filmarkivet-dl/README.md

filmarkivet-dl

Downloads all videos from a given category page on filmarkivet.se using svtplay-dl.

Automatically paginates through all category pages, deduplicates URLs, and supports resuming interrupted sessions via a seen-file.

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• svtplay-dl installed and available in PATH

Usage

python3 filmarkivet-dl.py

By default this downloads all videos from the reklamfilm category.

Options

Flag	Default	Description
--start-url URL	https://www.filmarkivet.se/category/reklamfilm/	Category page to start from
--sleep SECONDS	0.5	Delay between downloads
--page-sleep SECONDS	0.2	Delay between page fetches
--max-pages N	0 (no limit)	Stop after N pages
--seen-file PATH	seen_urls.txt	File tracking already-processed URLs
--output-dir DIR	downloads	Directory to save downloaded videos in
--dry-run	—	Print commands without running svtplay-dl

Examples

Preview what would be downloaded without actually downloading:

python3 filmarkivet-dl.py --dry-run

Download from a different category:

python3 filmarkivet-dl.py --start-url "https://www.filmarkivet.se/category/dokumentar/"

Save videos into a subdirectory:

python3 filmarkivet-dl.py --output-dir reklamfilm

Limit to the first 3 pages with a 2-second delay between downloads:

python3 filmarkivet-dl.py --max-pages 3 --sleep 2.0

How it works

1. Fetches the category page HTML and extracts all /movies/ links.
2. Detects the "next page" link via rel="next", CSS class, or link text ("Nästa" / "Next").
3. For each new video URL, runs svtplay-dl -S <url> to download all available subtitles and the best quality stream.
4. Records processed URLs in seen_urls.txt so re-running the script skips already-downloaded videos.