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Nikesh Chavhan
Nikesh Chavhan

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Building an O'Reilly Course Downloader with Python & Selenium

Hey DEV Community! đź‘‹

I recently built a small tool to download complete O'Reilly courses with automatic organization.

What it does:

  • Downloads videos + transcripts using Selenium automation
  • Headless Chrome with DevTools Protocol for m3u8 capture
  • Smart chapter-based folder organization
  • Resume capability for interrupted downloads
  • 10x faster transcript-only mode

Tech Stack:

  • Python
  • Selenium WebDriver
  • FFmpeg for HLS streams
  • Chrome DevTools Protocol

Check it out on GitHub: https://github.com/vicky-dx/oreilly-course-downloader

Would love to hear your thoughts and feedback!

#python #selenium #automation #webdev #opensource

Top comments (1)

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OnlineProxy

Top use cases: offline study when Wi‑Fi is flaky, accessibility via transcripts/captions, and searchable notes-only for content you’re actually entitled to, tbh. IMO, ship cross‑platform packaging first, then Playwright for stability. For capture, watch Network.requestWillBeSent/responseReceived/loadingFinished, then hand off to ffmpeg. Stash secrets via keyring, back off politely on rate limits, detect EME/DRM and warn/skip, and ship installers + basic i18n-seamless resume + Playwright + one‑command install is the star-this combo.