Freevine - A downloader for free streaming services (discontinued)

[Grimbarian]

Hi! Just wanted to say what an awesome app! Friend put me onto it and I've been having a good play! I have a couple of questions if that's ok

Firstly this morning I went to download two Channel4 shows that have new episodes, Help we bought a village and A Place in the sun, for some reason Freevine doesn't find the new episodes even though they're clearly there on the channel4 website and can be played etc.

I think I see what the problem is. Channel4 has a habit of storing episodes that aren't always available, like episodes that doesn't "air" for another week or were available at one point but has since been removed. And the script currently picks those up when looping through the API, which it won't be able to download because they aren't actually there. I don't know if that makes any sense to you, but it should hopefully be an easy fix.

In the meantime, you can download single episodes by URL as well, which works fine for the latest episodes:

python freevine.py EPISODE_URL

Yep that makes perfect sense! Aha was wondering if there was a way to specify an episode to force its download! Thanks I'll play with that

Secondly, with My5 there's been a few times the Mpd URL changed and to get 1080p requires a little more tweaking, I believe My5 has 4 different URL types that need little tweaks to get 1080p rather than just 720p, for example there's 3 episodes of Bargain Loving Brits in The Sun series 10 that freevine can only download in 720p rather than the available (with little tweaks) 1080p, s10e15, s10e20, s10e21 also for example some older series of shows e.g. series 3&4 of Police Interceptors I tried so far as only downloadable in 720p but with another my5 script (which manipulates the mpd link to "fix" it) 1080p is possible.

Hope these aren't too much hassle to answer/fix, love the app, thanks again

Edit: I wasn't sure if for security reasons it's best not to link directly to the shows I mentioned, hence not linking to them...

Edit2: Just downloaded last night's Killer at the Crime Scene (s03e10) from My5 and it's also only 720p for some reason.

Yeah, the way it looks for and edits the URL can definitely be improved. I don't use My5 enough to catch these things myself, so feedback is always appreciated. I'll take a look and see if I can come up with a better solution to grab all versions.

That's great news thanks! The other script I used is this one: https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/410822-My5-%28Channel-5%29 which I know you're aware of but they do the URL stuff differently to you from I believe, can't say I understand any of it, just enjoy the magic of being able to download!

Thank you for the reply and in advance for any possible fixes

[Grimbarian]

Firstly this morning I went to download two Channel4 shows that have new episodes, Help we bought a village and A Place in the sun, for some reason Freevine doesn't find the new episodes even though they're clearly there on the channel4 website and can be played etc.

The manifest is a bit of a shambles.

The episodes you are looking for are.

A Place in the Sun S16E94 Mon 30 Oct 2023: Mallorca

Help.We.Bought.a.Village.S02E11

The former is deep in the list but the latter is second from the bottom.

Well spotted thank you

[sipho]

@stabbedbybrick

Ch4 with the latest incarnation is doing weird things (Freevine v0.6.1-beta (20231027).

freevine.py -t https://www.channel4.com/programmes/help-we-bought-a-village

throws up these errors.

File "D:\GitHub\freevine\services\channel4.py", line 143, in <listcomp>
    Episode(
  File "D:\GitHub\freevine\utils\titles.py", line 30, in __init__
    if re.match(r"Episode ?#?\d+", name, re.IGNORECASE):
  File "C:\Users\Sipho\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python310\lib\re.py", line 190, in match
    return _compile(pattern, flags).match(string)
TypeError: expected string or bytes-like object

To get this to work I had to fire up an old version on another computer which still runs Freevine beta (20230924).

But not for all shows though. A Place in the Sun works.

The script is always run in a venv.

I never had any issues until the CBC & ABC updates.

[Grimbarian]

In the meantime, you can download single episodes by URL as well, which works fine for the latest episodes:

python freevine.py EPISODE_URL

Not sure if I messed something with my install but I'm getting an error when I try that with Help We Bought a Village:



Aha while I was writing this I see @Sipho is reporting similar...

[stabbedbybrick]

I pushed a small update to the main branch that should hopefully fix the TypeError.

As for the other issues, I'll add them to the list and look it over when I have some time.

[sipho]

Thanks a stack.

[stabbedbybrick]

I've adjusted My5 to properly fetch the 1080p manifests. There is content that simply don't have 1080p, but if it does it should get it. I'm sure there are outliers, but it seems to work well from what I can tell. Feel free to report any cases where it doesn't work.

I've also corrected the episode listing on Channel4 to not include non-playable episodes. The case of "A Place in the Sun", however, is a complete mess.
The way these scripts work is that they collect the episode and series numbers stated on their API. This works as expected in most cases, but here they must've been drunk or something, because the numbers change randomly for no reason.

Example of the last two episodes:

"title": "Mon 30 Oct 2023: Mallorca",
"episodeNumber": 94,
"seriesNumber": 16,

"title": "Fri 29 Sep 2023: La Zenia, Spain",
"episodeNumber": 21,
"seriesNumber": 17,

Every episode is still able to be downloaded, but since the numbers are off the --titles listing will be off. And since I can't find a reason for the madness, there's not much I can do about it.

[Grimbarian]

I've adjusted My5 to properly fetch the 1080p manifests. There is content that simply don't have 1080p, but if it does it should get it. I'm sure there are outliers, but it seems to work well from what I can tell. Feel free to report any cases where it doesn't work.

Great stuff thank you! Tested with last night's new episode of Killer at the Crime Scene and it's now 1080p rather than 720p when I tried this morning, also tested with the 3 Bargain-Loving Brits in the Sun series 10 episodes, again all fixed now!


Old series of Police Interceptors also 1080p, so far haven't found anything your fix doesn't fix!

[sipho]

Every episode is still able to be downloaded, but since the numbers are off the --titles listing will be off. And since I can't find a reason for the madness, there's not much I can do about it.

It may because these episodes are recorded way in advance and then the producer decides on the date order for broadcast. Similar to Four in a Bed and The Great House Giveaway.

I just make a note of the episode from the manifest/episode list so I know what is old/already downloaded.

[Grimbarian]

Every episode is still able to be downloaded, but since the numbers are off the --titles listing will be off. And since I can't find a reason for the madness, there's not much I can do about it.

It may because these episodes are recorded way in advance and then the producer decides on the date order for broadcast. Similar to Four in a Bed and The Great House Giveaway.

I just make a note of the episode from the manifest/episode list so I know what is old/already downloaded.

Yeah that would make sense! There was an episode of A Place in the Sun that aired 2 months ago but was filmed almost 3 years ago!

[sipho]

@stabbedbybrick

I'm trying to exclude an audio track.

My ctv.yaml config has this line.

track: "id=\baac\b:for=best2"

When I run this command;

freevine.py -q 540 -e S01E01 https://www.ctv.ca/shows/the-dessert

It lists three audio tracks as expected.

Aud *CENC ac3-ffa6v1-english-primary-384000 | 384 Kbps | ac-3 | en | 6CH
Aud *CENC aac-ffa6v1-english-primary-128000 | 128 Kbps | mp4a.40.2 | en | 2CH
Aud *CENC aac-ffa6v1-english-dv-128000 | 128 Kbps | mp4a.40.2 | en | 2CH

but then ignores all audio tracks and only downloads the video and subtitle.

If I run the download command manually using the manifest.mpd in the tmp folder it works.

n_m3u8dl-re manifest.mpd -sa "id=\baac\b:for=best2" -sv "res=540"

Any ideas please?

[ElCap]

change your code in ctv.yaml to this

track: "id=\\baac\\b:for=best2"

are you trying to download both aac audio tracks?

[stabbedbybrick]

@stabbedbybrick

I'm trying to exclude an audio track.

My ctv.yaml config has this line.

track: "id=\baac\b:for=best2"

Any ideas please?

Using regex characters like \b in the context of a python script works differently than using it in a command line. But there's no need to have it there at all.

audio:
  track: "id=aac:for=best2"
  drop:

You can also choose to drop the ac3 track and download the rest:

audio:
  track: "all"
  drop: "id=ac3"

[sipho]

change your code in ctv.yaml to this

track: "id=\\baac\\b:for=best2"

are you trying to download both aac audio tracks?

I am but I see Stabby sorted it out.

Thanks.

[sipho]

Using regex characters like \b in the context of a python script works differently than using it in a command line. But there's no need to have it there at all.

Thanks, didn't realise the regex would be different. I need to brush up on the Python version then.

You can also choose to drop the ac3 track and download the rest:

I did think about that but wanted to get the regex correct.

Thanks for the prompt response.

[videobuff]

Hi, thanks for making this tool! I'm trying to download a Roku channel series which basically seems to be the only real HD source but am getting an error although the titles list is loading fine. Could you please help (I used Python 3.12 but that doesn't seem to be the issue)? Here's the log:

python freevine.py --complete https://therokuchannel.roku.com/details/f259a3ae901e5a51a5704cb3a7d69445/robocop-alpha-commando

21:08:13.153 INFO : Freevine v0.6.1-beta (20231027)

21:08:13.278 INFO : The Roku Channel
21:08:16.873 INFO : RoboCop: Alpha Commando (1998): 1 Season(s), 40 Episode(s)

no client ID blob available for this device
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\freevine\freevine.py", line 46, in <module>
    main()
  File "C:\Users\USER\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\click\core.py", line 1157, in __call__
    return self.main(*args, **kwargs)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\USER\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\click\core.py", line 1078, in main
    rv = self.invoke(ctx)
         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\USER\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\USER\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\click\core.py", line 783, in invoke
    return __callback(*args, **kwargs)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\freevine\freevine.py", line 40, in main
    Service(config, **kwargs)
  File "C:\freevine\services\roku.py", line 50, in __init__
    self.get_options()
  File "C:\freevine\services\roku.py", line 250, in get_options
    self.download(download, title)
  File "C:\freevine\services\roku.py", line 263, in download
    else local_cdm(pssh, lic_url, self.client)
         ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\freevine\utils\cdm.py", line 15, in local_cdm
    response = client.post(url=lic_url, data=wvdecrypt.get_challenge())
               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\USER\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\httpx\_client.py", line 1132, in post
    return self.request(
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\USER\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\httpx\_client.py", line 801, in request
    request = self.build_request(
              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\USER\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\httpx\_client.py", line 358, in build_request
    return Request(
           ^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\USER\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\httpx\_models.py", line 339, in __init__
    headers, stream = encode_request(
                      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\USER\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\httpx\_content.py", line 205, in encode_request
    return encode_content(data)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\USER\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\httpx\_content.py", line 133, in encode_content
    raise TypeError(f"Unexpected type for 'content', {type(content)!r}")
TypeError: Unexpected type for 'content', <class 'int'>

Hi,

I've tried to download it using your command and it does work fine (using KeepSolid VPN from the UK). Unfortunately, though it does download, you only get SD (480).

Peter

19:05:15.525 INFO : Parsing streams...
19:05:15.531 INFO : Selected streams:
19:05:15.531 INFO : Vid *CENC 640x480 | 1013 Kbps | 1 | 23.976 | avc1.64001E | 668 Segments | ~22m16s
19:05:15.532 INFO : Aud *CENC 6 | 128 Kbps | mp4a.40.5 | eng | 2CH | 668 Segments | ~22m16s
19:05:15.534 INFO : Sub 7 | eng | stpp | 668 Segments | ~22m16s
19:05:15.534 WARN : Writing meta json
19:05:15.546 INFO : Save Name: RoboCop.Alpha.Commando.S01E01.Justice.Reborn.Part. 1.480p.ROKU.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264
19:05:15.547 WARN : MuxAfterDone is detected, binary merging is automatically enabled
19:05:15.551 INFO : Start downloading...Sub 7 | eng | stpp
19:05:15.551 INFO : Start downloading...Aud 6 | 128 Kbps | mp4a.40.5 | eng | 2CH
19:05:15.551 INFO : Start downloading...Vid 640x480 | 1013 Kbps | 1 | 23.976 | avc1.64001E
19:05:15.995 WARN : Reading media info...

Thanks, I figured out I had misconfigured pywidevine.

Now when I run the following to download.

py freevine.py -c https://www.channel4.com/programmes/8-out-of-10-cats-does-countdown

It's giving me the error below;

no client ID blob available for this device

I have generated the device_client_id_blob.bin and device_private_key.pem and put them in freevine-main\pywidevine\L3\cdm\devices\android_generic folder. I have looked through the pages and generated the files again, but same issue, any idea what i'm doing wrong?

I appreciate the help.

Remove the file extensions (.bin and .pem).

I tried putting client_id.bin and private_key.pem directly in (freevine folder)\pywidevine\L3\cdm\devices\android_generic then tried removing the extension but am still getting "no client ID blob available for this device". I also tried renaming the files to device_client_id and device_private_key without the extension, no dice. Also, I did not do a pip install of pywidevine as an earlier post indicated that could cause problems. Any idea what may be wrong with the key configuration?

[iamghost]

try that cdm
https://files.videohelp.com/u/301156/l3%20cdm.zip

[videobuff]

try that cdm
https://files.videohelp.com/u/301156/l3%20cdm.zip

Thanks, this worked! Can confirm the stream is in DVD quality only, the information available elsewhere about the stream quality being HD was incorrect.

[sipho]

Trying to download two shows on My5.

https://www.channel5.com/show/murderous-history
https://www.channel5.com/show/great-british-royal-ships

Selecting an episode throws this error in my face.

File "D:\GitHub\freevine\services\channel5.py", line 169, in get_mediainfo
    pssh = self.get_pssh(self.soup)
  File "D:\GitHub\freevine\services\channel5.py", line 158, in get_pssh
    .attrs.get("cenc:default_KID")
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'attrs'

Other My5 shows are fine though.

[Grimbarian]

Trying to download two shows on My5.

https://www.channel5.com/show/murderous-history
https://www.channel5.com/show/great-british-royal-ships

Selecting an episode throws this error in my face.

File "D:\GitHub\freevine\services\channel5.py", line 169, in get_mediainfo
    pssh = self.get_pssh(self.soup)
  File "D:\GitHub\freevine\services\channel5.py", line 158, in get_pssh
    .attrs.get("cenc:default_KID")
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'attrs'

Other My5 shows are fine though.

I think it's because the two series use one of the other Mpd filename types that haven't been added yet (they use 4 or 5 different ones in total)

Murderous History s01e01 for example is:

https://akadash0.akamaized.net/cenc/C5370840001/C5370840001A/20210505022143/C5370840001A.mpd

Ones that work are:

https://akadash0.akamaized.net/hydra/C5156740007/C5156740007E/20230124043522/C5156740007_SD-tt.mpd
or
_720p
_SD-fixed-label
(amongst others)

[Grimbarian]

Ahh I butchered it to work for the Murderous History one at least!

channel5.py

Line 144

Change from:

if "A-tt" in _path[-1]:

to

if "" in _path[-1]:

And that makes it work!

SD only though...




And it does break the script for other shows so you'll need to revert it after you get all of the episodes you want of the series.

[stabbedbybrick]

I just pushed a small update for My5 with a much better solution that should work for all MPD versions without having to check for each one. Hopefully it'll be more robust.

It's also important to remember that not everything can be edited to get 1080p. Some content just simply don't have it.

[Grimbarian]

I just pushed a small update for My5 with a much better solution that should work for all MPD versions without having to check for each one. Hopefully it'll be more robust.

It's also important to remember that not everything can be edited to get 1080p. Some content just simply don't have it.

Great stuff thanks!

[sipho]

I think it's because the two series use one of the other Mpd filename types that haven't been added yet (they use 4 or 5 different ones in total)

Murderous History s01e01 for example is:

https://akadash0.akamaized.net/cenc/C5370840001/C5370840001A/20210505022143/C5370840001A.mpd

Ones that work are:

https://akadash0.akamaized.net/hydra/C5156740007/C5156740007E/20230124043522/C5156740007_SD-tt.mpd
or
_720p
_SD-fixed-label
(amongst others)

Good catch!

I can't be too fussy about old shows. Thanks.

[sipho]

I just pushed a small update for My5 with a much better solution that should work for all MPD versions without having to check for each one. Hopefully it'll be more robust.

Thanks again boss. Appreciate the time and effort to maintain this script.

[Grimbarian]

Good catch!

I can't be too fussy about old shows. Thanks.

The updated script stabbedbybrick pushed last night fixes the downloads of both shows!

[iamghost]

is it just me, I get problem with my5. all programmes showing error

  File "services\channel5.py", line 45, in <module>
    class CHANNEL5(Config):
  File "services\channel5.py", line 180, in CHANNEL5
    def get_content(self, url: str) -> tuple[Movies | Series, str]:
TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for |: 'ABCMeta' and 'ABCMeta'

others tv sites is fine but not channel 5

[Grimbarian]

is it just me, I get problem with my5. all programmes showing error

  File "services\channel5.py", line 45, in <module>
    class CHANNEL5(Config):
  File "services\channel5.py", line 180, in CHANNEL5
    def get_content(self, url: str) -> tuple[Movies | Series, str]:
TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for |: 'ABCMeta' and 'ABCMeta'

others tv sites is fine but not channel 5

All good here, just downloaded a couple of random My5 episodes and no problem.

[sipho]

The updated script stabbedbybrick pushed last night fixes the downloads of both shows!

Indeed it did.

[deccavox]

A number of media players give more than one stream with the same resolution but with different bitrates. In some cases, the 'best' one is rather overbloated in terms of bitrate/ filesize. So, I need to select the 'worst' one. Now, as an example for CH4, putting, "res=576:for=worst" against 'track:' in the channel4.yaml, that does the job. I was hoping I could do similar using the --quality setting that can be used in the command line. But I've found it'll only accept `-q 576p` which gives the 'best' 576p.
So, it has to be done in the yaml file prior to running the script. A bit messy that.

Would it be possible to include this selection as a part of the --quality option in the command line?

For myself, it affects:
All4 (CH4) has two 576p streams. I need to sometimes select the 'worst' one.
ITVX has two 576p streams. I need to sometimes select the 'worst' one.
My5 (CH5) has two 720p streams. I need to sometimes select the 'worst' one.

Also, what's the 'drop:' setting in the yaml services\config files? None of them have any values set.

And do keep up the good work.