Converting and downloading M3U8 file — with bash script

What’s M3U8 format?

M3U8 files are the basis for the HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) format originally developed by Apple to stream video and radio to iOS devices,

Convert M3U8 to mp4

In order to convert files with ffmpeg, download it and install — on mac — with brew — https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/ffmpeg.

Example of ready to use script:

downlaod_video.sh

#!/bin/bash
videos_source=("https://cdn.mysite.com/videos/38dfbf5a-01fe-45b6-84ba-8aa33b6ae686/20210723150727-stream.m3u8" "https://cdn.mysite.com/videos/f71bf533-c0fc-42d1-a4df-f17e3ff0c98a/20210701144247-stream.m3u8")
for str in ${videos_source[@]}; do
out_name=`basename $str | cut -d- -f1`.mp4
if test -f "$out_name"; then
out_name="$out_name"_1.mp4
fi
echo $out_name
ffmpeg -i $str -acodec copy -bsf:a aac_adtstoasc -vcodec copy  ./$out_name
done

Run script

Substitute videos_source with real data and run:

-> ./downlaod_video.sh

Troubleshooting

You may need to run chmod u+x to give permission to run script. In terminal use command:

➜ chmod u+x downlaod_video.sh

Check permissions:

➜ la downlaod_video.sh
-rwxr--r--  1 user1  staff     0B Jun 28 11:20 downlaod_video.sh