pjmartorell/vimeo_download_subtitles.md

## vimeo_download_subtitles.md

      
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              vimeo_download_subtitles.md
            
          
    Download subtitles/text tracks of an On-Demand Vimeo video

It works with on-demand videos that have the subtitles/captions included (CC symbol). You need to be registered in Vimeo in order to retrieve subtitles.
Steps


Open Chrome Developer Tools
Start playing the Vimeo video
Look for any request named segment-XX.m4s (where XX is a number)
Select the request and inspect the request payload, which is something in the form:

{"referrer":"https://vimeo.com/ondemand/followingseas","embed":false,"context":"Vimeo\\Controller\\OnDemandController.main","autoplay":0,"loop":0,"id":242740761,"vodId":128898,"vodSaleId":5911177,"sessionTime":22.604,"videoShape":0,"spatialPlayback":0,"userId":"xxxxxxxx","userAccountType":"basic","userIsMod":0,"ownerId":18500210,"ownerAccountType":"pro","privacy":"ptv","rating":6,"type":"html","videoFileId":"872163031","delivery":"dash","profileId":175,"quality":"sd","duration":5116.501,"seconds":536.483,"isLive":0,"playbackRate":1,"signature":"e8116054b8ca3f524be3091135c93cb5","session":"xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx","time":1535639774,"expires":20468}

Copy the value of the field called id (i.e. "id":242740761)
Go to Vimeo API Playground: https://developer.vimeo.com/api/playground/videos/%7Bvideo_id%7D/texttracks (note that you need to be registered in Vimeo to do some API calls)
In the Playground form, replace {video_id} for your video ID (i.e. 242740761)
Check the checkbox that says Authenticate this call as John Doe
Push the Make call button
If everything works as expected, the successful HTTP request will be outputed. Something like the following:

HTTP/1.1 200
Content-Type: application/vnd.vimeo.video.texttrack+json
Host: api.vimeo.com

{
    "total": 1,
    "data": [
        {
            "uri": "/videos/242740761/texttracks/5795943",
            "active": true,
            "type": "captions",
            "language": "en",
            "link": "https://captions.cloud.vimeo.com/captions/5795943.vtt?expires=1535648880&sig=357c4574e58e805af3b5ef2df4cd075bdc1c1ba8&download=FollowingSeas+CC.srt.vtt",
            "link_expires_time": 1535648880,
            "hls_link": "https://captions.cloud.vimeo.com/captions/5795943.vtt?expires=1535648880&sig=357c4574e58e805af3b5ef2df4cd075bdc1c1ba8&download=FollowingSeas+CC.srt.vtt&hls=1",
            "hls_link_expires_time": 1535648880,
            "name": "FollowingSeas CC.srt"
        }
    ]
}

Copy the value of the link attribute (i.e "https://captions.cloud.vimeo.com/captions/5795943.vtt?expires=1535648880&sig=357c4574e58e805af3b5ef2df4cd075bdc1c1ba8&download=FollowingSeas+CC.srt.vtt")
Paste it in your browser and the subtitles will start downloading :)