Download from a streaming URL

[maxprs]

Hi all,
first post here but long time VLC user.
Only I haven't played very much with its downloading possibilities.
I have a URL that VLC is able to reach, so I can watch the video with the player in streaming. I would like to download that video, but the guides that I found mostly refer to youtube URL to download. And that way doesn't work with my link.
So my question is: is it true that with VLC if you can watch it you can download it? Redardless the source?

Thanks
Max

[Lotesdelere]

VLC is not a downloader but a media player.
However, you should be able to record what VLC is able to play.
Menu Playback -> Record or right click on the video image.

[maxprs]

Thank you very much for your answer... this way it creates the video file!
I wonder if there is another way, so that you don't have to wait for the whole duration of the movie to get it.
Also, I see a subtitles problem, since they aren't saved along with the movie. There are some forced subtitles that I can turn on with VLC while streaming, so that some foreign conversations can be read, but no subtitles available on the saved file.

[Mercury048]

Media > Convert/Save
Network tab
Paste in your URL
At the bottom, select Convert
Enter filename and Save

Out of curiosity, what is the URL? VLC is not designed to be a downloader, as the other comment says. Something like yt-dlp may handle your case better.

[maxprs]

That is what I tried before posting here, I see the progress bar moving and it takes minutes, but it only saves the first 3 seconds.
URL sent through PM.

[Mercury048]

Okay, interesting.

The URL you have actually downloads an EXTM3U playlist file. It has entries for two versions of the video at different qualitites.

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#EXTM3U #EXT-X-MEDIA:TYPE=SUBTITLES,GROUP-ID="subs",NAME="Italian (forced)",DEFAULT=YES,AUTOSELECT=YES,FORCED=NO,LANGUAGE="auto",URI="https://redacted-for-privacy?type=subtitle&rendition=auto" #EXT-X-MEDIA:TYPE=SUBTITLES,GROUP-ID="subs",NAME="English (forced)",DEFAULT=NO,AUTOSELECT=NO,FORCED=NO,LANGUAGE="eng",URI="https://redacted-for-privacy?type=subtitle&rendition=eng" #EXT-X-MEDIA:TYPE=SUBTITLES,GROUP-ID="subs",NAME="Italiano",DEFAULT=NO,AUTOSELECT=NO,FORCED=NO,LANGUAGE="ita",URI="https://redacted-for-privacy?type=subtitle&rendition=ita" #EXT-X-STREAM-INF:BANDWIDTH=2150000,CODECS="avc1.640028,mp4a.40.2",RESOLUTION=1280x720,SUBTITLES="subs" https://redacted-for-privacy&rendition=720p&token=EMedeLDyrT-0_5374gWgRQ&expires=1708940196 #EXT-X-STREAM-INF:BANDWIDTH=1200000,CODECS="avc1.640028,mp4a.40.2",RESOLUTION=854x480,SUBTITLES="subs" https://redacted-for-privacy&rendition=480p&token=qsFZcQMYpX6EMf-nDS20xw&expires=1708940196

The video URL is actually another EXTM3U playlist file, which has hundreds of entries for very small chunks of the video to play sequentially.

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#EXTM3U #EXT-X-VERSION:3 #EXT-X-TARGETDURATION:6 #EXT-X-PLAYLIST-TYPE:VOD #EXT-X-KEY:METHOD=AES-128,URI="/storage/enc.key",IV=0x89A0D967D5C17290D98322F5C8F5550B #EXTINF:4, https://redacted-for-privacy/720p/0000-0050.ts #EXTINF:4, https://redacted-for-privacy/720p/0001-0100.ts #EXTINF:4, https://redacted-for-privacy/720p/0002-0100.ts [...] #EXT-X-ENDLIST

All this is to say, I don't know how to handle this with VLC. Sorry. I never did figure out playlist URLs back when I was using an XM Radio URL extractor which had a vaguely similar system. But, maybe seeing this one of the other experts can chime in.

However, I've confirmed that yt-dlp will download the video (but not the subtitle). It takes about 22 minutes.

[maxprs]

Thanks for taking the time to investigate, really appreciated.
Since VLC is flawless for this kind of streaming, and can handle the subtitles very well, I thought that one of the many things it can do could be to download as well.
Let's see if someone has some hints about it.
The subtitles are the real problem, many movie has the forced subtitle that are necessary.
Maybe I should use a software for the movie, like the one you said, and another for the subtitle.
I hoped I could do in just one shot...