[DigitalLachance]

This is my first addon and I think it is at the point where I need some people to test it.

www.curiositystream.com is a subscription site that hosts 1,400+ nonofiction programs to grow curious minds (lots of documentaries - think TED on steroids).

I have no affiliation with the site, I just like their content.

The code is on Git https://github.com/VeryBaddude/plugin.vi...stream.git

You can download the ZIP file directly from here.

The site allows you to view the first 2 minutes of any video if you do not have a membership.

Use the addon settings to enter your username and password.

Comments/feedback/bug reports are welcome!

Enjoy!

[MetalChris]

Nice job on your first add-on. I can report that this actually works on Gotham - I just had to lower the python version in the addon.xml file.

One thing that I might have to investigate is how to reduce the resolution when bandwidth is limited.

This can be accomplished by pulling the streams out of the .m3u8 file. If you open the .m3u8 file in a text editor, you can see that there are multiple resolutions available - 1080, 720, and 360. Just add an option in the settings for the user to select the desired quality, and let the add-on 'scrape' the .m3u8 for the matching file.

[DigitalLachance]

Nice job on your first add-on. I can report that this actually works on Gotham - I just had to lower the python version in the addon.xml file.

I'll lower the python version requirement for the next update. What version did you have to put in to make it work?

This can be accomplished by pulling the streams out of the .m3u8 file. If you open the .m3u8 file in a text editor, you can see that there are multiple resolutions available - 1080, 720, and 360. Just add an option in the settings for the user to select the desired quality, and let the add-on 'scrape' the .m3u8 for the matching file.

So Kodi itself does not have any way to do that selection based on bandwidth available (like Youtube does)?

Thanks for the feedback. It is greatly appreciated!

[MetalChris]

Nice job on your first add-on. I can report that this actually works on Gotham - I just had to lower the python version in the addon.xml file.

I'll lower the python version requirement for the next update. What version did you have to put in to make it work?

I just dropped it down to 2.1.0 so it would install on my old ThinkPad.

I really need to upgrade this thing someday - still running Gotham on Ubuntu 12.04, but it still works... most of the time.

This can be accomplished by pulling the streams out of the .m3u8 file. If you open the .m3u8 file in a text editor, you can see that there are multiple resolutions available - 1080, 720, and 360. Just add an option in the settings for the user to select the desired quality, and let the add-on 'scrape' the .m3u8 for the matching file.

So Kodi itself does not have any way to do that selection based on bandwidth available (like Youtube does)?

Somebody more familiar with the inside workings of Kodi could answer this better. If I understand correctly (and that's a big if) a multi-bitrate .m3u8 should offer the best quality based on the available network resources. In my travels through the forum here I've seen a number of posts about buffering, and a frequently offered solution is to lower the quality in an add-ons settings. The solution has worked for me in most instances.

One advantage though, to scraping the .m3u8 for the individual streams, is that it does allow the user to 'cap' the bitrate. In my case, with a 32" TV, I have no need for a 1080 stream, since my TV isn't capable of anything higher than 720. And there was a time when I only had wi-fi internet service, and the downstream would fluctuate wildly sometimes. Having the option to choose a lower bitrate was definitely helpful in those days.

Thanks for the feedback. It is greatly appreciated!

No problem, you've earned it!

[DigitalLachance]

Very good point on the ability to select resolution. I'll look into it.

[divingmule]

So Kodi itself does not have any way to do that selection based on bandwidth available (like Youtube does)?

Thanks for the feedback. It is greatly appreciated!

Supposedly, I've never tested it, If you limit the bandwidth in the system network settings it should choose the appropriate stream.

[MetalChris]

So Kodi itself does not have any way to do that selection based on bandwidth available (like Youtube does)?

Thanks for the feedback. It is greatly appreciated!

Supposedly, I've never tested it, If you limit the bandwidth in the system network settings it should choose the appropriate stream.

Thanks for the tip @divingmule! I just tried this and can confirm. Setting the bandwidth limit to 1024k caused the add-on to play SD streams. Not quite as convenient as having an option in the add-on settings, and it does have the drawback of limiting the bandwidth globally throughout Kodi, but a working solution none the less.

[catcat98]

Hey if anyone is having trouble logging in make sure your email doesn't have a space in the end. If you are unsure about this you can edit your username and password entry in the settings.xml file in ~/.kodi/userdata/addon_data/plugin.video.curiositystream
the space after your email address won't let you login.
by the way, thank you so much for making this addon. It's a shame they don't develop one themselves. Also is it possible to code the addon such that when I 'send to kodi' from the curiosity stream app on android it will open that video on the addon? I'll see what I can contribute though im kind of a noob with python and kodi addons.

[gshcarter]

Even when I log in I still only get 2 minutes. I've turned on debug logging but don't know enough to see if the problem can be identified there. There's no obvious login errors that I can see.

I've set the username and password manually in C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\userdata\addon_data\plugin.video.curiositystream\settings.xml.

I've even set the default in C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\addons\plugin.video.curiositystream-master\resources\settings.xml

There's no errors, but I never get more than 2 minutes.

Any pointers?

Running Windows 10, Kodi v16.1 Git:20160424-c327c53

[Wild Penguin]

gshcarter: It is working here. Double check your username and password. It is difficult to say if it is correct or not, since the plugin does not report if login is succesfull or not. I was in a similar situation, but once I finally got the username and password correct, and restarted kodi, it just started working.

Bear in mind curiositystream has a maximum log in lockout time. I think it only 30 minutes, however. Wait a while (if you think you might have tried to log in too many times). It happened to me, since 1st) I had forgotten my password and 2) messing around with KODI.

[warcious2015]

Hello,

The curiositystream add-on used to work perfectly. I am running latest Kodi on Libreelec.
Suddenly it only produces an error, and it wont work.
What could be the problem?
I have tried to uninstall it and reinstall it all again, without any luck.
How do I copy and paste the log file so you can see what is wrong with it?


Thank you so much,
Warcious

[DigitalLachance]

Looks like curiositystream.com changed the way authentication is done. I'm looking at the code and hope to put out an update some time this week.

[warcious2015]

Looks like curiositystream.com changed the way authentication is done. I'm looking at the code and hope to put out an update some time this week.

Highly appreciated, thank you for doing this for us to be able to watch amazing documentaries.
Also, do you know of any other really good streaming services just for documentaries or documentary add-ons for Kodi?

[DigitalLachance]

I've updated the addon to fix the authentication which was changed by curiositystream.com. I'll probably slowly work on it to improve it. Let me know if it still doesn't work for you. I've tested it only against Kodi 16.1 (running on Windows) so far. I'll also try it on Kodi on my Raspberry pi tomorrow and report back.

Download from the same location (see first post)

Future ideas for feature update:
- option to set maximum bandwidth
- option to play from your watchlist
- option to browse the sub-categories (right now it list all videos under a given category and that makes it slow).

I'm open to any other ideas.

[dazone]

thanks for the update. I tried the new version on 17.4 with a similar issue . I think its related to kodi 17.x as I have tested on 16.1 and it works fine. .
Traversing through categories is ok. There seems to be a timeout when playing with the message

"playback failed
One or more items failed to play. Check the log for more information about this message" . But on the odd occasion it will work