Strange results from BloombergBusinessweek

[intheflesh]

http://www.businessweek.com/videos/2014 ... ity-debate

Not sure if it is supposed to be downloadable by FlashGot or not? It fetches some strange files, 1.5 MB each.

[user]

They use HDS and HLS for streaming, which basically means the video is split into small fragments ("strange files, 1.5 MB each"), so simply downloading those fragments with a download manager won't do you any good because they still need to be muxed back to a single video.

For HDS (*.f4m) you can use AdobeHDS.php:

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php.exe AdobeHDS.php --manifest "http://.../manifest.f4m" --outfile "output.flv"

And for HLS (*.m3u8) you can use ffmpeg:

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ffmpeg -i "http://.../playlist.m3u8" -c copy output.mp4

or VLC player: Media -> Convert / Save (Ctrl+R) -> the Network tab.

[intheflesh]

They use HDS and HLS for streaming, which basically means the video is split into small fragments ("strange files, 1.5 MB each"), so simply downloading those fragments with a download manager won't do you any good because they still need to be muxed back to a single video.

For HDS (*.f4m) you can use AdobeHDS.php:

Code: Select all

php.exe AdobeHDS.php --manifest "http://.../manifest.f4m" --outfile "output.flv"

And for HLS (*.m3u8) you can use ffmpeg:

Code: Select all

ffmpeg -i "http://.../playlist.m3u8" -c copy output.mp4

or VLC player: Media -> Convert / Save (Ctrl+R) -> the Network tab.

I half understand this. Never used PHP but I can follow instructions, can type in command line commands. Downloaded XAMPP for Windows.

Yeah, really strange files to me. Since it's 22 minutes video, and I can download with FlashGot like 4 pieces of 1.5 MB segments. That will not add up to the whole video. Not to mention VLC does not play the 1.5 MB segments.

You gave me 2-3 (or 2.5? not sure) different instructions and I am not sure if it is one after the other or either-or?

[user]

It's 3 (or 2.5) alternatives.

The site offers 2 different streaming options for the video: HLS and HDS. And there're at least 3 different ways to save (download) those streams.
HLS:
1) FFmpeg:

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ffmpeg -i "HLS m3u8 URL" -c copy output.mp4

2) VLC player: Media -> Convert/Save -> Network tab -> paste the HLS m3u8 URL -> Convert/Save button -> select the "Dump raw output" radio button -> choose the output filename.

HDS:
1) AdobeHDS.php:

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php.exe AdobeHDS.php --manifest "HDS f4m URL" --output "output.flv"

Where to get HLS and HDS playlist/manifest URLs:
0) Look at what FlashGot has to offer you in its media menu - maybe the URLs are already there. If they are, just copy them with the right mouse button.
1) Otherwise open the page source (usually it's Ctrl+U).
2) Search for the string "m3u" without the quotes. You should find something that looks like this:

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<source src="http://cdn-mobapi....m3u8" type="video/mp4"

The URL in the "src" attribute would be your HLS playlist URL, it starts with "http:" and end with "m3u8", inclusive.

3) Search for the string "f4m" without the quotes. You should find somthing that looks like this:

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<source src="http://b5vod...manifest.f4m?hdcore=1" type="video/mp4"

Again, the URL in "src" attribute would be your HDS manifest URL, it starts with "http:" and ends with "hdcore=1", inclusive.

[user]

2) VLC player: ... select the "Dump raw output" radio button ...

That should be "Dump raw input", sorry.

[user]

HDS:
1) AdobeHDS.php:

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php.exe AdobeHDS.php --manifest "HDS f4m URL" --output "output.flv"

If you don't want FLV, you can remux it to MP4 with ffmpeg:

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ffmpeg -i "output.flv" -c copy "output.mp4"

[user]

HDS:
1) AdobeHDS.php:

Code: Select all

php.exe AdobeHDS.php --manifest "HDS f4m URL" --output "output.flv"

And that should be --outfile, not --output.