svtplay-auto-dl

Script for batch-downloading videos from SVT Play using svtplay-dl.

Prerequisites

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

svtplay-dl-category.py

Downloads all videos from a given SVT Play category page. Handles both movies (singles) and series with multiple episodes.

Features

• Parses SVT Play category pages to discover all available content
• Downloads movies and individual series episodes via svtplay-dl -S
• Downloads cover images as poster.jpg (Jellyfin-compatible naming)
• Organizes files into Downloads/<Category>/<Title> (<Year>)/
• Tracks downloads across runs to avoid re-downloading moved files
• Retry logic with permanent error tracking for failing downloads
• Detects stale series and suggests marking them as complete
• Graceful stop on Ctrl+C (finishes the current download before exiting)

Usage

# Download all movies from the default category (Filmer)
python3 svtplay-dl-category.py

# Download from a different category
python3 svtplay-dl-category.py --url https://www.svtplay.se/kategori/drama?tab=all

# Preview what would be downloaded without actually downloading
python3 svtplay-dl-category.py --dry-run

# Mark a finished series so it's never re-checked
python3 svtplay-dl-category.py --mark-complete https://www.svtplay.se/show-name

# Undo if the series gets new seasons later
python3 svtplay-dl-category.py --unmark-complete https://www.svtplay.se/show-name

Options

Flag	Default	Description
--url	.../kategori/filmer?tab=all	Category page URL
--output-dir	Downloads	Base output directory
--seen-file	seen_urls.txt	Tracks completed movies and manually-completed series
--seen-episodes-file	seen_episodes.txt	Tracks downloaded episode URLs
--series-state-file	series_state.json	Tracks series check history for staleness detection
--errors-file	errors.json	Tracks download errors and permanent failures
--max-dl N	0 (no limit)	Stop after N successful downloads
--sleep	1.0	Delay between downloads (seconds)
--stale-days	365	Days without new episodes before suggesting completion
--dry-run		Print commands without downloading
--mark-complete URL		Add a series URL to the seen file and exit
--unmark-complete URL		Remove a series URL from the seen file and exit

Tracking files

The script uses four files to maintain state across runs:

• seen_urls.txt -- Movies are added automatically after download. Series are added manually via --mark-complete. Any URL in this file is skipped entirely.
• seen_episodes.txt -- Individual episode URLs, added after each successful download. Since files are moved out of the download folder, this is used instead of relying on svtplay-dl's file-on-disk detection.
• series_state.json -- Per-series metadata: how many times it has been checked with no new episodes, and when the last new episode was found. Used for staleness suggestions.
• errors.json -- Per-URL error tracking. A download is retried once immediately on failure, then retried on the next run. After 3 total failed runs, the URL is marked as a permanent error and skipped with a warning.

Output structure

Downloads/
  Filmer/
    Alltid nära dig (2020)/
      poster.jpg
      Alltid nära dig (2020).mkv
    Bron (2011)/
      poster.jpg
      Bron.S01E01.avsnitt-1.mkv
      Bron.S01E02.avsnitt-2.mkv
      ...

Graceful stop

Press Ctrl+C once to stop after the current download finishes. Press Ctrl+C again to force quit immediately.