echo360-dlp

echo360-dlp is an Echo360 downloader — batch-download lecture videos and VTT transcripts / captions from Echo360 Cloud (echo360.org / echo360.net.au) and university Echo360 portals, for offline study. One-command setup on Windows, macOS, and Linux, SSO login via Chrome, and captions saved next to every MP4.

Repository: github.com/tuyoik/echo360-dlp
Maintainer: Andrew Zhu (@tuyoik)

Start here: QUICKSTART.md · Full guide (TUI + every flag): USAGE.md · Policy: ACCEPTABLE_USE.md

Probably the only command you need to run

Tip

The command below is probably all you need. Everything after this section is reference — you don't have to read it to get your lectures.

Copy the line for your system and run it inside the project folder:

Windows (PowerShell):

.\run.bat --pick-course --chrome --setup-credentials -P -a

macOS / Linux (Terminal):

./run.sh --pick-course --chrome --setup-credentials -P -a

There are no install steps — the launcher sets everything up on first run (its own Python environment + dependencies) and then runs with the flags above.

What you'll see:

It asks for your Echo360 login email — copy it from Echo360 → Settings (account/profile). Saved for next time.
Chrome opens and your email is typed into the Echo360 login page for you.
Log in with your university SSO — that's the only manual step. Once you're in, echo360-dlp detects the login by itself; nothing more to type.
A course picker appears in the terminal: ↑↓ move, SPACE to tick courses, ENTER to start.
Everything downloads — MP4s (both camera feeds when a lecture has two) plus .vtt subtitles, organized under _local/downloads/.

Run it again anytime — already-downloaded lectures are skipped, and -P keeps you logged in.

Only want subtitles (no video)? Same command plus --transcript-only:

.\run.bat --pick-course --chrome -P -a --transcript-only

./run.sh --pick-course --chrome -P -a --transcript-only

More combos: QUICKSTART.md · TUI details: USAGE.md — How TUI modes work.

Acceptable use

Personal study only. If Echo360 already lets you watch a lecture, this tool batch-downloads videos and transcripts you could save manually (separately, one-by-one in the browser). Do not redistribute recordings. Details: ACCEPTABLE_USE.md.

Fork

Additions and changes in this fork include:

Echo360 Cloud course picker (--pick-course) and enrolled-courses API
Lecture TUI (-i) and dual feeds (-a)
VTT subtitles — separate .vtt files plus soft subs muxed into MP4
--video-only / --transcript-only — download MP4 or VTT without the other
_local/ layout — downloads, logs, browser session, and venv in one gitignored folder
Selenium 4 / Chrome as the supported path (PhantomJS legacy retained but not recommended)

Features

Video download — HLS and MP4 from Echo360 Cloud and university Echo360 portals
VTT subtitles — When a lecture has captions, a .vtt file is saved next to the .mp4 (VLC loads it automatically when filenames match)
Cross-platform launchers — run.bat (Windows), run.sh (macOS/Linux)
Local data in _local/ — downloads, logs, browser session, and venv live in one folder (not mixed with the project)
Echo360 Cloud SSO — Log in once with --chrome --setup-credentials
Persistent session — -P keeps login in _local/browser_session
Course TUI — --pick-course lists enrolled courses (multiselect) and downloads all streams
Lecture TUI — -i pick individual lectures
Dual stream — -a downloads both video feeds when available
Media modes — --video-only or --transcript-only
Date filters / short names / custom output — --after-date, --before-date, --short-names, -o

Quick start (all platforms)

Windows

.\run.bat --pick-course --chrome --setup-credentials -P -a

macOS / Linux

./run.sh --pick-course --chrome --setup-credentials -P -a

Or with a section home URL (lists all lectures in one stream):

https://echo360.net.au/section/YOUR-SECTION-UUID/home

Use the course page URL (.../section/UUID/home), not a single /lesson/.../classroom link. More recipes: QUICKSTART.md · flag/TUI reference: USAGE.md.

The FAQ below covers all platforms and options. Much of it comes from the upstream echo360 documentation and still applies to echo360-dlp.

echo360-dlp is a command-line Python tool that downloads lecture videos from university Echo360 portals and Echo360 Cloud. You need a course or section URL (or --pick-course on Cloud). See the FAQ for details.

See it in action (original upstream demo):

NEWS: It now works with echo360.org platform as well. Special thanks to @cloudrac3r and Emma for their kind offering of providing sources and helped debugging it. Read FAQ for details.

Getting Started

Automated Installation

Linux / MacOS

./run.sh COURSE_URL  # where COURSE_URL is your course url

Windows

run.bat COURSE_URL  # where COURSE_URL is your course url

The scripts will boostrap all installation and download all needed files on the fly.

pip (from this repo)

pip install git+https://github.com/tuyoik/echo360-dlp.git
echo360-dlp COURSE_URL

Or from a local clone: pip install . then echo360-dlp COURSE_URL.

Optional

ffmpeg (for transcoding ts file to mp4 file) See here (windows) or here for a brief instructions of installing it in different OS.

Manual

The provided script automated every operations, and install all dependency in a local python virtual environment. You can also use the system-wise python installation by manual installation. Get started by first install all requirements:

pip install -r requirements.txt  # or with: python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

Then run with:

python echo360.py

Operating System

Linux
OS X
Windows

Usage

NOTE THAT all the below command you can substitute python echo360.py with ./run.sh (or run.bat if you are in windows)

Quick Start

>>> python echo360.py                       \
    https://view.streaming.sydney.edu.au:8443/ess/portal/section/2018_S1C_INFO1001_ND

Script args

Full reference (TUI keys + every flag): USAGE.md. Summary of current flags:

usage: echo360.py [-h] [--output OUTPUT_PATH]
                  [--after-date AFTER_DATE] [--before-date BEFORE_DATE]
                  [--unikey UNIKEY] [--password PASSWORD]
                  [--setup-credentials] [--persistent-session]
                  [--download-phantomjs-binary] [--stealth]
                  [--chrome] [--firefox] [--echo360cloud]
                  [--pick-course] [--interactive] [--alternative_feeds]
                  [--short-names] [--video-only | --transcript-only]
                  [--debug] [--auto | --manual]
                  [ECHO360_URL]

  ECHO360_URL              Section/course URL or UUID (optional with --pick-course)
  -o, --output             Output folder (must exist); default _local/downloads
  --after-date / --before-date   Date filters (YYYY-MM-DD)
  -u / -p                  Legacy USYD unikey/password (prefer SSO)
  --setup-credentials      Open browser for SSO login
  -P, --persistent-session Keep Chrome session in _local/browser_session
  --chrome / --firefox / --stealth   Browser drivers
  --pick-course            Course TUI (Cloud enrollments; all streams)
  -i, --interactive        Lecture TUI (SPACE mark, ENTER confirm)
  -a, --alternative_feeds  Download both video feeds
  --short-names            Lecture 01… under by_lecture/
  --video-only             MP4 only (no .vtt)
  --transcript-only        .vtt only (no MP4)
  --debug / --auto / --manual

Examples

Preferred: see USAGE.md (examples first) and QUICKSTART.md.

>>> python echo360.py                  \
    "041698d6-f43a-4b09-a39a-b90475a63530" \  # Note this default to USYD's echo360
    --output "~/Lectures"                     # Use full URL for other University

Download all available lectures

>>> python echo360.py                  \
    "041698d6-f43a-4b09-a39a-b90475a63530" \
    --output "~/Lectures"

Download all lectures on or before a date

>>> python echo360.py                  \
    "041698d6-f43a-4b09-a39a-b90475a63530" \
    --output "~/Lectures"                  \
    --before-date "2014-10-14"

Download all lectures on or after a date

>>> python echo360.py                  \
    "041698d6-f43a-4b09-a39a-b90475a63530" \
    --output "~/Lectures"                  \
    --after-date "2014-10-14"

Download all lectures in a given date range (inclusive)

>>> python echo360.py                  \
    "041698d6-f43a-4b09-a39a-b90475a63530" \
    --output "~/Lectures"                  \
    --after-date "2014-08-26"              \
    --before-date "2014-10-14"

Use chrome driver (instead of phantomjs)

Note: sometime it works better than phantomjs in some system

>>> python echo360.py                  \
    "041698d6-f43a-4b09-a39a-b90475a63530" \
    --chrome

FAQ

Is my university supported?

This is first built for the echo system in the University of Sydney, and then validated in several other universities' echo system. In theory, as long as the url are in the format of:

https://$(hostname)/ess/portal/section/$(UUID)

or

https://echo360.org[.xx]/

or with a dot net variant

https://echo360.net[.xx]/

... then it should be supported.

The variables $(hostname) and $(UUID) are what differentiate different University's echo360 system. If there is no credentials needed (ie no need to login before accessing the page), then 90% of the time it should works. If login is needed, some extra work might need to be put in before it works for your university. If that is the case, create an issue to let me know.

As for echo360.org, see this.

How do I retrieve the Course URL for a course?

You should go to the main Echo360 Lecture page, which usually composed of all the lecturer recordings in a list format as shown below. It's the main page that lists all the recorded lectures and gives you the option to stream them or download them individually. This is important for downloading all the available videos from within the course.

You can usually find this link on your course's main webpage. If your course webpage only links directly to videos, then you should be able to navigate back by clicking the title of your course name (top of page).

The URL for the University of Sydney - 2017 semester 2 of CIVL4903 looks like

https://view.streaming.sydney.edu.au:8443/ess/portal/section/041698d6-f43a-4b09-a39a-b90475a63530

which you can verify is correct in the above screenshot. This should be the full URL you enter into the script, for all other universities' echo system.

The UUID (Unified Unique IDentifier) is the last element of the URL. So in the above example it's,

041698d6-f43a-4b09-a39a-b90475a63530

echo360 cloud

Echo360 cloud refers to websites in the format of https://echo360.org[.xx]. This module now officially support this platform.

This method requires you to setup SSO credentials, therefore, it needs to open up a browser for you to setup your own university's SSO credentials.

To download videos, run:

./run.sh https://echo360.<org|net>[.xx]/section/$(UUID)/home

where [.xx] is an optional country flag specific to your echo360 platform and $(UUID) is the unique identifier for your course. This should the url that you can retrieve from your course's main page like the following.

Note that this implies setup-credential option and will use chrome-webdriver by default. If you don't have chrome or prefer to use firefox, run it with the --firefox flag like so:

./run.sh https://echo360.<org|net>[.xx]/section/$(UUID)/home --firefox

After running the command, it will opens up a browser instance, most likely with a login page. You should then login with your student's credentials like what you would normally do. After you have successfully logged in, the module should automatically redirects you and continues. If the script hangs (e.g. failed to recognises that you have logged in), feel free to let me know.

I'm not sure of how to run it?

Start with QUICKSTART.md (Windows, macOS, Linux). Install Python if needed, then use run.bat / run.sh.

Windows walkthrough (upstream, still useful for finding a course URL):

For Windows users (shows how to retrieve the Echo360 course URL)

My credentials does not work?

You can setup any credentials need with manually logging into websites, by running the script with:

./run.sh ECHO360_URL --setup-credentials

This opens Chrome so you can log in as usual. For Echo360 Cloud it also asks for your login email — copy it from Echo360 → Settings (account / profile) so the “Enter email” page is filled with the right address. Afterwards, if needed, type continue in the terminal.

My credentials does not work (echo360.org)?

For echo360.org, the default behaviour is it will always require you to setup-credentials, and the module will automatically detect login token and proceed the download process. For some institutions, this seems to be not sufficient (#29).

You can disable such behaviour with

./run.sh ECHO360_ORG_URL --manual

for manual setup; and once you had logged in, type

continue

in your terminal to continue.

How do I download only individual video(s)?

Use the lecture TUI (-i / --interactive):

./run.sh ECHO360_URL --chrome -P -i

SPACE to mark lectures, ENTER to confirm:

How do I pick courses from my enrollment list?

Echo360 Cloud only — course TUI:

./run.sh --pick-course --chrome --setup-credentials -P -a

Rows look like CODE - Name (N streams, M lessons). Mark with SPACE, confirm with ENTER. Every stream for each selected course downloads. Combine with -i to also pick lectures, -a for dual feeds, --transcript-only / --video-only for media mode. See USAGE.md.

My lecture has two video feeds, how can I download both of them?

Add --alternative_feeds or -a. Filenames get a feed suffix (…1 / …2 or Lecture 01.1 / Lecture 01.2 with --short-names).

How do I download only transcripts or only video?

./run.sh ECHO360_URL --chrome -P --transcript-only   # .vtt only
./run.sh ECHO360_URL --chrome -P --video-only        # MP4 only

These two flags are mutually exclusive. Default (neither flag) downloads both and muxes soft subs into the MP4 when ffmpeg is available.

Technical details

The current script uses a web-driver to emulate as a web-browser in order to retrieve the original streaming link. There are current two options for the web-driver: PhantomJS and Chrome. It then uses a hls downloader to simultaneously download all the smaller parts of the videos, and combined into one. Transcoding into mp4 will be performed if ffmpeg is present in your system, and all files will be renamed into a nice format.

License & credits

echo360-dlp is maintained by Andrew Zhu (@tuyoik) and licensed under the MIT License (source code only).

Downloaded lectures: personal use only — redistribution is prohibited. See ACCEPTABLE_USE.md.

Upstream credits: jhalstead85/lecho360 (original basis), extended for USYD Echo360, Canvas, and multi-university use before the Cloud fork work in echo360-dlp.

Navigation Menu

Repository files navigation

echo360-dlp

Probably the only command you need to run

Acceptable use

Fork

Features

Quick start (all platforms)

Getting Started

Automated Installation

Optional

Manual

Operating System

Usage

Quick Start

Script args

Examples

Download all available lectures

Download all lectures on or before a date

Download all lectures on or after a date

Download all lectures in a given date range (inclusive)

Use chrome driver (instead of phantomjs)

FAQ

Is my university supported?

How do I retrieve the Course URL for a course?

echo360 cloud

I'm not sure of how to run it?

My credentials does not work?

My credentials does not work (echo360.org)?

How do I download only individual video(s)?

How do I pick courses from my enrollment list?

My lecture has two video feeds, how can I download both of them?

How do I download only transcripts or only video?

Technical details

License & credits

About

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Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
docs/images		docs/images
echo360		echo360
scripts		scripts
tests		tests
.gitignore		.gitignore
ACCEPTABLE_USE.md		ACCEPTABLE_USE.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
MANIFEST.in		MANIFEST.in
QUICKSTART.md		QUICKSTART.md
README.md		README.md
USAGE.md		USAGE.md
echo360.py		echo360.py
requirements.txt		requirements.txt
run.bat		run.bat
run.sh		run.sh
setup.py		setup.py

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echo360-dlp

Probably the only command you need to run

Acceptable use

Fork

Features

Quick start (all platforms)

Getting Started

Automated Installation

Optional

Manual

Operating System

Usage

Quick Start

Script args

Examples

Download all available lectures

Download all lectures on or before a date

Download all lectures on or after a date

Download all lectures in a given date range (inclusive)

Use chrome driver (instead of phantomjs)

FAQ

Is my university supported?

How do I retrieve the Course URL for a course?

echo360 cloud

I'm not sure of how to run it?

My credentials does not work?

My credentials does not work (echo360.org)?

How do I download only individual video(s)?

How do I pick courses from my enrollment list?

My lecture has two video feeds, how can I download both of them?

How do I download only transcripts or only video?

Technical details

License & credits

About

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