[LINK] SBS On Demand

Tue Sep 19 18:58:40 AEST 2017

Suspicious attachment dropped
Hello all!
I'm new to "link," so sorry if I commit any faux pas ; )

Our SBS has a rather appalling streaming service called SBS On Demand, where you can watch a selection of programmes (and movies) shown on SBS.	" https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/ "
Unfortunately, due to some Government shenanigans, I am unable to watch it at home.
Also unfortunate, but due to SBS shenanigans instead, you must now create an "account" to watch anything:  It is for advertising, though I don't see why this is necessary for advertising as SBS upload pretty much everything about what movies you watch (even the synopsis) to FacePuke and a whole host of other equally disreputable sites.

Anyhow, I wanted to watch "Ip Man:  The Legend is Born" (and also the sequel): but SBS said it "expires" in twelve days (that was yesterday).  This made me unhappy.  If L*-**n is there, she will know why---are you?   Well?  Hello?

Well, I found out---after much misadventure---that, if you go to the page of your movie--- " https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/321665091631/ip-man-the-legend-is-born " for me---and add " /single " after " /video ",  (in the URL; w/o quotes) you can watch it w/o an account.
This is all very well and good for getting around SBS shenanigans, but I still can't watch it smoothly at home (don't pretend that you are surprised, 'iiNet.'---super-fast my arse):  For that, I need to have a good copy on my HDD.

This took me longer than I'd care to admit, but I discovered (yes---I did discover---for myself at least) that the answer is in the " application/smil " file.
The "smil" for "Ip Man:  The Legend Begins" can be got fro " https://www.sbs.com.au/api/video_release/smil/!id!321665091631 ".  Just replace the number after the  !  with the number of your video.
For "Ip Man:  The Final Fight" (the sequel) " https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/417085507546/ip-man-the-final-fight " the "smil" is at " http://www.sbs.com.au/api/video_release/smil/!id!417085507546 ".  Yes I know.---Too many quotes.

Once you have your smil---" !id!321665091631 " in my case---you need to open it up:  For this, you can use any old (or new) text editor.  Mine starts off like:
===
=		<smil xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/SMIL21/Language">
=		<head>
=		</head>
=		<body>
=		<seq>
=		<par>
=		<video src="http://sbsvodns-vh.akamaihd.net/i/vod/SBS_Production/managed/2017/04/05/2017-04-05_492869_128K.mp4,,.csmil/master.m3u8?_b=1000&b=0-2000&a_=off" title="Ip Man: The Final Fight" abstract="This unique biopic of the oft-filmed Wing Chun martial arts master follows Ip Man in his later life, where he reluctantly begins a series of challenges from rival kung fu schools and is soon drawn into the dark and dangerous world of the Triads. Directed by Hong Kong cult icon Herman Yau, starring Anthony Wong, Eric Tsang, Gillian Chung, Anita Yuen, Jordan Chan and Marvel Chow.  (From Hong Kong, in Cantonese) (Action) (2013) #SBSMovies @SBSMovies" copyright="SBS" dur="5778000ms" guid="492869" categories="Genre::Film,Section::Section,Section::Section/Programs,Channel::Channel/SBS2,Film/Action Adventure,Film/Biography,Film/Cult,Film/Martial Arts" ratings="urn%3Awww.acma.gov.au%3Atv:m%20v%2C%20a" type="application/x-mpegURL" clipBegin="0:00" clipEnd="24:43.125">
=		</video>
=		<textstream src="http://videocdn.sbs.com.au/u/video/SBS/managed/closedcaptions/2017/04/05/492869.DFXP" type="application/ttaf+xml"/>
=		<textstream src="http://videocdn.sbs.com.au/u/video/SBS/managed/closedcaptions/2017/04/05/492869.SRT" type="text/srt"/>
=		</par>
=		<par>
===
What we're interested in is the second URL, which is just before the synopsis: " http://sbsvodns-vh.akamaihd.net/i/vod/SBS_Production/managed/2017/04/05/2017-04-05_492869_128K.mp4,,.csmil/master.m3u8?_b=1000&b=0-2000&a_=off ".
This is a link to the " master.m3u8 " file for our movie.  We can download the " master.m3u8 ", and open it up in our favourite media player (VLC), but it is not the actual movie, just a special sort of link to it online.

To get the movie, we have to open the " master.m3u8 " in the same way we opened the "smil," and copy the first URL we see (it is on the third line):  This is the link to the "index_0_av.m3u8 " file (there are other indexes, but they are lower quality).  My link is " http://sbsvodns-vh.akamaihd.net/i/vod/SBS_Production/managed/2014/09/18/2014-09-18_411628_,1500,1000,512,128,K.mp4.csmil/index_0_av.m3u8?null=0 ".
Of course, you could've skipped downloading the "master" file, but that requires you to change the URL to that of the index.

Now open up the index.
You will see a whole bunch of URL that look like " http://sbsvodns-vh.akamaihd.net/i/vod/SBS_Production/managed/2014/09/18/2014-09-18_411628_,1500,1000,512,128,K.mp4.csmil/segment1_0_av.ts?null=0 "
These are links to all the video segments---this particular one is for the first segment, " segment1_0_av.ts ": the "1" indicates that it is the first segment, the "0" that it is from the highest quality index.
You can watch any of these segments on their own, but to watch the whole movie, you need to download every one of them.  Mine has 576 segments: obviously you can not do it manually.

I am not very good with scripting, so I had to look up online how to do it.
A template I found for either a " .bat " or " .cmd " batch file that will download them all is enclosed between the lines of equal signs.
=======================
FOR /L %%G IN (1,1,576) DO powershell -Command "(New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadFile('http://example.address/segment%%G_0_av.ts?null=0', 'Folder\segment%%G_0_av.ts')"
=======================
The three numbers (1,1,576) tell the command to replace %%G with all the integers from (1, up to ,576) one at a time. 
You need to replace http://example.address/segment%%G_0_av.ts?null=0 with your segment address and Folder\ with the local folder you want it saved to.
You also need to replace 576 with your last segment number,
It is important that when you replace the example address with your movie address, that you replace the segment number with %%G, and that you do not remove %%G from the file name.  If you do not follow this rule, you will either download one segment 576 times, or download all the segments, but delete every one except the last, or just download one segment once.
My file, which I have attached---you can modify it with notepad---, looks like:
=======================
MKDIR "%USERPROFILE%\Videos\Ip Man The Legend Begins"
FOR /L %%G IN (1,1,576) DO powershell -Command "(New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadFile('http://sbsvodns-vh.akamaihd.net/i/vod/SBS_Production/managed/2014/09/18/2014-09-18_411628_,1500,1000,512,128,K.mp4.csmil/segment%%G_0_av.ts?null=0', '%USERPROFILE%\Videos\Ip Man The Legend Begins\segment%%G_0_av.ts')"
=======================
Run the batch file by double clicking on it, and it will download all 576 segments to a folder "Ip Man The Legend Begins" (which it creates) in your Videos folder.

Next, you will need to make a new index for your segments:  This index is the file that you will open to play the movie.  You  c a n  play the original index, like the master, but that will just show you the online original, not the one you downloaded, and it will be a big waste your bandwidth.
The easiest way to make a new index is to use a find and replace text editing tool to delete everything around " segment1_0_av.ts " (doing this for all segments, not just 1) on the URL line.  It would probably be best to use a CMD script for this, but as I said before, I don't know much about this.
I have included an " index.m3u8 " file which should work for "Ip Man The Legend Begins", if you put it in that folder, so long as you don't rename the segments, but it will definitely not work for any film with more segments.

I hope this wasn't  t o o  unhelpful,
Reubs Newbs.