How to download online videos in batches and save them to an external hard drive?

How to download online videos in batches and save them to an external hard drive?

In the digital age, we often need to download videos from the Internet for study, work or entertainment. Manually downloading large amounts of videos is not only time-consuming, but also error-prone. Fortunately, there are many tools available to help us accomplish this task easily. This article will introduce a simple and effective method using VLC media player and Python script to batch download videos and save them to an external hard drive.

First, we need to make sure that the latest version of VLC media player is installed on the computer. VLC is an open source and cross-platform multimedia player. It can not only play videos in various formats, but also download online videos. You can download the version suitable for your operating system from VLC's official website (https://www.videolan.org/vlc/).

Step 1: Prepare the Python environment

In order to write and run scripts, you need Python installed on your computer. Python is a widely used high-level programming language that is ideal for handling batch tasks. You can download and install Python from Python’s official website (https://www.python.org/downloads/).

After the installation is complete, open a command prompt (Windows) or terminal (macOS/Linux) and enter the following command to check whether Python is installed successfully:

`bash

python --version

`

If the Python version number is displayed, the installation is successful.

Step 2: Write a Python script

Next, we need to write a Python script to control VLC to download videos in batches. This script will read a file containing a list of video URLs and then call VLC in order to download them.

1. Create a new text file and name it download_videos.py.

2. Open this file with a text editor and enter the following code:

`python

import os

import subprocess

The installation path of VLC can be modified according to your system environment.

vlc_path = "C:/Program Files/VideoLAN/VLC/vlc.exe"

Video link file path to download

links_file = "video_links.txt"

Read video link

with open(links_file, 'r') as file:

links = file.readlines()

Download video

for link in links:

# Remove newlines from links

link = link.strip()

# Build VLC command

command = [vlc_path, '--play-and-exit', link]

#Execute command

subprocess.run(command)

print("All video downloads completed!")

`

Make sure to set the vlc_path variable to the correct installation path of VLC on your computer. At the same time, create a file named video_links.txt, each line containing a download link for the video.

Step 3: Save the video to an external hard drive

In order to automatically save downloaded videos to an external hard drive, you need to specify a target folder as the output path of VLC. This function can be achieved by adding the --sout parameter to VLC's command line options. Modify the command section in the above script as follows:

`python

Build VLC command

output_folder = "E:/Videos" # Replace with your external hard drive path

command = [vlc_path, '--play-and-exit', link, '--sout=#standard{access=file,mux=ts,dst=' + output_folder + '/video_name.ts}']

`

Make sure to replace the output_folder variable with your actual external hard drive path and file name.

Step 4: Run the script

After saving and closing the download_videos.py file, switch to the directory where the file is located in a command prompt or terminal and run the following command:

`bash

python download_videos.py

`

This will launch VLC and start downloading videos in batches while saving them to the external hard drive location you specified.

With the above steps, you can easily batch download online videos and save them to external hard drive. This method is not only efficient, but also easy to manage, suitable for users who need to download videos frequently. I hope this article can help you complete your task successfully.