ARTE unavailable on Captvty.

Hello,

The website developer is aware as he indicated:

09/21The list of programs and content from Arte is currently unavailable.

Try the German software Mediatekview. It allows you to view and download arte.fr (among others) but it is in German. No problem for those who have some knowledge of the language of Goethe. For others, a call to your favorite dictionary should help you get by after a few attempts at the configuration.

@: LamaCraintif:

I'm not opposed to a foot massage.

Well, I’ve put in some effort and crafted a “real” script that allows you to:
– list all available programs for a given day by simply typing the date (though not all listed programs are available in full video);
– download the chosen program by indicating its time (and specifying the audio format since, as mentioned before, the naming changes every time, and I haven’t found a reliable way to automate this).
You get:
– a preview thumbnail in 1920x1080 (I modified the basic link to obtain the best quality available; if you save the thumbnail with yt-dlp and the option --write-thumbnail, you’ll only get an image in 940x530);
– a description file (the automatically assigned extension is .description, no way to change that without recompiling the yt-dlp code, so you either need to replace it with .txt or associate the .description extension with the software used to read text files — I recommend Notepad2 [https://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html] as a replacement for the built-in text editor in Windows; if I have the courage, I’ll try to add the generation of a more readable and detailed description like the one generated by Captvty);
– a metadata file (.json) (if you have no use for these two small files, open the script with a right-click and then "edit" or drag-and-drop it into Notepad2 and remove the download command options "--write-info-json" and --write-description; the "--write-comments" option is for YouTube and adds all comments to the .json file but is ineffective here; I simply forgot to remove it; you can also remove the command "curl !jpg1080! ..." if you have no use for the preview image);
– the MP4 video file in 1280x720 format (the 1920x1080 format has a slightly higher video bitrate, about 10% more, and is therefore actually of lower quality since to maintain the same quality level with over double the resolution you'd need to increase the bitrate by at least 50%).
The only small anomaly as it stands: for programs broadcast after midnight, the date is shifted by one day (in the arte.tv guide, the programs for a given day generally start around 05:00 and end around 03:00);
– subtitles when available (to avoid downloading subtitles, remove the option "--all-subs").
Two other files are created beforehand for each analyzed day of programs:
– the HTML page for the day in question;
– a text file automatically converted using a few sfk commands from the HTML file containing the main information for each program used in the rest of the script.
The script requires (either in the same folder as the script, in a Windows system folder, or in a folder manually added to the Windows "PATH" variable — explanation here (in English): https://www.howtogeek.com/118594/how-to-edit-your-system-path-for-easy-command-line-access/):
– yt-dlp;
– curl;
– sfk (a wonderful command-line text processing tool that allows you to accomplish dozens of specialized tasks in various fields — for example, I just discovered the text search and editing functions — more info: https://sourceforge.net/projects/swissfileknife/).
I initially included these three utilities in the archive, but to lighten it (2.3MB instead of 20.4MB), I only included curl.exe and a second small script that allows you to download the other two executables with curl; one advantage is that you’ll directly have the latest version of yt-dlp, even if you download this archive weeks later (otherwise, to update, type in the cmd.exe console “yt-dlp -U”).
Obviously, if Arte.tv changes the slightest detail in the organization of its program guide, it will work much less well, like Bourvil's 2CV... (This happened yesterday: a <p> tag became <span>, and nothing worked anymore. I’m tinkering with yogurt pots and bits of string for a single site, so imagine the difficulty of maintaining software like Captvty for over 10 years...)

So here it is:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/hj18bd68wfvmlli

~~~~~~

If this has been useful to you, go immediately check at least one of the links below. (More details in a long comment above.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muBTIVjS8sA

Jean-Marc Jancovici, brief overview of the pollution related to the Internet, and particularly to video on the Internet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD-Bbc0zzfc

Frédéric Bordage from GreenIT, a conference presenting the results of a study on the environmental footprint of the global digital world.

Some articles on the GreenIT site:

https://www.greenit.fr/2019/10/22/12982/

https://www.greenit.fr/2015/05/12/quelle-est-l-empreinte-environnementale-du-web/

https://www.greenit.fr/2016/01/21/numerique-et-environnement-en-finir-avec-les-idees-recues-1-3/

https://www.greenit.fr/2016/01/28/numerique-et-environnement-en-finir-avec-les-idees-recues-2-3/

https://www.greenit.fr/2016/02/17/numerique-et-environnement-en-finir-avec-les-idees-recues-3-3/

@Philippe_E StatutMembre

“Thank you for all these explanations. This helps to get started with using yt-dlp. I have a question: is there a way to directly obtain the subtitle files in srt format instead of vtt? Most players using srt would make it even more practical!”

{Does anyone know how to make a quote block here?}

TL;DR => https://www.mediafire.com/file/7fj2yap4neosawv

So I just tested: yes and no... There is indeed an option in yt-dlp allowing the conversion of subtitles (“--convert-subs srt”), it works for example with VTT subtitles obtained from YouTube, but it doesn’t work with VTT subtitles generated by Arte.tv, the converted files have a size of 0 bytes. I also tested with ffmpeg: same result (yt-dlp probably uses the same conversion library as ffmpeg for subtitle files — or even ffmpeg directly since ffmpeg is required for multiplexing streams). Apparently the numerous “STYLE” tags at the beginning of these files are to blame. If I remove all these tags, then the conversion with ffmpeg works correctly. So it’s possible but difficult to automate.
BUT I managed to sort it out with sfk once again coming to the rescue. I created a separate script that allows with a double-click to:
– remove all the problematic “STYLE” tags to a temporary VTT file,
– convert the temporary file to SRT with ffmpeg, and then delete the temporary file.
You also need to have ffmpeg on your system (since yt-dlp only accepts download links as input and not already saved files). This bulky utility (now more than 100MB in the full version) and constantly being developed is frequently included in GUI utilities (graphic user interface i.e., all software with a more or less nice graphical interface where you click buttons and menus) and it is not uncommon to have multiple copies on your system without having expressly installed it (I had fun counting here: https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/403374-Poll-How-many-instances-of-ffmpeg-on-your-system-for-what-total-size — I found 17 copies), so it is not necessarily required to download it specifically. To test if you already have it, open the cmd.exe console (or “command prompt”) and simply type “ffmpeg” then [Enter]; if it displays “ffmpeg version x.x.x...” and several lines of technical information, you already have it (still, it needs to be a not too old version but you will see if it works or not, if it doesn’t work, next step); if it displays “‘ffmpeg’ is not recognized as an internal or external command, an executable program or a batch file” (or if you have a too old version), then you need to download the executable (in the meantime, go take a look at Fabrice Bellard’s bio, a genuine French genius https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabrice_Bellard). Once you receive the 7Z archive, open it and go to the “bin” directory and extract the “ffmpeg.exe” file (that’s the only one necessary) into the same directory as the conversion script (or in a system directory included in the “PATH” environment variable — less simple but more flexible). After that, it will be enough after downloading one or more video(s) to double-click on the “VTT to SRT conversion” script to convert all the subtitle files present in the same directory. (You can handle all previously saved subtitle files in the same way.)

So I created a new archive [2024-10-19] with:
– the script for generating daily program lists and downloading videos, with some visual modifications (removed the display of commands with “@echo off”, added a few line breaks and some additional explanations), and some modifications in the commands explained below;
– the script for converting subtitles from VTT format to SRT format;
– the script for downloading yt-dlp and sfk;
– the script for downloading ffmpeg (I preferred to put it separately since it's unnecessary if you already have it);
– curl.exe (necessary for the download commands).

https://www.mediafire.com/file/7fj2yap4neosawv

Notes on file naming:
For the preview JPG thumbnail, the naming scheme is derived from the sfk commands, where I made sure to replace all prohibited characters in Windows file names with the closest possible standard characters (“:” replaced by “;”, “?” replaced by “§”, “/” replaced by “-”, and I used “~” to separate the main title from the supplementary title to clearly distinguish the latter which may contain several segments separated by “-”); the other files are named directly by yt-dlp based on the specific tags used (“%(upload_date)s” = video upload date, “%(alt_title)s” and “%(title)s” = main title and supplementary title) {I have also changed that — see below}. With two differences:
1) The prohibited characters are replaced by visually equivalent Unicode characters, but may cause access issues with programs not handling Unicode; in particular, the subtitle conversion script fails if a file name contains at least one Unicode character (for example, I just tested with the program “Karambolage” from 13/10, the files generated by yt-dlp have the title “Karambolage - Le sandwich ? Bravo ? La Schreiambulanz” (the Unicode "slash" character is accepted in file names unlike the standard “/”), the conversion fails, but it works after renaming it to “Karambolage - Le sandwich - Bravo - La Schreiambulanz”).
2) When the supplementary title field is not defined, it is replaced by “NA” (strangely, when both fields are defined, “alt_title” corresponds to the main title and “title” corresponds to the supplementary title).
If you wish to harmonize all that afterwards, you can do it quickly and easily with renaming software, e.g. Bulk Rename Utility [https://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk] (rather complex interface at first glance but has the advantage of handling Unicode which is essential here, and allows complex renaming operations once you master the "regular expressions" system).
After reflection, for this new version [2024-10-19] I preferred to replace the title generated by yt-dlp (more "aesthetic" but problematic) with the title obtained with the sfk xed command (less precise but shouldn’t pose a problem, unless I forgot to convert prohibited characters other than "?", "/", ":" that might appear in some titles, for example a "*" or an ">" but that’s very unlikely). I also replaced the date assigned based on the yt-dlp %(upload_date)s tag, which corresponds to the actual airing date on the Arte.tv platform, but does not necessarily correspond to the television airing date. But as already mentioned, the other date is also problematic for programs aired after midnight. For example, I just did a test with the program “ARTE Concert Festival 2022” (another oddity: the main title is “Wolf Alice, Loyle Carner, Olivia Dean, Thylacine, Superpoze”, the supplementary title is “ARTE Concert Festival 2022”, logically it should be the reverse) aired technically on 14/10 at 03:10, the date corresponding to the program list is “20241013” (which is the day before), the date assigned by yt-dlp is “20241006” (which is 8 days prior).
I also corrected this problem by adding a condition: if the hour digit is below 05, the date is incremented by one day; we will see in practice if it works correctly in all cases.

Note on the “ping” command:
This is a technique (described here: http://ss64.com/nt/sleep.html) allowing to wait a few seconds between two commands, considered more efficient than the dedicated “sleep” command. I noticed that in case of frequent access to different sections of the arte.tv site, there were often “429 - too many requests” errors, thus this is to avoid that by chaining the image download then the video download.

~~~~~~~~~~

@fjr65

“I just had a small issue because I didn’t have ffmpeg in the Windows PATH and ended up with the audio, video, and subtitles not merged, but I eventually figured it out;-)”

Yes, I had forgotten that ffmpeg was also required for the "multiplexing" of audio and video streams (and apparently it is also possible to obtain an MKV directly with embedded subtitles).

~~~~~~~~~~

[NOTE: This message originally posted at 04:22 was then inexplicably deleted, I am reposting it almost identically at 05:48, in case of another deletion, I’m letting it go.]

Thank you so much, LamaCraintif! I have only tested vavideo so far, but I'm keeping this information safe.

Good evening everyone,

Arte is now available on the France.TV platform.
You can once again download Arte shows with CapTvTy by copying the link of the show provided by France.TV and pasting it into CapTvTy (at the top of the window where the magic wand is located)
Enjoy watching to all.

Hello too,

Polite formulas are essential on the CCM Forum when you write... https://www.commentcamarche.net/infos/25855-charte-d-utilisation-de-commentcamarche-net-respect-d-autrui/#politesse

Do you use a tablet, mobile, or TV to watch ARTE?

Hello @martin92811 StatutMembre.

You could have mentioned which software you are talking about.

You are probably referring to Captvty; you will have to wait for a next version. Captvty is a bit hit or miss, if you want TV on your PC or mobile, it's better to use your internet provider's web application or mobile app, it will be more reliable.

Example with Orange:

PC: https://chaines-tv.orange.fr

Mobile: https://play.google.com/orange.

bazfile
Moderator/Security Contributor.
A hello, an answer, a thank you are always appreciated.

Hello everyone and thank you for your replies.

I indeed forgot to mention that I am using the Captvty software

on a PC running Windows 10.

My problem is that I can no longer access the list of available shows and so I cannot download what I am interested in to watch it at my leisure when it is no longer available on the broadcasters' websites.

Martin

Hello,

Type "Arte Replay" into Google, and record with "Cam Studio" (free)

@: LamaCraintif:

What a mess your thing is;

Could you simplify it?

Continuation of 11:45

By directly providing the cmd code and the exe.

@mariam-j StatutMembre

"It's a hell of a mess your thing;

Could you simplify it?"

"Continuation of 11:45

By directly giving the cmd code and the exe."

And a foot massage while we're at it? These days EVERYTHING, absolutely EVERYTHING is becoming horrifically complicated, that's how it is, you have to get used to it if you want to survive... or have a lot of money to get the work done by others...

------

@sellige StatutMembre

"Thank you very much, it's very interesting

Indeed, the interface adds tons of "bullet points" and makes the script hard to read.

Is it complicated for you to write it down in a downloadable file via wetransfer or something?

That said, I will test it in the next few days

Thanks again"

The code isn't that long, it just has 6 "bullet points" to remove (using Notepad2 [https://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html]: select everything then press [Alt]+[Z] twice; if you want to remove characters at the end of a line it’s [Alt]+[U], it works for hundreds of lines).

And yes, it’s an additional complication, especially since this site (on which I registered specifically to share the information I found by myself) is not exactly "user-friendly". As mentioned earlier, you have to get used to searching for makeshift solutions by picking bits from here and there, without expecting to have the ad hoc remedy served up hot. I recently read this article:

https://www.cjoint.com/c/NJgvet1cT7A

— starting from the observation that the horrifically tortuous complexity of the slightest daily task is now a major trend, and analyzing its repercussions for the growing segment of the population that is effectively disabled, with very few truly audible protests (I recently criticized this in a message to the CAF, they basically replied that all decisions come "from above", that they themselves as employees must comply, and that if you have a criticism to make, you should write to your deputy... ha ha!).

I also highly recommend the full reading of this speech by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in November 1979 (I wasn’t born yet, like the fish of the same name), at the closing of a seminar entitled "Computing and Society":

https://diccan.com/Autres_auteurs/Giscard.html

I found the link in another article by Célia Izoard called "To live free, let's get out of the digital fishbowl", which is also worth reading and sharing:

https://www.cjoint.com/c/NJgvlEMT4KA

Upon reading VGE's text, I was struck both by his deep understanding of the technical stakes of his time and by his humility (compared to some current leaders, he did not pretend to know everything and master everything, but when he spoke, he showed that he had really studied the subject, well beyond the strict necessities of the political-media exercise), and also struck by the prophetic nature of all the potential dangers he mentioned — all of this has come true according to the worst possible projections, and this despite the fact that very intelligent individuals, supposedly working for the common good (including VGE himself), had a very clear apprehension of what was looming and had the means to establish safeguards. Now, it is too late, we are inside it up to our nostrils, and can only struggle in this "fishbowl" hoping to escape as long as possible from suffocation.

"To achieve the more philosophical goal that I propose to myself, I will need to, on the contrary, prune. Simplify. Destroy one by one a multitude of details. I will indeed be aided by the simple play of historical movement. Before our eyes, the world is becoming uniform; telecommunications are progressing; the inside of apartments is being enriched with new equipment. Human relationships are becoming progressively impossible, which reduces the number of anecdotes that make up a life. And gradually the face of death appears, in all its splendor. The third millennium looks promising."

Michel Houellebecq, Extension of the Domain of Struggle, 1994

" I don't like this world. Indeed, I don't like it. The society in which I live disgusts me; advertising sickens me; computing makes me vomit. All my work as a computer scientist consists of multiplying references, cross-references, and criteria for rational decision-making. It doesn't make any sense. To be frank, it’s even rather negative; unnecessary clutter for the neurons. This world needs everything, except more information."

same

------

Today the line breaks seem to be displaying correctly, don't try to understand... ("HIER IST KEIN WARUM!" as they said in Auschwitz according to Primo Levi's account.)

I'm trying to send the script with the "code snippet" formatting as a test:

  chcp 1252 set /P link= yt-dlp -F %link% set /P audio= yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=720]+%audio%" %link% --all-subs --write-info-json --write-description -o "%%(upload_date)s - Arte - %%(alt_title)s - %%(title)s.%%(ext)s" pause 

And it’s messed up as I said... I'm giving up...

Hello.

Downloading the replays is not complicated at all; you're making it more difficult than it needs to be. Just go to https://www.arte.tv/fr/.

Then to download the videos, use FDM (free) or IDM (paid).

Here’s what it looks like with IDM: you have the option to choose between different video qualities:

bazfile
Moderator/Security Contributor.
A hello, a response, a thank you are always appreciated.

I just installed FDM and I copied/pasted a video link from the Arte Replay site (specifically a documentary about Kate Winslet: https://www.arte.tv/en/videos/115013-000-A/kate-winslet-resolutely-an-actress/): FDM is telling me "The server returned a Web page". Anyway, I'm a bit clumsy, I can't figure out how to use it.

Hello,

IDM does work for Arte, except that you need to download the TS file, 1080p HD quality, to get the best quality, plus the VTT file that contains the subtitles. Indeed, without the VTT file, you won't have subtitles when a speaker is talking in a language other than French, even in a French documentary.

Hello,

Thank you very much @LamaCraintif, this script is very useful and I'm discovering yt-dlp. It's going to be quite helpful for me.

I just had a small issue because I didn't have ffmpeg in the Windows PATH and I ended up with the audio, video, and subtitles not merged, but I eventually figured it out ;-)

Best regards

Thank you very much for this information!

But, alas, we are doomed to see foreign films only in the French version: we can choose the quality but not the language or the subtitles (I just tested with "Furyo").

Hello,

I just tested downloading the Frenzy episode that aired three days ago on Arte using CapTvTy. When watching the film with VLC, there are indeed 3 audio tracks: English, French, and German, as well as the same number of subtitles. We can therefore assume that when the original version is not available, it is because the channel does not have that version. Knowing that most programs should exist in both French and German.