Aggregating: Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

[David Young]

With Dash streaming, I have noticed a strange problem which does not look like the ones reported elsewhere in this forum.

A video takes a few dozen minutes to download and then a dozen or so hours to aggregate, with the result working perfectly. Then, after a few months, it only downloads. The aggregate function goes from zero percent to finish in a few seconds and a broken video with only the thumbnail is the result.

What makes this different from other faults reported is that it seems to depend on the time of year that I am downloading. It works for a few months, then stops working for a few more, then works for about a week and then stops working again.

Installing Video DownloadHelper on another Windows computer has exactly the same effect, working when it works on the other computer and not working when it doesn't on the other.

Incidentally, it is embedded Vimeo videos in question. For some reason, other videos work near-perfectly all year round.

Is this a fault with the downloader or the sites holding the embedded videos?

[Paul Rouget]

Hi. Thanks for the report.

- Do you mind reporting the Video Codec used for these videos? (we just found some issues with AV1 codec).
- And do you use have a License (as in, do you see a QR code)?

[David Young]

It's the free version, so when it works there is a QR code.

According to the 'conversion outputs' tab, it is AVI. I don't see a 1 or other number after AV, although there are '1MB', '2MB' options etc. Changing and clicking 'duplicate' does not make any change to the type of file that downloads though.

[Wild Willy]

When you refer to "ones reported elsewhere in this forum," I assume you're talking about
this:

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

You know, we have not been able to get embedded Vimeo videos to work properly with VDH.
The best we've ever been able to do is get a faulty video with VDH, then repair it with
ffmpeg. The preferred method of downloading embedded Vimeo videos is to use ffmpeg
instead of VDH.

I think it's time for you to give us a proper problem report here. That means something
looking vaguely like this:

Windows 7 64-bit, Firefox 115.3.1esr, VDH 8.1.0.0a4 beta, CoApp 2.0.3, URL of problem
video, URL of problem video . . .

At least one URL. Maybe more. Your call. I would be most interested in at least one
sample embedded Vimeo video that you have successfully downloaded with VDH.

Time of year seems awfully suspect. My intuition is that you're hitting some sort of
coincidence & in reality the time of year has nothing to do with it. Web sites change
the way they present their content on a whim, so something that works one day can easily
work differently (or not at all) the next. We get reports of silliness like that all the
time.

As for the hours of aggregating, that is due to your not having a license. Buy a license
& those hours of CPU grinding go away. But it's your computer, your time, & your money
so . . .

When it comes to Paul's question about the codec, the only way to properly answer him is
to run the downloaded file through ffprobe. The things you have given as answers have
nothing to do with the codec.

[Wild Willy]

In case you believe you do not have ffprobe, you do. It is distributed as part of the
CoApp. If you have an old version of the CoApp, it resides in this directory (on
Windows):

C:\Program Files\net.downloadhelper.coapp\converter\build\win\64

If you have a current version of the CoApp, it resides in this directory (again, on
Windows):

C:\Program Files\DownloadHelper CoApp

Those are the default directories in which the CoApp gets installed. You might have
installed them elsewhere but that's unlikely.

To execute ffprobe, you will need to open a command window, then change directories to
whichever one of the 2 I mention above applies to you. Once you have gotten into that
directory, type this at the command prompt:

ffprobe

There's a trailing space there. Don't forget to type that. Just type that. Don't hit
Enter yet. Now go find your video & drag/drop it onto the command window. Now hit
Enter. This will generate a short report about your file. Copy/paste the contents of
the command window to a .txt file. Use Notepad to create this .txt file. Do not take a
screenshot. Create a text file from the ffprobe output. Then attach that file to a post
here.

If you're on Linux or Mac, I don't know those environments. I know only Windows. You'll
have to do something analogous to what I describe above. The directory names might be
different. You'll have to figure it out. Or maybe Paul can tell you. He actually works
for VDH whereas I do not.

[mjs]

I agree with Willy in what month or time of year is purely coincidence. It is a problem with VDH or more specifically the companion app.

We've seen that over the past year or more with it producing the fast video issue. But I think I've identified the common factor other

than them being embedded. Which I'll share in a new discussion.