How to Download Long Vimeo Videos (DASH Streams) with yt-dlp

Vimeo streams video in two possible ways:

• HLS → uses .m3u8 playlists and .ts/fragmented MP4 segments.
• DASH → uses a playlist.json manifest and .m4s segments.

🔍 Step 1 — Identify What You’re Dealing With

• Open DevTools → Network.
• If you filter for m3u8 and see manifests → that video is using HLS.
• If you only see playlist.json and .m4s segment requests → that video is using DASH.

👉 In my case:

• I didn’t see any .m3u8 in the Network tab.
• I did see playlist.json and lots of .m4s segments.
• That means the embed is DASH-only.
• ffmpeg can’t parse Vimeo’s JSON directly, but yt-dlp can (it knows how to read the DASH JSON and reassemble the streams).

🔑 Step 2 — Get the Player Page URL

• Filter for config in DevTools.

• You’ll find a request like:

  https://player.vimeo.com/video/519981982/config?...
  

• The video ID here is 519981982.

• Strip the /config?... part → the stable player URL is:

  https://player.vimeo.com/video/519981982
  

This URL doesn’t expire, unlike the signed segment URLs.

🛠 Step 3 — Download with yt-dlp

Run yt-dlp against the player page with a referer and concurrency:

yt-dlp --referer "https://player.vimeo.com/video/519981982" \
  -N 15 -S "codec:avc,res,ext" \
  --merge-output-format mp4 --remux-video mp4 \
  --postprocessor-args "ffmpeg:-movflags +faststart" \
  "https://player.vimeo.com/video/519981982"

⚙️ Step 4 — What Each Flag Does

• --referer → Vimeo requires this header.
• -N 15 → download 15 fragments in parallel (much faster for long videos).
• -S "codec:avc,res,ext" → prefer AVC (MP4) over VP9/WebM.
• --merge-output-format mp4 → final file will always be MP4.
• --remux-video mp4 → repackage without re-encoding.
• --postprocessor-args "ffmpeg:-movflags +faststart" → optimize MP4 for instant playback.

⚡ Tips

• If it fails: signed URLs (exp=...) expired → reload and grab a fresh /video/<ID>/config.

• Private videos: use your browser cookies:

  yt-dlp --cookies-from-browser chrome "https://player.vimeo.com/video/<ID>"
  

• Maximum speed: install aria2c and run with:

  yt-dlp --downloader aria2c \
    --downloader-args "aria2c:-x 16 -s 16 -k 1M" \
    "https://player.vimeo.com/video/<ID>"
  

✅ Summary:

• Filter for config in DevTools to get the video ID.
• Build the stable /video/<ID> URL.
• Since no .m3u8 appears, this is DASH (playlist.json + .m4s).
• Use yt-dlp with concurrency to fetch and merge into MP4.

ARIA 2 🔥

brew install aria2

That gives you the aria2c binary, which yt-dlp can use as an external downloader.

Then you can run your Vimeo command with aria2c for maximum speed:

yt-dlp --referer "https://player.vimeo.com/video/519981982" \
  --downloader aria2c \
  --downloader-args "aria2c:-x 16 -s 16 -k 1M" \
  -S "codec:avc,res,ext" \
  --merge-output-format mp4 --remux-video mp4 \
  --postprocessor-args "ffmpeg:-movflags +faststart" \
  "https://player.vimeo.com/video/519981982"

What those args mean:

• -x 16 → up to 16 connections per download
• -s 16 → split into 16 segments
• -k 1M → segment size (1 MB)

⚡ This will usually max out your bandwidth on long Vimeo videos.

vs.

👉 Try the Vimeo Video Downloader