Ted Downloader V 3.7 Mid-Release
I have gotten various complaints from various users that they are having some issues with TED Downloader. These concerns are mainly regarding the downloader being unable to download videos properly in areas with low network connectivity. Also,they are not able to download subtitles. Now, I have got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I have decided to patch some of the issues and do a mid-release prior to the next V 4.0 that i have promised and in this release I address the problem of the video downloads failing but the bad news is that i had to drop the Subtitle module.
The first problem that people were facing were related to low network connections. The main complaint was that they are not able to download a video where there is a network issue and the download drops mid-way and does not resume and the videos are skipped the next time they run the app. This issue has been resolved and even when the network behaves absurdly, the app will try to retain the file but if it is not recoverable then it will drop the partially downloaded file and download it from scratch the next time you try to download any file so that you are not stuck with a corrupt file.
The second issue that people had was with the subtitles not working. Now this is because there has been a change at the TED side as to how the subtitles are served to the users and i simply would not be able to accommodate that inside my app. The thing is that they have started using API keys if you want to download stuff from their servers and the keys provided to me would just not be able to withstand the volume that my current users use. So this functionality is going to become a premium feature available only to the users who take an interest in the future development of this app.
The application has been uploaded to the usual location and you can download V 3.7 from there and keep letting me know any other concerns that you have.
Scenario-Solution 
Do you have a linux and/or command line version?
Hope subtitle can be downloaded 🙂
Anyone have alternative to download subtitle?
Will only download a small portion of the talks (231 files, 169 folders) no matter how many times I run it. Appears to only get 1 video per directory for most of the videos (example: TEDWomen 2013_Dec 2013 only has 1 video file). Reports all videos have been downloaded. Any chance you have another fix or update on the way??
Hello. Thanks for the great tool!
I’d like to report a minor hiccup though. Please take a look at my screenshot: http://imgur.com/9D2iJ1y
(what’s there: the “Show your support” window is not tall enough to house all the text you’ve put there. At least on my screen it is)
Also – do you plan on adding proxy authentication support? At least as a module for premium users.
Hey, Thanks for the feedback…I’m not sure about the window…it works fine, i just checked…will have to look into it…
As for the proxy authentication support….yes, it is a premium feature…however, it has not been requested yet…so it has not been taken up….i will see what i can do about it…
Hi Obin,
First off I wanted to thank you for creating “TED downloader”. It is user friendly and easy to operate. I have one question and a suggestion.
Question;
—————
I noticed the 200 maximum download limit on version 3.7 when attempted to download all the videos.
Do I need to tweak the settings in order to get the entire selection of videos (1881 instead of 200).
————–
Suggestion;
—————
It will be great if you could add all the attributes of the videos such as meta tags, author, duration, date, category, and ….through the API in a xml or text file so videos could be indexed and sorted easily.
————–
Looking forward to hearing your reply.
thx
I have to compliment Obin for such a wonderful program and his responsiveness to questions/problems. He addressed a small bug in the program that prevented mass downloading.
I will also share that i have been looking for a solution to download TED talks in audio. Granted, can do this in iTunes, but didnt want to be tied to that ecosystem. Wanted straight MP3s. There are limited selections of TED talks on the net but nothing complete or always updated. TED Downloader is the solution. I set it up to download the TED talks at quality desired. Then I apply LameXP which i can strip out the audio and further compress to my desires. All goes to a single subdirectory and have a complete set of MP3s to listen to in my car. You provided a very elegant solution that saved me hours. Thank you, Seanb
Hello Obin,
I have only recently found your wonderful tool but with me it does not progress past attempting to refresh video links. It errors out with “The remote server returned an error: (422) Unprocessable Entity”, which I believe suggests the http request may be ill-formed. I am going to guess here that TED has changed something on their end. I will attempt to use the tool again at another time (and another location) and was also wondering if you have any means by which I might pay you to continue development, or perhaps to fix this (hopefully!) minor bug. Please let me know.
Best,
Kendall
Hi Kendall,
Yes…Ted.com has updated…just noticed it too…i will have a look at it over the weekend and let you know….thanks for letting me know…
Regards,
Obin Shah
Does this work anymore? Every time I fire up the application, I get the following error:
The remote server returned an error: (422) Unprocessable Entity.
Thoughts?
Is this not working anymore? I tried different versions and different computers and I keep getting the Error 422: unprocessable entity.
Thoughts?
Hi Jason,
ted.com has updated…and the app needs to be updated for the same…i will have a look at it over the weekend and let you know….thanks for letting me know…
Regards,
Obin Shah
Thank you for looking into the error issue. I really appreciate your tool, and was hoping to get things downloaded before the new school year. Thank you again for your hard work!!
Hi. Thanks for the great tool.
Any updates? It’s still not working.
Also now getting the 422 response status…
The download link as at 20150821 2106 gives “file not found”, using the path only shows older versions.
The newest being this one:
TED Downloader V 3.7.1.3.exe 599.5 KB 2015-04-27
Any idea when the latest version will be available; or does the 3.7.1.3 version fix the problems discussed this month?
OK…to all the guys who have been recently getting the 422 response/error, I have some bad news…unfortunately, there have been some major changes on the TED site which has broken my extraction algorithm and by broken, I mean, render it completely useless. I just verified it and the only way through would be to rewrite the algorithm…from scratch.
I am afraid that this would require me to spend a lot of time on it which I don’t have right now. I will try to put as much time as I can in between but expect a month’s delay in getting the app back on its feet.
I will update you guys as soon as I have something. Thanks for your support.
What exactly do you need and how do you need it for your “algorithm”….. ?
I need to devise the logic to extract data, generate the download links…so I would need my experience in the software industry and also time to devise, code and test it.:)
can you finished it by this year?
You do realise that you do not pay anything for this ?? and that I do not get any benefit from this ??
I am doing this in addition to my actual job(which does pay me money), so obviously I have to manage between my personal and professional life and this…so I will ask you to can the sarcasm, and refrain from saying anything if you cannot offer anything good…
You were offered help, but you arrogantly expressed that only you could manage it. That was not impressive.
Arrogance ?? No that was not it….but it was the truth…:)
I never said that only I could manage it, please re-read the comment (can’t believe I have to explain myself)…
Hi Obin,
This is USAcoder I talked to you few months back (April 27th, 2015). At that time your downloader had some issues that I discussed with you and after a debugging that you performed I was able to download the clips from TED. I do appreciate your work and I actually don’t mind making a contribution for your time and effort.
Could you please tell me how and where I could make a donation.
thx
Hi USACoder, sorry for the late reply and thanks for the offer, it means a lot. I had a paypal account for such transactions but unfortunately, Paypal for India is having issues and I have been unable to receive payments. I will provide you an alternate way to send your contribution. Can you provide a proper mail id ?
—–Mail Id removed to protect from spamming but noted, thanks. —-
Hi Obin,
Thanks for the fix. I,too, would like to donate to your noble cause and show my appreciation of your efforts. I have sent you a mail. Kindly provide me the details.
Hi,
Sure…I have replied to your mail…Thanks
Thanks for the app, I also would like to make my contribution…my id is …kindly send me the details there…Thanks
Hi…I have sent you a mail…kindly check…thanks for your contribution…
http://developer.ted.com/API_Docs
That is not exactly useful because it requires an API Key which has certain limitations…I had tried using it before the last release but it had not worked out properly….
Umm, this is what you said Obin:
” August 28, 2015 at 10:31 pm
Reply
I need to devise the logic to extract data, generate the download links…so I would need my experience in the software industry and also time to devise, code and test it.:)”
How is that a not … “get stuffed, I am the only one whom can do it; don’t need anyone’s help, only I can do it, noone else has the skills, only ME.” ????
Now, I would reply but the sign says “Do not feed the Trolls!!”, but honestly you are reading it wrong…did not mean it that way (Did you not see the smiley at the end :P).
Besides, I don’t say “get stuffed”, “Get bent” is more preferable 🙂
To everyone who is having issues using TEDinator, a new Beta version has been released. Check here – https://obinshah.wordpress.com/2015/10/09/tedinator-v3-8-beta/
Thanks Obin….for providing the update..I would like to confirm that the app works for me…Perfectly…Thanks again.
Wow..talk about a $h!t storm, people are happy to complain but no one wants to thank you for the quick response..
Anyways..thanks for the quick fix (comparatively :P)