use "ytdlp <this website url> --cookies-from-browser <type the browser that you have logged in to paramountplus> -N 6"
Weird that in paramountplus, you donot need to input the mpd url, just the website url is OK.

you can use the website url for discovery plus because yt-dlp has an extractor built in for it (along with a lot of others).
you can find the list of extractors and their scripts here

[CrymanChen]

Folks,
issue solved.
Just use "ytdlp <this website url> --cookies-from-browser <type the browser that you have logged in to paramountplus> -N 6"
Weird that in paramountplus, you donot need to input the mpd url, just the website url is OK.

you can use the website url for discovery plus because yt-dlp has an extractor built in for it (along with a lot of others).
you can find the list of extractors and their scripts here

Whoa... It is so nice of you to give me this itp~

[Axel Slingerland]

Folks,
issue solved.
Just use...

I wish I had seen your post before now...

If anyone uses batch files, and here's what I do for Discovery+ now...

@echo off

rem Show Title
yt-dlp.exe --format dash-video=xxxx000+dash-audio_eng-125000 --cookies-from-browser chrome -N 6 --output %%(title)s.%%(ext)s https://www.discoveryplus.com/video/show_title 

pause

You have to run --list-formats to get the correct dash-video=xxxx000 number, but other than that it runs like a top. Thanks, CrymanChen...

[ElCap]

You have to run --list-formats to get the correct dash-video=xxxx000 number, but other than that it runs like a top.

if you know that the id you want always ends with "000", you can use this argument to automate it:

-f "bv[format_id$=000],ba"

or if it always starts with "dash-video", you can use this:

-f "bv[format_id^=dash-video],ba"

[Axel Slingerland]

if you know that the id you want always ends with "000", you can use this argument to automate it:

-f "bv[format_id$=000],ba"

How would that select the right file? This is a random file I grabbed for an example:

[ElCap]

I assumed that you were selecting the id based on the name starting with or ending with specific text.
I was suggesting a way to fully automate the batch script without having to list the formats first.

[Quint]

It's only one soundtrack anyway. Where is the problem? Are there sometimes additional languages? Then you could use
ba[language=en-US]
for English sound.

[Axel Slingerland]

I assumed that you were selecting the id based on the name starting with or ending with specific text.
I was suggesting a way to fully automate the batch script without having to list the formats first.

Thanks, but I was going for the four numbers before the three 0's. The point being, I have an old school 1080p HDTV, and I don't see any point in downloading video that is any higher quality than it will display properly. It's a waste of hard drive space.

If I don't specify a specific format, it will download the highest quality video. Which for my TV is way more than it needs. It plays the file ok, but the display is 1080p. And if you look at the last 1920x1080 file listed, it says "dash-video=9878000", and if you scroll across to the other side, it says "3.01Gib" and "9878k". But if I download the first 1280x720 file, which is "dash-video=1825000", and if you scroll across to the other side, it says "569.20Mib" and "1825k". I can watch them both and they look the same on my TV, and the "720" is about 2.5Gb smaller.

However, I think there is a way to limit the filesize, but I haven't tried it. I'll have to look into that...

[ElCap]

ah ok, it sounds like you have a few constraints to consider.
the yt-dlp github page has some good examples
https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp#format-selection-examples

[Axel Slingerland]

I tried adding "--limit-rate 1000k" to my command, but it didn't work. But until I come up with something better, I re-wrote my batch file so that it has a command for checking the formats, then pause it, so I can go back to the file and change those 4 numbers and save the file, and then go back to the batch file and hit a key and it downloads the file.

I had put a -P [location] command in to specify where to download the files to, but it's actually faster to just copy the file and put it where I want to download to, then delete it when I'm finished. Because my my vision is gets worse at times depending on what my blood glucose is, how tired I am, how much pain I'm in, etc., and the fact that I hate typing the same things over and over. So I just copy the file and put it where ever I need it.

[kenyard]

I tried adding "--limit-rate 1000k" to my command, but it didn't work.

-r 1.0M

[Quint]

Of course, this will not work regarding which resolution you prefer. This will just limit the download rate, in order not to download too fast if the provider doesn't like that and could ban your IP/account.
I don't get the point. You write you want the best quality, but then you want 720p. What is your goal?

[Axel Slingerland]

It's only one soundtrack anyway. Where is the problem? Are there sometimes additional languages? Then you could use
ba[language=en-US]
for English sound.

I wasn't talking about audio or languages.

Of course, this will not work regarding which resolution you prefer. This will just limit the download rate, in order not to download too fast if the provider doesn't like that and could ban your IP/account.

You're right about this, I misunderstood the manual.

I don't get the point. You write you want the best quality, but then you want 720p. What is your goal?

I never said I wanted the best quality. And I don't, because I don't need it. Read what I wrote about my TV... It explains why I don't need the best quality and what I am trying to do.


Edit: I found another setting the the yt-dlp man page, --max-filesize SIZE, but it didn't eliminate files larger than 1Gb either. So unless anyone has a better idea, I guess my edited batch file that checks formats and gets paused, so I can get the four numbers I have to change for every file I want to download, then edit and save the batch file and find the "Any Key" and press it so the file will get downloaded will have to do.

[Quint]

Sorry for my complete misunderstanding. Next time I will answer the next morning...

This looks promising:

"
You can select the n'th best format of a type by using best<type>.<n>. For example, best.2 will select the 2nd best combined format. Similarly, bv*.3 will select the 3rd best format that contains a video stream.
"

[Axel Slingerland]

Next time I will answer the next morning...

Hey, I should do that at rimes myself! There have been many times I should have sat on my hands and said nothing. I would put my foot in my mouth a lot less if I would just remember that I don't always know as much as I think I know. Specially when I know next to nothing about whatever a discussion is about.

You can select the n'th best format of a type by using best<type>.<n>. For example, best.2 will select the 2nd best combined format. Similarly, bv*.3 will select the 3rd best format that contains a video stream.

I tried that and it works well IF you have a consistent list of formats. But the problem with that is they're not always consistent. In fact, it's rare to find files that are all the exact same in a group of files, such as a TV series. At least that's been the case for me...

[Quint]

Hm. I seem not to understand again. Carefully: You say this variable would only work if you had always the same formats? But it's a variable, or do I get the sense of "best.2" wrongly?
By the way: I am also a "retired guitarrist".

[Axel Slingerland]

No, I said "a consistent list of formats." And what I meant was, the list would always be the same, and that rarely ever happens. Basically stated, video files are not created equal. If they were, this would be easy to automate. But one file might have three 1920x1080 files with three different bitrates, and the next file you want might have two of each, and the next one might have four of each.

If you scroll up to post #15, ElCap wrote:

if you know that the id you want always ends with "000", you can use this argument to automate it:

-f "bv[format_id$=000],ba"

or if it always starts with "dash-video", you can use this:

-f "bv[format_id^=dash-video],ba"

And the reason neither of those would work for what I am trying to do, is what I need is the four numbers (xxxx) in the dash-video=xxxx000 filename. The end of that is always the same, as is the beginning, it's those four numbers in the middle that always change. And those numbers always match the bitrate of the file, but I have yet to find a way to make yt-dlp automatically select the files I want without looking them and typing the numbers into the batch file manually.

If I was downloading a TV series, I used to be able to just make a list of all the files, use my text editor's macro function to add a pre-written yt-dlp command at the beginning of each line, save the file and run it. It would ten download all the files. But now, I can still do that, but I have to put each address into a file set up to --list-formats, and edit each line to download the correct file. That process is very tedious and time consuming, which is why I have been trying to find a way to automate the finding of the correct file. I thought that setting a --min-filesize and --max-filesize would work but it didn't. I also tried every other command or setting that seemed to be related, and none of them worked. The bottom line is due to my inexperience in these matters, I'm officially stumped. I have no idea how to do this other than the way I have been, editing each line individually. That of course, is better than nothing, but considering that I have files that range from heights of 480 to 1080, with many different bitrates, there are just too many possibilities. So I am very happy that not all websites use this dash format.

And it's always a pleasure to meet other retired guitarists. One of the only times I ever got "star struck" was back in the mid 1990s, I was working as a bellman at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park, and Larry Carlton checked in. He was the "1st Call" session guitarist in Los Angeles in the 1970's, and is on practically every major rock, blues or jazz album of that time. When I was at the front desk, I said nothing to him, as it was against company policy to talk to "famous people" unless they speak to you first. When we were going to his room, I pointed at his guitar case and asked him "Is that your 1968 ES-335?", and that struck up a very nice (albeit short) conversation about guitar gear. He's a walking encyclopedia on equipment. I learned a lot from him in that 20 minute conversation.

[Quint]

...
But one file might have three 1920x1080 files with three different bitrates
...

That's the point, I see. Didn't think of that. So you really have to wait until they give yt-dlp the ability to pick the best of a specified resolution. Or you write a python script (or something in another language) that downloads all mpds, searches for '720'-entries and constructs your batch automatically, or then simply does the download itself.

And it's always a pleasure to meet other retired guitarists. ...

Thanks for this nice story! I studied classical guitar in a former life. Next week I' ll meet someone more from "your side", might become an interesting exchange. You never really retire from nothing...

[ElCap]

So you really have to wait until they give yt-dlp the ability to pick the best of a specified resolution.

thats possible already with the following argument

-S "height:720"

example:

yt-dlp -S "height:720" --cookies-from-browser chrome -N 6 --output %%(title)s.%%(ext)s https://www.discoveryplus.com/video/show_title

that will sort the output formats the same as before but any id with a higher resolution than 720p will be put at the bottom of the priority list. (which is at the top when using --list-formats as its sorting worst at the top to best at the bottom of the screen)
so it "should" select the highest bitrate 720p video id.

or you could use the filtering formats way (instead of sorting) to pick the best video with resolution 720p or lower and the best audio

-f "bv[height<=720],ba"

the documentation for yt-dlp also has examples for choosing formats based on filesize but i found that to be hit or miss with anything other than youtube.

you could try this as a command to pick the best video less than 1GB and the best audio (it worked on 7plus):

-f "bv[filesize_approx<1G],ba"

you could also try limiting it by the video bitrate
example below will pick the highest bitrate video but below 3000kbps, and the best audio

-f "bv[vbr<3000],ba"