support for youtube time value

[5shekel]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbRApO3k_Jo#t=1163s
should start d/l from specified time point (t=1163)
currently this is disregarded

[FiloSottile]

This is not easy, as it will require implementation on #622 first.
Once that is sorted, adding support for #t= will be straightforward.

Patches welcome!

[mkanet]

It seems like everyone here are youtube-dl users who are asking for patches. Who actually does the actual work; and, how do we know if/when it's going to be implemented? If would be nice to get a comment from the current developer(s) in order not to have false hopes.

Im surprised though nobody has considered using youtube-dl for live TV feeds up until now. WIthout this feature, live TV wouldnt be really usable with youtube-dl.

[phihag]

@mkanet youtube-dl is an community-driven open-source project; as such, everyone does the actual work. Most of the time, that happens to be the people who want a certain feature, or in other words, you and @yosho. @FiloSottile and yours truly are the current core developers, but obviously neither of us has come across a live youtube TV feed.

This feature and #622 will definitely be implemented some day, simply because there is no fundamental obstacle. As to when, that depends on whether we get good patches, and/or our personal priorities. You can get a rough overview of what we currently focus on by looking what issues are assigned to us.

[mkanet]

@phihag I think it's pretty obvious what type of project this is; considering it's on github. :) My point was that there appear to be be several people who are interested in seeing this feature (and related) get implemented; but they're hoping for "someone" to actually make the patch for this. I am hoping this too. I dont know a thing about python coding; so, I'm afraid I wont be much help.

In the interim, I am hoping someone could think of a way to save a live TV stream to file (the way I want) with either this tool, using another method, or a combination of this tool and something else. I've tried using the direct URLs I get from a protocol analyzer; which DO exactly what I want for live TV streams; but shortly afterwards produce a HTTP error 403 Forbidden error message (the links dont work for too long). I did realize today that VLC player allows me to save youtube streams too (similar fashion to youtube-dl), but doesnt work for live TV streams at all; at least in the latest nightly. Any suggestions welcome on how I might be able to accomplish this.

The live TV URL I need to save (with the correct starting point) is:

http://r7---sn-nx57yn7r.c.youtube.com/liveplay?expire=1358673822&itag=34&id=L7ird1HeEjw&ip=XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX&algorithm=throttle-factor&sparams=algorithm%2Cburst%2Ccp%2Cfactor%2Cid%2Cip%2Cipbits%2Citag%2Cns%2Csource%2Cupn%2Cexpire&ipbits=8&burst=40&upn=pAeRTawv95U&ns=yt-live&fexp=909711%2C916613%2C920704%2C912806%2C922403%2C922405%2C929901%2C913605%2C925710%2C929104%2C929110%2C908493%2C920201%2C913302%2C919009%2C911116%2C926403%2C910221%2C901451&cp=U0hUTVZSUV9HTENONF9OTFVJOldPTUFUX2hLeTNt&factor=1.25&newshard=yes&key=yt1&ms=nxu&mv=m&sver=3&mt=1358648406&source=youtube&signature=628044FB8A57D75FCBEED972BCFDDC1D0ABC700F.186C0EB854652BD29D354E970D94665843F5E220

aka:
http://www.youtube.com/user/HorizonArmenianTV?v=L7ird1HeEjw

[5shekel]

@mkanet, youtube-dl is a great tool, for a specific task (and doing it very well, thanks dev team :) ).
live streams calls for a different toolset, capturing live url streams + parsing these into valid downloadable urls.
for that i use hensence.com/en/mbox (not always online, but its out there, see also stream-recorder.com/forum)

and its ok to be a user, not everyone is dev. we can help in other ways.

[mkanet]

Hi Yoshco, seems like a lot of friendly people on here! So glad to be collaborating with people much smarter than me. I've actually been attempting to do exactly what you suggested for a while now. But what I'm finding out is the urls only work a few times before getting a Forbidden error message. There doesnt seem to be a static url to the flv/mp4 file or stream that stays available for more than a couple of tries.. I hope Im wrong. Its suprising to see though how many people don't seem to know that this even happens. Either that, or I'm missing a fundamental step in making the direct urls work for more than a few times.

Edit: I saw the app you provided the link to. I already have multiple url sniffers. Not too useful though unless I plan on using the url once or twice.

See: #642 (comment)

[sahin]

hi guys,

this feature is super important for us. any updates on this issue?

[ChrisK2]

We also (partially) need this for mpv, but we only need ytdl to parse that start time from the URL and output it in the JSON data, so that the player can just seek to the start position.

[Jaegrqualm]

Funnily enough, this seems to be supported when used through mpv. At least, I can open a video with it with a timestamp, and it just skips to the appropriate spot in the video.
It isn't a complete workaround, but if all you want to do is watch the thing, it works.

I don't know why it works, however, but finding out why may be beneficial to this issue.