Videos download but jumping and buffering in playback

[Jason Kearns]

Videos are downloading ok but are jumping and beffering in playback. Using on google chrome on a macbook Pro. 
Chrome Version 117.0.5938.132 (Official Build) (arm64)

Any ideas on how to fix? 

[mjs]

I assume it's HLS streaming in which case you should enable HLS as M2TS. The resulting file will be m2ts but should fix playback issues.

When a new extension becomes available along with companion app version 2x , you'll be able to download another way using 

"side download actions" as a mp4. Its already been available as a beta extension for Firefox.

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

--

A vdh user

[Jason Kearns]

Doesn't seem to be HLS. It seems to be downloading as mp4 but just jumping as it plays. Audio is fine. I did enable HLS as M2ts but no difference. Any other ideas? 

Cheers 

[mjs]

Oh dash streaming. Is the video going fast , like it's on fast forward.

Refer to this discussion, it's long with lots of posts :

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

[Jason Kearns]

Thanks, So this is how it appears after downloading. What do you think is my best bet to fix it? 
https://www.loom.com/share/dc547ce8f9664bca8b5f28161cbd8852

[mjs]

I don't know why it plays like that, do you have the original source to the video ?

[Wild Willy]

I went to that page. VDH offered a Side Download of resolution 1664x1080. But trying to
get VDH to download that just gave a Grabinfo error. So I tried the Network Monitor
trick. Three HLS manifests showed up, a master & the 2 streams referred to in the
master. Ffprobe on all 3 just got 403 Forbidden. I also looked in the Hit Details for
that variant. More URLs that ffprobe choked on with 403 Forbidden.

After I determined all of that, I decided to push the Play button in the video on the web
page. I thought maybe that would add something to the Network Monitor. It did not. But
the video itself has a weird jerkiness in it. If VDH were to download this, I would
expect it would faithfully reproduce the jerkiness. The jerkiness appears to be in the
source. It is not introduced by VDH. Except I couldn't get VDH to even begin
downloading it.

Now, we need to get some information from you: operating system, browser & version
number, VDH version number, CoApp version number. Version numbers. Not "latest."
Numbers. Also, the URL of the page on which the original of this video resides. Or is
this the page where you found this video? We don't want to see the video after you've
downloaded it. We need to see the original video so we can download it ourselves.

[Wild Willy]

Oops. You already said Mac & Chrome. So let's have your VDH & CoApp version numbers.

[mjs]

I saw that there is also an mp4 which I downloaded, so the file properties look fine & no anomalies when I ffprobe the file.

I would say that's how the file is and re encoding does not change anything, unless you can say otherwise that it plays differently on

the webpage. That's why I'd like to look at where it is embedded but maybe it is private behind a login & password.

[Jason Kearns]

Sorry I think you picked up my last message wrong. That link was just a screen recording to show how it plays when I download and show the jerkiness. That’s not the video I am downloading. 

This is actually happening on other videos from other sites too so not video specific. 

I also tried on my old windows machine using chrome that I had previously used and same video downloaded fine. 

So this is definitely an operating system or browser issue. 

I am on Mac and chrome. 

Just replying to this on my phone at the moment but where would I find those version numbers? 

Anything else you would suggest knowing that it downloads ok on windows and chrome but not on my new Mac and chrome? 

[Wild Willy]

I see that your last post does not contain any stealth quotes. That is a good thing.
But the post is also echoed to me as an E-mail. That is a very bad thing. Stop doing
that. I don't need posts that I can read here on the web site duplicated in my E-mail
inbox. That's just clutter that I don't want. Before you send a post, go into the
addressee list & remove all addresses that are not this Google Group.

For version numbers, they are on the first page of VDH settings. That page is in 4
sections, each of which is clickable. Click them. While you're looking at that, I
should probably say that nobody should ever post a screenshot of that page with the 4th
section expanded. That would have the effect of posting your license number in public &
that is the worst idea possible. You haven't done that. I just wanted to point it out
for future reference.

Both mjs & I have asked you for the URL of some sample video that exhibits this behavior.
We're still waiting for that. We can't address whether this is a problem with the
operating system, the browser, or what until you tell us where you get these videos from.
We need a URL. And not a URL of a web site. We need the URL (or a few) of web pages on
which problematic video is hosted. URL. Give us a URL.

[Jason Kearns]

Apologies new to this. Think I have removed the email now. 

https://3vod-adaptive.akamaized.net/exp=1698907526~acl=%2F4b889c9f-4624-4bad-8847-62961d01dfc2%2F%2A~hmac=c7508ad628c167e65ad6cc6b703314dfe8bbec578720e2feda5843548e99fe77/4b889c9f-4624-4bad-8847-62961d01dfc2/sep/video/02764c42,11a3046a,252e6a48,2cdebb4f,5c705cc3/dash-video.mp4

This is the URL taken from the hit details page. 


Version Numbers" 


Hope this helps. As I said it seems to download fine on a windows machine so not sure what the issue is. Any help is appreciated. Cheers. 

[Jason Kearns]

Sorry those images didn't seem to post correct. 

[mjs]

Do you get a video that plays fast like I asked earlier, then it plays the audio on it's own. This would be the Too fast video issue.

I already shared a link to that discussion which you would need to go over. It also looks like an embedded vimeo video according to

the link you posted. The link doesn't do anything unless I alter the last part dash-video.mp4 with master.m3u8

When I give this link to ffprobe it brings up five streams with the video being 01:29:59 in duration.

[Wild Willy]

Yes, your posts are going only to the group, not my E-mail inbox. Thank you.

The URL we're really interested in appears in your Hit Details as topUrl, the one at
fitnessfaqs.com. That's the page where the content is hosted & that's the one anybody
trying to diagnose your problem would be interested in. Except when I went there, it
didn't show me the page. Instead, it prompted me for a login. Oh well. I can't help
now.

The URL you did post is of the video track. (There's another URL in there for the audio
track.) It is full of the typical sort of gibberish strings that identify this as being
(a) unique to your visit to the page, (b) on a timeout. Apparently, mjs visited the URL
soon enough after you posted that the URL was still valid. I tried the master.m3u8 trick
& got the error 410 Gone. That says that the URL timed out between the time mjs looked
at it & the time I tried to look at it.

It appears that fitnessfaqs hosts their content in the cloud on akamaized.net. Akamai is
one of the major cloud service providers, along with Amazon Web Services, Google,
Cloudfront, & a number of other providers. It may be jumping to a conclusion based on
insufficient evidence to say this is an embedded Vimeo video. Vimeo content is also
usually hosted on Akamai, as our experience in many other cases on here has shown. But
given what we have here, I think it's a leap too far to say for certain this is an
embedded Vimeo video. Vimeo is not the only client hosting their content on Akamai.
However, the appearance in the Hit Details of such things as audioMpd, dash-adp, DASH
streaming, & videoMpd leads me to believe that this case is very much susceptible to the
solutions offered in the "too fast" discussion mjs mentioned. Despite the thread having
"too fast" in its title, the discussion applies to many situations in addition to the too
fast case. Here's another vote for you to read that thread & see if you can apply what
we've said there. I think the chances are extremely good that you could get this content
using our ideas we've laid out there. That is reinforced by mjs's result from ffprobe.

It's too bad you're not using Firefox. I would recommend you get on VDH 8.1.0.0a5 beta.
But Michel doesn't create VDH betas for Chrome. Despite that, you might try the latest
CoApp 2.0.5. Go here:

https://github.com/aclap-dev/vdhcoapp/releases

Get the Mac ARM64 CoApp. I have 0 experience with Mac so I'm not sure whether you should
get the dmg or the pkg. Seems to me there's been some talk in here that one is
preferable to the other. You could search this forum to find discussions on the topic
from people who actually know Mac.

But I'm only about 50% optimistic that the new CoApp would do anything for you. I hit a
case just a couple of days ago (it's in a thread on here) of a Vimeo video that was not
downloaded correctly even by the 8.1.0.0a5/2.0.5 combination. So I wouldn't hold out too
much hope that upgrading your CoApp would do anything for you. Still, you can't know for
certain unless you try. It's easy enough to go back to the old CoApp. Just don't remove
1.6.3. Pay attention to the directory into which 2.0.5 installs itself. If 2.0.5
doesn't work, just delete that directory. Or keep it & see if other content from other
sites downloads fine. Your choice. I'm assuming that the conventions for the CoApp on
Mac are similar to those on Windows. Here, the CoApp is in its own subdirectory within
the the standard Windows installation directories, both for 1.6.3 & 2.0.5. So it is
self-contained & easy to remove. VDH recognizes the presence of the CoApp & uses
whatever it finds with the highest release number. I still have my 1.6.3 directory on my
system but I also have 2.0.5. VDH finds 2.0.5 & stops looking, so it's oblivious to the
fact that 1.6.3 is still here.

[Jason Kearns]

@mjs this a screen recording of how the video plays. Its not that it plays fast, just jumpy.

@wild willy  

So yes this video is on a member site that needs a login. I can email it if it helps? 

 The fact the same video downloads fine on my old windows laptop makes me think it is an app version issue. You mentioned firefox, Would it be worth trying firefox browser on the mac and trying so? 

[Wild Willy]

No, I won't use your logon credentials. I don't want to know yours or anybody else's
logon credentials on any site. That's secret, private stuff that you should not share,
same as not sharing your VDH license number.

You could try Firefox. You would want VDH 8.1.0.0a5 beta with CoApp 2.0.5. I can't even
begin to estimate what the chances are that it will make a difference. But like I said
above, you can't know until you try. On the other hand, I have a very strong feeling
that the "too fast" discussion will give you something that will work. In fact, I would
be shocked if it doesn't give you something that works.

[mjs]

Maybe there is a problem playing files on Quicktime on the Mac, try alternative media players such as VLC. See if that helps or not.

[Jason Kearns]

Thanks I will try firefox and see. 

@MJs I tried the different players and even opened in capcut. Seems a file issue not the player. 

[mjs]

Alright, not a player issue. Just covering all bases on the issue. See what Firefox does, if it is the same or not like chrome.