[kereltje]

THIS ADDON IS NOW NAMED viwX AND SUPPORT HAS MOVED TO THIS THREAD IN THE ADD-ON SUPPORT SECTION.

This a new addon to access ITV hub from kodi.

The addon provides access to the ITV live channels and catchup programs.
It uses input stream adaptive, inputstreamhelper and widevine to play dash steams for both live and catchup programs.

Current version:
viwx 1.0.0-rc.1

Requirements:

• Kodi version 19 or 20 (the addon does NOT work on Leia and lower)
  
• widevine
  
• ITV account
  

Installation:
Currently only available as zip file.

Zip files can be downloaded from https://github.com/dimkroon/itvhub-for-kodi/releases
Alternatively, the latest versions can be found at https://dimkroon.net/kodi-addons. If you add that url as file source to Kodi's file manager, so you can access the zip file in Kodi without having to download it first. Check this short howto for more info.

Install the add-on by choosing install from zip file in settings -> add-ons. Check this howto for detailed instructions

You need an ITV account to watch any stream. Enter your username and password in the addon's settings. Be aware that both username and password are is stored in plain text on your device. (since viwx 1.0.0-beta.4 the add-on does not store username and password)
Also note that ITV hub is geo blocked and can only be accessed from the UK.

The addon is at the moment in a rather rough state of development, but presented here in the hope that it might benefit some people. 
It should all work reasonably well though.
Unfortunately ITV does not provide high resolution streams on the web. Live channels can be viewed on 720p , most VOD is 720p but older episodes are still in SD.

I am very interested in your experiences, but please do not go and do some fanatic testing to find the very last bug. There are there are quite some changes to ITV's web services since the launch of itvx and it will take some time to implement them all. 

Finally a word of thanks to LittleWiz et all for the old itv addon that has served us for so long. This addon shares no code with plugin.video.itv, but it has certainly been an inspiration.

[Atreyu]

Nice, thanks very much for sharing!

[Ghddbn]

Awesome release- Finally Itvhub is back on Kodi incl. Livestreams

[User 272336]

Thank you so much.
Works well for me on the Live side of things on Kodi 19 and the few catchup episodes I have tried.

It crashes in Kodi 20 latest nightly when trying to access the same live channels but I suspect it might not be related to the add-on itself so I wouldn't worry about that.
Again thanks.

[Dangelus]

@kereltje nice job!

I can also confirm success with this addon. Nice to have the option to view ITV content in Kodi again.

Let's see what changes are afoot with ITV and their revamp. Hopefully they will at least switch to HD content!

[chrissxuk]

It doesn't work for me in Spain using VPN or SmartDNS which is odd because the old ITV add-on did and Catch-up TV and More does.

[User 272336]

@chrissxuk

Team Kodi do not support, or recommend VPNs, and Kodi does not need one for its designed operation. The forums are not to be used for the discussion or promotion of VPNs for the purposes of bypassing geo-locking or accessing unlawful material. Any more generic discussions not in violation of the policy will be moved to the off-topic section, but will remain open for replies.

VPN policy (wiki)

[DaveTheRaveUK]

I live in Greater London area (IG10) but the addon says that my location is not supported. What do I do to fix this? Thanks, David.

[kereltje]

I live in Greater London area (IG10) but the addon says that my location is not supported. What do I do to fix this? Thanks, David.

Yes, I've had similar problems occasionally when watching some catchup programs. 
It seems related to what cdn is used for the stream. Sometimes stream urls are from cdn1.content.itv.com and these always return a 'forbidden' status. Even when I use a normal web browser with all security features turned off I experience the exact same issue. The browser shows an popup with a text like "oops something went wrong, please refresh your page", but the underlying problem is the same. I'd be interested to know if you also have these (occasional) problems using a web browser.

Just because I've never seen it working OK on that particular cdn, I have no idea how to fix it. It might as well be an error on itv's side of things.
I usually manage to work around the issue by just trying to start the episode a few times. Most often it plays after 3 - 5 tries.

It might also be a good idea to check if the episode plays in a browser. I get the impression that there may be some episodes listed that are simple not available and trigger a "not available in this area" message in the addon.

[DaveTheRaveUK]

I live in Greater London area (IG10) but the addon says that my location is not supported. What do I do to fix this? Thanks, David.

Yes, I've had similar problems occasionally when watching some catchup programs. 
It seems related to what cdn is used for the stream. Sometimes stream urls are from cdn1.content.itv.com and these always return a 'forbidden' status. Even when I use a normal web browser with all security features turned off I experience the exact same issue. The browser shows an popup with a text like "oops something went wrong, please refresh your page", but the underlying problem is the same. I'd be interested to know if you also have these (occasional) problems using a web browser.

Just because I've never seen it working OK on that particular cdn, I have no idea how to fix it. It might as well be an error on itv's side of things.
I usually manage to work around the issue by just trying to start the episode a few times. Most often it plays after 3 - 5 tries.

It might also be a good idea to check if the episode plays in a browser. I get the impression that there may be some episodes listed that are simple not available and trigger a "not available in this area" message in the addon.

@kereltje --- Hi. I have no problems with web browsers and ITVHub. Anything and everything plays with no problems, except in Kodi. My web browser is Vivaldi BTW.

[kereltje]

@DaveTheRaveUK
So, does the suggested workaround provide a solution?
And do you have the same issue on live channels?
To be sure, check that you've entered your itv account credentials correctly. It could be that somewhere an authentication error is inadvertently being displayed as a geo restricted error.

If nothing helps, please send us a log.
Instruction on how to create and send a log can be found in this post: https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid...pid3112395

[DaveTheRaveUK]

@kereltje Hi, I have got it working. My password was one letter out and I was missing a module: input-stream-adaptive-any. Thanks for your help. David.

[naszdom]

It does work - many thanks.

One thing I have however noted is that if you go to say "A Touch of Frost" inside the folder there are subfolders for each series.  Those subfolders do not work but if you go to the bottom there are 3 stand alone episodes not in a seperate folder.  They do work.  I have a feeling that those subfolders for each series is a figment of the hubs imagination and all that is available are the three episodes but it could be a bug.

[Ghddbn]

Similar issue on Sports/Snooker British Open - no episode starts 

Other content works, also the Snooker episodes play over the Website via browser

[kereltje]

Many thanks to you all for testing and reporting back!

I just pushed a new version to github. That should fix the issue of @Ghddbn

@naszdom:
This is the intended behaviour and is in fact nicked from iPlayer WWW. Each 'sub folder' contains references to the other available series - presented as folder - and the episodes shown are those of the opened folder. So in the case of  your example; when you first open 'A Touch of Frost" the listing will show the episodes of the first series (usually at the bottom, depending on the sort method) and folders for every other available series. When you open a sub folder that particular series' episodes are displayed, again usually below the folders of the other series. 

I found it very convenient to be able to quickly jump into another series, and being similar to iplayer I'd gather it would feel familiar to most users.

There was also a bug causing some episodes to not show up, which is fixed in this version, but I am pretty sure it did not affect Frost.

A short remark on VPN:
There is absolutely nothing in the addon to block or hamper the use of VPN. Nor is there anything in particular to support it, for that matter.
From personal experience I can tell that occasionally ITV blocks an apparently legitimate IP address. I don't now exactly when and why, but judging by the lack of similar reports on this forum I guess it's pretty rare anyway.

Also keep in mind that the addon may show a message 'not available in this area' when the underlying problem is in fact invalid hub credentials. But that is an issue I'm not gonna address before the hub's incarnation enters the world.