Apple Trailer Download

Description

'Apple Trailer Download' is a small utility to automatically download available high-definition movie trailers from Apple's Trailer website. I wrote it since I couldn't find a fully automized, reliable script for Linux anywhere. I use it to feed my media server (MediaTomb), so I can watch the latest trailers on my PlayStation 3. It's written in C++ and makes use of the Standard Library as well as third-party library libcurl. If run without options '--verbose' or '--debug', it won't produce output, unless an error occurs. This makes it suitable for direct inclusion in a daily cron job.

The utility is free of use. If you distribute a binary or a modified version of the source code, please mention my name. Feel free to write me if you have any suggestions. However, do not ask questions about how to build the program.

Usage

Apple Trailer Download, © 2008-2009 Jacob Laursen
Usage: dl_apple_trailers [options] DIRECTORY

Options:
  -r, --recursive      Check existing files in all subdirs
  -o, --overwrite      Overwrite existing files (complete download)
      --posters[=DIR]  Fetch posters as well
      --tstamp         Copy release date to file timestamp
      --prefres=RES    Prefered resolution: {480p|720p|1080p}
      --minres=RES     Minimum resolution: {480p|720p|1080p}
  -v, --verbose        Explain what is being done
  -d, --debug          Display extended debug information
  -h, --help           Display this help and exit

Requirements

• libcurl, http://curl.haxx.se/libcurl/
  Needed at compile time.
• ffmpeg, http://ffmpeg.mplayerhq.hu/
  Needed at runtime to export H.264/AAC from the QuickTime container to an MPEG4 container. Must be in $PATH.

Download

• POSIX compliant C++ source code

How to build

Assuming libcurl in installed in default location /usr/local:

# g++ atd.cpp -lcurl -o dl_apple_trailers -I/usr/local/include -L/usr/local/lib

This should produce an executable 'dl_apple_trailers'.

Version history

• 1.0 (22.03.2008): Initial version.
• 1.1 (21.09.2009): Changed agent to "QuickTime", since a recent change at apple.com disallows other agents to download trailers.
• 1.2 (20.01.2010): URL changed, fixed.

Known issues

When downloading multiple trailers for the same movie, only one poster will be downloaded. The name of the poster will be the movie title + ".jpg". However, each of the trailers will be named according to the trailer title. This may present a problem with thumbnailing. This issue will be looked into when I get thumbnails to work with MediaTomb/PS3. If you know how to do this, please leave me a note.