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Agreed it would be a great add-on - I think however only the primary member (i.e. not your extended family) would be able to use the on-demand service
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BlueCop
Skilled Python Coder
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I am working on one. I am a prime member so it is has good free movies and content for me.
I am still researching. I do understand have the process to get the final rtmp link for playback. I just have some test scripts written so far.
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I just saw this on the amazon home page and the first thing i did was start searching to see if anyone was working on an xbmc solution to this...hopefully you are making headway...I can't offer much help, but i can give two thumbs up that this would be awesome!!!
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BlueCop
Skilled Python Coder
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2011-02-24, 16:56
well their resolution and bitrates levels are different from hulu. they use the same streaming method(rtmp) in the same container(flv) with the same codecs(h264/aac). So it all depends on which quality level you select.
the 3500kbps 720p hulu stream looks better then thr hd stream from amazon. the 2500 and 1500kbps 720p from hulu are comparablr to the amazon hd.
for sd content it is a little different. the 480p hulu (700x400 for 16:9, 640x480 for 4:3) is generally streamed at 1000kbps. the amazon highest sd quality is 704x384 at ~1200kbps. so you lose a bit of resolution but gain some bitrate. It is hard to compare these I think they look very similar. the amazon is less prone to compression artifacts imho. I can't substantiate that with evidence though.
I can't compare to netflix because it isn't on my htpc right now(linux).
I want to write a guide to reversing rtmp sites. amazon was interesting because it used ssl like it was going out of style. seting up ssl proxies was essential to figuring everything out. The process I use most is just a proxy to monitor and save traffic. I then just try to reverse those logs. I start with finding the rtmp link and working backwards. It isn't that hard. You just have to replicate what the client does. Sometimes sites use encryption with keys and algorithms in swf files. this requires more work by dumping the swf action script and grepping through to find the important bits.
also you wouldn't want to spend time with me. I am quite literally a crazy person(untreated bipolar). hypomania is when I code. I am not that good at it but I keep going. I like the sense of accomplishment. the depressive periods suck though. I also smoke way too much pot. you would end up smelling like bob marley.
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Very nice work BlueCop!
I'd certainly be most interested in that write up, as I'm sure a lot of addon developers would be.
Cheers,
Jonathan
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2011-02-25, 22:23
(This post was last modified: 2011-02-25, 22:25 by timdog82001.)
Wow, great work and so fast! I'm looking forward to the eventual release.
I had an idea, which may or may not be something you're interested in, or even feasible, but I thought I might throw it out there. I assume this will be a plugin (rather than a script)? If so it would be neat if you could have an option to populate the list of movies you see in the plugin with both the free movies from amazon AND movies you have locally. Afterall, they're both free and assuming you have a decent internet connection, the quality of the video and the experience should be pretty much the same. I know I would certainly prefer to scroll through just one long list of movies rather than having to do it twice. Anyway, I'm sure you're focusing on basic functionality now, but it's something to think about.