Why has Streamlink stopped working?

[jtmaher]

TLDR: This is not about Streamlink in general. It's about Titus-AU's plugins.

As recently as August 9th, 2026, I was able to download DRM-protected videos by using Titus-AU's Streamlink plugins. They can be found here: https://github.com/titus-au?tab=repositories. However, when I try to download a video now, I just get this error:

[cli][error] No data returned from stream

I have tried this both on Streamlink 8.4.0, which worked in August, and the latest Streamlink 8.6.2. Here's an example Streamlink command. It's for the free Chicago-area PBS station that should be accessible by anyone in the US.

streamlink --plugin-dir C:\Users\James\Documents\Python\Streamlink --url hlsdrm://https://wttwdt.lls.pbs.org/lls/wttwdt/wttwdt-hls-drm/hls-drm.m3u8 --hlsdrm-decryption-key 002d9abb3d1814bf530d984cbe4a5721 --default-stream best --player-external-http --player-external-http-interface 127.0.0.1 --player-external-http-port 8080 --ffmpeg-fout "mpegts"

I even tried emailing Titus himself about this issue, but got no reply.

[LZAA]

streamlink-plugin-dashdrm

https://wttwdt.lls.pbs.org/lls/wttwdt/wttwdt-hls-drm/hls-drm.m3u8

METHOD=SAMPLE-AES

..

[jtmaher]

I'm not using the dash drm plugin. If you look at the command, you can see that the URL is prefixed with hlsdrm://. Therefore, it should be able to decrypt SAMPLE-AES just fine.

[CopyPasteDev]

it worked fine with me tho


[Attachment 94142 - Click to enlarge]

here is a sample of the downloaded video
https://storage.to/59YY0ba16

[jtmaher]

Do you think PBS could be blocking my IP, because of abuse? That's the only explanation I can think of. I've tried restarting my PC, and it didn't help.

[LZAA]

Url?

[CopyPasteDev]

im not sure about pbs limits but sending too many requests can definitely get your ip temporarily rate limited or flagged
try restarting your router to get a new ip or just test it using a mobile hotspot or vpn if it starts working on a new ip then pbs definitely blocked your original one
use debug flag to see http req/res logs

⁠--loglevel debug