Problems downloading full video file, keep getting anywhere from 6 seconds to 10 minutes

[Will]

Hello, as the title says I'm having some issues. Browser is Firefox, vdh version is 8.0.0.6 and coapp version is 1.6.3

I was able to download 1 episode of a show to watch with vlc instead of streaming on my crappy wifi with pauses every few seconds but the next episode's url won't give me any hits that result in the full episode being downloaded. This is happening with all hits that are showing in the list, I literally downloaded all 6 and had the same results with all 6. Is there anything I should be aware of that might be causing my downloads to fail but be a finished portion of the file?

[mjs]

You'd have to provide a link for others to take a look.

Important: To reply use Reply all and delete everything after clicking show quoted text button.

--

A vdh user

[Will]

Hi mjs, thanks for letting me know. I've been trying to download some episodes of Firefly from https://theflixer.tv/watch-tv/watch-firefly-full-38872.4980439 (this link is for the next episode I was about to try downloading). To give an update I've managed to get 2 more episodes downloaded in the last 4 hours after over 30 partial but playable downloads. I can't believe this is working as intended, so I'm thinking it's either an issue on the video host's site, an issue with the settings (default right now), or an issue with my internet (only option right now is super slow wifi which is why I'm trying this out). I know my machine is malware free as I just finished days of scans without finding any, and it's not a drive space issue. So far it's just a matter of downloading over and over again until I either get the full file or enough that when it cuts off it's in the closing credits.

If someone more knowledgeable could let me know if any of those can be ruled out or if there's other issues it could be as well as any steps I can try to get better results that would be awesome.

Thanks

[mjs]

I'll give you a couple of ideas. First you'll notice below the video player there are a few server options which you should try.

Your connection maybe stalling to which the Companion app thinks you've gone offline or the internet disconnected so then it decides

the download has finished when it wasn't. There is a setting HLS end timeout which is set to 20, you should try increasing this value

to 60 or 120 for example.

And since some of the streams are hls I normally suggest to enable HLS as M2TS , as this keeps the audio and video in sync.

The other benefit is no judder in the video.

You should  also be aware that there is a new way to download hls stream video, by using the newest beta extension & companion app

by choosing quick side download or side download. Or wait for the extension to update from 8.0.0.6.

[Will]

Thanks again mjs, I implemented your suggestions (other than the beta version) and attempted to grab another episode but yeah same issue. I got 1 minute and 36 seconds of a 42 minute 50 second episode. I had actually set the timeout setting to 600 but the total download time was less than 5 minutes and 600 seconds is 10 minutes so I don't think it's internet hiccups unless those completely tank a download no matter what. This was only a single attempt though so I'll try a few more and see if it's at least an improvement. I should also note, there's never been any change in my computer's connected status in the system tray while downloading.

[Will]

Posting an update, 7 more attempts later I have that next episode minus the final 2 seconds of closing credits. Not sure if that's due to following the above suggestions or just luck but I would still like to get it down to 1 attempt per download if it's at all possible

[mjs]

What was the episode and season ? Did you experiment with the other video server options like I mentioned below the video player.

[Will]

So there's only 1 season of this show but today I started with episode 9 (8 attempts to get it)  and also managed to get episode 10 (5 attempts required), currently trying to get episode 11. As for the other servers that the website provides links to I have tried those with no real difference if that's what you meant by the options under the video player, if you meant a video player included in VDH then I haven't found that yet.

One thing I haven't tried yet and now feel a bit like a bone head for is trying to download from a different site. I will try that right away and let you know if it's likely to be an issue with the website I'm trying to download from.

[Will]

Update. Found another site with hls to troubleshoot with, got the whole video on the first try there so most likely an issue with theflixer.tv and the links they host. You can get videos from there but it can be a pain lol, oh well. Thanks for helping out mjs, even though this is not something I can do much about you taught me a couple of things that should benefit me in the future.

[Jooblus]

Have been downloading from sites that link to "Upcloud" "Vidcloud "Mixdrop" "Voe" etc etc etc for some time, places like 

https://hdtoday.cc/

https://www.freemoviesfull.com
https://1hd.to/
https://theflixer.tv/
https://fmoviesto.cc
https://gomovies.sx/
https://new-123movies.live

If Voe has the video, it's the fastest and most reliable at this time, things change, upcloud or vidcloud can be a lost cause at certain times, then they come good, and not together, it's random.

And on certain series or movies ... or certain episodes of certain series you will get the same result .... mostly, as the original files uploaded to these servers and streamed the the sites I mention above have the faults in the files, if you download via a chosen server, sometimes an episode will be wrongly labeled and an episode missing altogether ... whether you download via whichever site/server, the file is the same when the same server is chosen and mostly all the server options have the same files no matter which site you use to access those servers and will if it's faulty it's always a waste of bandwidth ... regardless ... unless a different file without problems is uploaded to different server(s), also there's times when a particular server will for whatever reason simply be flaky and the download will fail mid download ALWAYS.

I've downloaded eps of shows via a torrent to complete a series, then found those files to be faulty also, upon downloading the rest of the series, I've found he corresponding eps that were good via VDH download to be good via torrent download and the bad also bad, so perhaps the files were (in those cases) sourced from a torrent download with the faults.

There seems to be different reasons why downloading certain video is problematic from these servers regardless of the site you access them through, sometimes it's a case of searching till you find a site with different sourced files to complete a season or get a certain movie etc.

I have a 2 season show that has eps from 2 different streaming platforms downloaded via VDH different resolutions and the .srt files I downloaded don't sync with the odd one sourced eps, some were recorded from a broadcast, have the watermark for the broadcaster, previews and splashes for other shows etc proving they were sourced differently ... sometimes ... no matter how many attempts to down load an ep or several eps would have the same exact problems, I've had mkv files that crashed my sound drivers when playing via vlc to a bluetooth speaker that after trying a bunch of fixes the only fix I found was to reboot.

attempting to fix some files via VideoRedo also fails, proving the source file was faulty as the same outcome when trying to fix even with second or 3rd attempts to download and fix the stream.

Problem with viewing Firefly via a file is all the software that converts to mp4 etc removes the deliberate resolution drops that are displayed on the DVD to give a sense of emotion etc, it's worth owning the DVD for that alone!

Good luck, you either learn to live with and find the determination to overcome these issues, or be frustrated and give up.

[Wild Willy]

I see some deleted messages here. Perhaps my thoughts in the following thread would be
helpful:

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

[mjs]

Jooblus, learn to delete quoted text in your responses. You're repeating prior responses in new posts. Click the 3 dot button and delete everything before posting.

[Jooblus]

On Monday, December 25, 2023 at 2:57:28 PM UTC+10 Jooblus wrote:

Have been downloading from sites that link to "Upcloud" "Vidcloud "Mixdrop" "Voe" etc etc etc for some time, places like 

https://hdtoday.cc/

https://www.freemoviesfull.com
https://1hd.to/
https://theflixer.tv/
https://fmoviesto.cc
https://gomovies.sx/
https://new-123movies.live

Yeah, will do the thing so the reply does not get deleted, thanks..

Further on those sites above that link to cloud servers, if the video fails to completely download on each listed server that has the video (some listed servers will have out of date security certs or not have the video) you will normally find that attempting to stream the video will constantly stall for whatever reason as well, whether it's a over stretched server(s) or broken files uploaded .... not sure and think both may be the case and different reasons each time, my conclusion is that some of the files uploaded to vidcloud and upcloud and others are the same files downloaded via a torrent but incomplete, which is a constant problem on older torrents where the leachers never got a full download of the torrent before those seeders with a full torrent pulled their uploads, leaving seeders/leachers  with unhealthy torrents. they then uploaded those broken torrents and the servers they are listed on, those videos are made available by those who don't check what they are linking to but want content listed to earn advertising $, I have incomplete torrents that will play through with small problems, maybe this is the case sometimes!? I have evidence that it may be.

The sites above listing the videos are not hosted on the site listing it, this is stated on the site and if they did host it they would be flagged for copyright, the servers hosting the vids are often in countries that are able to do so due to local laws or something, did read about it but that was a while back, , but are able to link to those videos as the uploader will serve pop-up ads as will the owner of the site linking to them, you may or may not get a butload of pop ups or new tabs of ads and spam/malware sites, having a good browser guard is necessary, sometimes you can click once on a server icon then middle click to get the embedded video to load in a new tab, that will be faster/more reliable and bring less ads etc, but there's no place to right click on the page to use the VDH menu .... you'll have to use the extension on the toolbar, if that's slow, you'll just need to be patient.

[Jooblus]

I meant to mention a recent occurrence where 3 files from one scifi season were corrupt and every ep from the second season using the sites/servers I mention before and from from different sites/servers, all produced the same outcome, found a torrent to replace the broken partial downloads, the part season I already had I unchecked the eps I had and downloaded only those I needed, the .mkv matroskas once downloaded were also broken, as were all 10 eps in the second season, so they mirrored the faulty files I already had, the mkv's would not play through fully on any device I own or on any software, and on my main PC would crash the audio driver and necessitate a reboot, VLC would need to be shutdown via Task Manager (there were years ago rumors of distributors releasing stuff via torrent with such faults to frustrate torrenters) so I downloaded the other 7 listed in the torrent, they were good, which makes me think the uploader had the same outcome and had downloaded the same torrents in the same condition then uploaded them to the servers so $ could be earnt from ads/spam/malware, though processing the .mkv's through handbrake gave quality working files with no issues at all, though the quality setting I chose to keep the quality up and the size similar to the .mkv's took as much as 5 hrs per 45min ep.