c-span videos - Error 403: Forbidden

[spvkgn]

Please take a look into this issue with c-span videos.

youtube-dl -v http://www.c-span.org/video/?26640-1/boris-yeltsin-address-congress
[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: []
[debug] Command-line args: ['-v', 'http://www.c-span.org/video/?26640-1/boris-yeltsin-address-congress']
[debug] Encodings: locale 'UTF-8', fs 'UTF-8', out 'UTF-8', pref: 'UTF-8'
[debug] youtube-dl version 2014.03.25
[debug] Python version 2.7.3 - Linux-3.2.0-39-generic-i686-with-LinuxMint-13-maya
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[CSpan] 26640: Downloading webpage
[CSpan] 173494: Downloading JSON metadata
[CSpan] 173494: Downloading XML
ERROR: unable to download video data: HTTP Error 403: Forbidden
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/pavel/apps/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 991, in process_info
    success = dl(filename, info_dict)
  File "/home/pavel/apps/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 967, in dl
    return fd.download(name, info)
  File "/home/pavel/apps/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/downloader/common.py", line 290, in download
    return self.real_download(filename, info_dict)
  File "/home/pavel/apps/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/downloader/http.py", line 52, in real_download
    data = self.ydl.urlopen(request)
  File "/home/pavel/apps/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 1195, in urlopen
    return self._opener.open(req, timeout=self._socket_timeout)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 406, in open
    response = meth(req, response)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 519, in http_response
    'http', request, response, code, msg, hdrs)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 444, in error
    return self._call_chain(*args)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 378, in _call_chain
    result = func(*args)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 527, in http_error_default
    raise HTTPError(req.get_full_url(), code, msg, hdrs, fp)
HTTPError: HTTP Error 403: Forbidden

[zhaphod]

Can you try again? It is working for me. If you get similar error try moving to the latest version and check again.

[phihag]

Yup, I used to be able to reproduce this, but now the download works just fine with 2014.04.04.

[spvkgn]

Thanks It works well now.

[stevecd]

I'm still bumping into quite a few 403 forbiddens.

youtube-dl -v http://www.c-span.org/video/?318394-1/president-obama-women-economy
youtube-dl -v http://www.c-span.org/video/?301747-1/presidential-remarks-congressional-black-caucus
youtube-dl -v http://www.c-span.org/video/?291730-1/presidential-remarks-house-republican-conference

youtube-dl -v http://www.c-span.org/video/?297693-1/qa-former-president-george-w-bush
youtube-dl -v http://www.c-span.org/video/?300021-1/republican-leadership-conference-day-three

Haven't been able to identify what the difference is between urls that work and urls that don't.
They all generate the same debug output:

youtube-dl -v http://www.c-span.org/video/?318394-1/president-obama-women-economy
[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: []
[debug] Command-line args: ['-v', 'http://www.c-span.org/video/?318394-1/president-obama-women-economy']
[debug] Encodings: locale UTF-8, fs UTF-8, out UTF-8, pref UTF-8
[debug] youtube-dl version 2014.04.07.4
[debug] Python version 2.7.4 - Linux-3.8.0-19-generic-x86_64-with-LinuxMint-15-olivia
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[CSpan] 318394: Downloading webpage
[CSpan] 341758: Downloading JSON metadata
[CSpan] 341758: Downloading XML
[download] Downloading playlist: President Obama on Women and the Economy
[CSpan] playlist President Obama on Women and the Economy: Collected 1 video ids (downloading 1 of them)
[download] Downloading video #1 of 1
ERROR: unable to download video data: HTTP Error 403: Forbidden
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 1007, in process_info
    success = dl(filename, info_dict)
  File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 983, in dl
    return fd.download(name, info)
  File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/downloader/common.py", line 291, in download
    return self.real_download(filename, info_dict)
  File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/downloader/http.py", line 54, in real_download
    data = self.ydl.urlopen(request)
  File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 1211, in urlopen
    return self._opener.open(req, timeout=self._socket_timeout)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 410, in open
    response = meth(req, response)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 523, in http_response
    'http', request, response, code, msg, hdrs)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 448, in error
    return self._call_chain(*args)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 382, in _call_chain
    result = func(*args)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/urllib2.py", line 531, in http_error_default
    raise HTTPError(req.get_full_url(), code, msg, hdrs, fp)
HTTPError: HTTP Error 403: Forbidden

[stevecd]

Not a python developer myself, so can't quite submit a pull for this issue, but it seems like c-span only has a few videos available in the method this script currently uses, which seems like it sends a request with an android user-agent. Emulating android in chrome and going to these non-working url's shows an error saying "This video is not available for this device".

I'm able to get around this by emulating an Apple iPad 3 / 4 , but the new link is to an m3u8 playlist file which I feed to avconv. So I think you may have to change more than a few things in the relevant script to do something similar.