CWTV Questions

[DigitalArchive]

Hello, newbie here and newbie to this stuff in general.

Just to preface that I did search but "CW" is too short a search term, found two threads with "CWTV" but were older / not quite helpful.

I did look through some of the pinned threads but I couldn't quite make sense because I'm not familiar with the terminology, and I wasn't sure which info might apply to this particular case.

I'm using yt-dlp on cwtv.com with success for non-DRM videos (just plain download choosing highest bitrate HLS which downloads from parts as MP4, with mkv remux, and encode subs, seems to be 2 different types of subs, hopefully I'm not doing anything wrong), however, some videos have DRM.

In one of the pinned posts it said to provide a link, hope that's okay, so here's just one sample URL from the site with DRM, but there's a whole bunch of stuff I'd like to get, so I'd like to be able to learn how to do it (teach someone to fish, and all that).

If anyone is already familiar with this site and could give some guidance on which portions of the help threads I should try to follow, I'd definitely appreciate it!

[stabbedbybrick]

CW use the most basic protection, where all you need is the PSSH and license url. Reading through the "Temple of Doom" post will give you the info you need to adapt and get keys from this service. If you come across a term you don't understand, like "PSSH" or "MPD", they are very easy to search for. The initial hurdle of setting up a CDM and understanding what things mean is just something you have to get past. We all did at some point.

The best tool right now (in my opinion) is N_m3u8DL-RE. Terrible name for a fantastic program. It will download, decrypt, and mux in one go, and comes with a ton of options. Read through its --help section.

In some cases, like the video you've linked, there will be several keys returned. That typically means there are different keys for different resolutions and for audio. Giving N_m3u8DL-RE all the keys, it will automatically match it to the correct video.

739e21ae93e2536399e2b182bbc3103f:69ec63bcc0ac6a45b67ac9343adb11cb
59f05339fd135b5c9c211956d4c3e107:5a337c1c286065bbbdb2bd423bd2cbef
db9ee0de509d5844943b17d4b2eb795a:55ca09cf3010f3f2a5d3f617bd3c4aa8
8b446b235241518eb28bfc06494af04f:ea3d55ed503659b9c7fc01aa2b990dff

[DigitalArchive]

I appreciate the reply, thank you for the advice about where to start!

[DigitalArchive]

The best tool right now (in my opinion) is N_m3u8DL-RE. Terrible name for a fantastic program. It will download, decrypt, and mux in one go, and comes with a ton of options. Read through its --help section.

So I got one error that it couldn't do the selection menu for some reason to do with command prompt capabilities I think, probably because I'm running this part now on Windows 7 (I know lol, all my machines are old). But I was able to use the -sv -sa -ss options.

However, I then ran into an issue with the mkvmerge option where it seems as if it can't locate mkvmerge, so I'm curious if you are using that option. (I haven't had any issues running mkvmerge in the past with other stuff.) I tried putting mkvmerge.exe into numerous places, even in the default they suggest in the help, but it keeps coming back as:

ERROR: mkvmerge not found

My syntax:

-M format=mkv:muxer=mkvmerge:bin_path="Z:\_tools\mkvm\mkvmerge.exe"

Their sample syntax uses quote marks, that's why I did as well, I tried both with and without the quotes (shouldn't need them unless there's a space in the path). I also tried their default location and syntax that they list in the help (with mkvmerge copied there of course), but that also didn't work:

-M format=mkv:muxer=mkvmerge:bin_path="C:\Program Files\MKVToolNix\mkvmerge.exe"

I am using a fresh download of the mkvtoolnix package (mkvtoolnix-64-bit-78.0.7z) although I don't think that's an issue, since from the error, it's as if N_m3u8DL-RE can't find the exe.

I also tried muxer=mkvmerge.exe but it rejected that, the syntax is definitely just mkvmerge for that part of it.

[lomero]

1) about RE and mux with mkvmerge use this code only:

RE -M format=mkv:muxer=mkvmerge --use-shaka-packager --key xx:xx "https://mpd"

2) about your win7, the last version of mkvmerge 78.0 does not work for this old SO
anyway unofficial version for win7 is available here:
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/405407-NON-OFFICIAL-Windows-builds-of-MKVtoolnix/p...e5#post2696022

[DigitalArchive]

1) about RE and mux with mkvmerge use this code only

Thank you lomero for the link of the mkvmerge non-official release!

This is the full code I'm using for the options I would like to use, I have double checked it, but it still says "mkvmerge not found"

N_m3u8DL-RE MPDLINK -M format=mkv:muxer=mkvmerge:bin_path="Z:\_tools\mkvm\mkvmerge.exe" --ffmpeg-binary-path "Z:\_tools\ffm\ffmpeg.exe" --use-shaka-packager --key-text-file keys.txt --select-video best --select-audio all --select-subtitle all

All of the other options seem to work fine, only when I add -M (I also tried --mux-after-done) that the error occurs.

So I also tried ffmpeg... and that doesn't work either. So it seems to be an issue with the -M format=mkv

I guess I can always mux it afterward!

[DigitalArchive]

Success! I think everything worked out correctly, at the least I can get through the basics.

Now I have some work to do

Thank you very much to stabbedbybrick, Angela, and lomero.

[pteque]

One alternative to N_m3u8DL-RE (which is great software) is dash-mpd-cli, which can also do the downloading, decryption and muxing (only for DASH streams). Something like

dash-mpd-cli -v --quality best --write-subs --key foo:bar --key fiz:baz --ffmpeg-location "Z:\_tools\ffm\ffmpeg.exe" -o output.mp4 MPD-URL

It can mux with ffmpeg, VLC, MP4Box or mkvmerge, depending on the type of output container.

https://github.com/emarsden/dash-mpd-cli

[lomero]

@DigitalArchive

why this?

mkvmerge:bin_path="Z:\_tools\mkvm\mkvmerge.exe"

simply put mkvmerge, ffmp*g, shaka and mp4decypt all exe file on same folder with RE .... so no need to add path for each exe

[DigitalArchive]

Thanks everyone for the additional advice!

I am all set now but I appreciate the help, I will check out these options as I improve my current workflow.