Hi to all :-)
My windows (Vista SP2 32bit) installation of get_iplayer was done back in
Feb 2011, via the installer v2.2, so I have the "light" version of perl
5.10, sized a mere ~ 5.2 MB inside my "Program Files/get_iplayer" folder. I
have been manually upgrading the script & dependencies (rtmpdump, ffmpeg &
AP) since then and, Thank God, all is in fine working order !
With the recent talk (albeit "OT") in the list about a get_ITVplayer
equivalent and the mention of "get_flash_videos" working for some people, I
decided (because I am of a curious nature & more as a challenge, really) to
give it a try. Two things: 1. I didn't want in any way to compromise my
working get_iplayer setup (which is a Perl script, so much I know...); 2. I
have no knowledge about Perl language, its modules, how to add missing ones
and, in general, no familiarity with open source OSes, package managers,
PPAs etc (I am pathetic, I know...). Just as a FYI, the original
get_iplayer had back in 2009 ITV support through an "itv.plugin", this was
then dropped...
So I carefully re-read relevant mails in the list and did an hour's worth
of googling & reading the search results, to aid me in my goal. I found most
helpful this post by Jon:
On Wed Oct 26 09:49:03 BST 2011, J wrote:
Experienced same problem but found this comment on a bug report and it
worked for me:
"It seems that ITV have changed their request format a bit. This fixes it
for me:>in Itv.pm, find the line
<itv:Platform>Web</itv:Platform>
and replace it with
<itv:Platform>DotCom</itv:Platform>"
>http://code.google.com/p/get-flash-videos/issues/detail?id=164
I'm using WinXP using ActivePerl installer, script and RTMPDump 2.4
git-6230845 so there isn't a discrete Itv.pm module to be edited as
everything is rolled into the one script for Windows.
This was on a "clean" machine with no user programs installed that could
be disrupted by an ActivePerl installation - didn't want to risk
stability of my working config.
JonThese are the steps I took that led me in a (sort of..., see later)
working setup:
1. I created on my D (non OS) partition a "D:\get_flash_videos\" directory
(I'll call it GFV onwards).
2. Downloaded and placed inside it the perl script
combined-get_flash_videos-1.24 (435KB), direct link is:
http://get-flash-videos.googlecode.com/files/combined-get_flash_videos-1.24
This version of the script has the WWW::Mechanize module (I have no clue
what that is) incorporated.
3. Renamed the script to get_flash_videos & then opened it with an editor (I
use the free PSPad editor);
I searched for <itv:Platform>Web</itv:Platform>, this was found on line
12889; changed Web to DotCom,
as suggested by Jon, saved the file & exited editor.
4. I placed inside GFV folder a copy of the same rtmpdump-2.4 executable
that get_iplayer uses.
5. I downloaded the x86 portable version of Strawberry Perl 5.12.3.0 as a
zip file, direct link is:
http://strawberryperl.com/download/5.12.3.0/strawberry-perl-5.12.3.0-portable.zip
6. I unzipped the contents of that file inside the GFV directory, which now
is a hefty 184 MB in size.
From what I read, this is an "isolated" version of perl that can in no way
interfere with my get_iplayer installation.
7. I fired up the UK VPN (not needed, of course, if actually within the UK).
8. I run (doubleclicked) portableshell.bat
9. In the command prompt that opened I pasted this (template) command, URL
taken from ITVPlayer:
perl get_flash_videos -r high
http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/video/?Filter=284175
Hey, presto! My download begins & ends successfully, saved inside working
folder:
----------------------------------------------
Welcome to Strawberry Perl Portable Edition!
* URL - http://www.strawberryperl.com/
* see README.portable.TXT for more info
----------------------------------------------
Perl executable: D:\get_flash_videos\perl\bin\perl.exe
Perl version : 5.12.3
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6002]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
D:\get_flash_videos>perl get_flash_videos -r high http://www
.itv.com/itvplayer/video/?Filter=284175
Downloading http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/video/?Filter=284175
Using method 'itv' for http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/video/?Filter=284175
RTMPDump v2.4 GIT-2011-09-30 (Compiled by KSV)
(c) 2010 Andrej Stepanchuk, Howard Chu, The Flvstreamer Team; license: GPL
Connecting ...
INFO: Metadata:
INFO: duration 2767.15
INFO: moovPosition 32.00
INFO: width 512.00
INFO: height 288.00
INFO: videocodecid avc1
INFO: audiocodecid mp4a
INFO: avcprofile 66.00
INFO: avclevel 30.00
INFO: aacaot 2.00
INFO: videoframerate 25.00
INFO: audiosamplerate 24000.00
INFO: audiochannels 2.00
INFO: trackinfo:
INFO: length 69176000.00
INFO: timescale 25000.00
INFO: language eng
INFO: sampledescription:
INFO: sampletype avc1
INFO: length 66411520.00
INFO: timescale 24000.00
INFO: language eng
INFO: sampledescription:
INFO: sampletype mp4a
1-9624-0003-001_JOANNA-LUMLEY-S...400_16X9.mp4: 99% (136165.42 / 136712.27
KiB)
Done. Saved 139864586 bytes to
1-9624-0003-001_JOANNA-LUMLEY-S-GREEK-ODYSSEY_TX2
71011_ITV400_16X9.mp4
D:\get_flash_videos>
NB: Although the downloaded file has an .mp4 extention, it actually is a
renamed FLV (as can be easily verified by MediaInfo), so its extention must
be corrected back to .flv to play properly in the associated player of your
choice (e.g. Quicktime won't play the "phony" downloaded mp4). If need be,
the flv can be remuxed to a proper mp4 with methods already familiar to
get_iplayer users (e.g. ffmpeg).
Now the catch is with the above setup I seem to be able to download only
the lowest quality version of a given programme (400kbps bitrate, 512x288
dimensions), despite using the -r high option; this is good only for mobile
phones (now, I'm not complaining, this is better than nothing!).
If I run the download in debug mode,
perl get_flash_videos
"http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/video/?Filter=284175"; --debug > log.txt 2>&1
I can see in the log that the script successfully identifies all 4 different
quality variants available (i.e. 400, 600, 800, 1200), but I really can't
tell why it's downloading only the 400 one or how I can rectify that :-(.
Perhaps some "perl module" is missing, but really this is beyond my reach...
Nigel Taylor in his 24/10/11 e-mail posted that on OpenBSD (& even in
Debian), he can download the highest quality variant (1200kbps, 704x396), as
can be seen here:
$ get_flash_videos -r high
http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/video/?Filter=283365
Downloading http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/video/?Filter=283365
Using method 'itv' for http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/video/?Filter=283365
RTMPDump v2.4
(c) 2010 Andrej Stepanchuk, Howard Chu, The Flvstreamer Team; license: GPL
Connecting ...
INFO: Connected...
Starting download at: 0.000 kB
INFO: Metadata:
INFO: duration 3402.20
INFO: moovPosition 32.00
INFO: width 704.00
INFO: height 396.00
.......................................................
so, in essence, the script is capable of doing that.
Over at the get_flash_videos site, for Windows OS they recommend installing
ActivePerl (closed source), this is what Win user Jon did, albeit in a
"clean" machine with no get_iplayer on;
this defeats my goal. ActivePerl comes as an msi installer (no portable
version that I know of), which I fear will install several hundreds of MB on
my free-space-starved C partition; and Jon even hinted that this could
"disrupt user programmes installed".
So I have a couple of questions for dinkypumpkin:
1. If I choose to install ActivePerl (now in version 5.14.2), could this
damage my working get_iplayer setup?
2. I understand that the latest windows installer v4.4 installs a more
"bulky" version of perl for get_iplayer; is this installed globally on the
computer and could it handle on its own the
get_flash_videos script?
Now a plea to the rest of the knowledgeable members of this list:
Is anyone amongst you successfully running get_flash_videos for ITVPlayer
(i.e. can download the highest bitrate version) alongside the recent
get_iplayer on the same Windows machine?
If so, please be kind enough to provide details in lame man's terms,
preferably off list (northmed...@the.forthnet.gr).
Finally, I beg for leniency of the owner of this list; I am aware this is
the get_iplayer mailist list, but surely anyone can see why gfv is not
completely "OT", at least in the way it was discussed
in my mail: Two perl scripts with similar functionality, having probably the
same "target group" of users...
Thanks once again Mr Woodhouse for maintaining the excellent get_iplayer !
Kind regards, Vangelis (from "short-haired" Greece!)
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