ted download fails with "unable to extract title"

[sjjh]

Probably due to recent redesign of ted.com. See command line output below:

simon@laptop:~$ youtube-dl --verbose http://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_soghoian_government_surveillance_this_is_just_the_beginning
[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: []
[debug] Command-line args: ['--verbose', 'http://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_soghoian_government_surveillance_this_is_just_the_beginning']
[debug] youtube-dl version 2013.08.29
[debug] Python version 2.7.5+ - Linux-3.11.0-18-generic-x86_64-with-Ubuntu-13.10-saucy
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[TED] 0: Downloading "christopher_soghoian_government_surveillance_this_is_just_the_beginning" page
[TED] christopher_soghoian_government_surveillance_this_is_just_the_beginning: Extracting information
ERROR: Unable to extract title; 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. Make sure you are using the latest version; type  youtube-dl -U  to update.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 324, in extract_info
    ie_result = ie.extract(url)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 103, in extract
    return self._real_extract(url)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/ted.py", line 35, in _real_extract
    return [self._talk_info(url)]
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/ted.py", line 71, in _talk_info
    webpage, 'title')
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 247, in _html_search_regex
    res = self._search_regex(pattern, string, name, default, fatal, flags)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py", line 237, in _search_regex
    raise ExtractorError(u'Unable to extract %s' % _name)
ExtractorError: Unable to extract title; 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. Make sure you are using the latest version; type  youtube-dl -U  to update.

simon@laptop:~$ 

[phihag]

You are using a severely outdated version of youtube-dl. Use your package manager or pip to update it to the newest version. The last change of TED's interface was 2014-03-04, so any of the later versions will do. If your distribution only carries an outdated version, contact your distribution's package maintainer and ask for a newer version. Alternatively, uninstall the youtube-dl package and install it manually instead.

Now, for me this works fine with a recent version of youtube-dl, and TED changed interfaces at least twice since youtube-dl 2013.08.29 came out. If the error persists, please post the output you get with a recent version in here and we'll reopen this issue. Alternatively, simply open a new issue.

[jaimeMF]

@phihag I fixed the TED extractor in 652bee0, after version 2014.03.04.2, which is the last version, so it's only available in the repo.

[phihag]

@jaimeMF Ok, I'm pushing out 2014.03.06 now to fix that.

[sjjh]

Sorry for the noise then. I didn't believe that the Ubuntu version could be so outdated. :)