Downloads from ORF (Austrian Broadcast) no possible since Mo. 2021-03-29

[Franz Winter]

Hi,
is anyone using VideoDownload Helper to download videos from https://tvthek.orf.at/ (ORF = Austrian public broadcast) Mediathek? 
I used it during the last years without problems. 

Since Monday 29. March 2021 it's not possible any longer with Chrome, MS Edge or Firefox. The message in the VDH-box is: "No media to process in current tab" / "Keine verarbeitbaren Medien im aktuellen Tab") 

Do's anyone know about a Codec change? Or anything else? 
Any alternative download tools? Before VDH I used MediathekView - because of the Codecs changes the abadoned support. 

Franz W. from Austria 

[Wild Willy]

My experience with ORF is that I can't access the content on that web site. It puts up a message
in German (which I neither speak nor read) which I think is telling me that since I'm not in
Austria, I can't get access to the content. I tried just now to see what I could look at but the 4
live broadcasts that were available off the home page were all blocked for me. This is truly a
shame because I would love to watch the Wiener Philharmoniker New Year's Day concerts each year as
they happen but I have to wait for a kind soul to post them on YouTube. The posts manage to last a
few hours before somebody takes them down for copyright violation. I've gotten them the past
couple of years but it's quite lucky that I have. The shows reappear on YouTube a few months later
so they're just being childish about it. A 1920x1080 version of the 2021 concert was available
within a day after the performance for a short time. It was posted as 2 separate videos that I
welded together with ffmpeg. But it disappeared just a few hours after I downloaded it. A
1280x720 version of the concert apparently taken from a Spanish TV broadcast is available now. But
it's truly despicable to stream these things (or pretty much anything off YouTube) because
advertising keeps interrupting your viewing. Have I mentioned lately what I think of YouTube? So
you pretty much need to download it if you want to enjoy it. As for the ORF site, you're probably
going to need to get help from somebody in Austria, or perhaps somebody within the European Union.
I do desperately wish I could help you but I can't. Oh. And if you suggest that I try with a VPN,
I have. It doesn't work. The ORF apparently know the IP addresses used by the usual VPN suspects
& they block access that way as well. I wish you luck.

[Petra Payer]

same here! I bought a new license, but download did not work in the last few days.

who can help??

thank you

[HKI]

There is a solution to download ORF-files:

1. get the URL of the movie e.g. with MediathekView

    do a rightclick on the file you want and choose "URL kopieren"

2. paste the URL into JDownloader and start the download

[Franz Winter]

Thank's for this tip to HKI Helmut Kiesel, 
Yes, it works with JDownloader. If JDownloader is installed, then in MediathekView there is a new menu "Mit JDownloader herunterladen". 
It's not so elegant than with VideoDownload Helper VDH, e.g. the name of the video is not taken ... but it works. 

[Petra Payer]

thank you!

is there a solution for VideoDownload Helper& tvthek.orf.at, too?

I paid the license for this programme, therefore I would be happy to use just this tool, thanks in advance, petra

[Franz Winter]

Es sieht so aus, dass der ORF wieder mal einiges umgedreht hat, um die Downloader weg zu bekommen (die beim ORF meinen wohl, dass die Downloader die vom ORF gemachten Filme  publizieren - ich tu's nicht; ich hab nur jetzt innerhalb 10 Tagen keine Zeit sie anzuschauen). Ich fand aber noch keine Infos, ob und was geändert wurde. VDH kann da nach meiner Einschätzung nichts dafür. Andererseits wundern mich aber die Meldungen hier, dass es bei anderen Videoquellen nun Probleme mit VDH gibt. Mal abwarten. 
@Petra: für mich hat sich VDH für div. andere Videoquellen incl. YouTube ausgezahlt. 

[Alex HK]

It works using youtube-dl  in the command line if anyone is interested.

The command is youtube-dl [url]

Example:

E:\Downloads>youtube-dl https://tvthek.orf.at/profile/Servus-Kasperl/3272601/Servus-Kasperl-Kasperl-Co-Wenn-wir-eine-Omi-haetten/14088300
[orf:tvthek] 14088300: Downloading webpage
[orf:tvthek] 14897557: Downloading m3u8 information

[...]

[download] 100% of 567.45MiB in 00:52
[download] Finished downloading playlist: 14088300

E:\Downloads>

[Alex HK]

@WildWilly, here is the HTML code for one of the episodes today:

https://pastebin.com/gHFtDvpE

[Franz Winter]

Hi Alex, YES, this is really interesting you informed us about "youtube-dl" 
It would be completly useful immediatly, if you give some details. So I have to research a lot to find it out.
For all the newbies to "youtube-dl" as I've been 1 hour ago.

1.) Download from: https://ytdl-org.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html , this site includes Windows .exe. 
No installation needed, copy the file "youtube-dl.exe" to a folder where you want to start the downloads. 

2.) Doku is on: https://www.mankier.com/1/youtube-dl // https://ostechnix.com/youtube-dl-tutorial-with-examples-for-beginners/ and other sites  

3.) First try (with the example) showed me the error:
"m3u8 download detected but ffmpeg or avconv could not be found. Please install one." 

4.) Download  ffmpeg from https://ffmpeg.en.lo4d.com/download or https://ffmpeg.org/download.html#build-windows 

5.) Copy the 3 files from "bin" (ffmpeg.exe, ffplay.exe, ffprobe.exe) to the directory with the "youtube-dl.exe" 

6.) Change Quality: automaticaly the best quality of a video will be downloaded. I don't want this because it takes much more storage. 
To change it use  youtube-dl.exe --format "hls-Q6A-Hoch-2444" + URL
The paramter for --format is a little bit tricky to find out as far as I've seen yet. 

6a)Take anything as parameter, start the download youtube-dl.exe --format "hls-Q6A-Hoch-2444" URL  . 

A list of all available formats + options will be downloaded and shown as playlist. 

Example: 

[orf:tvthek] 14897661: Checking hls-Q1A-Niedrig-514 video format URL

[orf:tvthek] 14897661: Checking hls-Q4A-Mittel-1212 video format URL

[orf:tvthek] 14897661: Checking hls-Q6A-Hoch-2444 video format URL  --> I take "hls-Q6A-Hoch-2444" for the download 

[orf:tvthek] 14897661: Checking hls-Q8C-Sehr hoch-3908 video format URL

and much more 

Most of the time it want's another value for --format, returning the error: "ERROR: requested format not available" 

6b) copy the value of the quality and paste it in the --format-paramter. That's it. It takes two steps

youtube-dl.exe --format "hls-Q6A-Hoch-2444" https://tvthek.orf.at/profile/Schloss-Windsor-Tragoedie-und-Triumph/13892679/In-memoriam-Prinz-Philip-Schloss-Windsor-Tragoedie-und-Triumph-3-4/14088408

Maybe anyone can give more tipps and tricks - I just learned this the last 2 hours. And it works. And it uses the original video name from TVThek, no renaming needed like in JDownloader2. 

I hope "VDH VideoDownloadHelper" will function again soon. 

[Franz Winter]

To get the formats for quality use: "youtube-dl --list-formats URL"