2012-02-12, 02:15
audiorecon Wrote:Bluecop,
Thanks so much for this awesome plugin. Can you tell us where you get the content? Does it actually come from the legitimate network's sites themselves? For example, does CSI come from CBS.com? A post or entry somewhere with the stream's source would be awesome.
Also, can you comment on how you remove the ads? Do you think this is legal?
Again, thanks guys for all your hard work. If I missed a post or wiki entry (I did try searching), please be kind enough to point me in the right direction. XBMC is awesome.
The content is provided by the station websites in every case.
It isn't illegal. It operates in a similar manner to a web browser. There isn't a Terms of Service you can break. The sites are free to access without an account of any kind.
The ads aren't removed. They aren't in the main video provided by the networks. It doesn't actively remove anything.
Their players retrieves and displays ads differently on each station site. I would have to reverse each of their systems which are not documented. I would then need add more code to split up the videos into segments and insert the ads. Many of the ad systems are also tracking user information about their viewing habits. This is something to be avoided imho.
The plugin avoids flash player so the video can be played natively. Flash player doesn't work well or at all on many platforms that xbmc runs great. We bypass it so we can play the video directly.
Flash built in codecs are so bad in many cases the video simply can not be played. Any station streaming H264 on my linux HTPC is a stuttering mess of crap. It isn't even close to watchable It also won't scale with out inducing stutter.
XBMC by comparison accelerates H264 on too many platforms to list. It is just perfectly smooth with low cpu on almost everywhere. This is the primary reason I write any of these plugins. The stations already provide the video for free and the plugin is just a method to play them.