About Video DownloadHelper 7

[mig]

Video DownloadHelper 7 is the new version of Video DownloadHelper, a popular browser add-on dedicated to downloading videos from the Web.

Why a new version of Video DownloadHelper while version 6 was working fine ?

We had no other choice. The large majority of Video DownloadHelper users are running the Firefox version of the add-on. Over the years (VDH is roughly 11 years old), the interface for an add-on to live within the browser has evolved quite a lot, making older add-on versions unable to run in new Firefox releases. Video DownloadHelper, like other major extensions, had to adapt and be rewritten at several occasions. Earlier this year, Mozilla, the organisation behind Firefox, announced that starting with Firefox 57, the previous method to run add-ons wouldn't be supported, in favour of a Chrome-derived technology called WebExtensions.

So we had no other choice than to port VDH to this new environment. Since WebExtensions is significantly different from the former Add-on SDK, most under-the-hood code had to be entirely rewritten.

In addition, all the user interface code for VDH 5 and 6 was built on the Angular 1.6 framework from Google. This library has been made obsolete and will soon be unsupported, causing the risk of security issues in the future. After a number of experimentations, we decided to go with React/Redux for the replacement instead of Angular 2 which is so different from 1.6 that a total rewrite of the user interface code was necessary anyway.

Why are some features from VDH6 missing from VDH7 ?

It's just a question of timing. We hope to have most features ported back to VDH7, but unfortunately, a few will be dropped  as we haven't found acceptable workarounds to make them available using WebExtensions.

Why is VDH7 requesting me to install an external application for some downloads ?

Previously, VDH6 requested the installation of an external converter for some operations. This was required for media with separate audio and video streams, and obviously when converting was explicitly requested. No additional tool was required for simple downloads (one URL to file) or some chunked streaming methods (typically HLS and mixed audio-video DASH).

With VDH7, we had to compose with WebExtensions limitations (typically the lack of a decent file-writing ability) and now only simple downloads can be made without the companion application.

The good news is that the new companion application is easy to install (particularly on Mac, it's way easier to install than the former converter application), far more secure (WebExtensions makes using an external application much more controlled than what was possible before) and its usage is completely transparent.

We apologize in advance for the inconveniences those changes will cause and hope you will soon run a better Video DownloadHelper than what it used to be.

[Wild Willy]

So I have FF 56.0.2 which is telling me there's no updates available, which says to me it's the latest customer-ready production version.  Which tells me FF57 is not yet available, at least not a customer-ready production version.  So I'm still running VDH 6.3.3, which I'm assuming is also the latest customer-ready production version.  Continuing with my assumptions, the moment FF automatically pushes V57 on me, VDH will simultaneously also push V7 on me.  I will not have to do anything more than push an OK button.  Do I have this right?  Will you be supplying an explicit list of things in VDH7 that are not available at the moment FF57 (non-alpha, non-beta) goes live?  Or do you expect to have everything functional by the time FF57 (customer-ready production version) comes out?

[mikosaribot]

Do we have to update it immediately to vdh7 when it comes out or could I keep vdh 6 for as long as I can thanks for this will I still be able to download simple mp4 from other sites just curious and thank you

[mig]

You should not even have to push an OK button to get the VDH7 update when Firefox 57 will have been released. That should do it automatically, assuming you kept the add-on auto-update default preference.

Unfortunately, not every feature will be available at the time VDH7 is released, but it will happen in the following few weeks.

We hope to have the time to list the not-yet-available features.

[mig]

Unfortunately, when Firefox 57 will be out, VDH 6.3.3 won't work. If you rely very on VDH and particularly on features that are not yet there, the only solution will be to keep going with Firefox 56 for some time.

[mikosaribot]

Thanks so much I will do that thank you and have a great day

[Radar]

mig, when you say some features may not be available in v7, what features won't be available, initially?

[mig]

Basically, all the download modes are there, with aggregation and conversion, blacklisting too.

The list of missing features is long but most of them will be released soon after in an automatic update.

[Антон Шамарин]

When will be 7-th version available?

[mig]

Version 7.0.0a1 has been uploaded to the beta channel.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/versions/beta?page=1#version-7.0.0a1

[Антон Шамарин]

Thank you! Allready installed it.

[Антон Шамарин]

It doesn't see videos on Youtube. Is there any need to install some app for this extension? Like for the Flash Video Downloader for Firefox.

[mig]

Can you share the link to the youtube video ?

[Антон Шамарин]

On any Youtube video. For example this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcefbTZv2VU. In settings there is a link to app https://www.downloadhelper.net/install-coapp. Maybe i need to install it? On VK (vk.com) HLS streams are beeing seen by VDH7.

[mig]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcefbTZv2VU works for me :/

Yes please, install the companion app, as this is now required for HLS and YouTube ADP.

[Антон Шамарин]

Ok, will try.

[mig]

Even without the coapp installed, i see the YouTube videos.

[Антон Шамарин]

Strange.... My didn't see by default.

[Антон Шамарин]

Even with Coap App.

[mig]

Are you on Windows, Mac, Linux ? What is your version of Firefox ?

[Антон Шамарин]

I'm on Windows 10 Fall Creators Update 1709 x64. Firefox is 57.0RC3 installed.

[mig]

Could you open the browser console (click the top right 3 stripes icon, then Web Developers > Browser console), clear the console, reload the youtube page and let me know if you see any VDH related message ?

[Антон Шамарин]

Ok, will check now. You mean to push garbage button in console?

[mikosaribot]

Sorry to interrupt but I just want to know if this beta is something you choose to download it doesn’t affect me if I don’t choose to download it correct

[mig]

Yes, "push garbage" = "clear console", so we can eliminate traces from other sources.

[mig]

On Friday, November 10, 2017 at 8:28:54 PM UTC+1, mikosaribot wrote:

Sorry to interrupt but I just want to know if this beta is something you choose to download it doesn’t affect me if I don’t choose to download it correct

Sorry but could you rephrase ?

[Антон Шамарин]

Did it several times. Even deleted the extension, reloaded Firefox and installed it again. And still didn't see videos on Youtube (on any video from Youtube.). On VK (vk.com) HLS streams seen ok even without Coap App.

[Антон Шамарин]

Didn't understand you. What do you mean? You need to open VDH beta update channel on Firefox https://addons.mozilla.org%2Fen-US%2Ffirefox%2Faddon%2Fvideo-downloadhelper%2Fversions%2Fbeta%3Fpage%3D1%23version-7.0.0a1&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNH9D6TILgp7bGVjI3qwjnJDl_Ko6A and add it to Firefox. You current version will be updated to VDH7.

[Антон Шамарин]

If needed can give you a remote access for debuging.

[mig]

If you see VDH 7.0.0a1 it means you are running the correct alpha version.

I was just asking to  check the browser console to see if we could get some hints from there, to understand why YouTube videos are not detected in your case.

[Антон Шамарин]

[Антон Шамарин]

In console i didn't see any stranges. Console log see the mp4 streams from Youtube server.

[mig]

Ok, let's see if other users report issues with YouTube or other sites.

[mikosaribot]

I meant just because it’s on the beta page does not mean I have to download it right now correct

[Антон Шамарин]

Checked on notebook with 56 version of Firefox and VDH7 see Youtube videos. Will check now with 57 version.

[mig]

If you are running Firefox 57 or later, you can install VDH7 from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/versions/beta?page=1#version-7.0.0a1

But i presume you don't "have to".

[mig]

On Friday, November 10, 2017 at 9:16:45 PM UTC+1, Антон Шамарин wrote:

Checked on notebook with 56 version of Firefox and VDH7 see Youtube videos. Will check now with 57 version.

That's annoying, VDH7 is supposed to work only  on Firefox 57 and later.

[Антон Шамарин]

Why annoying? Firefox support web extensions API from 44 version. And with 57 version will disable old scheme for extensions.

[mikosaribot]

No I am keeping Firefox 56 until I hear vdh7 can download like the old one can and from the websites I enjoy thank you

[Антон Шамарин]

On notebook with 57 version of Firefox VDH7 see Youtube videos without Coap app. But strange that on my PC didn't see

[mig]

I mean it's annoying since i specified in the add-on manifest that it was supposed to work only on Firefox >= 57. But that shouldn't be an issue anyway.

[mig]

Ok, if you find anything on this, please, let us know.

[Антон Шамарин]

Ok. And do you have any ideas what to check in or disable? On notebook on Youtube in admin logs audio stream is OPUS and on my PC it is mp4a.

[mig]

That shouldn't make a difference, both audio formats are supported by VDH7. Maybe an add-on interfering that you would be running on your desktop and not your laptop ?

[Антон Шамарин]

Disabled all extensions exept VDH7 and still no video on Youtube.

[Антон Шамарин]

On all other sites it's ok.

[mig]

Антон, are you running the exact same version of Firefox on both machines ?

[Антон Шамарин]

Exactly the same versions of Firefox on both machines.

[Антон Шамарин]

On Google Chrome it doesn't detect Youtube videos too.

[Антон Шамарин]

Checked on several machines. Even with 56 version it doesn't detect videos from Youtube. So this is an error.

[mig]

VDH Chrome is not supposed to download from YouTube. That's Google's restrictions.

[Антон Шамарин]

Ok. But with Firefox it seems that this is a bug, because not only i found this issue. Also VDH7 couldn't download mp3 files (music) from vk.com. It sees mp3 files, but then i click to download nothing happens.

[Антон Шамарин]

Tommorow will check on other two machines with Windows 10 if VDH7 will detect Youtube videos in Firefox 57.

[mig]

ok, i found a situation where YouTube videos are not detected in my environment. I can work from there. Stay tuned.

[Антон Шамарин]

Ok. Thank you! Also please check the download of music. I've checked it on https://vk.com

[mig]

All right, i found (and hopefully fixed) the youtube problem. New 7.0.0a2 is available from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/versions/beta?page=1#version-7.0.0a2

Let me know how it goes.

Антон, is the problem with vk.com something new ? I mean did it work with VDH6.3.3 ?

[scan]

I noticed that Version 7 had installed itself automatically on my computer (Windows 7), although I am using Firefox 56. I tried it out and was not at all happy. In particular I installed the new converter and found that its performance is very poor. It used 99% of all 8 CPU's on my converter for several minutes to convert a small (~50 MB) clip and then it put a watermark in the upper left corner because the converter was not licensed. I did buy your Converter about a year ago. Can this license be re-used for the new converter?

Meanwhile, I deinstalled the new version and went back to version 6.3.3 which still works fine with Firefox 56 (including my converter).

[Антон Шамарин]

With Youtube the problem is fixed. Thank you! With vk.com it's new, with previous version music download was working very well.

[Антон Шамарин]

With new beta music download problem is actual. Music download is not working on all sites. VDH7 see the music file and correctly detect it's size, but if to push download button nothing happens. Also on Facebook VDH7 doesn't correctly detect video size. It's shows video size in kilobytes. See screenshot for details.

[Антон Шамарин]

[mig]

Facebook videos download has not worked for at least a year, so it's not an issue with the new code. Maybe the older code checked for FB video fragments so they were not displayed. I'll check that.

Regarding music media, please share a link to a page containing such data, preferably not a page does require registration.

[Антон Шамарин]

For example https://music.yandex.ru/album/4807985 push yellow button and music will play. And try to download music media via VDH7. Or here http://www.jango.com/music/Jay+Z in english.

[mig]

ok. i cannot use the first link (Бесплатное прослушивание доступно только пользователям

из России, Украины, Беларуси и Казахстана.) but i experience the problem on the second one. Many thanks !

[Антон Шамарин]

Ok. I've checked on many sites with music and on all of them i have a problem with download.

[Антон Шамарин]

On low resolution videos on Youtube VDH7 doesn't detect them. Example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WamArwxDJw

[mig]

Just pushed version 7.0.0a3: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/versions/beta?page=1#version-7.0.0a3

Антон, i expect this version to fix the problems you saw with vk.com and low res youtube videos. Can you give it a try and let us know ?

[Антон Шамарин]

Ok, will check. Thabk you for new update!

[Антон Шамарин]

Music download is working now. And with low resolution videos some are dtected and some not. For example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szOeCRHxShQ and the link i give you in previous post.

[Wild Willy]

This thread has quite enough posts without me adding any noise.  But I could not let this pass without commenting.  Your level of responsiveness is nothing short of breathtaking.  It is also refreshing to be able to directly contact the person who not only diagnoses but FIXES the problems.  I am grateful & I congratulate you!

[mig]

Ok, the problem seems related to youtube protected variants, that are detected in a different way than other youtube videos. This used to work on VDH7, there must have been a regression somewhere. I'm on it.

[mig]

This was a regression indeed. It should be fixed by version 7.0.0a4: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/versions/beta?page=1#version-7.0.0a4

This version also fixes a bug where licensed versions were still displaying the watermark.

[Антон Шамарин]

yes, now it is fixed with Youtube. Found that when i played more then 9 files of music i see only 9 files in the list and next files i couldn't see, so that i can't download them. See screenshot. Make a scroll so that you can scroll and find next files that you want to download, see screenshot from another addon. You can check it here for example https://gaana.com/playlist/gaana-dj-latest-dance-2017-bollywood

[Gordon Henderson]

I've installed the latest alpha of VDH 7 and the companion app. I have had no luck at all with the "download as m2ts" in chunked video. I get an instantaneous .m2ts download - 0 bytes, and nothing at all after the task is finished.

Conversion to mp4 seems to be working, but I have had a lot of issues in the past with mp4s created by VDH 6.3.3 from HLS streams- I have in the past opted for m2ts, which played VERY smoothly in both VLC and QuickTime Player (Mac). The mp4 version always used to have problems with dropped video frames and other  problems - VLC playback was somewhat tolerable, but QuickTime Player playback was very poor.

I'm about to play back an mp4 to see how VDH 7 did. Oops - it won't even begin to play in VLC. 1.07 GB mp4.

It looks like I need to delete VDH 7, reinstall 6.3.3, and avoid Firefox 57 for now.

[Gordon Henderson]

Should have included this!  https://www.cbsnews.com/videos/storming-room-135-secret-weapon-the-restaurateur/

[mig]

I had a look and fix some things with downloading as .m2ts. The fix will be in 7.0.0a5.

[Michał Gołębiowski-Owczarek]

I assume the stable version won't be available tomorrow, in time for the Firefox 57 release? This will mean regular non-beta users will have the extension automatically disabled soon.

[mig]

Yes version VDH 7.0.0 will be released by tomorrow.

[mikosaribot]

Can I still use the current vdh if I don’t update Firefox 57 or the new version of video download helper correct just want to make sure thanks for all you do and making this product amazing

[mikosaribot]

Sorry just one more question as you update the new vdh 7 will it work on other sites again too just like the old ones thank you and have a great day

[mig]

Yes, if you don't update to Firefox 57, you can still use VDH 6.3.3.

Theoretically, this new version downloads from the same sites. But with the 10+ years of experience developing VDH, we know it wouldn't be reasonable not to expect some glitches at first. We will do what we have done for all those years: fix bugs as they show up.

[Gordon Henderson]

Thanks - just updated to Firefox 57 and the stable release of VDH 7.0, and I successfully downloaded an HLS video as .m2ts. Firefox still showed the .m2ts as an instant 0 byte download, but 25 minutes later it was replaced by the whole 44-minute video. Great. I did notice as one other post noted that if you clear Firefox cookies, cache etc., the "download as m2ts" got deselected.

[Markus Popp]

Not sure if you are aware of this issue, but if I go "Clear Recent History" -> "Cookies" or "Offline Website Data", all VDH settings are lost the next time I restart Firefox. Please allow to clear history without losing VDH settings.

I am using Firefox 57.0, VDH 7.0.0 on Linux64.

[Markus Popp]

BTW, this bullshit Google interface didn't allow me to post this using Firefox. Always ended up with empty messages (i.e. the deleted messages above).

Had to use crappy bullshit Google adspam browser (which I wholeheartedly hate, in case this doesn't become obvious) to finally get this message through.

[Gordon Henderson]

I think maybe I've found a bug. For Dash videos, I tried doing the separate download of video and audio approach. In other words, it was told NOT to aggregate. When I download the video ONLY, ffmpeg fires up, my CPU goes to all 8 cores, and it says "aggregating". And regardless of the size or duration of the video - ffmpeg just keeps going. Eventually have to kill it in Activity monitor. It acts the same if I tell it to download only the audio. But the audio download is the same size as the video download! In other words, I don't think it's responding to video only or audio only. And it's not responding to don't aggregate.

[corpro...@gmail.com]

Thank you very much for working so fast. You're the best. Greetings from Spain.

[mig]

Ouch...

Many thanks for catching this !

[mig]

I just pushed a development version, 7.0.1a1 that should fix the problem (at least it worked for me): https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/versions/beta?page=1#version-7.0.1a1

Can you tell me if it's ok for you ?

[mig]

On Wednesday, November 15, 2017 at 4:42:00 PM UTC+1, CHRISTIEN Isabelle wrote:

Hello, sorry, I'm french and I don't understand all those technical words. I've lost conversion. My license is ok, i can Download but not convert. Can you tell  in simple words what I have to do to be able to convert again. Thank you from France

If you are using Firefox Quantum (v57):

- install VDH 7.0.0 from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/versions/#version-7.0.0

- install the companion app from https://www.downloadhelper.net/install-coapp

You can then use the Download & Convert service.

In VDH 7.0.0, it is not possible to use the service of converting a local file. This feature will come back very soon.

[CHRISTIEN Isabelle]

Hello, sorry for my english. My license is ok, I can dowload but lost conversion. Can you tell me (in simple words) what I can do to be able to use the convert again ? Thank you from France