Software to d/l videos

[dumbeblonde]

Is this the correct forum to post for help on this topic?
I previously used an extension to capture & d/l videos from both some overseas sites such as UK BBC as well as our SBS On Demand & others. I'm now finding it increasingly impossible to record these, with developers citing issues such as ABC's DRM introduction making it no longer possible.

Can anyone suggest solutions that don't require a lot of tech knowledge? It seems ridiculous that programs these stations had streamed freely on television are being made increasingly difficult to record once online.

 

[Boyd01]

There's a long thread here that might give you some ideas

Help Needed: How To Save Videos From Websites?

Hey guys, I'm not going to be downloading anything illegal or breaking any laws so there's no need to be concerned. The longer I wait to figure this problem out the more videos are deleted from websites and that means I'm unable to see them ever again... ? ? ? Thank you so much for any advice!

forums.macrumors.com

 

[dumbeblonde]

There's a long thread here that might give you some ideas

Help Needed: How To Save Videos From Websites?

Hey guys, I'm not going to be downloading anything illegal or breaking any laws so there's no need to be concerned. The longer I wait to figure this problem out the more videos are deleted from websites and that means I'm unable to see them ever again... ? ? ? Thank you so much for any advice!

forums.macrumors.com

.

Thank you boyd; I'll check it out. I really miss the torrent forums, espec kat.
[edit] - I checked it out; no joy there. Seems I'll have to keep my fingers crossed that my MacbookPro, still running 10.11, doesn't die too soon, as Sonoma has screwed most of the solutions that work on older systems. There's a lot to be said for NOT upgrading to the latest.

Last night I tried to migrate vuze across, with no joy. The download kept breaking. When I just copied the file across, it wouldn't run it, so I'm thinking it's a 32 bit program. And vuze doesn't seem to have a genuine user forum, so that was that.

 

[Flynnsworth]

I generally find the best way is using a Chromium based web browser with appropriate free extensions from the Chrome Web Store. 'Cococut' used to be ok but it doesn't seem that good now.

The BBC is currently using mpd/m4s/dash files, so searching for a chrome extension that can handle those is a good place to start. Video Download Helper can download and convert these as I have just tried it.

The best browser extension for the job will change every now and then to keep up with the newer video formats / protections being used. Be careful when downloading extensions as it is possible that some may contain malware, although they are typically quite easy to remove.

As far as I can see, Video Download Helper has a companion app which is needed to convert the video files. I'd normally see that as a red flag. A quick Google suggests this app is open source and can be found here. I've just tried it on MacOS and it seems legit. Little Snitch is only asking for it to connect to the relevant video server when I click download for a video.

This is just an example solution. Have a look on the Chrome Web Store for yourself or perhaps search for standalone Mac Apps that do a similar job.