Download never ends
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Vinicius Menegusso
Sep 16, 2022, 10:05:57 AM9/16/22
to Video DownloadHelper Q&A
I just got a license to download my college videos, and when I start to download an HLS video, that is like 8 minutes, when I'm almost finishing, the lengh of the video doubles by it self and the download never complete.
For example, this video have 8:54 minutes:
The same video turns out to have more than 1 hour now :/
Does anyone know how to solve it?
Wild Willy
Sep 16, 2022, 11:00:08 AM9/16/22
to Video Download Helper Google Group
I have occasionally seen this. It's been a while though so my memory of it is fuzzy. I
have a faint recollection that the duration being double or triple or, in your case, 9
times the original is actually bogus. Did you let that download run for the remaining
13%? Seems to me when I just let my case run, it did eventually complete & the true
duration was not what VDH reported. I'm assuming your college videos require a user ID &
password to view. In that case, I can't look at them. Otherwise, I'd ask you to post
some URLs. I will say that there are probably alternatives to using VDH to download
these videos, assuming your videos really didn't complete downloading in VDH. Search
this forum for some recent discussions of problems downloading from Vimeo. Your site is
different but the techniques to try are the same. You need to open the Network Monitor.
You do this by either F12 or Ctrl+Shift+i. Then you mine the contents of the Network
Monitor to see what gems you can unearth. Maybe you will see your MP4 files directly.
The VDH display says the files are streamed using HLS. In that case, I would expect to
see some m3u8 HLS manifests. That would then lend this case very well to download via
ffmpeg. I put up a tutorial on how to use ffmpeg. Start by clicking this:
https://groups.google.com/g/video-downloadhelper-q-and-a/c/BzPLK2YyL-s
That's one you will probably want to bookmark & read through, if not all at once now,
eventually. For the ffmpeg tutorial, search for the text "cannot download" on that web
page. That will give you a link to the tutorial. While you're searching for text, look
for "stealth quote" in there. That will get you another link you should click. There's
some important advice in there that you should follow. One more text string you should
look for in there is DRM. You want to make sure this content is not protected by DRM.
One of the references in there mentions specifically that the link explains how to
determine whether certain content is protected by DRM. DRM is important because if it is
protected by DRM, it will not be possible to download the content with any tool. The
purpose of DRM is to prevent downloading. In such a case, your only recourse would be a
screen recorder. That's much less convenient than downloading so it's generally a last
resort. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
So here's another homework assignment you weren't even expecting. But students are used
to pulling all-nighters. I certainly was.
have a faint recollection that the duration being double or triple or, in your case, 9
times the original is actually bogus. Did you let that download run for the remaining
13%? Seems to me when I just let my case run, it did eventually complete & the true
duration was not what VDH reported. I'm assuming your college videos require a user ID &
password to view. In that case, I can't look at them. Otherwise, I'd ask you to post
some URLs. I will say that there are probably alternatives to using VDH to download
these videos, assuming your videos really didn't complete downloading in VDH. Search
this forum for some recent discussions of problems downloading from Vimeo. Your site is
different but the techniques to try are the same. You need to open the Network Monitor.
You do this by either F12 or Ctrl+Shift+i. Then you mine the contents of the Network
Monitor to see what gems you can unearth. Maybe you will see your MP4 files directly.
The VDH display says the files are streamed using HLS. In that case, I would expect to
see some m3u8 HLS manifests. That would then lend this case very well to download via
ffmpeg. I put up a tutorial on how to use ffmpeg. Start by clicking this:
https://groups.google.com/g/video-downloadhelper-q-and-a/c/BzPLK2YyL-s
That's one you will probably want to bookmark & read through, if not all at once now,
eventually. For the ffmpeg tutorial, search for the text "cannot download" on that web
page. That will give you a link to the tutorial. While you're searching for text, look
for "stealth quote" in there. That will get you another link you should click. There's
some important advice in there that you should follow. One more text string you should
look for in there is DRM. You want to make sure this content is not protected by DRM.
One of the references in there mentions specifically that the link explains how to
determine whether certain content is protected by DRM. DRM is important because if it is
protected by DRM, it will not be possible to download the content with any tool. The
purpose of DRM is to prevent downloading. In such a case, your only recourse would be a
screen recorder. That's much less convenient than downloading so it's generally a last
resort. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
So here's another homework assignment you weren't even expecting. But students are used
to pulling all-nighters. I certainly was.
Vinicius Menegusso
Sep 16, 2022, 11:20:03 AM9/16/22
to Video DownloadHelper Q&A
I did some research and here it is some information that it may help:
The video source is from Kaltura.
Media Manisfest:
The video source is from Kaltura.
Media Manisfest:
Sorry but I couldn't find the ffmpeg tutorial that you said, can you please send me the link?
Thank you.
Thank you.
Wild Willy
Sep 16, 2022, 8:39:34 PM9/16/22
to Video Download Helper Google Group
I am encouraged by your progress. I believe you will be successful with this. I gave
you this link above:
https://groups.google.com/g/video-downloadhelper-q-and-a/c/BzPLK2YyL-s
This is an important link that I want you to get in the habit of using frequently as a
resource. That is why I am not going to just give you the link to the tutorial. I want
you to get used to using that as a reference. Within that thread, I want you to get used
to searching for text strings. The text string "cannot download" is the one you want.
That will give you the link to the ffmpeg tutorial.
You should also use the text string "stealth quote" to search that thread. That will
give you another link that will tell you something important.
I also mentioned DRM as a string to search for in there. It appears that your content is
not protected by DRM, but DRM is an issue you should keep in the back of your mind.
The media manifest you gave looks good. Once you have done ffprobe on that, you will
agree. However, it is usually better to find the master manifest. Most often, that one
will have a name that includes the word master in its name. But not always. Usually,
whichever m3u8 file is listed first in the Network Monitor is the master manifest. That
is the one that you will find the most useful in most cases.
I was expecting that you would be working on a web site that required a user ID &
password since you mentioned something about college videos. But I was able to run
ffprobe on the manifest whose URL you posted. I see in there that there is timed_id3
data in the stream. This is a type of data that has been well-knonw to cause problems
for VDH. You can search this forum with the search key "timed_id3" to find a number of
threads in which it is mentioned. You won't really learn anything more than the fact
that timed_id3 data is a problem for VDH so I wouldn't spend a whole lot of time reading
those stories. But the presence of the timed_id3 data may be what is causing VDH to
report those crazy durations & perhaps not complete the downloads you have been
attempting. Once you figure out how to use ffmpeg, it becomes a trivial matter to simply
ignore the timed_id3 data. I have not been able to download such data & look at it.
Both ffprobe & ffmpeg simply ignore such data. They both report that they have no codec
for interpreting it. It seems to be the correct thing to do to just ignore it. All the
downloads I have done with ffmpeg when timed_id3 data has been present just ignore the
timed_id3 data, and the resulting downloaded video has played perfectly fine in VLC.
But since your web site is not protected by a user ID & password, you should share some
URLs of pages on which your videos reside. I would then be able to advise you if you are
having trouble with anything at a certain point. You will find as you read the tutorial
that I learned things along the way. You should read the entire thread before you
attempt to do any downloads. The things I explain earlier on in the tutorial are useful
to know, but they are less useful than I originally thought when it comes to actually
running ffmpeg. Still, you should read the whole thing. Once you've done that, don't be
afraid to experiment. You generally learn as much from mistakes as you do from
successes. That thread hides so many mistakes I made that I couldn't possibly count
them. So it's probably a good thing to make mistakes. Eventually, they will teach you
more.
you this link above:
https://groups.google.com/g/video-downloadhelper-q-and-a/c/BzPLK2YyL-s
This is an important link that I want you to get in the habit of using frequently as a
resource. That is why I am not going to just give you the link to the tutorial. I want
you to get used to using that as a reference. Within that thread, I want you to get used
to searching for text strings. The text string "cannot download" is the one you want.
That will give you the link to the ffmpeg tutorial.
You should also use the text string "stealth quote" to search that thread. That will
give you another link that will tell you something important.
I also mentioned DRM as a string to search for in there. It appears that your content is
not protected by DRM, but DRM is an issue you should keep in the back of your mind.
The media manifest you gave looks good. Once you have done ffprobe on that, you will
agree. However, it is usually better to find the master manifest. Most often, that one
will have a name that includes the word master in its name. But not always. Usually,
whichever m3u8 file is listed first in the Network Monitor is the master manifest. That
is the one that you will find the most useful in most cases.
I was expecting that you would be working on a web site that required a user ID &
password since you mentioned something about college videos. But I was able to run
ffprobe on the manifest whose URL you posted. I see in there that there is timed_id3
data in the stream. This is a type of data that has been well-knonw to cause problems
for VDH. You can search this forum with the search key "timed_id3" to find a number of
threads in which it is mentioned. You won't really learn anything more than the fact
that timed_id3 data is a problem for VDH so I wouldn't spend a whole lot of time reading
those stories. But the presence of the timed_id3 data may be what is causing VDH to
report those crazy durations & perhaps not complete the downloads you have been
attempting. Once you figure out how to use ffmpeg, it becomes a trivial matter to simply
ignore the timed_id3 data. I have not been able to download such data & look at it.
Both ffprobe & ffmpeg simply ignore such data. They both report that they have no codec
for interpreting it. It seems to be the correct thing to do to just ignore it. All the
downloads I have done with ffmpeg when timed_id3 data has been present just ignore the
timed_id3 data, and the resulting downloaded video has played perfectly fine in VLC.
But since your web site is not protected by a user ID & password, you should share some
URLs of pages on which your videos reside. I would then be able to advise you if you are
having trouble with anything at a certain point. You will find as you read the tutorial
that I learned things along the way. You should read the entire thread before you
attempt to do any downloads. The things I explain earlier on in the tutorial are useful
to know, but they are less useful than I originally thought when it comes to actually
running ffmpeg. Still, you should read the whole thing. Once you've done that, don't be
afraid to experiment. You generally learn as much from mistakes as you do from
successes. That thread hides so many mistakes I made that I couldn't possibly count
them. So it's probably a good thing to make mistakes. Eventually, they will teach you
more.
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