Requests For Features

[Vangelis forthnet]

On Wed Apr 15 04:48:49 BST 2015, artisticforge wrote:

> I have never seen GIP used to download ITV,
> and I have been around a long time.

Hi Terry, hope you're well :-)

In the era (2008+) of GiP by Phil Lewis,
GiP did offer support for media networks other than BBC;
it was then more of a challenge to illustrate it was feasible by
using Open Sourse tools, rather than satisfy the needs
of GiP users... The support code was initially intergrated into the
main script, but later changed into a plugin structure...
4oD, DemandFive & hulu support was dropped on May 06 2009:

http://linuxcentre.net/get_iplayer-dropping-channel4-4od-demand-five-and-hulucom

ITV plugin was retained, but back then ITV player would use WMV files 
streamed
via MS's proprietary Silverlight browser plugin.
You can view a history of  itv.plugin here:

http://git.infradead.org/get_iplayer.git/history/47240562795bd3c20f30268880767333fec9b8f5:/plugins/itv.plugin

Grab the latest commit of itv.plugin (from the GiP repo):

http://git.infradead.org/get_iplayer.git/blob_plain/47240562795bd3c20f30268880767333fec9b8f5:/plugins/itv.plugin

I'm on win32, so I placed it inside

%USERPROFILE%\.get_iplayer\plugins

As you've already said, it works till now, but only
for indexing ITVPlayer's offerings:

get_iplayer --type=itv -f --force

(ignore the WARNINGs at the beginning...)

At a later stage, Phil decided to remove ITV.plugin, too:

http://git.infradead.org/get_iplayer.git/commit/0f607788391e75d8d50650f92506d2369a6ad14b

> get_flash_videos, which runs on most UNIX variants.

get_flash_videos is a Perl script (like GiP) with a broader scope;
its ITV support is provided via the itv.pm plugin, maintained by a
(former?) list member, Nigel Taylor:

https://github.com/njtaylor/get-flash-videos/blob/master/lib/FlashVideo/Site/Itv.pm

> i have not used get_flash_videos.

The Perl package that comes with the Windows installer of GiP
doesn't support get_flash_videos (... naturally), so I had to install
Strawberry Perl Portable to an external HDD and after
many a tries I managed to get get_flash_videos.pl working...
ITVPlayer (as expected is geo-blocked) uses rtmpe but the files themselves
are not encrypted, so rtmpdump performs the job beautifully...
I can confirm  get_flash_videos works fine for ITV shows...

ITV integration has been requested quite a few times in this list,
but it was made very clear it is not to be...
Since GiP, get_flash_videos & Get iPlayer Automator are
all Open Sourse, this is not beyond the realm of feasibility,
if a Perl guru ever decides to undertake such a task...

> There are two programs that I know of that are able to download ITV 
> programs.

If you are comfortable with having Java installed,
FreeRapidDownloader (FRD):

http://wordrider.net/freerapid/

does a nice job for ITV; subs are supported, too!

Peter Kirk wrote:

> C4 & C5 are not possible as they use rtmpe
> and afaik no solution has been found.

4oD currently uses AdobeHDS (over HTTP) with FlashAccessDRM encryption,
which has not been reverse-engineered; all other previously un-encrypted 
formats
(PSP, mobile devices, YouTubeChannel) have been killed, so screen recorders
are the only option :-( ... ).
Last time I checked, Demand5 still used rtmp(e) protocol, but the streamed 
files
were encrypted and used on-the-fly decryption, so even if I could download a
an FLV file with rtmpdump, it was encrypted hence unplayable...

(apologies to those that find slightly OT content annoying...)

Many regards to all,
Vangelis.