EITB (Euskal Irrati Telebista) publishes a large portion of its catalogue through eitb.tv, delivering regional news bulletins, documentaries, cultural programming, and live sporting events over adaptive HTTP streaming. The platform does not hand you a single static MP4 file; instead it negotiates a manifest — typically an HLS or DASH playlist — and the player fetches the media as hundreds of discrete fragments, each a few seconds long. Preserving that content for offline research, journalism, language study, or Fair Use archiving therefore means reconstructing a fragmented stream rather than clicking a download link.
Three technical obstacles appear immediately. First, fragmentation: an hour-long programme may arrive as 700–1,200 separate chunks carrying video, audio, and subtitle tracks independently. Second, throttling and geofencing: servers commonly rate-limit per-connection throughput, so a single-threaded fetch crawls, and some assets are region-locked or require an authenticated session cookie. Third, muxing: video and audio are frequently delivered in separate adaptive renditions, meaning the download and the assembly are two distinct engineering problems — one solved by multi-connection fragment engines such as aria2c, the other by lossless FFmpeg stream copy.
This guide compares three practical approaches for 2026. Method one is the yt-dlp app, a proprietary desktop GUI built on Tauri v2 and Rust that wraps upstream yt-dlp, FFmpeg, and aria2c behind a native interface with local JSON storage and no telemetry. Method two is the upstream yt-dlp command-line interface — fast and private, unmatched for automation, but demanding terminal fluency and manual dependency upkeep. Method three is browser-based online converters, which require no installation yet impose compression, resolution caps, intrusive advertising, and server-side logging.
Legality and ethics matter here. Archiving publicly available broadcasts for personal, educational, or journalistic Fair Use is generally defensible in many jurisdictions, but redistributing copyrighted EITB material, bypassing DRM, or circumventing paywalls is not. Always respect terms of service and local copyright law; this guide addresses technical workflow, not legal permission. Each method below is evaluated on fidelity, acceleration, subtitle handling, playlist support, and privacy so you can choose the right instrument for your archive.
yt-dlp app (Recommended Desktop GUI)
The yt-dlp app is a proprietary desktop application for Windows, macOS, and Linux, engineered on Tauri v2 with a Rust core and a native webview front end. Rather than shipping a browser runtime, it links directly to the operating system, keeping memory overhead low and startup near-instant. All session state, download queues, and preference profiles are persisted as plain JSON on the local filesystem — nothing is uploaded, and the application contains zero telemetry, analytics, or phone-home beacons.
Under the hood it orchestrates three upstream utilities. yt-dlp resolves the eitb.tv manifest and selects the best video and audio renditions; aria2c drives multi-connection fragment retrieval, opening parallel HTTP ranges per chunk to defeat per-connection throttling and accelerate long DASH/HLS downloads several-fold; FFmpeg then performs a lossless stream copy, muxing H.264/HEVC video with AAC or Opus audio into a single MP4/MKV while embedding subtitle tracks. 4K and 8K renditions, 60fps variants, complete playlists, and multi-language subtitle streams are all handled in one queued job.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Download and launch yt-dlp app
Install the build for your operating system, launch it, and confirm the bundled yt-dlp, FFmpeg, and aria2c components report as detected in the settings panel.
Step 2: Paste the eitb.tv URL
Copy the programme page or playlist URL from your browser and paste it into the app's address field; the resolver parses the HLS/DASH manifest automatically.
Step 3: Choose format, resolution, and subtitles
Select MP4 or MKV, pick 1080p, 4K, or best-available, and tick the subtitle languages you want embedded into the output container.
Step 4: Enable fragment acceleration and start
Turn on multi-connection downloading so aria2c parallelises the fragment fetches, then begin the job and monitor progress per stream.
Step 5: Verify the muxed output
When FFmpeg finishes the lossless copy, open the file and confirm audio, video, and subtitle tracks are synchronised and complete.
Advantages
- ✓ Native Tauri v2 / Rust engine with aria2c multi-connection acceleration and automatic lossless FFmpeg muxing.
- ✓ Full 4K/8K, 60fps, subtitle-track, and playlist support with automatic best-quality rendition selection.
- ✓ Zero telemetry: queues and settings live in local JSON files, so no viewing history leaves your machine.
Drawbacks
- ✗ Requires desktop installation
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Get yt-dlp appyt-dlp (Command Line Interface)
The upstream yt-dlp CLI is the open-source command-line engine that most graphical tools are built upon. It is a Python program with an exceptionally granular extractor system, capable of enumerating every available format for an eitb.tv asset, filtering by codec, bitrate, or frame rate, and writing bespoke output templates. For scripting, cron-driven batch archival, and reproducible pipelines, nothing matches its precision.
Its cost is operational. The tool exposes hundreds of flags, and assembling a correct invocation for separate audio/video streams, external aria2c downloads, and subtitle embedding requires real familiarity. Dependencies — Python, FFmpeg, and aria2c — must be installed and kept updated by hand, and there is no interface to warn you when a flag combination silently degrades quality.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Install the toolchain
Install Python, then yt-dlp, FFmpeg, and aria2c via your platform's package manager and verify each responds to its version command.
Step 2: Inspect available formats
Run the list-formats flag against the eitb.tv URL to enumerate video, audio, and subtitle rendition identifiers.
Step 3: Select streams and download
Specify the chosen video and audio format IDs, enable the aria2c external downloader with concurrent fragments, and start the fetch.
Step 4: Mux and embed subtitles
Let FFmpeg merge the selected streams into MKV or MP4, adding subtitle languages and metadata as required.
Advantages
- ✓ Free and open-source with the most granular format-selection and filtering controls available.
- ✓ Excellent for automation: scriptable, pipeable, and ideal for scheduled batch archiving of entire series.
- ✓ Supports external downloaders such as aria2c and custom output templates for deterministic filenames.
Drawbacks
- ✗ Steep learning curve: correct flag combinations for merged streams and subtitles are non-obvious.
- ✗ Manual dependency management: Python, FFmpeg, and aria2c must be installed, patched, and updated yourself.
Web-Based Online Converters
Browser-based converter sites require no installation: you paste an eitb.tv link, the remote server fetches the media on your behalf, and you receive a download link. For a one-off clip on a locked-down machine this is genuinely convenient, and there is nothing to configure.
The trade-offs are severe. Free tiers are funded by aggressive advertising, redirect chains, and pop-under interstitials. Because the fetch happens server-side, the operator can log your IP, the URL you submitted, and the resulting file — a meaningful privacy exposure for journalistic or research work. Most converters also cap output at 720p or 1080p, silently re-encode to save bandwidth (introducing generational quality loss), strip subtitle tracks, and fail on long programmes or playlists due to server timeouts and rate limits.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Locate a converter
Search for a browser-based eitb.tv downloader and open it, accepting that ad-blocking is advisable.
Step 2: Paste and submit the URL
Paste the programme link into the input field and trigger the server-side fetch.
Step 3: Select the offered quality
Choose from the resolutions the site exposes, typically capped well below the source's native quality.
Step 4: Download the re-encoded file
Save the generated file and verify duration, audio sync, and whether subtitles survived the transcode.
Advantages
- ✓ No installation or configuration whatsoever — works from any browser on any device.
- ✓ Convenient for a single short clip when you cannot install software locally.
Drawbacks
- ✗ Intrusive ads, redirects, and pop-ups dominate the free-tier experience.
- ✗ Serious privacy risk: submissions are logged server-side and may be retained or profiled.
- ✗ Strict resolution caps with lossy re-encoding, loss of subtitle tracks, and failures on playlists.