Videos with resolution of 1024x768 cannot be downloaded

[heinrich-ulbricht]

Observed behavior: Currently the script is not able to download (older) videos that have a resolution of 1024x768. The error message is not helpful: "Something went wrong. Double check the URL and try logging in again."

Expected behavior: Videos with a resolution of 1024x768 can be downloaded.

Analysis The resolution of 1280x720 is hard-baked into the code here:

https://github.com/knyzorg/pluralsight-scraper/blob/8388d58bfdb760d55f50e60ed852fbe063546ea4/index.js#L21

Changing this manually to 1024x768 works. The solution would be to try the higher resolution first, then fall back to the lower one. This is exactly what the web player does (I checked).

[vezaynk]

I kind of expected this error to arise, but couldn't find a place where it happened. Do you have any idea where we can retrieve the available resolution information?

[heinrich-ulbricht]

I don't know where to get the available resolutions, but the web video player of Pluralsight does neither. It tries 1280x720 first (the 404 in the screenshot), then 1024x768:

So doing the same seems appropriate - with a proper delay between requests. Rate limiting seems to kick in fairly quickly.

[vezaynk]

The resolutions seem hard-coded into the embedded player js file. Extracting it would be a pain.

The solution would be to try the higher resolution first, then fall back to the lower one.

This seems like the ideal solution. I unfortunately have a lot on my plate at the moment, but PRs are welcome!

[heinrich-ulbricht]

Good find. Same here, and yes :D