Video DownloadHelper 7.6.0 - Encountered Some Error

[Nurul Abser]

Hi,

I recently reset the Windows 10 on my PC, and as a result, I installed Mozilla Firefox 105.0.3 (64-bit) and Video DownloadHelper 7.6.0.

However, neither of the two test videos I downloaded are playing.

Video URL: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-an-email-signature-from-a-template-5b02c5ed-1e85-4d2a-a098-9628fe3231d8

Error Details:

Failed converting "Create an email signature from a template"

ffmpeg version n4.1.5-vdhcoapp Copyright (c) 2000-2020 the FFmpeg developers

  built with gcc 9.3-win32 (GCC) 20200320

  configuration: --cross-prefix=x86_64-w64-mingw32- --sysroot=/usr/x86_64-w64-mingw32/ --extra-ldflags=-static-libgcc --target-os=mingw32 --arch=x86_64 --prefix=/home/mig/git/vdhcoapp/converter/src-build/win/64/converter-build --extra-version=vdhcoapp --extra-cflags=-I/home/mig/git/vdhcoapp/converter/src-build/win/64/deps/include --extra-ldflags='-static-libgcc -L/home/mig/git/vdhcoapp/converter/src-build/win/64/deps/lib -L/home/mig/git/vdhcoapp/converter/src-build/win/64/zlib' --extra-libs=-lpthread --pkg-config=/usr/bin/x86_64-w64-mingw32-pkg-config --enable-shared --enable-gpl --enable-pthreads --disable-w32threads --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwebp --enable-libx265 --enable-libxvid --enable-libx264 --enable-libaom --enable-avresample --disable-doc

  libavutil      56. 22.100 / 56. 22.100

  libavcodec     58. 35.100 / 58. 35.100

  libavformat    58. 20.100 / 58. 20.100

  libavdevice    58.  5.100 / 58.  5.100

  libavfilter     7. 40.101 /  7. 40.101

  libavresample   4.  0.  0 /  4.  0.  0

  libswscale      5.  3.100 /  5.  3.100

  libswresample   3.  3.100 /  3.  3.100

  libpostproc    55.  3.100 / 55.  3.100

[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0000026e22ea9bc0] could not find corresponding trex

[mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0000026e22ea9bc0] error reading header

C:\Users\nazmu\AppData\Local\Temp\vdh-12036AGIsj6R0XvO8.tmp: Invalid data found when processing input

[mjs]

It does not look like VDH can download the video from the Microsoft page. It's only showing small pieces of it , you will have to use ffmpeg.

Read through it , it may seem intimidating and hard but further down the discussion is a simplified way to do it

https://groups.google.com/g/video-downloadhelper-q-and-a/c/oYDFx367MSY

[Wild Willy]

I don't know how you're going to use ffmpeg on this thing.  My Network Monitor showed no manifests, neither HLS (m3u8) nor DASH (mpd).  I looked in the json files that were displayed but there was nothing even remotely resembling a pointer to a manifest.  The closest I got was a series of MP4 fragments, and they were not susceptible to our usual trick of chopping off something on the end of the URL.

I could not even play the video in the web page.  Clicking the play button had no effect at all.  I found I could drag the slider button back & forth & it caused certain frames of the video to display.  But the thing refused to launch playback for me.

But I did get it to download.  It's rather convoluted & I think it's quite stupid.  But this did result in an MP4 on my hard drive that did play just fine in VLC.  Here are the steps:

This download took about 1 second.  The resulting MP4 was 1920x1080, which is what I was hoping it would be for the highest "quality" of this video.  It isn't really much of a video.  The sound track is just some elevator music.  The video is only barely a video.  It looks like they filmed a PowerPoint presentation.  So what exactly would be in any captions?  This was one of the more annoying issues we've had to deal with here.

[mjs]

That's surprising that the site behaved like that but l think it played for me and there was a dash manifest which l put into ffmpeg to download it.

I'll have another look at it to see if I can repeat it.

[Wild Willy]

Of course. Why wouldn't it? I visited it just now & the video plays fine in the web
page. Plus, of course now I'm seeing a DASH manifest (mpd). Running it through ffprobe
shows 6 video streams of varying resolutions plus a single audio stream. Slightly odd
that they are all grouped under Program 0, not various Programs with a video Stream & an
audio Stream in each one. No matter. You can code an invocation of ffmpeg using the
information in this manifest. Piece of cake. Now why did I get such crap results
earlier? One of the mysteries of the universe.

I suppose what I did earlier wasn't a total waste. It shows that if you keep asking,
"What's this? What if I click this? What do I get when I try this?" you just might find
an alternative way of doing what you want. VDH doesn't work on every site & there are
usually multiple alternative solutions. You just need to look for them.