mvw-cli 0.3.0

Search and download German public-broadcasting media from MediathekViewWeb, with Plex-friendly season downloads.

mvw

A command-line tool for searching and downloading content from MediathekViewWeb (MVW), the index of German public-broadcasting media libraries (ARD, ZDF, WDR, and more). Built for automation: the headline feature is reliable, Plex-friendly season downloads.

Install

Requires Python ≥ 3.11. The distribution is published as mvw-cli (the PyPI name mvw was already taken); the installed command is mvw.

Install as a standalone tool with uv:

uv tool install mvw-cli      # adds the `mvw` command to your PATH

Or run it once without installing:

uvx --from mvw-cli mvw search "#Tatort"

With pip:

pip install mvw-cli

Note: HLS (.m3u8) downloads require ffmpeg on your PATH. It is an external (non-Python) dependency and is not installed automatically.

From source

uv sync                      # create the dev environment
uv run mvw --help            # run from the working tree

Query grammar

The query string follows the MediathekViewWeb syntax:

Prefix	Field searched	Example
!	channel	!ARD
#	topic	#Tatort
+	title	+Schokolade
*	description	*Berlin
(none)	topic and title	feuer flamme
>N	duration > N minutes	>80
<N	duration < N minutes	<10

Combination rules:

• Space between different selectors → AND: !WDR #Tatort means channel=WDR AND topic=Tatort.
• Same selector repeated → OR: !ARD !ZDF means ARD or ZDF.
• Comma within a selector's value → AND of words: #Olympia,Tokio matches topic containing both "Olympia" and "Tokio".
• No negation operator. Exclusion is done client-side with --exclude.

Note: the API is case-insensitive and flexible with umlauts (ö ≈ oe ≈ OE).

Commands

mvw search

Search MVW and display a Rich results table.

mvw search QUERY
           [--channel C] [--topic T] [--title T] [--description D]
           [--min-duration MIN] [--max-duration MAX]
           [--sort timestamp|duration|channel] [--order asc|desc]
           [--future] [--limit N] [--offset N] [--json]

Option	Default	Description
--channel	—	Filter by channel (structured flag, not query syntax)
--topic	—	Filter by topic
--title	—	Filter by title
--description	—	Filter by description
--min-duration	—	Minimum duration in minutes
--max-duration	—	Maximum duration in minutes
--sort	timestamp	Sort field
--order	desc	Sort order (asc or desc)
--future	off	Include not-yet-aired entries
--limit	15	Number of results to fetch
--offset	0	Pagination offset
--json	off	Emit raw JSON to stdout (scripting-friendly)

Example:

mvw search "#Tatort !ARD >80"

mvw download

Search and download matching entries. Run --dry-run first to preview the exact file tree before downloading anything.

mvw download QUERY
             [--channel C] [--topic T] [--title T]
             [--min-duration MIN] [--max-duration MAX]
             [--season] [--dry-run]
             [--resolution low|medium|high|best]
             [--output DIR] [-o DIR] [--template STR]
             [--exclude TERM ...] [--dedup] [--latest-season]
             [--season-number N] [--subtitles] [--force] [--limit N]

Option	Default	Description
--channel	—	Filter by channel
--topic	—	Filter by topic
--title	—	Filter by title
--min-duration	—	Minimum duration in minutes
--max-duration	—	Maximum duration in minutes
--season	off	Group into Plex season folders using S##E## numbering
--dry-run	off	Preview the file tree and source URLs; download nothing
--resolution	best	Resolution preference: low, medium, high, or best
--output, -o	config default	Output directory
--template	Plex default	Custom filename template (see below)
--exclude	—	Regex to exclude entries from title/topic/description (repeatable)
--dedup	off	Remove near-duplicate entries, keeping the highest-quality copy
--latest-season	off	Keep only entries from the highest detected season
--season-number	—	Override detected season number
--subtitles	off	Also fetch subtitles, saved as <video>.de.<ext> sidecars
--limit	200	Maximum number of entries to resolve
--force	off	Redownload every matched entry even if a valid file already exists

Download behavior and verification

By default, download checks each target path before fetching:

• an existing file is checked by probing the actual size of the version that would be downloaded (an HTTP HEAD, falling back to a ranged request) and comparing it to the file on disk; a match → ✓ … already exists, skipped, a mismatch → ⚠ … corrupted (size mismatch), redownloading;
• if the size cannot be determined (or for HLS .m3u8, which has no single size), any non-empty existing file is treated as complete.

Each fresh download is verified against the server's Content-Length before the temporary .part file is promoted to its final name (this now applies to HLS too, which is muxed to a .part and promoted only after ffmpeg succeeds), so an interrupted transfer never leaves a corrupt final file. A run ends with a summary line, e.g. Done: 8 downloaded, 5 skipped, 2 redownloaded, 1 failed.

Filename template

The default template produces Plex/Jellyfin-compatible paths:

{series} ({year})/Season {s:02d}/{series} ({year}) - s{s:02d}e{e:02d} - {ep_title} [{res}].{ext}

Override with --template. Available tokens:

Token	Value
{series}	Topic (show name)
{year}	Broadcast year
{s}	Season number (supports :02d formatting)
{e}	Episode number (supports :02d formatting)
{ep_title}	Cleaned episode title
{res}	Resolution label (see note below)
{channel}	Broadcaster
{date}	Broadcast date (YYYY-MM-DD)
{ext}	File extension

Season/episode numbers are parsed from titles (S07/E05, Staffel 7 … Folge 5, Folge 5, trailing (5)); entries without a parseable season fall back to their broadcast year. Entries with no broadcast date at all land in Season 00 (Plex's "Specials") with {year} and {date} rendered as unknown — not the epoch year 1970.

{res} label note: MVW exposes only three tiers (low / medium / high), not measured pixel heights. The {res} token maps these to conventional labels — high → "1080p", medium → "720p", low → "480p" — because Plex parses these and they reflect typical public-broadcast encodes. These are labels, not guarantees of exact resolution.

ffmpeg requirement for HLS

Some entries serve .m3u8 HLS playlists instead of direct .mp4 files. Those are downloaded via ffmpeg -i <url> -c copy <dest>. If ffmpeg is not on your PATH and an HLS entry is encountered, mvw exits with code 4 and prints an install hint. Install from https://ffmpeg.org/download.html.

Flagship example: Feuer und Flamme

# Preview the newest season, no audio description, deduped
mvw download "#Feuer und Flamme" --season --latest-season --dedup \
    --exclude Audiodeskription --exclude "Gebärdensprache" \
    --output ~/Media/TV --dry-run

# Then download for real in best resolution
mvw download "#Feuer und Flamme" --season --latest-season --dedup \
    --exclude Audiodeskription --output ~/Media/TV

mvw info

Show a Rich detail panel for the first match of a query.

mvw info QUERY

Displays: topic, title, description, channel, aired datetime, duration, size, available resolutions with URLs, subtitle URL, website URL, and detected season/episode.

mvw config

Manage persistent configuration stored in config.toml (location: platformdirs.user_config_dir("mvw")).

mvw config show              # Print the effective config (key = value)
mvw config set KEY VALUE     # Write a key to config.toml
mvw config path              # Print the path to config.toml

Available keys: download_dir, template, resolution, user_agent, page_size, request_timeout.

CLI flags always override config file values, which override built-in defaults.

mvw --version

Print the installed version (-V for short).

Exit codes

Code	Condition
0	Success or no results
2	Invalid input or config (bad template, regex, config file/key/value), API error, HTTP error, or network failure after retries
4	HLS entry encountered but ffmpeg is not installed
5	Partial/interrupted download failure

Contributing and releasing

Development setup, quality checks, and the release process are documented in CONTRIBUTING.md. Notable changes are tracked in CHANGELOG.md.