not sure if this goes here, but a week ago youtube changed something

[namad]

and it seems none of the many plugins and programs i use to download videos from youtube can download 480p videos

the most common resolution of camgirls we love here at this forum....

first 480p seemed to become webm encoding only, and now the plugins all of which are updated can't grab the 480p stream copy.... downloadhelper/videodownloader/youtubefixscript/jdownloader etc....

anyone know a solution? I'm starting to accrue a lot of 360p copies of amateur curvy girl videos which exist in 480p

[Guest a.c.]

Try deturl

It's been working like a charm for me.

It's not even a plugin - just a javascript bookmark..

[gricha]

It looks like www.keepvid.com can fetch a 480p version of vids - only it is in mp4 and not in flv as it was before.

[Guest a.c.]

All of them suck compared to deturl.

That's just clicking on a bookmark. I haven't ever seen a better system.

[panhype2]

Try deturl

It's been working like a charm for me.

It's not even a plugin - just a javascript bookmark..

It looks like www.keepvid.com can fetch a 480p version of vids - only it is in mp4 and not in flv as it was before.

Can you guys post a screen shot showing the multiple download options you're getting - with a recent YT upload? Maybe this one: youtube.com/watch?v=Xlwx9ZeWO6Y

I rather suspect that YT is phasing out the 480p option, while you just had success with older clips.

In general i'd stay away from .flv and (in particular) .webm - Both are really crippled compared to .mp4, prone to trouble, have less hardware support (.webm also is technically behind). And when you want to edit the clips, you have to convert them to .mp4 anyway. Here's what i got with the latest versions of Download Helper and SaveFrom (my first choice) - both tend to update quickly in case YT breaks something: 

[namad]

this is now the test video

fatter, rounder, softer

find a way to get a 480p download of this video.

keepvid CANNOT DO IT. the 480p option on keepvid just gives a 360p video.

yes I agree youtube might be phasing 480p out, however the videos are still watchable in 480p, just not downloadable in 480p...somehow? older clips might support 480p downloads forever, so please test on new videos, or this video.

it is possible we'll never get a solution, but I created this thread in case someone finds a plugin that is updated somehow to provide a solution for us all.

[panhype2]

this is now the test video

fatter, rounder, softer

find a way to get a 480p download of this video.

keepvid CANNOT DO IT. the 480p option on keepvid just gives a 360p video.

yes I agree youtube might be phasing 480p out, however the videos are still watchable in 480p, just not downloadable in 480p...somehow? older clips might support 480p downloads forever, so please test on new videos, or this video.

it is possible we'll never get a solution, but I created this thread in case someone finds a plugin that is updated somehow to provide a solution for us all.

Wow! This is some revolting shit.

Okay, i managed to download a 480p version! I used Jaksta (Mac) which can download files scrambled into a continuous stream of small packages (similar like Replay Media Catcher).

MediaInfo says the downloaded video is AVC (H.264), DASH format, 640x480 pixels

Downloaded video has the .mp4 extension, but probably it should be .mpd (not sure - but Jaksta sometimes gets extensions wrong).

Info on the new DASH format: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Adaptive_Streaming_over_HTTP

That means they are in the process of trying to establish a new streaming format.

In other words: Youtube is offering a few resolutions in the traditional "progressive download" way (which you can catch with all these tools like Download Helper. And other resolutions (like 480p) as DASH.

Now the next problem: Playback of DASH files stored locally (on your computer, phone etc). Big problem here:

Quicktime: only a green screen. VLC (latest version): nothing happens. MPLayer OSX Extended: plays the clip nicely, but when you move the playhead, player window closes. A bunch of crap!

Tested 2 other open source players, nothing!

Spend more than an hour researching this shit and am giving up now. I'm sure there are people who will find more. 

[panhype2]

Ok, spent a little more time on this. Found a related discussion on videohelp. Always a good source. The interesting replies start up from #17.

Brief summary:

Youtube is messing with the file containers (data structure) of the videos.

With the result that many download programs are treating these DASH files the wrong way.

Some of the files have encrypted audio tracks (f. ex. MediaInfo doesn't detect an audio track in the file i've downloaded)

It's a big mess!

P.S. Be careful with the recommended Freemake Video Downloader - it is adware, installing a tool bar.

[namad]

another new video... 480p works fine on all plugins and playback programs

so does this mean dash is in some beta where all videos aren't using it?

[panhype2]

so does this mean dash is in some beta where all videos aren't using it?

Yep. Looks like they're testing some shit with randomly chosen uploads (480p option is available for me too).

Different example from today - Gabrielle Sunheart's latest clip.

SaveFrom gives me these download options:

FLV - 240p

MP4 - 360p, 720p

WebM - 360p

3GP - 144p, 240p

It's obvious why they're doing that: When people have to watch these clips (instead of being able to download them easily), they're also forced into watching the ads. Good for Google's revenues.

[gricha]

You are right - keepvid just fetches a 360p version of reallychubbygirl's vid.

I have had no luck with jaksta (maybe I'm dumb) but could catch the vid in 640x480 with replay media catcher (which is, by the way, more than similar to jaksta, they nearly look like the same software!).

I have had no prob playing it in VLC. I'm on PC, by the way, which may explain some différences (although VLC uses its own Embedded codecs, so that sounds strange that I can play it and you can't?).

[panhype2]

I have had no luck with jaksta (maybe I'm dumb) but could catch the vid in 640x480 with replay media catcher (which is, by the way, more than similar to jaksta, they nearly look like the same software!).

I have had no prob playing it in VLC. I'm on PC, by the way, which may explain some différences (although VLC uses its own Embedded codecs, so that sounds strange that I can play it and you can't?).

They're constantly messing with the file structure of these DASH files, at least that's the explanation in the videohelp.com discussion i've found (link is above). So the download tools have trouble handling (and organizing) these streamed packages the right way. They might get one video right, but fail with the next one. As well each tool produces different results. In the case with the Fatter Softer Rounder clip i'm quite sure that Jaksta failed. Yes, VLC comes with its own set of codecs, so it should behave identically across all operating systems.

If everything fails, i'll fire up Snapz Pro and capture using the Pro Res codec, giving me a 1:1 copy.

[namad]

downloading videos from youtube is harder than blocking all ads on youtube....

so..... dash isn't gonna make them anymore money, although it might help reduce the odds of them being sue'd again.

another 480p video ruined by google engineers   v=SFYxN_30phc

[namad]

double post for update on this front:

after a few weeks of using the non-user friendly replay media catcher

this addon seems to have been updated to download 480p from youtube even on videos other plugins fail

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flash-video-downloader/

[namad]

more bad news:

this video won't be downloaded by the plugin in the previous post of mine

I'm back.. And fatter!

I'm not sure how the plugin managed to grab any, but it did.

worsererer bad news: replay media catcher on this link downloads the full 480p video with the full length...yet... if I play it back in media player classic it will only play the first 30seconds of the 72second video presumably this is the first encrypted segment only? vlc won't play these files at all... this might mean only the first thirty seconds of some of the other videos I downloaded this way are playable either.....

I can't believe google is going through all this trouble, no matter what they do, eventually after they settle on some system, it'll get broken.  No one is gonna win a lawsuit against them if they don't bother to try, so why try?

[panhype2]

Downloading 1080p versions of new clips has stopped working too apparently. It still works with older posts like Imogeneize's videos.

Must say though that i don't see much difference between those 360p and 480p clips, in terms of quality. The 360p ones are always working so far.

Google is obviously testing this new technology. Their long term strategy surely is to prevent people from downloading any videos at all. When people can't download, they are forced to watch the ads = more $$ for Google.

Have to say that my tolerance level is exactly one 20 sec ad. When i see a 2nd one, i'm out.

[vennie]

Have to say that my tolerance level is exactly one 20 sec ad. When i see a 2nd one, i'm out.

Riots ensue as Google stock plummet...

[namad]

I don't watch any of googles ads ever.

the only reason the only reason this technology works is that it's new. replay media catcher can download the file in 480p with apparently the right filesize, but ffmpeg.exe crashes and the resultant file can only be played back halfway so basically they're using a new fileformat/codec/encryption system that simply doesn't work with old plugins and old 3rd party software.

even if they discovered flawless encryption someone would just write an easy to use screencapture plugin/tool that would perform off-screen screencaptures. all they're ever going to do is make it harder to download files, they'll never be able to make it impossible UNLESS they control the hardware you watch the playback on (if youtube starts selling computers or tvs then start to worry?)

what I don't get is what google gets out of this? DASH in theory should make them less likely to be sued by people like the mpaa/riaa but.... google already works closely with these companies.... and making copyright infringement harder and harder never will make it impossible so under the current laws isn't google equally liable with or without this shit?

anyways the first 30seconds of the 480p files I can download from these encrypted streams is noticeably higher quality than the same 360p copy I get from full normal working files.

also FFFFFFFFFFFFF 1080p not working on any plugins or jdownloader either: test

video: Sexy Ripped Shirt

replay media catcher has the same error, it can capture 1080p data and create a playable file for me but it's 20seconds longer instead of 3:44.... if google rolls something out which does this to EVERY quality it could be quite some time (weeks/months/ayear) before someone smart rolls out the new "solution" and a lot of us and our downloading ways could be harmed in the shortterm

I'll have to test replay media catcher 5 and see if it works any better than 4.

[panhype2]

Collecting more background info...

Overview of MPEG-DASH Standard

MPEG-DASH Support in Youtube

I'm not the technical guy who is trying to understand every bit of these articles 

But i'm getting the idea though that the main reason for Youtube/Google to support DASH is to scale bandwidth better. In other words: to cut server costs. Youtube's traditional way of delivering videos has been to download the entire clips into the end user's cache ("progressive download"). Which made it fairly easy to save them permanently, with addons like DownloadHelper. The thing about DASH is to download only as much of the clip that is necessary for playback. When you stop the playback, the downloading stops too. Unlike with progressive download which would download the entire the clip (to the cache) nonetheless. Remember that the initial letters in DASH stand for "Dynamic Adaptive".

1080p files are almost 3x larger than 720p at the same quality settings. 4k files should be something like 6x larger than 1080p. These are serious challenges. Youtube is doing other tricks to save bandwidth, like still delivering 360p or 480p even after we select 720p, as long as we don't go fullscreen.

They surely don't regret the side effect of making permanent downloads harder.

But i believe that programs like Jaksta and ReplayMediaCatcher eventually will catch up with these dynamically adjusted packet sizes etc

Screen capturing should always be an alternative solution, if everything else fails.

 

[namad]

those features of only downloading a tiny bit at a time? those have been in place all year or maybe even last year..... even without this new encryption...

I guess maybe they didn't work as well as google wanted though

[namad]

important update, I just downloaded a dash encrypted 480p video with jdownloader2beta using the jdownloader additional automatic installation of ffmpeg

confirmed working on this video:

http://www.curvage.org/forum/index.php?topic=11900.msg174923#msg174923

I am not sure if this means all the addons and programs and plugins will soon work or not... but i accidentally copied that link into my clipboard and jdownloader told me it could handle it (in the past jdownloader failed)...

[panhype2]

The savefrom plugin is offering the option to download these DASH files without audio since a couple of weeks. So my first idea was to grab and demux/remux them, with just adding the audio from the 360p video. Well, in the few cases i really want the audio But my muxers all refuse to open these DASH MP4s.

After researching a few mins i've found muxing programs especially written for DASH. This shit looks very experimental and complicated. So fuck it.

JDownloader is good for downloading a whole batch of files. But i refuse using it for Youtube. Ridiculously inconvenient. So yeah, i will keep staying away from this DASH crap.

[namad]

jdownloader lets you mix and match resolution and audio quality settings for dash youtube downloads too :-p it's downloading a buncha stuff seperately it looks like and just using the 3rd party software it installs automatically for you something like ffmpeg.exe to combine it?

but yeah FUCK i hate using jdownloader for this, so far I'm just downloading 360p from youtube EXCEPT for our very own allstar amateurart's one HD video recently because well... it was so good

edit: also you can just copy/cut the url for the entire channel and jdownloader will grab all the videos, if you ever wanna redo all your 360p downloads... I might use this feature for http://www.youtube.com/user/juicythickx/videos

[panhype2]

The option to download an entire channel is very interesting! Have to consider that in the future.

In the meantime i had success with remuxing a DASH clip.

Explanation for those who don't know: Demux (demultiplex) means to extract the audio or video track without re-encoding. Remux (remultiplex) means to re-combine audio + video tracks without re-encoding.

I'm interested in this approach because i want my files to be playable not just on the less convenient players like MPlayer or VLC.

1. I've found that the multi-platform video tool Hybrid http://www.videohelp.com/tools/Hybrid can handle these DASH files. Note: Hybrid comes loaded with millions of options and is not an intuitive app. In this first step i output the DASH file in video = passthrough and audio = ignored mode, so that i get a video with a clean header info

2. I throw the 360p .mp4 at tsMuxeR, to extract the audio track

3. I throw the "cleaned up" 480p video track + the audio track from the 360p clip at tsMuxeR. With that step i'm getting a .ts clip. Having a Remultiplexer capable to output a clip in the .mp4 container would help of course.

4. So i throw this .ts clip at Hybrid which remuxes it to an .mp4 file successfully.

Yeah, a lot of steps lol But now i have a file playable by almost any player. Because these DASH files are so bizarrely complex (without adding any improvements like better quality for the end user), i'm afraid this situation will persist.

 

[gricha]

This morning, I had a HUGE will to download two vids in 480p, as opposed to the numerous ones I downloaded in 360p these last weeks. (namely, those two vids were jiggleandshake69's). I resorted to jdownloader2 beta as proposed by namad (thank you guy).

Well I don't know if there has been a new beta build since last month, but when jdownloader downloaded the 480p video, it also added the AAC soundtrack and the resulting mp4 that landed on my harddrive plays without trouble on VLC 2.1.3.

EDIT : actually, a couple of videos could not be correctly "sniffed" by jdownloader, from reallychubbygirl's and chubbysusy75's channels. I don't know why (most are old, but one is from last month...)