Downloading past twitch broadcasts in python

Question

I have been trying to download past broadcasts for a streamer on twitch using python. I found this python code online:

https://gist.github.com/baderj/8340312

However, when I try to call the functions I am getting errors giving me a status 400 message. Unsure if this is the code I want to download the video (as an mp4) or how to use it properly.

And by video I mean something like this as an example: www(dot)twitch.tv/imaqtpie/v/108909385 //note cant put more than 3 links since I don't have 10 reputation

Any tips on how i should go about doing this?

Here's an example of running it in cmd:

python twitch_past_broadcast_downloader.py 108909385

After running it, it gave me this:

Exception API returned 400

This is where i got the information on running it: https://www.johannesbader.ch/2014/01/find-video-url-of-twitch-tv-live-streams-or-past-broadcasts/

Answer 1

Huh it's not as easy at it seems ... The code you found on this gist is quite old and Twitch has completely changed its API. Now you will need a Client ID to download videos, in order to limit the amount of video you're downloading.

If you want to correct this gist, here are simple steps you can do :

1. Register an application : Everything is explained here ! Register you app and keep closely your client id.
2. Change API route : It is no longer '{base}/api/videos/a{id_}' but {base}/kraken/videos/{id_} (not sure about the last one). You will need to change it inside the python code. The doc is here.
3. Add the client id to the url : As said in the doc, you need to give a header to the request you make, so add a Client-ID: <client_id> header in the request.

And now I think you will need to start debugging a bit, because it is old code :/

I will try myself to do it and I will edit this answer when I'm finished, but try yourself :)

See ya !

EDIT : Mhhh ... It doesn't seem to be possible anyway to download a video with the API :/ I was thinking only links to API changed, but the chunks section of the response from the video url disappeared and Twitch is no longer giving access to raw videos :/

Really sorry I told you to do that, even with the API I think is no longer possible :/

Answer 2

You can download past broadcasts of Twitch videos with Python library streamlink. You will need OAuth token which you can generate with the command

streamlink --twitch-oauth-authenticate

Download VODs with:

streamlink --twitch-oauth-token <your-oauth-token> https://www.twitch.tv/videos/<VideoID> best -o <your-output-folder>