VDH Video but no Audio in downloaded file

[Peter Schmidt]

Hi,

I've downloaded videos from SBS before and pretty sure I used download helper and  worked fine. Something probably changed from the host site in the way they stream their videos (its been a while since I've been there).

The issue is I can download a video with VDH and the video is playable however there's no audio track associated with it (no track in VLC and mediainfo also confirms there's no audio in the file). The videos are from SBS on demand.

https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-series/rockwiz/season-14/rockwiz-salutes-the-legends-s14-ep1/672838723886

You need to create an account on the site to be able to view videos and once logged in, videos are playable and have audio in the browser. I also downloaded the latest beta just incase it was a similar issue to Youtube bug, but still not working. I'm using Firefox on windows with the latest companion app installed also.

Cheers Pete

[mjs]

Although I have no account, there was a preview video for the tour de France. I have a screenshot on what you should look for.

--

A vdh user

[Wild Willy]

That's pretty close to a proper problem report. A proper problem report would look more
like this:

Windows 7 64-bit, Firefox 114.0.2 64-bit, license VDH 7.7.0a1 beta, CoApp 1.6.3

Specifying actual release numbers will help somebody who comes in here a year from now &
stumbles across your post. What's going to be "latest" a year from now? So you should
always quote actual release numbers.

SBS has been raised as an issue in here before. However, if you have to create a user ID
to get in there, I know I'm not going to do it. The official VDH guys, of which I am not
one, have stated it's against company policy to do it. So anything you're going to do is
going to rest on your shoulders to do it because nobody is going to be able to show you.
In addition, when I went to the link you provided, I got this big yellow box warning me
that since I wasn't in Oz, I couldn't see most (their word) of the content on their site.

But all may not be lost. Click here:

https://groups.google.com/g/video-downloadhelper-q-and-a/c/BzPLK2YyL-s

That could be a useful link you'll want to bookmark for future reference. Gradually,
over time, you'll want to absorb what's in there, as well. For your specific issue, I
would look for "video without audio" within the text of that web page. I would also
search this forum with the same search key. It is common for sites to present their
content in such a way that VDH misinterprets it as the video & audio being separate
entities. So VDH actually places one entry (or several, depending on how many different
resolutions are on offer) on its menu for the video & a different entry on its menu for
the audio. Then you have to download the 2 variants in 2 VDH Download operations. Once
you've got the 2 tracks, you can deal with them as discussed briefly in the thread I've
just given you the link for, & at greater length in other threads in this forum.

You can tell the video tracks from the audio by the simple presence or absence in the
variant on the VDH menu of a resolution. Resolution means video, no resolution means
audio.

You should be able to take it from here. If you want extra confirmation, post some
screenshots of what is on your VDH menu when you visit your web page. Notice the plural.
Screenshots. You'll probably have to post more than one in order to show the entire
menu, which will likely be long enough to require scrolling to see it all. So be sure to
show the whole menu, even if it takes a few screenshots to do it.

[Peter Schmidt]

Thanks for the response guys,

Fair call on the versioning and makes sense!

So I'm using: Windows 10 64 Bit, the beta plugin 7.7.0a1,- Companion App 1.6.3 and-Firefox browser 114.0.2

Ive attached a screenshot of what I see. Using the top ones (as mjs suggested) downloads the video and audio separately so I can deal with it in a video editor. But VDH used to be able to mux them together when I used 1280x720 link previously? I did a search before I posted and didn't find much, but never thought of searching for the "no audio". I'll do that and see what it spits out.

I get what you're saying about the password wall.I have an older TV and the sbs ondemand app doesn't work on it anymore unfortunately. So this was the next best thing.

Cheers

[Wild Willy]

I've attached your image with notes. But I have to add that despite a resolution not
appearing on the VDH menu, I have occasionally discovered that some of those variants that
look like audio without video turn out to have both video & audio. You can
usually determine that by clicking the Details option on the secondary VDH menu &
inspecting the Hit Details. Why something that contains video does not show a resolution
on the VDH menu is beyond me. If the Hit Details don't seem to tell you anything, just
download them all & see what you get.

As for what used to be, forget it. Web sites are always changing the way they do things.
Sometimes, they make changes that VDH doesn't handle so well. I have broached the
subject of separate video & audio with Michel. It's a thread on here somewhere. The
title is something like "Separate video & audio is always a bug." I'm sure you can find
it. I think he's investigating how to deal with such cases properly. The video & audio
are in fact not separate. He's just not interpreting the manifests correctly. But
whatever he might be working on doesn't help us today. Today, all you can do is 2
downloads with VDH, then play the tracks synchronously in VLC, or merge them with
whatever tools you prefer, VDH & ffmpeg being 2 that I know will do the trick. But back
to what used to work. Forget it. The past is no predictor of the present or the future.
Things change. Forget how it used to work. It doesn't work like that now. You just
have to adapt.

If you're really enterprising, you could probably just download this stuff with ffmpeg.
One step. One result file. Contains both video & audio. Look for my tutorial on ffmpeg
in this forum. There's a reference to it in the thread whose link I gave in a post
upthread. Your search key would be "cannot download" within that web page.

Probably. You can probably download it with ffmpeg. Weasel word intended. There are
sites that won't let ffmpeg work. The only way to know is to try it & see.

[Peter Schmidt]

Thanks Wild WIlly,

I had a look at your ffmpeg download guide. Unfortunately it seems the manifest from SBS doesn't contain any info on m3u8 so downloading with ffmpeg will be a no go.

It's not only VDH that doesn't determine them correctly. Most of the other video downloaders also do the same (youtube-dl, ant video, video downloader professional, jdownloader etc). All download without audio for the video file from SBS by default. So not too sure what they do differently to other sites? I'm just wondering whether they are infact different streams, then interpreted by the browser when playing back?

I also did as you suggested and downloaded all of the HLS streams. It's a little hit and miss as they all look similar when viewed in VDH download screen, but one definitely is audio only (generally the second). Viewing the hit details, none of them show audio details from what I can see. The rest are all video without audio (except different resolutions). So I'm able to get separate video and audio files at least. I'll use ffmpeg to mux them together again hopefully.

Cheers

[Wild Willy]

There are 2 types of manifests. A manifest whose name looks like something.m3u8 is an
HLS manifest. A manifest whose name looks like something.mpd is a DASH manifest. If you
found an HLS manifest, it's possible ffmpeg was blocked from successfully using it.
Since you have managed to get your separate audio & video tracks now, I imagine you don't
want to pursue this. If you surprise me & do want to pursue this, let me know. It may
be that you just did something wrong & ffmpeg can be made to work after all. In most
cases in which VDH manages to get individual video & audio tracks, ffmpeg usually works.
So let me know & we can pursue this.

[Peter Schmidt]

Yeah I don't know. Maybe I was looking in the wrong place? I had a look at a few of the first few entries as couldn't find any of them containing reference to m3u8. I did find one looked interesting

https://www.sbs.com.au/api/v3/video_stream?context=odwebsite&id=672838723886&audio=demuxed

Notice the audio=demuxed?Wonder if thats got something to do with it?

>Since you have managed to get your separate audio & video tracks now, I imagine you don't
want to pursue this

Its a lot more work than just plugging a url into something LOL. But it's good to know a little bit about how things work and what to look for. I appreciate the help.

Now I just have to work out why ffmpeg won't mux them together? Not sure if it's a linux thing. Might try it in windows as well. Doesn't seem to like the audio.

Cheers

[Peter Schmidt]

Never mind, worked it out. Was missing "quotes" around the file names with spaces and missing a dash- only a little dash LOL

/{directory}/ffmpeg -i "video.mp4" -i "audio.m4a" -c copy "output.mp4"

But for those playing at home, SBS also has some strict browser requirements:

- May need to change the default level of firefox's Privacy & Security to Standard instead of strict (or use custom and specify)

- Doesn't particular like certain ad-blockers. You may need to disable these when trying to view videos from the site

- And of course the obligatory user account

[mjs]

Are the videos ad supported ? Another user said they were only getting the ad not the actual video.

[Peter Schmidt]

Maybe? I've got uBlock Origin running ATM with videos playing fine and download links showing in VDH.

I do know when I first tried to view videos maybe 12 months ago, I couldn't play them in firefox. Got in touch with SBS support who were less than helpful (restart your computer, restart your browser, try another browser blah blah). The usual level one support rubbish. It ended up being the default privacy settings in firefox being too strict for the site (probably because of their ads). Changed it to standard and they played fine after that. I think you can add custom exceptions as an option in there as well.

On Fri, 30 Jun 2023 at 17:43, mjs <matt...@gmail.com> wrote:

Are the videos ad supported ? Another user said they were only getting the ad not the actual video.

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