Sharepoint Teams Video Transcript Downloader

SharePoint / Teams Video & Transcript Downloader

Use this skill when a user wants to download a Microsoft Teams meeting recording or video hosted on SharePoint / Stream, along with its complete, full-length speaker-annotated transcript and subtitles.

Technical Overview & Solutions Solved

1. Authentication & Session Persistence:
   • Stream requires SharePoint session authentication (rtFa and FedAuth Netscape cookies) or Chrome CDP / Playwright context.
2. Lossless Video Download & Playback Speed Preservation:
   • When direct download buttons are disabled or DASH manifests (videomanifest?provider=spo...) use DRM / 12-second token expirations, direct segment concatenation can fail or require decryption.
   • Automated Fallback: Uses a headless Playwright Chromium browser context with MediaRecorder (video.captureStream()).
   • CRITICAL SPEED REQUIREMENT: Playback rate MUST be set to STRICT 1.0x native normal speed (v.playbackRate = 1.0;). Setting playbackRate > 1.0 (e.g. 4x or 16x) causes the output stream to encode at accelerated playback rates, making the resulting video play back in fast-forward!
   • Chunks are streamed incrementally to disk every 5 seconds to prevent browser memory exhaustion on long recordings.
   • Converted to .mp4 container via ffmpeg -i temp.webm -c:v copy -c:a copy output.mp4.
3. Complete 100% Transcript Extraction (No Missing Cues):
   • Direct GET requests to /_api_cached/v2.1/.../cdnmedia/transcripts return raw compressed Brotli stream bytes (b'B\x1c') which fail plain text decoding.
   • Microsoft Stream renders transcript cues inside a virtualized Fluent UI container (.ms-FocusZone / div with scrollHeight > 5000px) that unmounts offscreen DOM nodes as you scroll.
   • Solution: Automated Playwright browser context in MUTED MODE (--mute-audio flag) that navigates to the video page, opens the Transcript side panel, and programmatically scrolls down the virtualized container from 0px to max height (~60,000px), harvesting 100% of speaker cues and timestamps.

Step-by-Step Execution Workflow

Step 1: Prerequisites Check

Ensure Python environment has required packages installed:

pip install yt-dlp playwright
playwright install chromium

Ensure ffmpeg is available on system PATH.

Step 2: Export Session Cookies

Export active SharePoint session cookies into Netscape format (sp_session_cookies.txt):

• Extract via Playwright context / Chrome CDP (rtFa, FedAuth cookies) or browser extension.

Step 3: Automated Video Download

Run the bundled video downloader script (scripts/download_sharepoint_stream.py):

python scripts/download_sharepoint_stream.py --url "<SHAREPOINT_STREAM_URL>" --cookies "sp_session_cookies.txt" --out "Meeting Recording.mp4"

What the Script Does Automatically:

1. Tries direct yt-dlp download with Netscape session cookies.
2. If direct download is restricted (no download button / token timeout / DRM):
   • Launches Playwright Chromium with Netscape cookies in muted mode (--mute-audio).
   • Sets <video> playback rate to STRICT 1.0x native normal speed (v.playbackRate = 1.0).
   • Captures decoded 1080p video/audio stream via HTML5 MediaRecorder.
   • Streams chunks incrementally to disk every 5 seconds (temp_stream_recorded_1x.webm).
   • Converts the stream to final .mp4 container using ffmpeg.
   • Cleans up temporary .webm files upon completion.

Step 4: Harvest 100% Full Transcript & SRT Subtitles

Run the automated Playwright harvester script (scripts/harvest_sharepoint_transcript.py):

python scripts/harvest_sharepoint_transcript.py --url "<SHAREPOINT_STREAM_URL>" --cookies "sp_session_cookies.txt" --out-dir "<DESTINATION_DIR>"

Outputs Formatted Files:

• [Title] - Complete Transcript.txt (Clean dialogue tagged with speaker names and timestamps)
• [Title] - Complete.srt (Valid SRT subtitle file)

Troubleshooting & Edge Cases

Bundled Helper Scripts

1. scripts/download_sharepoint_stream.py - Automated video downloader with 1.0x native speed MediaRecorder fallback.
2. scripts/harvest_sharepoint_transcript.py - Complete 100% transcript harvester.