Video series downloader
Python scripts to download embedded video podcasts by scrapping their source from webpages.
Motivation
youtube-dl is an awesome application to download video and playlists from many sites. But many online Video tutorials use embedded videos on different webpages rather than in the form of a playlist which cannot be handled by it or similar applications.
So, when I needed to download the Laracast series, I came up with a simple script which loops through the URLs on the website, searches the source link of the embedded video (using regular expression) and downloads it using 'youtube-dl' application.
Using the project
- The code supports both Python 2 and 3.
- Dependencies:
- youtube-dl (An application to download videos and playlists)
Install it by runningsudo apt-get install youtube-dlon Linux
(See rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/ for more info on it)
- Clone/download the repository.
- Run this command in terminal:
python laracasts.py <starting page no.> <ending page no.>
For example, run python laracasts.py 1 27 to download all 27 videos of Laracast series.
For developers
- A script similar to
laracasts.pycan be written for other series also. general.pycontains some common functions which can be used in these other scripts as well.- The current script loops through the URLs which follow the form: base URL followed by a number.
Hence, the script would require some modification in the loop structure as well as input format to handle URLs containg text instead of just numbers. - Please feel free to add scripts for other websites using the
laracasts.pyas reference for design. - Besides, I have left the work of downloading a video from a direct link on
youtube-dlas it can resume the download properly even after an interrupt or network error. I would love to hear about any better way to do the final downloading step.
About the project author
Nitish Garg
B.Tech undergraduate (Computer Science & Engineering)
IIT Guwahati
India