There are few free VODs on Smithsonian site. They are very few and hard to find.
Here are some:
The Lost Tapes - LA Riots.mp4
https://www.smithsonianchannel.com/d...son-1#la-riots
The Lost Tapes - Malcolm X.mp4
https://www.smithsonianchannel.com/d...on-2#malcolm-x
The Lost Tapes - Son of Sam.mp4
https://www.smithsonianchannel.com/v...st-tapes/59867
The Green Book - Guide to Freedom
https://www.smithsonianchannel.com/d...ide-to-freedom
They are free at a time of this writting. When I made my first post in this thread all of Aerial America VODs were free to see, not now.
Smithsonian know how to make their business model and I watch what I can see for free, at least on their website.
It is a doodle to download these VODs. URLs can be found in browsers network monitor or with Telerik fiddler.
Here are few urls:
"https://hls-vod-cld.cdn1.smithsonianchannel.com/8e872c-thegreensboro4_136657/mobile_master.m3u8"
"https://hls-vod-cld.cdn1.smithsonianchannel.com/8e872c-thegreensboro4_136657/thegreensboro4_136657_072419_AAC64BOOS.m3u8"
"https://hls-vod-cld.cdn1.smithsonianchannel.com/8e872c-thegreensboro4_136657/thegreensboro4_136657_072419_700.m3u8"
"https://hls-vod-cld.cdn1.smithsonianchannel.com/8e872c-thegreensboro4_136657/thegreensboro4_136657_072419_4500.m3u8"
Only the first one is complete with sound and video and resolution is 1280x720.
Here is where streamlink commes handy, it makes it possible to choose between different resolutions.
My favourite resolution is 960x540.
Code:
C:\>streamlink https://hls-vod-cld.cdn1.smithsonianchannel.com/8e872c-thegreensboro4_136657/mobile_master.m3u8 540p
[cli][info] Found matching plugin hls for URL https://hls-vod-cld.cdn1.smithsonianchannel.com/8e872c-thegreensboro4_136657/mobile_master.m3u8
[cli][info] Available streams: 180p_alt2 (worst), 180p_alt, 180p, 224p_alt2, 224p_alt, 224p, 360p_alt2, 360p_alt, 360p, 540p_alt2, 540p_alt, 540p, 720p_alt2, 720p_alt, 720p, 1080p_alt2, 1080p_alt, 1080p (best)
[cli][info] Opening stream: 540p (hls-multi)
[cli][info] Starting player: C:\P\VLC\vlc.exe
Code:
C:\>streamlink https://hls-vod-cld.cdn1.smithsonianchannel.com/8e872c-thegreensboro4_136657/mobile_master.m3u8 540p -o thegreensboro4.mp4
[cli][info] Found matching plugin hls for URL https://hls-vod-cld.cdn1.smithsonianchannel.com/8e872c-thegreensboro4_136657/mobile_master.m3u8
[cli][info] Available streams: 180p_alt2 (worst), 180p_alt, 180p, 224p_alt2, 224p_alt, 224p, 360p_alt2, 360p_alt, 360p, 540p_alt2, 540p_alt, 540p, 720p_alt2, 720p_alt, 720p, 1080p_alt2, 1080p_alt, 1080p (best)
[cli][info] Opening stream: 540p (hls-multi)
[download][thegreensboro4.mp4] Written 11.3 MB (6s @ 1.6 MB/s)
Important: stream download won't work without US VPN.
Downloaded video can be made about 10% smaller without any loss of quality with ffmpeg:
ffmpeg.exe -i file.mp4 -c copy -movflags +faststart newfile.mp4