Hi,
apologies if this has already been asked.
Does get_iplayer allow download of Ultra HD content?
I am aware that the BBC have released Blue Planet II in UHD to Sky Q Boxes and Smart TVs.
Thanks
is this likely to be something that will be added?
Not likely, from me at least. I don't have a suitable TV to work with, and UHD is only enabled in the TV app afaik. If you can sniff your network traffic, you can probably grab the MPEG-DASH manifest URLs (or HLS playlist equivalents) accessed by your TV and use them with youtube-dl. That is strictly off-topic here, so if you have questions about that approach, take them to a forum where youtube-dl is discussed. There may be other downloaders that can do the job as well.
I've got a Roku Streaming Stick+ - which seems to be the only external player solution enabled for the Beta Blue Planet II HLG UHD trial.
I sniffed the network traffic (Netgear router with port mirroring upstream of my Wireless access point as the Roku is wifi only) whilst playing a UHD Blue Planet II stream and have the http URLs used for the .mpd manifest, the IS.mp4 and the audio and video .m4s chunks.
Whilst I can manually download the .m4s audio and video chunks and the .mp4 (header?) using youtube_dl, I can't seem to automate the process. (Doing a quick manual download of 20 video .m4s files and the IS.mp4 header and cat-ing them together creates a playable mp4 with HEVC 2160/25p video in it)
Would having example .mpd (MPEG DASH manifests) help add this functionality to get_iplayer or is this simply not a development priority at the moment?
Thanks for the offer, but I have been able to look at DASH manifests for those programmes that were provided by someone else. The manifests could be accommodated by get_iplayer with some changes, but that isn't the main issue. get_iplayer would need to be able to discover the manifest URLs from the programme PID. As you surmise, it's not a priority - not that I could do anything about it, anyway.
(22-12-2017, 05:09 PM)Thanks for the offer, but I have been able to look at DASH manifests for those programmes that were provided by someone else. The manifests could be accommodated by get_iplayer with some changes, but that isn't the main issue. get_iplayer would need to be able to discover the manifest URLs from the programme PID. As you surmise, it's not a priority - not that I could do anything about it, anyway.
Thanks. Totally understand.
I've worked out a way to download the audio and video .mp4 and .m4s chunks in a semi-automated fashion from sniffed URLs, using a text file of URLs, wget and cat to create an audio and video mp4 and then merge them with mkvtoolnix. Seems to play OK in Kodi on 10-bit HEVC friendly device (and with my TV in manual HLG mode)
Is there any way of determining the total number of .m4s chunks in an mpeg-dash stream, or do you just keep going until you error? (I've been sniffing the beginning and end of shows to find the highest number .m4s)
is it possible for you to share your semi automated way, or send me a pm with details?
Not here. If you have some information germane to get_iplayer, start a new thread. This one is closed.