BBC iPlayer video download

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Posted: 2017-05-02

Problem with v4 and a tip for v3

2 things....

1) My first attempt with the new script (v4.0.3) and this page is giving me a 2 MB download, also FFMPEG does not know what to do with it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08nddnb/the-sky-at-night-60th-anniversary-special

For simplicity I put youtube-dl in the FFMPEG binaries folder (although both locations could be added as environment variables).
CLI output;

C:\Program Files\ffmpeg\bin>youtube-dl -f bestvideo+bestaudio "http://vod-dash-uk-live.akamaized.net/usp/auth/vod/piff_abr_full_hd/5325bb-p03rqj11/vf_p03rqj11_03ce91dc-9c46-4de3-929f-f1000b0658cb.ism/pc_hd_abr_v2_dash_master.mpd?__gda__=1493785628_168dadfcc330f14f2da990ac6a9da8fa" -o The_Sky_at_Night
[generic] pc_hd_abr_v2_dash_master: Requesting header
WARNING: Falling back on generic information extractor.
[generic] pc_hd_abr_v2_dash_master: Downloading webpage
[generic] pc_hd_abr_v2_dash_master: Extracting information
[dashsegments] Total fragments: 2
[download] Destination: The_Sky_at_Night.fpc_hd_abr_v2_dash_master-video=5070000

[download] 100% of 2.19MiB in 00:02
[dashsegments] Total fragments: 2
[download] Destination: The_Sky_at_Night.fpc_hd_abr_v2_dash_master-audio_1=96000

[download] 100% of 35.54KiB in 00:00
[ffmpeg] Merging formats into "The_Sky_at_Night.mp4"
ERROR: Could not write header for output file #0 (incorrect codec parameters ?):
Invalid argument


2) The v3x script still works on many pages, for example;
This page works with v3 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08pj8bb but not with v4
The home pages for almost all the programmes still use the old layout.
Here is the same show in the iplayer
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08pj8bb/all-round-to-mrs-browns-series-1-episode-6

I suggest that anyone struggling with the new method, reinstall v3.8.1 and find the home page or episodes list.
eg. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08l65rh/episodes/player

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Posted: 2017-05-04

Thank you docfay, it does work indeed, not sure what was the reason for the update apart from moving to youtube-dl, which fails to convert files sometimes, even from sources like youtube.

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