"failure to render" when trying to play a downloaded

[amichaelglg]

It appears anything I download from antennaplus.gr web site fails to play in any media player (tried VLC & MPC). Tried to download various quality levels with the same results.
I am using Chrome under Win 10 pro with Video Downloader Plus plugin and tried Video Downloader Help plugin both - same results.
The file gets downloaded of a decent and appropriate size, but just cannot play it.

Here is a link to just one example of episode 4 of Dragons Den
https://watch.antennaplus.gr/?session_state=44406b39-63ae-4823-b641-ee7309da0f7f#/show...1_E004_v1/play

The episodes once downloaded are showing as blocked in the properties file and I do unblock them , so that's is not the issue.

One thing i did notice when trying to download using Video Downloader Plus is the message at the bottom of all the choices to download various quality levels is:
Note to this video!
You need to wait until video completely preloads, then start to download.
Otherwise, you will download only pre-loaded part.

Not quite sure whether this is the issue. If i let the series play completely before choosing an option to download, the web page simply goes to the previous main page at which point there is noting for me to download! So not quite sure how I am supposed to do what it says...if that is indeed the problem.

Can anyone help please? I obviously had to create a free account which then allowed me download from this website, plus I use a VPN to Greece to allow gain access.

[LZAA]

Need access.

[amichaelglg]

Not sure what you are trying to tell me

[davexnet]

Not sure what you are trying to tell me

You should spend a bit more time reading the posts in this sub forum then you'd know.
He's offering to do the download for you if you're prepared to give him your credentials via PM

[naim2007]

@davexnet

I totaly give up from some members around here.

[amichaelglg]

It's not one specific episode. There are various things I need and ongoing will need to download. If it was a one off I could pass the details on. Sounds like you may be telling me it's not that straight forward to convert into something I can normally play.

[davexnet]

It's not one specific episode. There are various things I need and ongoing will need to download. If it was a one off I could pass the details on. Sounds like you may be telling me it's not that straight forward to convert into something I can normally play.

It's not hard to covert but there are some assumptions.
Did you sucessfully download the file(s) to your hard drive?
Are the files clear (not encrypted)?

[amichaelglg]

Files.download easily enough. I cannot tell if they are encrypted. How can I tell? Is the a program I can run against it to tel if it's encrypted?

[davexnet]

Files.download easily enough. I cannot tell if they are encrypted. How can I tell? Is the a program I can run against it to tel if it's encrypted?

You could drop the files into mediainfo, engage view/text mode and see if it reveals anything useful. (you could post the info here if
you're not sure)
Or drop them into MKVToolnix GUI and create an MKV see if that plays.

[amichaelglg]

medianfo shows:
General
Complete name : C:\Users\andrew\Downloads\[1920x1080] ANT1+ Dragons Den Greece.mp4
Format : QuickTime
Format/Info : Original Apple specifications
File size : 2.81 GiB
FileExtension_Invalid : braw mov qt

I just downloaded MKVToolnix will give that a go and report back

[amichaelglg]

just tried to open the file in MKVToolnix and got a popup "unrecognised file format". the file.......was not recognised as a supported format (exit code: 0)

[davexnet]

Thats why I siggested putting mediainfo into view/text mode, it give much more info. Do that and post it all here

[amichaelglg]

[Attachment 69338 - Click to enlarge]

The information is above..

[davexnet]

mediainfo ususally has a lot more info see here for an example
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/392273-x264-with-manually-setted-ref-parameter-and...me#post2543225
You file must be either encrypted or it's corrupted somehow

If you open the file with a hex editor (here I'm using HxD) you can see the typical mov/mp4 header at the start of the file

[amichaelglg]

[Attachment 69340 - Click to enlarge]

this is what mine looks like in HxD.
I dont think its protected as I selected the protected column in the properties of the file and its blank - so no DRM.
If it is corrupted, then i guess its the Video Downloader Plus plugin i am using in Chrome to download it - is doing something very weird with it. Although I dont see any issues, becuase at the end of downloading it prompts me to save the downloaded file, which appears to do so successfully.

[amichaelglg]

I'll check back in tomorrow if there are any other suggestions. I am off to sleep as I am on the other side of the pond and its late!

[davexnet]

Two choices: share your credentials as was mentioned earlier, or upload the file as-is to a hosting site so somebody here can look at it

[larits]

It's just a straightforward m3u8 download, no encryption or anything. The file plays fine, so there's something wrong on your end.

Using yt-dlp:

yt-dlp "https://antenna-avod.akamaized.net/356/6468823/playlist_wifi_high.m3u8"

General
Complete name                            : /Dragons.Den.mp4
Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : Base Media
Codec ID                                 : isom (isom/iso2/avc1/mp41)
File size                                : 2.88 GiB
Duration                                 : 1 h 15 min
Overall bit rate mode                    : Constant
Overall bit rate                         : 5 431 kb/s
Writing application                      : Lavf58.76.100

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : Baseline@L4
Format settings                          : 3 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : No
Format settings, Reference frames        : 3 frames
Format settings, GOP                     : M=1, N=50
Codec ID                                 : avc1
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                                 : 1 h 15 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 5 300 kb/s
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 25.000 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.102
Stream size                              : 2.81 GiB (98%)
Color range                              : Limited
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Codec configuration box                  : avcC

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC LC SBR
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity with Spectral Band Replication
Commercial name                          : HE-AAC
Format settings                          : NBC
Codec ID                                 : mp4a-40-5
Duration                                 : 1 h 15 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 128 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 23.438 FPS (2048 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 69.5 MiB (2%)
Default                                  : Yes
Alternate group                          : 1

[amichaelglg]

Thanks to you both for steering me in the right direction.
OK, so the issue is defintely with the Video Downloader Plus plugin i am using in Chrome.
It is a bit strange as that works well for the other Greek main channel website , like Alpha Cyprus and ANT1Live...anyway...at least I now know.

@larits I have a question - how did you work out the link to use? I watched 3 different tutorials and all were really talking about youtube examples where the url was very simply copied and pasted and so i did the same - I used the url of the page I was on when the episode was playing , but that did not work.

If I can then work that out for myself I can look at downloading some other series with the same site.

[larits]

yt-dlp comes with built-in extractors for various sites, like youtube, that will let you simply use the page URL to download. But for sites that aren't directly supported you need to find and supply the URL yourself. And you find those by either using Web Developer tools (F12) and search the Network tab, or you can use browser extensions like Stream Detector that will conveniently sniff out all manifest links for you.

[amichaelglg]

tried the F12 , network tab.All I see in there is a growing list of entries (segments_xx.m4s) and some other odd entries , none of which clearly show the full URL to use.

So i downloaded stream detector. It only appears to work in Firefox and not Chrome (the one I mainly use). The developer states...
The Chrome version of this addon is not maintained or supported in any way. It's only included on the off chance that it works. Don't expect it to.

Another thing I noticed regardless of the episode I am downloading the filename actually being created/downloaded is always the same so I basically have to rename each after yt-dlp.exe has completed. Which I have to anyway as the filename has no description of the actual name in them.

[davexnet]

Interesting. Is that m3u8 (through F12 tools) available with outlogging in to the site?

[larits]

tried the F12 , network tab.All I see in there is a growing list of entries (segments_xx.m4s) and some other odd entries , none of which clearly show the full URL to use.

So i downloaded stream detector. It only appears to work in Firefox and not Chrome (the one I mainly use). The developer states...
The Chrome version of this addon is not maintained or supported in any way. It's only included on the off chance that it works. Don't expect it to.

Another thing I noticed regardless of the episode I am downloading the filename actually being created/downloaded is always the same so I basically have to rename each after yt-dlp.exe has completed. Which I have to anyway as the filename has no description of the actual name in them.

You need to use the filter in top left corner in the Network tab. Type in m3u8 and you'll find it. Or use another extension, there are many.

yt-dlp comes with absolute shit-ton of options, one of which is to name each download with the -o argument. Read up on it here: https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp. Or, since it's not encrypted, you can use a download manager like IDM or similar. Might be easier for you.

Interesting. Is that m3u8 (through F12 tools) available with outlogging in to the site?

There might be a way to locate it through their API or something, but I don't know.