Co-worker on local news. How do I download the video?
January 10, 2019 2:58 PM Subscribe
My co-worker is interviewed in this segment from Chicago's CBS News. He called the station for a copy for himself but was told no. Is there a way to download this video?
He's also in this interview, and he wants to use the videos in class. I know how to download from YouTube, so that's not a problem.
His goal is to put both interviews on a regular DVD, playable in a DVD drive on a computer. I have Handbrake and Toast, but I don't know how to get at the first video. Is there something I could use in the source code for the page that can get me to it?
He's also in this interview, and he wants to use the videos in class. I know how to download from YouTube, so that's not a problem.
His goal is to put both interviews on a regular DVD, playable in a DVD drive on a computer. I have Handbrake and Toast, but I don't know how to get at the first video. Is there something I could use in the source code for the page that can get me to it?
Best answer: I was able to grab a copy of it with youtube-dl, which was playable with VLC.
posted by Kadin2048 at 3:17 PM on January 10, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Kadin2048 at 3:17 PM on January 10, 2019 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Wow - WCityMike - thank you!
Kadin2048 - how did you get a copy of the first video with a youtube app?! it's embedded in CBS's website.
posted by tzikeh at 3:20 PM on January 10, 2019
Kadin2048 - how did you get a copy of the first video with a youtube app?! it's embedded in CBS's website.
posted by tzikeh at 3:20 PM on January 10, 2019
Response by poster: Also my email address is in my profile, just FYI to all if you want to explain but not in public.
posted by tzikeh at 3:26 PM on January 10, 2019
posted by tzikeh at 3:26 PM on January 10, 2019
Despite the name, youtube-dl works on a load of sites.
posted by Bangaioh at 3:28 PM on January 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Bangaioh at 3:28 PM on January 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
I am now curious if WCityMike's method was the same as mine; I was able to use youtube-dl and then processed the resulting file, which played in VLC but nowhere else, through ffmpeg (specifically with the -bsf:a aac_adtstoasc option, to fix something messed-up with the audio).
Yay teamwork.
posted by Kadin2048 at 3:34 PM on January 10, 2019
Yay teamwork.
posted by Kadin2048 at 3:34 PM on January 10, 2019
played in VLC but nowhere else
On Debian the latest youtube-dl works alright by default, ffmpeg does output a warning message about a malformed AAC bitstream when putting the mp4 file together but it plays fine in VLC and mpv.
If I pick a http format instead of hls (youtube-dl defaults to the "best" quality, which for this video is hls) there's no error message.
posted by Bangaioh at 3:59 PM on January 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
On Debian the latest youtube-dl works alright by default, ffmpeg does output a warning message about a malformed AAC bitstream when putting the mp4 file together but it plays fine in VLC and mpv.
If I pick a http format instead of hls (youtube-dl defaults to the "best" quality, which for this video is hls) there's no error message.
youtube-dl -f http-akamai-3 https://chicago.cbslocal.com/video/category/spoken-word-wbbmtv/3798227-how-to-navigate-in-slippery-conditions/ will fetch the highest quality http download.posted by Bangaioh at 3:59 PM on January 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
I find that once you get the .m3u8 file URI via the first few steps WCityMike describes you can frequently just pass it to
You can also pass that URI directly to a video player like VLC or a Chromecast's Default Media Receiver, possibly accompanied by specifying an “application/x-mpegURL” MIME type as needed, if you just want to watch some video without having to screw around with whatever media company's HTML-and-javascript-and-ad-tracker-spyware site it's being published on. (And come to think of it, VLC could then probably do its “Convert/Save” thing too, to save it to a file? I've never tried that.)
posted by XMLicious at 6:59 PM on January 10, 2019 [2 favorites]
youtube-dl and it'll do its magic from there, even if it was unable to extract the URI from the web page by itself. You can also pass that URI directly to a video player like VLC or a Chromecast's Default Media Receiver, possibly accompanied by specifying an “application/x-mpegURL” MIME type as needed, if you just want to watch some video without having to screw around with whatever media company's HTML-and-javascript-and-ad-tracker-spyware site it's being published on. (And come to think of it, VLC could then probably do its “Convert/Save” thing too, to save it to a file? I've never tried that.)
posted by XMLicious at 6:59 PM on January 10, 2019 [2 favorites]
When using WCityMike's Windows-copy command above to concatenate the files together, be very careful to get the spacing right, exactly as he typed -- and he used a monospaced font, so it's absolutely clear where spaces are and are not. All of the input+files+get+plussed+together, then a space, then the output file. If you mess up, you can overwrite one of your input files.
posted by intermod at 9:40 PM on January 10, 2019
posted by intermod at 9:40 PM on January 10, 2019
Response by poster: Is Windows Command Shell the same as Terminal on a Mac? That's where I do my command line tweaks and fixes....
posted by tzikeh at 10:42 AM on January 11, 2019
posted by tzikeh at 10:42 AM on January 11, 2019
« Older Why can I watch cable TV 24/7 but streaming video... | What protests and actions are being organized to... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by sunset in snow country at 3:14 PM on January 10, 2019