No video on downloaded vimeo file

[Roger]

I have the most recent version of the video download helper (7.6.0), Companion App (1.6.3) and Firefox (102.0.1 64-bit). Downloading https://vimeo.com/724258814 results in an mp4 file with sound, but without video (only a frozen frame). Any tips on how to fix this?

[mjs]

Interesting results I got , I downloaded the lowest quality and the video sped by at the very start , it was audio after that. The properties for it said

the frame rate was running at 10010.01 frames/second. I downloaded the next highest 640x360 quality. This one worked

You didn't indicate what video quality you tried to get that the problem happened on , so I think you need to try all the variants available and one of

them should work.

--

A vdh user

[Roger]

The frozen video occurred on 240p and 1080p.

Videos for 360p, 540p and 720p are OK.

Unfortunately the highest quality did not work.

[Wild Willy]

Prompted by a private E-mail from mjs, I looked into this one.  Fortunately, this video is only 1:13 in duration.  That's 1 minute 13 seconds, not 1 hour 13 minutes.  I downloaded every variant offered by VDH & got pretty much the same results as you guys.  The highest & the lowest resolution variants downloaded audio only.  At the highest resolution, the video was a black screen.  At the lowest resolution, the video was a pixelated image that did not change.  The other variants at the various resolutions downloaded a perfectly viewable video that had matching audio.

I noticed that VDH claimed this was a DASH item.  So I went into the Network Monitor & filtered on .mpd.  I got no hits.  So I just started scrolling through the Network Monitor with nothing specified in the filter.  There was something called master.json that looked like it probably is what passes for a manifest but I have no idea what to do with it.  Seems to me I've tried pumping something like that through ffprobe before & it gave me nothing meaningful.  I tried it on this one & ffprobe told me, "Syntax error near offset 12" and "Invalid data found when processing input."  Not very helpful.

But I noticed as I scrolled through this that there were .mp4 entries.  So I filtered on .mp4 & started trying to play each one.  Here's what I was looking at:

You'll notice the URLs end in &range=###-###.  We've encountered content like this before.  If you chop off the &range, you get a complete MP4.  So that's what I did to each entry.  I just started at the top & worked my way down.  I found some audio-only items & some video-only items.  When I played the video items in Firefox, I popped up the context menu in the middle of the playback window & selected "Save video as..." to download the video to my system.  I eventually came to the one highlighted in the above image.  It saved a video whose Windows properties claimed it was 1920x1080 but the bit rates & the frame rate were all 0.  Plus the audio information was all 0 as well, but I had already figured out I was looking at one of those separate audio & video cases.  Anyway, this rather weird MP4 played fine in VLC, without audio, of course, but it played the whole 1:13.  The VLC Media Information confirmed it was 1920x1080.  To my eyes it looked like 1920x1080.  So if you were to download one of the audio-only items, any one would do, they're all the same dialog, you could play this video & audio synchronously in VLC.  You would have the video at the highest resolution.

I don't know what the deal is here.  The video itself appears to be weird in some way.  VDH apparently gags on the weirdness.  VLC is more tolerant, a fact we have confirmed a number of times in this forum.  If you can fish the needle out of the haystack, you'll get a normal looking video that plays normally in VLC at 1920x1080.  While this is a weird case, it is not the one of too-fast video.  That is an entirely different situation.  In that situation, the audio plays normally, but the video plays too fast.  So you watch for, let's say, 1 minute.  What you hear is the first minute of audio & it sounds normal.  But the entire video flashes by as if you have the speed factor set to 16x or some other high number.  When the video runs out, the audio continues to play normally but the video is usually frozen on whatever was the last frame of video information.  I have even encountered the situation where the MP4 starts with a couple of hours of perfectly synchronized video & audio.  Then suddenly the video goes to warp 5 while the audio remains normal.  We are not looking at the too-fast video situation here.  We are looking at something weird here, but it's not the too-fast video case.

[Gemma Flowers]

Hello,
I have the same problem, in high quality only the audio downloads, when it didn't happen to me before, it happens to me since the month of August this year...
Are you looking at what's the problem?
Thanks for your help!

Gemma

[Wild Willy]

Since I don't work for VDH, I am not looking at possible corrections to the software. I
don't have access to the source code. Moreover, even if I did, I believe I have no
experience with the particular programming language of the code. I only offer
alternative solutions. I offered one above. Did you try it? That would be more helpful
than a post saying you are seeing the same problem. You should actually READ what has
been posted here & then try to do the same things. What might be useful would be if you
said you did try to follow the advice given above but it didn't work for you. Within
whatever you would post would be a URL. A URL. When you ask for help here, you should
always post at least one URL of a video that is giving you problems. But you should do
that in this thread ONLY if you tried what is described above & it didn't work. Me-too
posts are rarely of any use. On the other hand, a post that says that you tried the
alternative solution offered above & it did work for you would be most welcome. It is
always helpful to have posts saying a solution works. That would encourage other users
to also use the solution. I suspect that if you engage your brain long enough to read &
understand what's already been posted in this thread, you will find that the solution
works for you, too. A post from you saying it works for you would be far more helpful
than what you have posted.

[Gemma Flores Rius]

Hello again,

First of all, thank you for your prompt response.
Of course I have read your previous comments and I have tried to do it without success, I use a MACOS system and I don't know if it is for this reason that the file does not convert well, perhaps and surely it will be because I do not know much.
When I say that the same thing happens to me, it is that I cannot download private videos from VIMEO in which I am subscribed with the qualities mentioned in the previous comments.
My question here is if VDH is aware and going to do something to fix them and not have to do the steps you mention to sync audio and video in VLC.
Thanks in advance.

Gemma

El dia diumenge, 18 de setembre de 2022 a les 21:11:54 UTC+2, Wild Willy va escriure:

[Wild Willy]

You would probably be helping yourself to give more detail on what you've been trying to
do. First, some URLs of web pages containing videos you've been trying to download would
help. Then you should post some screenshots of what you have tried to do. Have you been
successful in opening the Network Monitor? That is usually available through a menu
entry. On Firefox, it is Tools -> Browser Tools -> Web Developer Tools. It is also
available through the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+Shift+i or F12. I believe it is quite
similar in Chrome. You have to open the Network Monitor as your first step. So show us
a sequence of screenshots of what you have tried & we should be able to make some
progress here.

[Wild Willy]

I can't speak about what product changes may occur in VDH at some future date. But I
assume you want to download your videos now & not wait for VDH to be updated. I am
focused on helping you download your videos without the help of VDH. You have to decide
how important this is to you. Do you want to get your videos now? Or do you want to
wait for some unknown long period of time before VDH is updated? You have to decide.

[mjs]

Gemma, perhaps this will help you:

https://groups.google.com/g/video-downloadhelper-q-and-a/c/sNfTCMYfiTU

[Wild Willy]

Gemma, I just realized you've been talking about private videos on Vimeo. That means
there's no point in posting URLs. Only people with the right logon credentials would
find them useful. The rest of us would just be confronted with a logon prompt for which
we wouldn't have the relevant input to provide. That just makes it even more important
for you to show us some screenshots. Let us watch over your shoulder as you try to
follow the instructions above. I'm hoping somebody reading your post would notice
something that would help you.

[Gemma Flores Rius]

Hello,

I'm sending images that I asked for, the first images are of the video that doesn't work, and the second ones are of one that does, it's the same website, but the one that does work is from before this summer, just in case can help you figure out what has changed. Video in which only the audio is downloaded and the image remains frozen:

And here are the images of the video that can be heard and seen correctly, uploaded before the summer:

Let me know if you need any more images or anything that can help you. Again, thank you very much for your help.

[Wild Willy]

We're making progress here. The images with Inspector displayed aren't much help. The
images with Network are more likely to be useful. In a post upthread here, mjs gave a
reference to this thread:

https://groups.google.com/g/video-downloadhelper-q-and-a/c/sNfTCMYfiTU

We've had quite a lively discussion over there that covers the ground we want to cover
here. My recommendation is that you do what we did over there. Sort the Network Monitor
display by clicking on the column heading marked Type. That groups the entries in the
display by their type. Scroll to the entries of type js & look for one with the word
player in its name. I have been seeing player.js as the file name but it's possible you
could see some variation on that. Do what I show in that other thread. Download the
player.js file as HAR, like I show over there. Then post that file here as an
attachment. An attachment. Not an inline image. An attachment. Since Google imposes
some restrictions on the file extensions of what you can attach to posts, change the name
of your file so it has an extension of .txt. It is a plain text file so you're not
actually wrong to call the file something.txt. While you are waiting for me to look at
it, you should try to do what I illustrate in that other thread. Try to find an HLS
manifest by searching the file for the text string m3u8. Then follow the reference I
offer over there to instructions on how to use ffmpeg. In the end, I'm fairly certain
you are going to have to learn how to use ffmpeg so you may as well get started now.

I think we should not focus on what has changed. Web sites change their way of operating
on a whim all the time. People posting here encounter it regularly. It's life. No one
can stop a web site from changing how they do things. Maybe it used to work. Maybe it
doesn't work now. We have no control over that. Comparing what was with what is is not
a productive exercise. I have no doubt you used to be able to do what you can no longer
do. That is not a cause for complaint. That is an opportunity for learning. So let's
learn. Since you did not throw up your hands & say, "I give up," I am encouraged that
you are the type of person who is willing to learn in order to get this done. We have
managed to figure out a way to get it done over in that other thread. Evidence is
mounting that embedded Vimeo content is something VDH does not handle . . . today. And
there's no predicting when or even if it will ever support such content. However, we
should be able to get your videos downloaded for you within the next few days. Once
you've done a couple of these, it will get easier each time you need to do this. I'm
getting better at it with each attempt so I'm sure the same will be true for you.

[Gemma Flores Rius]

Hello!

I've been trying and trying, and I've got it! I have been able to convert the videos that I downloaded through WEB DEVELOPER TOOLS (audio + video), I have converted them with VDH into a single video in .mp4, (with VLC it does not allow me to do it with a MAC system).

So I just want to thank you for your help. Thank you very very much!

[Wild Willy]

This is EXCELLENT news! Did you use ffmpeg? Or did you just double click on 2 MP4s &
download them from their separate tabs?

Interesting what you say about VLC on MAC. I'll have to remember that.