Freevine - A downloader for free streaming services (discontinued)

[timetunnel]

freevine goes right nice to me on some sites.
Not on tubi.
For example how to insert the right string for this?
https://tubitv.com/tv-shows/200146709/s01-e02-hard-contract

[timetunnel]

and more...
there's no way to obtain a better quality than 640x480 for this?
https://therokuchannel.roku.com/watch/7aa9ded2de505080bf1c326c537ac61e
the script for N_m3u8DL-RE say me this is the better available I can choice

[SaintyUK]

freevine goes right nice to me on some sites.
Not on tubi.
For example how to insert the right string for this?
https://tubitv.com/tv-shows/200146709/s01-e02-hard-contract

Works fine using devine:

devine dl --proxy us --list tubi https://tubitv.com/tv-shows/200146709/s01-e02-hard-contract

and more...
there's no way to obtain a better quality than 640x480 for this?
https://therokuchannel.roku.com/watch/7aa9ded2de505080bf1c326c537ac61e
the script for N_m3u8DL-RE say me this is the better available I can choice

With devine the best resolution is 648x486 @ 893 kb/s

[sebus]

I am sorry if it were asked already somewhere up in this thread (did not read all 51 pages)

ITV

C:\freevine-1.1.8>freevine.py get --info --episode https://www.itv.com/watch/buffy-the-vampire-slayer/10a5896/10a5896a0004

❯_freevine v1.1.8

07:44:47.532 ←[4m←[32mINFO←[0m : ←[1mITVX←[0m
07:44:47.533 ←[4m←[32mINFO←[0m : + Adding service profile
07:44:48.687 ←[4m←[32mINFO←[0m : Buffy the Vampire Slayer S01E04 Teacher's Pet

07:44:48.688 ←[4m←[32mINFO←[0m : Filename: Buffy.the.Vampire.Slayer.S01E04.Teachers.Pet.504p.ITV.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264
07:44:48.688 ←[4m←[32mINFO←[0m : Subtitles: Yes

07:44:48.733 INFO : N_m3u8DL-RE (Beta version) 20241203
07:44:48.749 INFO : Loading URL: tmp\manifest.mpd
07:44:48.786 INFO : Content Matched: Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP
07:44:48.786 INFO : Parsing streams...
07:44:48.817 INFO : Extracted, there are 6 streams, with 5 basic streams, 1 audio streams, 0 subtitle streams
07:44:48.818 INFO : Vid *CENC 896x504 | 1703 Kbps | video=1703964 | avc1.64001F | 431 Segments | Main | ~43m05s
07:44:48.818 INFO : Vid *CENC 896x504 | 1403 Kbps | video=1403946 | avc1.64001F | 431 Segments | Main | ~43m05s
07:44:48.818 INFO : Vid *CENC 896x504 | 1103 Kbps | video=1103982 | avc1.64001F | 431 Segments | Main | ~43m05s
07:44:48.819 INFO : Vid *CENC 512x288 | 703 Kbps | video=703988 | avc1.64001F | 431 Segments | Main | ~43m05s
07:44:48.819 INFO : Vid *CENC 512x288 | 503 Kbps | video=503987 | avc1.64001F | 431 Segments | Main | ~43m05s
07:44:48.819 INFO : Aud *CENC audio=96000 | 96 Kbps | mp4a.40.2 | 2CH | 431 Segments | Main | ~43m05s
07:44:48.819 INFO : Parsing streams...
07:44:48.821 INFO : Selected streams:
07:44:48.821 INFO : Vid *CENC 896x504 | 1703 Kbps | video=1703964 | avc1.64001F | 431 Segments | Main | ~43m05s
07:44:48.821 INFO : Aud *CENC audio=96000 | 96 Kbps | mp4a.40.2 | 2CH | 431 Segments | Main | ~43m05s

but allhell3 gives 720p available:

07:42:19.322 INFO : Content Matched: Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP
07:42:19.323 INFO : Parsing streams...
07:42:22.566 WARN : Writing meta json
07:42:22.653 INFO : Extracted, there are 6 streams, with 5 basic streams, 1 audio streams, 0 subtitle streams
07:42:22.655 INFO : Vid *CENC 1280x720 | 2612 Kbps | video=2612018 | avc1.640028 | 431 Segments | Main | ~43m05s
07:42:22.656 INFO : Vid *CENC 1024x576 | 1383 Kbps | video=1383503 | avc1.64001F | 431 Segments | Main | ~43m05s
07:42:22.657 INFO : Vid *CENC 1024x576 | 959 Kbps | video=959883 | avc1.64001F | 431 Segments | Main | ~43m05s
07:42:22.658 INFO : Vid *CENC 704x396 | 527 Kbps | video=527180 | avc1.64001F | 431 Segments | Main | ~43m05s
07:42:22.659 INFO : Vid *CENC 704x396 | 422 Kbps | video=422967 | avc1.64001F | 431 Segments | Main | ~43m05s
07:42:22.660 INFO : Aud *CENC audio=96000 | 96 Kbps | mp4a.40.2 | 2CH | 431 Segments | Main | ~43m05s
07:42:27.304 INFO : Parsing streams...
07:42:27.306 INFO : Selected streams:
07:42:27.307 INFO : Vid *CENC 1280x720 | 2612 Kbps | video=2612018 | avc1.640028 | 431 Segments | Main | ~43m05s
07:42:27.309 INFO : Aud *CENC audio=96000 | 96 Kbps | mp4a.40.2 | 2CH | 431 Segments | Main | ~43m05s

Is there a way to get 720p with freevine ?

sebus

[peterb999]

Hi Sebus,

Freevine is no longer supported and it can't get 720p from ITV anymore.

If you use devine instead, you can get 1080p from ITV.

[sebus]

Thanks for the info, would do, just the services seems to be offline...

[peterb999]

Hi. You can get the files from here https://files.videohelp.com/u/312095/devine-services.zip (phased upload)

The last time I set devine up I used - https://telegra.ph/Devine-On-Win-v003-04-10 which made it a lot easier. There are other guides that people use as well.

[sebus]

@peterb999, many thanks for your replies!

[Dravonvico]

and more...
there's no way to obtain a better quality than 640x480 for this?
https://therokuchannel.roku.com/watch/7aa9ded2de505080bf1c326c537ac61e
the script for N_m3u8DL-RE say me this is the better available I can choice

2025-04-07 16:57:24 [I] ROKU : > All Tracks:
2025-04-07 16:57:24 [I] Tracks : 3 Video Tracks:
2025-04-07 16:57:24 [I] Tracks : ├─ VID | [H.264, SDR] | 648x486 @ 807 kb/s, 29.970 FPS
2025-04-07 16:57:24 [I] Tracks : ├─ VID | [H.264, SDR] | 460x346 @ 440 kb/s, 29.970 FPS
2025-04-07 16:57:24 [I] Tracks : ├─ VID | [H.264, SDR] | 345x260 @ 149 kb/s, 29.970 FPS
2025-04-07 16:57:24 [I] Tracks : 1 Audio Track:
2025-04-07 16:57:24 [I] Tracks : ├─ AUD | [AAC] | [mp4a] | 2.0 | 128 kb/s | en-US | [Original]
2025-04-07 16:57:24 [I] Tracks : 1 Text Track:
2025-04-07 16:57:24 [I] Tracks : ├─ SUB | [VTT] | en | SDH [Original]

Doesn't look like Roku has a better quality, which I guess is to be expected from a show from the 60s.

[Tom Saurus]

Roku is being a pain with detecting Windscribe VPN and such but I am trying to stick with it and archive what I can while I can.

[octo]

I know this is now discontinued but has anyone figured out how to get ITV working again to tide me over? I'm going to try getting devine to work but it took me 4 hours to get freevine working (don't laugh :P) so I need to get another system and probably a few days of time to work on it so I don't break freevine for the services that still work. I've had a look through itv.py but don't have a clue.

Any pointers greatly appreciated and a massive thank you to stabbedbybrick and everyone who makes this happen. Honestly you are heroes.

F:\Temp\freevine>freevine.py get --proxy UK --no-cache --episode https://www.itv.com/watch/classic-coronation-street/2a8013/1a0694a6402

?_freevine v1.1.8

10:59:57.740 ?[4m?[32mINFO?[0m : ?[1mITVX?[0m
10:59:57.750 ?[4m?[32mINFO?[0m : + Adding Windscribe proxy location: UK
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\PC1\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\urllib3\connectionpool.py", line 793, in urlopen
    response = self._make_request(
               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\PC1\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\urllib3\connectionpool.py", line 537, in _make_request
    response = conn.getresponse()
               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\PC1\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\urllib3\connection.py", line 466, in getresponse
    httplib_response = super().getresponse()
                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\PC1\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\http\client.py", line 1423, in getresponse
    response.begin()
  File "C:\Users\PC1\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\http\client.py", line 331, in begin
    version, status, reason = self._read_status()
                              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\PC1\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\http\client.py", line 300, in _read_status
    raise RemoteDisconnected("Remote end closed connection without"
http.client.RemoteDisconnected: Remote end closed connection without response

The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:

urllib3.exceptions.ProxyError: ('Unable to connect to proxy', RemoteDisconnected('Remote end closed connection without response'))

The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\PC1\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\requests\adapters.py", line 486, in send
    resp = conn.urlopen(
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\PC1\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\urllib3\connectionpool.py", line 847, in urlopen
    retries = retries.increment(
              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\PC1\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\urllib3\util\retry.py", line 515, in increment
    raise MaxRetryError(_pool, url, reason) from reason  # type: ignore[arg-type]
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
urllib3.exceptions.MaxRetryError: HTTPSConnectionPool(host='www.itv.com', port=443): Max retries exceeded with url: /watch/classic-coronation-street/2a8013/1a0694a6402 (Caused by ProxyError('Unable to connect to proxy', RemoteDisconnected('Remote end closed connection without response')))

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "F:\Temp\freevine\freevine.py", line 15, in <module>
    cli()
  File "C:\Users\PC1\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\click\core.py", line 1157, in __call__
    return self.main(*args, **kwargs)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\PC1\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\click\core.py", line 1078, in main
    rv = self.invoke(ctx)
         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\PC1\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\click\core.py", line 1688, in invoke
    return _process_result(sub_ctx.command.invoke(sub_ctx))
                           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\PC1\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\click\core.py", line 1434, in invoke
    return ctx.invoke(self.callback, **ctx.params)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\PC1\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\click\core.py", line 783, in invoke
    return __callback(*args, **kwargs)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "F:\Temp\freevine\utils\commands.py", line 90, in get
    Service(config, **kwargs)
  File "F:\Temp\freevine\services\itv\itv.py", line 47, in __init__
    self.get_options()
  File "F:\Temp\freevine\services\itv\itv.py", line 228, in get_options
    downloads, title = get_downloads(self)
                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "F:\Temp\freevine\utils\options.py", line 160, in get_downloads
    downloads, title = stream.get_episode_from_url(stream.episode)
                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "F:\Temp\freevine\services\itv\itv.py", line 201, in get_episode_from_url
    data = self.get_data(url)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "F:\Temp\freevine\services\itv\itv.py", line 62, in get_data
    r = self.client.get(url)
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\PC1\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\requests\sessions.py", line 602, in get
    return self.request("GET", url, **kwargs)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\PC1\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\requests\sessions.py", line 589, in request
    resp = self.send(prep, **send_kwargs)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\PC1\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\requests\sessions.py", line 703, in send
    r = adapter.send(request, **kwargs)
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\PC1\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\requests\adapters.py", line 513, in send
    raise ProxyError(e, request=request)
requests.exceptions.ProxyError: HTTPSConnectionPool(host='www.itv.com', port=443): Max retries exceeded with url: /watch/classic-coronation-street/2a8013/1a0694a6402 (Caused by ProxyError('Unable to connect to proxy', RemoteDisconnected('Remote end closed connection without response')))

F:\Temp\freevine>

[Jonnyjon869]

@octo

ITVx seems to be blocking requests from things that it doesn't believe to be a proper browser, thus preventing freevine from working correctly when it tries to scrape the URL that you send to it. This can easily be overcome by sending the correct headers across to ITVx when you make a request from the program. I have opened an incognito chrome browser and examined the headers that it sends when requesting an ITVx URL and narrowed it down to the ones that it expects, added them to my freevine program and it now works again for me.

In the folder services\itv, edit your itv.py with the following changes. Lines 40-47, starting with class ITV(Config): and ending with self.get_options() replace with the following code making sure to keep the correct number of spaces in front of each line, don't let your editor convert to tabs, each line will have either 4, 8 or 12 spaces in front of it.

class ITV(Config):
    def __init__(self, config, **kwargs):
        super().__init__(config, **kwargs)

        with self.config["download_cache"].open("r") as file:
            self.cache = json.load(file)

        self.client.headers = {
            'accept': '*/*',
            'accept-encoding': 'gzip, deflate',
            'accept-language': 'en-US,en;q=0.9',
            'sec-fetch-dest': 'document',
            'sec-fetch-mode': 'navigate',
            'sec-fetch-site': 'none',
            'user-agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/122.0.0.0 Safari/537.36',
            'Connection': 'keep-alive'
        }

        self.get_options()

I love freevine and cannot get devine to work on my pc, which I custom built using a server motherboard several years ago and cannot upgrade to windows 10/11 (despite it having 2 x 64bit quad-core processors and 40GB ram). I have heavily edited my freevine scripts to get files in the format that I prefer, mine now downloads the thumbnails for each episode and adds metadata to the mp4 files so that the show title, episode title, episode description, airdate (where available), series number, episode number, broadcast channel etc. gets embedded into the mp4 itself.

I have also got back 720p streaming on ITV by adjusting the headers that are sent before requesting the manifests, this I learned by examining the code that devine uses in its ITV script.

Let me know if this works for you.

[billybanana]

A simple adjustment to the self.client headers like below would likely have worked too. That's the most recent change stabby did to his Devine code and it also fixed my standalone ITVX script.

"User-Agent": "okhttp/4.9.3"

[octo]

@Jonnyjon869, made sure all spaces are correct but no go still. Hangs on "Getting episode from URL..." then displays the error above. Good work on the custom bits it's all way beyond me.

@billybanana, I tried to find where to put that but it's evading me can you give a hint?

Thanks all.

[billybanana]

@billybanana, I tried to find where to put that but it's evading me can you give a hint?

Open the itv.py and insert this code

self.client.headers = {
            'user-agent': 'okhttp/4.9.3',         
        }

so that this section from line 40 looks like this

class ITV(Config):
    def __init__(self, config, **kwargs):
        super().__init__(config, **kwargs)

        with self.config["download_cache"].open("r") as file:
            self.cache = json.load(file)

        self.client.headers = {
            'user-agent': 'okhttp/4.9.3',         
        }    

        self.get_options()

That will get the service working again but won't give you 720p or higher. That's the rest of what @Jonnyjon869 is talking about. Devine will give you 1080 anyway, so it's all a bit of a moot point.

[Jonnyjon869]

@octo, I see now that you are using a Windscribe proxy, my code works if you are accessing ITV directly from within the UK without a proxy, however I cannot find a way to manipulate the headers whilst using Windscribe. Do you need to use the proxy, are you accessing from outside the UK or just trying to disguise your IP address?

[octo]

Gotcha thanks that works but with an SD show it gets 896x504 picture and 96.0 kb/s audio while Devine gets 1024x576 picture and 128 kb/s audio.

I'm very gratefull for Devine but it doesn't as far as I can work out allow to specify output filename and container like freevine does. In that regard I miss freevine dearly.

[Jonnyjon869]

@sebus and anyone else that wants to download 720p ITV streams with freevine.

The below code should restore access to 720p streams for ITV, I say should because I have heavily modified my freevine script to add extra command line parameters and other functions so I have had to backport the relevant changes I made to a fresh copy of the itv.py service.

In the folder services\itv, edit your itv.py with the following changes. Lines 115-137, if unmodified, starting with def get_playlist(self, playlist: str) -> tuple: and ending with return mpd_url, lic_url, subtitle replace with the following code:

    def get_playlist(self, playlist: str) -> tuple:
        headers = {
            "Accept": "application/vnd.itv.vod.playlist.v4+json",
            "Accept-Language": "en-US,en;q=0.9,da;q=0.8",
            "Connection": "keep-alive",
            "Content-Type": "application/json",
            "user-agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/122.0.0.0 Safari/537.36",
        }
        payload = {
            "client": {"version":"4.1","id":"browser","supportsAdPods":True,"service":"itv.x","appversion":"2.320.5"},
            "device": {"manufacturer":"Chrome","model":"122.0.0.0","os":{"name":"Windows","version":"10","type":"desktop"},"deviceGroup":"dotcom"},
            "user": {},
            "variantAvailability": {"player":"dash","featureset": ["mpeg-dash", "widevine", "outband-webvtt", "hd", "single-track"], "platformTag": "dotcom","drm":{"system":"widevine","maxSupported":"L3"}},
        }

        r = self.client.post(playlist, headers=headers, json=payload)
        r.raise_for_status()

        data = r.json()

        video = data["Playlist"]["Video"]
        media = video["MediaFiles"]
        mpd_url = f"{media[0].get('Href')}"
        lic_url = f"{media[0].get('KeyServiceUrl')}"
        subtitle = video.get("Subtitles")
        subtitle = f"{subtitle[0].get('Href')}" if subtitle else None

        return mpd_url, lic_url, subtitle

There are some shows, such as American Dad! and a few movies, that return a 403 (forbidden) error when trying to access the HD playlist / mpd, but these never downloaded in HD anyway when the original script supported 720p before things changed in April. To download these you will need to change media[0] to media[1] in the above code to download in SD 896x504.

Alternatively, you can use mobile headers to download the mobile playlist / mpd. This can be a bit hit and miss depending upon the show, sometimes it will give you HD streams which are not available in the desktop version but other times it can give you worse quality streams. Replace the headers / payload strings in the above code with the following:

        headers = {
            "Accept": "application/vnd.itv.vod.playlist.v4+json",
            "Accept-Language": "en-US,en;q=0.9,da;q=0.8",
            "Connection": "keep-alive",
            "Content-Type": "application/json",
            "user-agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 6.0; Nexus 5 Build/MRA58N) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/122.0.0.0 Mobile Safari/537.36",
        }
        payload = {
            "client": {"version":"4.1","id":"browser","supportsAdPods":True,"service":"itv.x","appversion":"2.320.7"},
            "device": {"manufacturer":"Chrome","model":"122.0.0.0","os":{"name":"Android","version":"6.0","type":"mobile"},"deviceGroup":"dotcom"},
            "user": {},
            "variantAvailability": {"player":"dash","featureset": ["mpeg-dash", "widevine", "outband-webvtt", "hd", "single-track"], "platformTag": "mobile","drm":{"system":"widevine","maxSupported":"L3"}},
        }

There is a way of getting 1080p playlists by using the following headers / payload instead, however even though the mpd files would download and show you the available streams and resolutions, when N_m3u8DL-RE tried to actually download the media files it gave a 403 (forbidden) error, not sure if you need to be logged in to download them or if I'm missing a setting in N_m3u8DL-RE, but its here in case someone finds a solution to downloading 1080p streams in freevine. UPDATE: I've just tried these headers and the 1080p streams are now downloading just fine, I can even get American Dad! in 720p with this header/payload combination. Not sure what changed or if I was doing something wrong when I first discovered this 2 months ago but freevine is now capable of downloading ITV streams in 1080p with this update!

        headers = {
            "Accept": "application/vnd.itv.vod.playlist.v4+json",
            "Accept-Language": "en-US,en;q=0.9,da;q=0.8",
            "Connection": "keep-alive",
            "Content-Type": "application/json",
            "user-agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/122.0.0.0 Safari/537.36",
        }
        payload = {
            "client": {"id": "lg"},
            "device": {"deviceGroup": "ctv"},
            "variantAvailability": {"player": "dash", "featureset": ["mpeg-dash", "widevine", "outband-webvtt", "hd", "single-track"], "platformTag": "ctv", "drm": { "system": "widevine", "maxSupported": "L3"}},
        }

In my own modified freevine script, it will try media[0] first and automatically try media[1] if it receives a 403 response, and I have added a command line parameter to select which of the above 3 headers to use so that I don't have to keep editing my script. If there is enough interest I can release my own fork of freevine, it works well for the things I want it to do, but so far I have only converted a handful of services that I personally use (mainly ITV, Ch4, Ch5 and UKTV) and features I don't use (such as proxies) may be buggy.

[octo]

Sorry still doesn't work, even without proxy. I'm sure I'm pasting it in correctly but maybe not. I added the your change in post 1602 and the first code block in post 1608 https://pastebin.com/vWNLmPLd

[Jonnyjon869]

Sorry still doesn't work, even without proxy. I'm sure I'm pasting it in correctly but maybe not. I added the your change in post 1602 and the first code block in post 1608 https://pastebin.com/vWNLmPLd

That's very strange, I've copied your pastebin code over my itv.py and it works on my machine.


[Attachment 87380 - Click to enlarge]

You've confirmed that @billybanana code worked for you, and I also find that simpler code of his works for me also. Have you tried mixing the change in post 1605 (which works for you) with the first code block in post 1608 (to get higher resolution)?

Let me know if that solution works.

[octo]

It is odd, I'm still using freevine for CH4 and U.

...
You've confirmed that @billybanana code worked for you, and I also find that simpler code of his works for me also. Have you tried mixing the change in post 1605 (which works for you) with the first code block in post 1608 (to get higher resolution)?

Let me know if that solution works.

I hadn't no but that works. Thank you so much. Freevine is getting a higher video bitrate stream as well at least on the few files I've checked so far.

For https://www.itv.com/watch/classic-emmerdale/2a8015/Ya0524a4622 devine lists

Videos                                                           │
     │ ├── [H.264, SDR] | en | 1024x576 @ 1780 kb/s, 25.000 FPS           │
     │ ├── [H.264, SDR] | en | 1024x576 @ 1116 kb/s, 25.000 FPS           │
     │ └── [H.264, SDR] | en | 704x396 @ 564 kb/s, 25.000 FPS             │
     │ 1 Audio                                                            │
     │ └── [AAC] | en | 2.0 | 128 kb/s

and downloads the higher bitrate by default but freevine downloads 2 191 kb/s / 96.0 kb/s. I'll take the higher video bitrate with lower audio from freevine over vice versa with devine.

Many thanks all for keeping freevine alive