Ripping PBS videos
So you've tried streamtransport, rtmpsuck, rtmpdump and various searches on the web but everything came up short or sucked badly. This was what happened to me before I figured out you only need two very simple tools; one to figure out what the video stream URL is the other to grab it.
- Download URL Snooper - http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/urlsnooper/
- What a great tool you can't bypass this as its watching the NETWORK traffic and looking for URL regex patterns.
- Launch the browser on the video you want to watch.
Examine URL snooper for the .m3u8 stream.
- Download FFMPEG - http://www.ffmpeg.org/download.html
- Construct a download URL like the following
Split for readability. This should be all on one line.
ffmpeg -i "http://ga.video.cdn.pbs.org/cove2.0/art-21/ 449de345-bc3e-4bab-8591-6f0ec2efc3b7/2013-11-21-163504/hd-mezzanine-16x9/artf502_hd_mezz-16x9-hls-800k.m3u8" -vcodec copy -acodec copy -bsf:a aac_adtstoasc output.mp4
If you inside Australia you'll have an issue accessing the PBS video in the first place due to right restrictions. You can workaround by using host outside of the country.
Sample Run
ffmpeg -i "http://ga.video.cdn.pbs.org/cove2.0/art-21/
449de345-bc3e-4bab-8591-6f0ec2efc3b7/2013-11-21-163504/hd-mezzanine-16x9/artf502_hd_mezz-16x9-hls-800k.m3u8"
-vcodec copy -acodec copy -bsf:a aac_adtstoasc output.mp4
ffmpeg version N-60456-g4040b56 Copyright (c) 2000-2014 the FFmpeg developers
built on Feb 8 2014 22:06:34 with gcc 4.8.2 (GCC)
configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --disable-w32threads --enable-av
isynth --enable-bzlib --enable-fontconfig --enable-frei0r --enable-gnutls --enab
le-iconv --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libcaca --enable-libfreetyp
e --enable-libgsm --enable-libilbc --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --ena
ble-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-l
ibopus --enable-librtmp --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libsoxr --enable-libsp
eex --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvo-aa
cenc --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavp
ack --enable-libx264 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxvid --enable-zlib
libavutil 52. 63.101 / 52. 63.101
libavcodec 55. 50.100 / 55. 50.100
libavformat 55. 30.100 / 55. 30.100
libavdevice 55. 7.100 / 55. 7.100
libavfilter 4. 1.102 / 4. 1.102
libswscale 2. 5.101 / 2. 5.101
libswresample 0. 17.104 / 0. 17.104
libpostproc 52. 3.100 / 52. 3.100
Input #0, hls,applehttp, from 'http://ga.video.cdn.pbs.org/cove2.0/art-21/
449de345-bc3e-4bab-8591-6f0ec2efc3b7/2013-11-21-163504/hd-mezzanine-16x9/artf502_hd_mezz-16x9-hls-800k.m3u8':
Duration: 00:54:30.29, start: 10.000000, bitrate: 0 kb/s
Program 0
Metadata:
variant_bitrate : 0
Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (Main) ([27][0][0][0] / 0x001B), yuv420p, 640x360
[SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 90k tbn, 59.94 tbc
Stream #0:1: Audio: aac ([15][0][0][0] / 0x000F), 44100 Hz, stereo, fltp, 174 kb/s
File 'output.mp4' already exists. Overwrite ? [y/N] y
Output #0, mp4, to 'output.mp4':
Metadata:
encoder : Lavf55.30.100
Stream #0:0: Video: h264 ([33][0][0][0] / 0x0021), yuv420p, 640x360
[SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], q=2-31, 29.97 fps, 90k tbn, 90k tbc
Stream #0:1: Audio: aac ([64][0][0][0] / 0x0040), 44100 Hz, stereo, 174 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (copy)
Stream #0:1 -> #0:1 (copy)
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
frame= 3639 fps=0.0 q=-1.0 size= 12337kB time=00:02:01.38 bitrate= 832.5kbits/
frame= 6318 fps=6223 q=-1.0 size= 23575kB time=00:03:30.77 bitrate= 916.3kbits
frame= 9269 fps=6025 q=-1.0 size= 36016kB time=00:05:09.24 bitrate= 954.1kbits
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frame=64199 fps=4167 q=-1.0 size= 245493kB time=00:35:42.07 bitrate= 938.8kbits
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frame=71326 fps=3969 q=-1.0 size= 272860kB time=00:39:39.87 bitrate= 939.2kbits
frame=73255 fps=3963 q=-1.0 size= 281069kB time=00:40:44.24 bitrate= 942.0kbits
frame=75092 fps=3954 q=-1.0 size= 288786kB time=00:41:45.53 bitrate= 944.2kbits
frame=75707 fps=3882 q=-1.0 size= 291433kB time=00:42:06.05 bitrate= 945.1kbits
frame=77142 fps=3853 q=-1.0 size= 297486kB time=00:42:53.93 bitrate= 946.8kbits
frame=78507 fps=3824 q=-1.0 size= 303345kB time=00:43:39.48 bitrate= 948.7kbits
frame=80471 fps=3825 q=-1.0 size= 311651kB time=00:44:45.01 bitrate= 950.8kbits
frame=81029 fps=3761 q=-1.0 size= 314008kB time=00:45:03.66 bitrate= 951.4kbits
frame=81996 fps=3718 q=-1.0 size= 317858kB time=00:45:35.89 bitrate= 951.8kbits
frame=82823 fps=3666 q=-1.0 size= 321344kB time=00:46:03.52 bitrate= 952.6kbits
frame=83421 fps=3606 q=-1.0 size= 323865kB time=00:46:23.44 bitrate= 953.2kbits
frame=85514 fps=3612 q=-1.0 size= 331434kB time=00:47:33.28 bitrate= 951.6kbits
frame=87331 fps=3611 q=-1.0 size= 338803kB time=00:48:33.91 bitrate= 952.5kbits
frame=89102 fps=3600 q=-1.0 size= 346010kB time=00:49:33.00 bitrate= 953.4kbits
frame=91494 fps=3622 q=-1.0 size= 356063kB time=00:50:52.81 bitrate= 955.5kbits
frame=93461 fps=3627 q=-1.0 size= 364248kB time=00:51:58.44 bitrate= 956.9kbits
frame=95082 fps=3586 q=-1.0 size= 371029kB time=00:52:52.54 bitrate= 958.1kbits
frame=97433 fps=3606 q=-1.0 size= 379877kB time=00:54:10.98 bitrate= 957.2kbits
frame=98012 fps=3602 q=-1.0 Lsize= 384807kB time=00:54:30.41 bitrate= 963.9kbits/s
video:318073kB audio:64851kB subtitle:0 data:0 global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.491705%