Safest way to download blob/.m3u8 video?

[Silly John Fatty]

I might be posting this in the wrong forum, but I thought you people in here may be the most likely to know. And I'm not sure where else it could go.

I would like to download a video from a streaming platform for which I have either a .m3u8 file or a link starting with "blob:".
This stupid format's idea is to make it hard for people to download things obviously. But it's a video from a public institution and I believe it's my right to have it.

So far I've found two solutions on how to do it but none of them comes in question:

1) Download some shady app, but that's absolutely not happening, I am keeping my Mac clean.

2) Use some shady online converter, also absolutely not happening because I don't know what viruses these converters might add to the files I wish to download.

Does anyone know of a clean way to download a video "hidden" by these methods?

I had once found a way to see the links of a .m3u8 playlist (if I understood it, this is a playlist format), but the one hour video I was trying to download was split in 4 seconds-long videos, so you can imagine downloading all this separately and the effort of putting it all together.

One thing I also considered (although I didn't want to download any apps) was to install VLC media player, I think I might trust it. It has a terrible reputation but maybe I'm wrong with it.

Still, it's not an ideal solution. Generally, I do not want to install any apps and also do not want to download the video from any other sources than from the original source.


Thanks for all advice!

 

[Nermal]

VLC. File/Open Network, enter the URL of the .m3u8, tick Stream Output and go into Settings to choose where to save it.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

VLC. File/Open Network, enter the URL, tick Stream Output and go into Settings to choose where to save it.

The problem is I don't like installing apps on my Mac unless it's a really big, known thing like Word or something. Is VLC open source? Is it safe at all?

 

[Nermal]

Yes, VLC is open source and safe. It's been around for more than 20 years and as far as I can remember it's never had any issues.

Official download of VLC media player, the best Open Source player - VideoLAN

www.videolan.org

 

[Mr.Fox]

I might be posting this in the wrong forum, but I thought you people in here may be the most likely to know. And I'm not sure where else it could go.

I would like to download a video from a streaming platform for which I have either a .m3u8 file or a link starting with "blob:".
This stupid format's idea is to make it hard for people to download things obviously. But it's a video from a public institution and I believe it's my right to have it.

So far I've found two solutions on how to do it but none of them comes in question:

1) Download some shady app, but that's absolutely not happening, I am keeping my Mac clean.

2) Use some shady online converter, also absolutely not happening because I don't know what viruses these converters might add to the files I wish to download.

Does anyone know of a clean way to download a video "hidden" by these methods?

I had once found a way to see the links of a .m3u8 playlist (if I understood it, this is a playlist format), but the one hour video I was trying to download was split in 4 seconds-long videos, so you can imagine downloading all this separately and the effort of putting it all together.

One thing I also considered (although I didn't want to download any apps) was to install VLC media player, I think I might trust it. It has a terrible reputation but maybe I'm wrong with it.

Still, it's not an ideal solution. Generally, I do not want to install any apps and also do not want to download the video from any other sources than from the original source.


Thanks for all advice!

Create a link element on the same page through developer tools and click on this link, the download attribute cancels the link and gives the file for download, and its property, i.e. 'filename' is the name of the file to be saved.

If nothing is clear at all and do not understand - install the plugin.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

Create a link element on the same page through developer tools and click on this link, the download attribute cancels the link and gives the file for download, and its property, i.e. 'filename' is the name of the file to be saved.

If nothing is clear at all and do not understand - install the plugin.

Thanks, this is the kind of solution I am looking for.

Although not everything was clear to me. What kind of link element should I create and where should it link to? I'm not sure I understand …

PS: I can find the Playlist.m3u8 file in the network tab of Safari's developer menu, but the real file seems to be a .smil file. They're making it even more annoying it seems.

This is the kind of link I get:

https://website.com/path/smil:engage-player_48484randomnumbers465465786_presentation.smil/playlist.m3u8

I can download that, open it in TextEdit. It will link me to a file called "chunklist" with the same .m3u8 format. I can download and open this in TextEdit once more and this is where I'll see dozens if not hundreds of links to individual files with the .ts format.

These files are finally openable and I can watch the video offline on my Mac it seems, but there's over 80 of them for a video of 30 minutes and they would need to be merged, etc.

PPS: I'm thinking to just mass download and then mass merge these .ts files via Terminal command lines, but if possible without third-party software such as ffmpeg. I don't know if that's possible.

 

[noblesoul117]

Maybe this will not suit your strict requirements, but I've been using Downie for years with these annoying m3u8 files and all sorts of videos (not so sure about blobs but it probably works with them too). The developer is quite responsive and keeps the app updated, especially when a website change breaks the downloadability of the video.

 

[masotime]

install VLC media player, I think I might trust it. It has a terrible reputation but maybe I'm wrong with it.

What terrible reputation? Citation? Links to articles about this “terrible reputation”?

 

[masotime]

if possible without third-party software such as ffmpeg. I don't know if that's possible.

What’s wrong with ffmpeg? Does it also have a “terrible reputation”?

It’s hard to provide an acceptable solution if the definition of “terrible reputation” isn’t clearly defined.