Unable to extract media URL (metacafe.com)

[ahmogit]

Diagnostic output below.

fyi: Same functional issue as bug #562, which was closed on a commit.

Version: 2013.07.12

Suggestion: List the version info in the "--version" output :)

$ youtube-dl -v -g http://www.metacafe.com/watch/an-dVVXnuY7Jh77J/the_andromeda_strain_1971_stop_the_bomb_part_3/
[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: []
[debug] Command-line args: ['-v', '-g', 'http://www.metacafe.com/watch/an-dVVXnuY7Jh77J/the_andromeda_strain_1971_stop_the_bomb_part_3/']
ERROR: Unable to extract media URL; please report this issue on https://yt-dl.org/bug . Be sure to call youtube-dl with the --verbose flag and include its complete output.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/python3.3/site-packages/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 312, in extract_info
ie_result = ie.extract(url)
File "/usr/lib/python3.3/site-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 95, in extract
return self._real_extract(url)
File "/usr/lib/python3.3/site-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/metacafe.py", line 95, in _real_extract
raise ExtractorError(u'Unable to extract media URL')
youtube_dl.utils.ExtractorError: Unable to extract media URL; please report this issue on https://yt-dl.org/bug . Be sure to call youtube-dl with the --verbose flag and include its complete output.

[phihag]

Thank you for the report. I believe version 2013.07.17 (which adds support for AnyClip-style videos on metacafe) solves your problem. You can update with

youtube-dl -U

Note that we do include the version information in the output, just not when -g is set. Since the error can be replicated without specifying -g, I left that out, but we'll have the version info included in the output in the next release.

I'm closing this issue now, but feel free to comment, both if it works and if it doesn't. We'll reopen this issue then if needed. Thanks!

[ahmogit]

Hi Philipp,

Philipp Hagemeister notifications@github.com [2013-07-16 16:31:54 -0700]:

I believe version 2013.07.17 (which adds support for AnyClip-style videos
on metacafe) solves your problem. You can update with

youtube-dl -U

That auto-update is nice feature, but alas my version was installed from
an Arch pkg. But I flagged the package as out of date on the Arch site,
so the Arch pkg maintainer should be grabbing the new one soon. Thanks.

I don't need it in a big hurry so I'll just wait for the Arch version
rather than installing it from git.

Note that we do include the version information in the output, just not
when -g is set. Since the error can be replicated without specifying -g,
I left that out.

But I'm curious: Why special case it? If you just barf the version info
unconditionally when --verbose is specified, it will cover all cases, and
probably save bug reporters some time in typing/cut-n-pasting the version
into bug reports. (And save you some time too, in asking them for it when
they forget to include it. :)

Not trying to give you a hard time, just curious why it depends on the
options. Maybe there's some downside to unconditionally barfing the version
info that I don't appreciate. Anyway, it's pretty common with many Unix-y
toolsets. (Many of the GNU tools, e.g. gcc, do this.)

I'm closing this issue now, but feel free to comment, both if it works
and if it doesn't. We'll reopen this issue then if needed. Thanks!

Sure, thanks for your quick response. I'll let you know when I try the updated
version from the Arch repo.

Glenn

[phihag]

We do print out the version info unconditionally when --verbose is specified. But previously (before 2013.07.17.01), we used a helper function to write it via our internal printing mechanism (which deals with the Python 2 / Python 3 / Windows / Linux terminal encoding craziness ), and that printing mechanism is explicitly set to silenced when you specify one of the --get-* options (Otherwise, these options would be hard to use, especially in a scripted fashion. We can't write to stderr since other programs depend on parsing our output.). So there was never a conscious decision to silence the version info conditionally, it was just a bug. Now, we're just writing it to stderr.

[ahmogit]

Hi Philipp, thanks for the explanation, I sort of understand now. In any case, I think stderr is the right way to go.

Regarding the bug: I just tried 2013.07.17.1-1 from the Arch repository, and it works now. Thanks!