[thegryghost]

@thegryghost, thanks for your input! Decoding the url is easy enough in python, though what to do with the extra parameters is a mystery to me. IIRC, once decoded you have a m3u8 url, some sort of a key, and a string of url parameters.

Any insight is much appreciated.

After decoding the base64 encoded url, it'll return the base m3u8, a decryption key, and params you'll need to append to when requesting the actual AES key (which is encrypted, you'll need the decryption key you got from the base64 url to decrypt) to get the video segments. MLB.tv makes sure that any requests to for the AES key is coming from you, and only you, with the params from the base64 url.

If python had a HLS client, you could hack it up to support the MLB.tv specific authentication and key decryption. Similiarly, if you were familiar enough with ffmpeg, you could add those MLB.tv specific pieces to it's HLS implementation.

Back when I started mlbhls, ffmpeg/libav didn't have any HLS support so I had to hack together a quick hls client. I've been following ffmpeg's development but I don't think they support dynamic bandwidth switching, which is something that I feel is needed. That said, I'd love to get rid of my client for something that's written better to the panos spec and that I don't have to maintain.

I don't currently use XBMC as my HTPC but I plan on switching as soon as I'm done writing LiveTV backend for the setup I have at my house (a cable card + numerous OTA tuners). When that happens, I plan on doing a native xbmc plugin for MLB.tv that will also integrate with my live tv stuff (for proper timeshifting support).

Let me know if you have any other questions...