2013-10-14, 21:21
Please consider adding support for Proxy Automatic Configuration (PAC) files:
ProxyPACFiles.com - The Practical Proxy PAC file guide
Alternately, if you could directly support something like Hola Unblocker that would be great.
Let me explain why something like this would be particularly useful for those of us living in the USA. In this country, many of the networks are starting to tie their availability to a cable subscription. So if you want to watch that network's streams online, you have to in some way prove you are a subscriber to an associated cable service. Worse yet, even though in most places you cannot pick your cable company (there is only one cable company offering service in an area, take it or leave it), only customers of a few select cable companies can view these streams. For example, while Comcast cable TV customers might be able to get in, Charter cable TV customers are persona non grata on those sites. We encounter all kinds of BS when trying to watch stuff online that users in other countries, and sometimes even other lucky users in our own country, don't experience.
In many cases the exact same shows are available to viewers in other countries without restriction, save one: You have to be in that country, or appear to be. So for example, I can install the Hola Unblocker addon in Firefix or Chrome, and it pulls in a Proxy Automatic Configuration file for one of its servers and uses that ONLY when you try to go to certain sites that it knows about. This is apparently a mechanism that is already supported in Firefox and Chrome, though I am not a programmer so cannot explain exactly how they work - that's why I provided the link above.
But anyway when you have it set up, and you try to watch TV from another country such as Australia, Canada, or the UK, Hola Unblocker somehow fools the servers into thinking you are in their home country. And very often you can watch US network or cable series on their sites, often within a few hours of when the show is aired in the USA. In my experience it does not work 100% of the time - a few programmers seem to be able to figure out that you are using a proxy and they will block you for that reason alone. But still, you can easily watch a lot of content that simply cannot be freely streamed in the USA.
I know that very often people in other countries want to do something like this to access USA content, and right now XBMC doesn't support that either. All I am asking is that XBMC be as configurable as Firefox or Chrome with regard to support of Proxy Automatic Configuration files. If that were baked into XBMC, then someone (not me) could write an add-on that would allow use of Hola Unblocker or some other proxy service. Please give this some consideration, it would be very helpful to many XBMC users!
ProxyPACFiles.com - The Practical Proxy PAC file guide
Alternately, if you could directly support something like Hola Unblocker that would be great.
Let me explain why something like this would be particularly useful for those of us living in the USA. In this country, many of the networks are starting to tie their availability to a cable subscription. So if you want to watch that network's streams online, you have to in some way prove you are a subscriber to an associated cable service. Worse yet, even though in most places you cannot pick your cable company (there is only one cable company offering service in an area, take it or leave it), only customers of a few select cable companies can view these streams. For example, while Comcast cable TV customers might be able to get in, Charter cable TV customers are persona non grata on those sites. We encounter all kinds of BS when trying to watch stuff online that users in other countries, and sometimes even other lucky users in our own country, don't experience.
In many cases the exact same shows are available to viewers in other countries without restriction, save one: You have to be in that country, or appear to be. So for example, I can install the Hola Unblocker addon in Firefix or Chrome, and it pulls in a Proxy Automatic Configuration file for one of its servers and uses that ONLY when you try to go to certain sites that it knows about. This is apparently a mechanism that is already supported in Firefox and Chrome, though I am not a programmer so cannot explain exactly how they work - that's why I provided the link above.
But anyway when you have it set up, and you try to watch TV from another country such as Australia, Canada, or the UK, Hola Unblocker somehow fools the servers into thinking you are in their home country. And very often you can watch US network or cable series on their sites, often within a few hours of when the show is aired in the USA. In my experience it does not work 100% of the time - a few programmers seem to be able to figure out that you are using a proxy and they will block you for that reason alone. But still, you can easily watch a lot of content that simply cannot be freely streamed in the USA.
I know that very often people in other countries want to do something like this to access USA content, and right now XBMC doesn't support that either. All I am asking is that XBMC be as configurable as Firefox or Chrome with regard to support of Proxy Automatic Configuration files. If that were baked into XBMC, then someone (not me) could write an add-on that would allow use of Hola Unblocker or some other proxy service. Please give this some consideration, it would be very helpful to many XBMC users!
