Freevine - A downloader for free streaming services (discontinued)

[Tom Saurus]

achilles: CBC Gem has no open videos anymore. If you want to watch something you have to sign in. CTV is doing that with some of their videos now as well. I noticed in CTV Movies they have some movies that require signing in. There is Global TV Freeplay but last time I checked they don't have much available to watch but perhaps through time they will add more.

I am on a old release as it is working fine and I don't have a VPN yet so the U.S. and U.K. services are not accessiable to me so as long as it is working I have just left it alone.

[achilles]

3. You actually want a messy "download" folder with everything inside? The thought alone sends shivers down my overly organized spine :P

I name my directories in a particular way. It may look something like this
Big Brother (2023 UK)
Big Brother (2000 US)
Big Brother (2000 UK)

So I want all the downloads in the same directory and then I will move them to the directories the way I named them. The script will never name it the way I do. So forget my suggestion about allowing the user to customize the directory naming because I don't think it will ever have the info I need to do it the way I want. Instead, I'd just prefer to have it all in the same directory so I don't have to go into each directory to move them and then delete that season directory.


Regarding CBC, yes you have to create an account, but it's still free. You have to pay for 1080p, but at 720p, it's all free.

[stabbedbybrick]

All right. Yeah, that kind of customized dir name is outside the scope of these scripts. For some reason, several of these streaming services have difficulty being consistent with year entries. It's really annoying.

I know there are ways to get 1080p on CBC without paying, the main issue is adding the login session. That's kind of a pain I'd like to avoid. But we'll see.

[ringy9]

Please could I get some help with downloading a Movie from ROKU. From the Help file I see

Method 2: (singles)
Provide URL to episode or movie to download it directly:

python freevine.py EPISODE_URL
python freevine.py --movie MOVIE_URL

NOTES:
Grabbing the URLs straight from the frontpage often comes with extra
garbage attached. It's recommended to get the URL from title page

python freevine.py --movie https://therokuchannel.roku.com/watch/010f2c5a00d25cb3aff42ada771835a7 (Title page)

AttributeError: 'Movie' object has no attribute 'number'

python freevine.py --movie https://therokuchannel.roku.com/details/010f2c5a00d25cb3aff42ada771835a7/criminal (Front page)

AttributeError: 'Movie' object has no attribute 'number'

I have tried countless ways but it seems to error out all the time.

[ElCap]

Please could I get some help with downloading a Movie from ROKU. From the Help file I see

Method 2: (singles)
Provide URL to episode or movie to download it directly:

python freevine.py EPISODE_URL
python freevine.py --movie MOVIE_URL

NOTES:
Grabbing the URLs straight from the frontpage often comes with extra
garbage attached. It's recommended to get the URL from title page

python freevine.py --movie https://therokuchannel.roku.com/watch/010f2c5a00d25cb3aff42ada771835a7 (Title page)

AttributeError: 'Movie' object has no attribute 'number'

python freevine.py --movie https://therokuchannel.roku.com/details/010f2c5a00d25cb3aff42ada771835a7/criminal (Front page)

AttributeError: 'Movie' object has no attribute 'number'

I have tried countless ways but it seems to error out all the time.

it tried it with an older version and it works ok.
i updated to the latest and had the same issue as you.

i think the issue is that lines 78 to 86 of utils/utilties.py has the wrong indentation.
i think it should be part of the else: statement for services that arent movies

[Attachment 74526 - Click to enlarge]
ie. add the indentation that ive highlighted in the screenshot.

but ultimately stabbedbybrick will have to confirm if this is correct as it may have other impacts.


i didnt want to create a post to just say thanks, but this project is awesome!

[ringy9]

Thanks @ElCap that certainly seemed to do the trick

[stabbedbybrick]

i think the issue is that lines 78 to 86 of utils/utilties.py has the wrong indentation.
i think it should be part of the else: statement for services that arent movies
74526
ie. add the indentation that ive highlighted in the screenshot.

but ultimately stabbedbybrick will have to confirm if this is correct as it may have other impacts.


i didnt want to create a post to just say thanks, but this project is awesome!

You're completely right. A real oversight on my part.

Thanks for helping out! Really appreciate it.

[achilles]

It's working perfectly fine over here, so this is likely a local error on your end. And I'm not entirely sure what the reason could be as I've never seen that error before.

Maybe try reducing the threads in the config and see if that's whats causing the fragments to get a mismatch?

I lowered the number of threads to 1 and it worked. So that mystery is solved.

So, I suppose this means that you should move threads to the service config too?

I think the options should be implemented so that there is a hierarchy with config.yaml being default, then anything set in services.yaml overwrites that, and then command line options overrides that. So yeah, it would be nice to have command line option equivalents for everything in config.yaml so a person could do --threads 2 --format ffmpeg --subtitles no_mux if they wanted to.

[stabbedbybrick]

I lowered the number of threads to 1 and it worked. So that mystery is solved.

So, I suppose this means that you should move threads to the service config too?
.

I don't like to make changes based on errors I can't reproduce. Most users don't seem to have this issue, so while it solved the problem for you there's a reason you had it to begin with. But the whole config setup is very much a work in progress, so things will likely move around as I figure things out.

And I have been toying with idea of removing the config files and move everything to the command line. That way, people can create their own configs with those commands instead of following templates.

[achilles]

I don't like to make changes based on errors I can't reproduce. Most users don't seem to have this issue, so while it solved the problem for you there's a reason you had it to begin with. But the whole config setup is very much a work in progress, so things will likely move around as I figure things out.

And I have been toying with idea of removing the config files and move everything to the command line. That way, people can create their own configs with those commands instead of following templates.

For me, I'm fairly certain it has to do with VPN use so to reproduce the error, you may have to try it through a VPN. It could also maybe be related to a specific VPN service or one's connection speed to the VPN.

I think having a config hierarchy makes sense because there are some settings one probably uses pretty much all the time, some per service and others a person might want to override on a per call basis.

[Spectrumhsm]

Segment mismatch error - new evidence.
Agree VPN may be causing this error on my side.
I am using Windscribe VPN.

Tried downloading another episode from iPlayer - result (snipped to the end part):

10:29:44.387 WARN : Unable to read data from the transport connection: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host..
10:29:44.401 WARN : Unable to read data from the transport connection: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host..
10:29:45.582 WARN : Unable to read data from the transport connection: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host..
10:30:18.826 WARN : Unable to read data from the transport connection: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host..
10:30:49.672 WARN : An error occurred while sending the request.
10:39:16.285 ERROR: Segment count check not pass, total: 1380, downloaded: 1268.
10:39:16.289 ERROR: Failed

So the difference 1380-1268=112 segments.
Counted the number of times I had the following error equaled exactly 112 times:

Unable to read data from the transport connection: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host..

Checked temp folder - it has 1380 segments - strange.

If I only new how to merge these segments - _init mp4 and 1379 m4s.tmp files.....

[deccavox]

The reasoning behind having separate settings is for people who regularly use different services to "set it and forget it" without having to edit the main config every single time you use the program. All these services have their own quirks in regards to track selection, and the video and audio options go beyond just "best" and "worst". You can specify tracks by id, resolution, language, codec, duration etc. For example, you can set Roku to download the best 1080p option and the non-dolby audio track, while setting Channel4 to download the non-AD track and the next best 1080p option. All without having to edit the main config every time. That is a massive improvement in functionality in my mind.

When it comes to having to edit the config files, that's a limitation of using .zip files more than anything. Every time you download a new update as a .zip file, it's like you're downloading the portable version of a software. It's impossible for local settings to remain when downloading a portable version of anything; they would have to be replaced manually. Whereas if you're using Git, it's like you're updating an existing installation and the old merges with the new.

I do quite understand that of course.
I'll tell you what would be nice. The files that are likely to have settings customised by the user are the config.yaml and services/config/yaml files. So once those customisations are done they are likely to want to remain.
So, when you do an update could you specify if any of these files have been changed?
eg. config.yaml and services yamls no change
config.yaml updated, services yamls no change
etc., etc.
That means, if there's no change we know we can just copy those files from the previous version.

Just a thought

[billybanana]

Registered just to say thank you. This is nuts, I am super impressed.

[stabbedbybrick]

You're welcome, billy. Glad to hear you like it

I've been messing around with CBC Gem for a bit and managed to find both 1080p and Dolby Digital Plus audio track. Free account is required, but I'll be adding a burner account to the config so no one has to sign up for anything. Unless they want to, of course. You'll be able to use your own account if you wish.

I'll be busy for a little while, but Gem should be a part of the next update whenever I have some time to spare.

[stabbedbybrick]

I've added CBC Gem + search to the main branch if anyone wants to try it out and report any bugs.

Notes:

Default best quality is 1080p and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 audio (if available), but each title has tons of alternatives. You can use --quality and cbc.yaml to config other tracks.

--info is not supported at the moment. Like Tubi and Pluto, CBC uses HLS, and the info function currently only works for DASH.

Subtitles are CC only and are currently unable to be downloaded and/or stored separately.

[iamghost]

subtitles CC can extract with CCExtractor to save as srt

[sipho]

Nice one, I'll give it a thrash.

[sipho]

I get this error for CBC

ERROR: The 'file' scheme is not supported.

I'm keen to get the AAC normal and AD tracks so also tried "for=best2" and "for=best8" but the above error is with the default "for=best".

Also tried "-a" for all audio but same error.

[stabbedbybrick]

I get this error for CBC

ERROR: The 'file' scheme is not supported.

I'm keen to get the AAC normal and AD tracks so also tried "for=best2" and "for=best8" but the above error is with the default "for=best".

Also tried "-a" for all audio but same error.

Are you getting this error on all titles or just specific ones? I'll need a URL.

I've tried tons of both series and movies and can't reproduce the error.

[sipho]

Murphy's law. The first two shows I try don't work so I incorrectly figured it was a bug.

These don't work.

freevine.py -a -e S01E02 https://gem.cbc.ca/the-bannocking

freevine.py -a -e S01E02 https://gem.cbc.ca/one-night

Murdoch Mysteries, Bones of Crows, Race Against the Tide and SkyMed all work.

[stabbedbybrick]

Okay, I can confirm they are giving errors on my end as well. It looks like the problem is with trying to download audio tracks that don't actually exist. Things got a little crowded when adding all the extra audio sources, so the paths aren't correct for some shows.

One of the pitfalls of being sneaky and grabbing "inaccessible" stuff, I guess. Shouldn't be too hard to fix, though.

Edit: Okay, it's been fixed in the main branch. The problem was that I assumed the EC3 track would be higher bitrate than AAC, but they're the same. So for=best will now choose the AAC, because that's technically the best. If you want the Dolby, you'll have to set in the config by id. Kind of annoying, but not much to do about it.

[sipho]

Thank you. Is it easy to choose two audio tracks in the config?

[achilles]

Thank you for this amazing addition! Your hard work is greatly appreciated.

[iamghost]

look like --search not working
AttributeError: 'Response' object has no attribute 'is_success'

[ampersand]

this just keeps getting better and better, amazing work

[stabbedbybrick]

Thank you. Is it easy to choose two audio tracks in the config?

The selection is limited to N_m3u8DL-RE's capabilities, and it can be a little tricky. Especially with so many audio tracks. Experiment with the regex options and combinations.

For CBC, To download both AAC normal and AAC DV, you can use this: "name=AACL:for=best2"

look like --search not working
AttributeError: 'Response' object has no attribute 'is_success'

Which service are you searching and what does your command look like? I just tried them all in one go and they're working fine on my end.

[iamghost]

 freevine.py --search bbc "flog it"

[stabbedbybrick]

 freevine.py --search bbc "flog it"

Did it used to work before, or has it been broken for you since the beginning?

It works fine on my end:

freevine main 
.venv ❯ python freevine.py --search bbc "flog it"

20:21:17.511 INFO : Freevine v0.6.1-beta (20231027)


    BBC iPlayer
    Title: Flog It!
    Type: programme
    Synopsis: Members of the public try to make money out of their antiques by taking a risk at auction.
    Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b006mk0g
    

    BBC iPlayer
    Title: Itch
    Type: programme
    Synopsis: Children's drama. A science-obsessed boy discovers a powerful new radioactive element.
    Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m000p3fv
    

    BBC iPlayer
    Title: Hungry for It
    Type: programme
    Synopsis: Cookery competition hosted by Stacey Dooley, with Big Zuu and Kayla Greer.
    Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p0c7228n
    
(snipped)

[iamghost]

[Attachment 74570 - Click to enlarge]
old version work fine but not new one
perhap it not work for python 3.9

[stabbedbybrick]

74570
old version work fine but not new one
perhap it not work for python 3.9

Seems likely. Version 3.9 is pretty old at this point and the is_success method of httpx apparently doesn't support it.