FAU.TV Video Downloader

Downloads video files from an FAU.TV series that is public or available to the signed-in user. The downloader supports the current FAU.TV portal, including legacy numeric series IDs, RSS feeds, signed asset links, and HLS streams.

Use it only for material you are permitted to access and save.

Requirements

• Python 3.9 or newer
• Firefox, Brave, a Chromium browser, or Safari for FAU IdM login
• ffmpeg when a clip is available only as an HLS stream

The ./dl launcher manages its own .venv. On the first run it creates the environment and installs requirements.txt before starting the downloader. Later runs reuse the environment. Dependencies are installed again when requirements.txt changes.

Set FAU_TV_DL_PYTHON to choose the Python interpreter used to create the environment, or FAU_TV_DL_VENV to store it somewhere other than .venv.

Selenium installs and manages the matching Firefox or Chromium driver. The automatic order is Firefox, Brave, Chromium, then Safari. Google Chrome, Chromium, and Microsoft Edge use the Chromium slot. On macOS, Safari also requires Remote Automation to be enabled.

Usage

A public series can be downloaded without opening a browser:

./dl 4592 --no-login --quality 720

For a protected series, omit --no-login. The downloader first tries its cached FAU.TV session. It opens the FAU IdM login only when the series or a clip does not expose media without authentication:

./dl computer-graphics-w25

Use --browser firefox, brave, chromium, or safari to override automatic selection. Safari users may first need to enable Develop > Allow Remote Automation or run safaridriver --enable.

The session is stored in an owner-readable cache file. On macOS, the default is ~/Library/Caches/fau-tv-dl/session.json. Set FAU_TV_DL_COOKIE_FILE or use --cookie-file to choose another path. Delete that file to forget the session. IdM passwords are never stored by the downloader.

The legacy camel-case options remain available for existing scripts.

usage: dl [-h] [--out-dir OUT_DIR] [--starter-url STARTER_URL]
          [--start-at START_AT] [--quality {best,1080,720,360}]
          [--track {composite,presenter,presentation}]
          [--browser {auto,firefox,brave,chromium,safari}] [--no-login]
          [--login-timeout LOGIN_TIMEOUT] [--cookie-file COOKIE_FILE]
          [--overwrite]
          series

Important options:

• --quality selects the preferred resolution. best is the default.
• --track selects composite, presenter, or presentation video.
• --start-at skips earlier entries using their one-based list position.
• --out-dir selects the parent output directory. Each series is stored in its numeric series-ID subdirectory, such as out/4373/.
• --overwrite replaces files that already exist. Existing files are otherwise skipped.
• --starter-url overrides the browser login entry point.
• --browser overrides automatic browser selection for login.
• --cookie-file overrides the FAU.TV session cache path.

For public composite video, the downloader uses FAU.TV's structured RSS feeds. For other tracks and protected series, it reads the series and clip pages using the authenticated session. Direct video assets are preferred; ffmpeg is used as a fallback for HLS.

Downloads are first written as .part.mp4 files and moved into place only after they finish. A failed download therefore does not leave a file that looks complete.