A no frills downloader CLI app that pulls down all the video and slides from Build 2018 sessions and other events on MSDN's Channel9.
All new work is being done at this repo (https://github.com/FrankLaVigne/SessionDownloader)
Starting with Build 2019, the session video files and slide decks are no longer delivered through Channel 9. I made a new repo (https://github.com/FrankLaVigne/SessionDownloader) to fix this problem. I'm on the fence as to incorporate the new code with this older code base or continue down the path of a shiny, new .NET Core based solution.
Here's a blog post on the Session Downloader: http://www.franksworld.com/2015/10/07/session-downloader-reloaded/ The above blog post I wrote was deleted due to ClearDB's Epic SNAFU. Listen to this for details http://datadriven.tv/special-5pm-know-data-is/
The blog post talked about the history of this code. It began humbly as a WPF app to capture all the sessions from PDC 2009. 2009 was a simpler time, mobile broadband was expensive and not widely available and I wanted a way to watch PDC videos at home on my TV (sad, right?) or on the go on my laptop. The answer was to grab all the content using the RSS/ATOM feed Channel9 made available.
In 2015, I updated it to download the sessions from Build 2015. In 2016, I added parameters to make it grab all items on Channel9 with an Event RSS feed. In 2018, I encountered some issues: first with the RSS feed then with some other oddities stemming from the previous approach, which had more or less in place since 2009.
Right now, the downloader only downloads one file at a time. I could fix that and add a parameter to set the number of simulaneous downloads. However, I've not made this a priority as I don't want to have users inadvertently taking down Channel9's servers by downloading everything all at once.
Additionally, it's a CLI to keep the code simple. There's no fancy GUI and no plans to add one. If you feel the burning desire to build one, then by all means, fork the repo and make it happen. :)
At this time, I'd like to thank those who contributed code to make the downloader better!
Path to directory where images will be saved.
Download high or low quality videos (h or high for high) omit for low quality
File format. Options are: MP4High, Low, MP3, or Slides. (Low is the default)
SessionDownloader.exe C:\Downloads\ https://s.ch9.ms/Events/Build/2018/RSS
SessionDownloader.exe C:\Downloads\ https://s.ch9.ms/Events/Build/2017/RSS
SessionDownloader.exe C:\Downloads\ https://s.ch9.ms/Events/Build/2016/RSS
SessionDownloader.exe C:\Downloads\Audio\ https://s.ch9.ms/Events/Build/2016/RSS mp3
SessionDownloader.exe C:\Downloads\Slides\ https://s.ch9.ms/Events/Build/2016/RSS slides