gencon-audiobook 0.1.4

Download General Conference talks as a complete audiobook (m4b) and epub with full transcripts

gencon-audiobook

Download General Conference talks from churchofjesuschrist.org and produce:

• A chaptered .m4b audiobook — one chapter per talk, with speaker name in the chapter title, cover art, and full metadata
• An .epub companion — full transcripts, speaker photos, nested session/talk table of contents, and theme-safe CSS (dark mode, sepia, and accessibility modes all work)

Single pip install, no prerequisites beyond Python 3.10+. ffmpeg is located automatically — on your PATH if present, otherwise downloaded once via static-ffmpeg.

Inspired by General-Conference-to-Audiobook.

Disclaimer: This is an unofficial tool not affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. General Conference content is copyright Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. This tool downloads content for personal, noncommercial use as permitted by the Church's Terms of Use.

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Installation

pip install gencon-audiobook

Python 3.10 or newer is required. All other dependencies, including ffmpeg, are handled automatically. ffmpeg 1.0+ is required for per-file progress display during conversion; any ffmpeg from a package manager or the static-ffmpeg fallback exceeds this.

New to the terminal or Python? See the User Guide for step-by-step instructions.

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Usage

# Download the most recent conference (both audiobook and epub)
gencon-audiobook

# Select a specific conference
gencon-audiobook --conference "April 2024"

# Audiobook only (skip epub)
gencon-audiobook --audiobook-only

# EPUB only (skip audiobook and audio download)
gencon-audiobook --epub-only

# Custom output directory
gencon-audiobook --output ~/Books

# Rebuild existing output files
gencon-audiobook --overwrite

# Reduce file size (lower bitrate and sample rate)
gencon-audiobook --bitrate 32k --sample-rate 22050

# Show detailed progress in the terminal
gencon-audiobook --verbose

For the full options reference, file size guide, and platform compatibility notes, see the User Guide.

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Output structure

~/gencon-audiobook/
  April 2024 General Conference/
    April 2024 General Conference.m4b    # Chaptered audiobook
    April 2024 General Conference.epub   # Transcript companion
    cover.jpg                            # Conference cover image
    audio/                               # Downloaded MP3 files
    speakers/                            # Speaker photos
    gencon-audiobook.log                 # Full DEBUG log for troubleshooting

Running the tool a second time skips files that already exist. Use --overwrite to rebuild.

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Documentation

• User Guide — full options reference, file size guide, platform support, troubleshooting
• Listening/Reading Guide — how to open the output files on every platform
• Architecture — codebase structure for contributors
• Technical Decisions — design choices with rationale

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Development

git clone https://github.com/XeroIP/gencon-audiobook.git
cd gencon-audiobook
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run unit tests (no network required)
pytest tests/ --ignore=tests/test_scraper_live.py --ignore=tests/test_integration.py

# Run live smoke tests (hits the real website)
pytest tests/test_scraper_live.py -v -m live

# Run full end-to-end integration test (requires ffmpeg)
pytest tests/test_integration.py -v -m integration

Project layout

src/gencon_audiobook/
  cli.py            Click entry point
  scraper.py        Fetch and parse conference listings and talk pages
  downloader.py     Download MP3s, cover, and speaker photos
  audio.py          Convert MP3 to AAC, assemble chaptered m4b
  epub_builder.py   Build EPUB 3 ZIP from transcripts and images
  ffmpeg_manager.py Locate ffmpeg/ffprobe (PATH first, static-ffmpeg fallback)
  models.py         Conference / Session / Talk dataclasses
  utils.py          sanitize_filename(), validate_url()

tests/
  conftest.py             Shared helpers (ffmpeg discovery, silent MP3, JPEG)
  test_scraper.py         Unit tests against saved HTML fixtures
  test_downloader.py      Mocked HTTP tests
  test_audio.py           Audio pipeline with generated silent fixtures
  test_epub.py            EPUB structure and content validation
  test_cli.py             CLI behavior (all external calls mocked)
  test_utils.py           Filename sanitization and URL validation
  test_ffmpeg_manager.py  ffmpeg/ffprobe discovery and caching
  test_scraper_live.py    Live smoke tests (@pytest.mark.live)
  test_integration.py     End-to-end test (@pytest.mark.integration)
  fixtures/               Saved HTML snapshots for scraper unit tests

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Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

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Legal

• Tool license: MIT — see LICENSE
• Downloaded content: Copyright Intellectual Reserve, Inc. — see LICENSE-CONTENT.md

This tool accesses publicly available content using a transparent User-Agent string, respects robots.txt, and applies a rate-limiting delay between requests. It is intended for personal, noncommercial use only.