-i segments.txt : Tells aria2 to read the list of files to download. Method 3: Merging the Segments
If your version of FFmpeg doesn't support the -downloader flag, or if you want absolute control over the raw .ts fragments, you can extract the segment URLs manually and feed them directly into aria2c. Step 1: Download the M3U8 Playlist File First, grab the raw playlist file using aria2c: aria2c "https://example.com" Use code with caution. Step 2: Extract the Segment Links
: Use -x 16 and -s 16 to maximize the number of connections for faster downloads.
Look for a file named master.m3u8 or index files like index_1080.m3u8 . Right-click the request and select . Step 2: Convert M3U8 Links into a Download List
Because aria2c expects direct file links, trying to run aria2c video.m3u8 will only download the tiny text file itself, not the actual video segments. To successfully download the stream, you must follow a three-step pipeline: the M3U8 playlist. Extract all the segment URLs into a plain text file. aria2c m3u8
Introduction Aria2 is a lightweight, multi-protocol, command-line download utility valued for speed, scripting ease, and flexible input handling. M3U8 is the UTF-8 variant of the M3U playlist format most commonly used to describe HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) media: it lists segments (usually short .ts or .aac files), variants (different bitrates/resolutions), and metadata that media players use to stream adaptive content. Combining aria2c with M3U8 workflows gives a fast, reproducible way to fetch HLS content for offline use, automated processing, or archival.
Many commercial streaming platforms encrypt their content using . Identifying encrypted streams is straightforward: look for the #EXT-X-KEY tag in the m3u8 file, which specifies the encryption method, key URI, and initialization vector (IV).
If you want to fine-tune this setup for a specific website, let me know:
aria2c will save hundreds of .ts files into your working directory in record time. Step 4: Merge the TS Segments -i segments
aria2c --continue=true --max-connection-per-server=5 "https://example.com/video.m3u8"
-s 16 : Splits each file chunk across 16 connections if applicable.
aria2c -i urls.txt --user-agent="Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/120.0.0.0 Safari/537.36" Use code with caution. 2. Passing Cookies and Referrers
This public link is valid for 7 days and shares a thread, including any personal information you added. This link or copies made by others cannot be deleted. If you share with third parties, their policies apply. Can’t copy the link right now. Try again later. Step 2: Extract the Segment Links : Use
ffmpeg -http_persistent 1 -i "LINK_TO_YOUR_STREAM.m3u8" -downloader aria2c -downloader_options "-j 16 -x 16 -s 16" -c copy output.mp4 Use code with caution. How It Works:
While ffmpeg remains the swiss army knife for processing and decryption, aria2c is the race car for acquiring the raw fragments. Use them together, and you'll never watch a buffering spinner again while waiting for offline viewing.
An M3U8 file contains metadata lines starting with #EXT . You need to strip those out, leaving only the URLs.