Download videos from Yle servers

Copyright (C) 2010-2021 Antti Ajanki, [email protected]

License: GPLv3

Homepage: https://aajanki.github.io/yle-dl/index-en.html

Source code: https://github.com/aajanki/yle-dl

yle-dl is a tool for downloading media files from the video streaming services of the Finnish national broadcasting company Yle: Yle Areena, Elävä Arkisto and Yle news.

Installation

Below are general installation instructions. See a separate page for specialized installation instructions for Debian, Ubuntu, Mac OS X, Windows and Android.

1. Install the dependencies

• Python 3.6+
• pip
• ffmpeg (subtitles fully supported only on ffmpeg 4.1 or later)
• setuptools (when installing from the sources)

Optionally for few rare streams:

• wget

2. Install yle-dl

Easier way (installation without downloading the source codes):

pip3 install --user --upgrade yle-dl

Installation from sources. Download the sources and run the following on the source directory:

python3 setup.py install --user

3. Fix the search path if necessary

If the command line shell complains that it can't find yle-dl when you try to execute it, add the installation location onto your $PATH:

# Set the path for the current terminal session
export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/.local/bin

# Make the change permanent. Adjust as needed if you are not using bash
echo export PATH=$PATH:\$HOME/.local/bin >> ~/.bashrc

Usage

yle-dl [options] URL

or

yle-dl [options] -i filename

where URL is the address of the Areena or Elävä arkisto web page where you would normally watch the video in a browser.

yle-dl options:

• -o filename Save stream to the named file

• -i filename Read input URLs to process from the named file, one URL per line

• --latestepisode Download the latest episodes

• --showurl Print the URL of the stream, don't download

• --showtitle Print stream title, don't download

• --showmetadata Print stream metadata as JSON

• --vfat Create Windows-compatible filenames

• --sublang lang Disable subtitles if lang is "none"

• --resolution res Maximum vertical resolution in pixels

• --maxbitrate br Maximum bitrate stream to download, integer in kB/s or "best" or "worst". Not all streams support limited bitrates.

• --postprocess cmd Execute a command cmd after a successful download. The command is called with the downloaded video file as the first parameter and subtitle files (if any) as the following parameters.

• --proxy uri HTTP(S) proxy to use. Example: --proxy localhost:8118

• --destdir dir Save files to dir

• --pipe Dump stream to stdout for piping to media player. E.g. yle-dl --pipe URL | vlc -.

• -V, --verbose Show verbose debug output

Type yle-dl --help to see the full list of options.

To download through a SOCKS5 proxy, use tsocks or a similar wrapper.

Addresses for live TV broadcasts

yle-dl https://areena.yle.fi/tv/suorat/yle-tv1

yle-dl https://areena.yle.fi/tv/suorat/yle-tv2

yle-dl https://areena.yle.fi/tv/suorat/yle-teema-fem

Record the broadcast shown an hour (3600 seconds) ago:

yle-dl --startposition -3600 https://areena.yle.fi/tv/suorat/yle-tv1

Using with libav instead of ffmpeg

yle-dl --ffmpeg avconv --ffprobe avprobe ...

Config file

Arguments that start with '--' can also be set in a config file. The default config file is ~/.yledl.conf or one can be specified via --config. See yledl.conf.sample for an example configuration.

Config file syntax allows: key=value, flag=true. If an arg is specified in more than one place, then command line values override config file values which override defaults.

Contributed packages for various distros

A list of contributed packages

Integration tests

pytest-3

Some tests succeed only when run on a Finnish IP address because some Areena streams are available only in Finland. By default these tests are skipped. To run all tests, include the "--geoblocked" flag:

pytest-3 --geoblocked

Running only a single test file:

pytest-3 tests/integration/test_areena_radio_it.py

Examples

yle-dl https://areena.yle.fi/1-1544491 -o video.mkv

yle-dl http://yle.fi/aihe/artikkeli/2010/10/28/studio-julmahuvi-roudasta-rospuuttoon

Playing in mpv (or in vlc or in any other video player) without downloading first:

yle-dl --pipe https://areena.yle.fi/1-2409251 | mpv --cache=1000 --slang=fi -

Executing a script to postprocess a downloaded video (see the example postprocessing script at scripts/muxmp4):

yle-dl --postprocess scripts/muxmp4 https://areena.yle.fi/1-1864726

Known problems

Problem: Subtitles are visible only for the first five minutes.

Solution: Update your ffmpeg to version 4.1 or later.

Problem: Trying to fetch a radio series only downloads the first episode on Mac OS X.

This is an open issue. The workaround is to download each episode one by one.

Problem: I installed yle-dl but get an error message "command not found" when I try to run it

The installation location is not on shell's search path. Use the full path to run yle-dl: ~/.local/bin/yle-dl

Better yet, append the search path permanently by editing shell's config file. For example, on bash do the following:

echo "export PATH=\"\$HOME/.local/bin:\$PATH\"" >> ~/.bashrc && source ~/.bashrc