flashhd2 mode failing

[Vangelis forthnet]

On Wed Feb 4 23:39:33 GMT 2015, Arthur Murray wrote:

> I am trying to get the flashhd2 stream

 Just to make this clear, which one of the two available CDNs (Akamai, Level 
3) is
designated by GiP as being "flashhd1" (or "flashhd2") during a download 
session
is quite random; I'll grant you though that most of the times flashhd1=AK & 
flashhd2=L3.

> http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0520t2w
> But receive ERROR: Closing connection: NetStream.Failed

Yours is similar to the reports already posted on the official Support 
Forum:

https://squarepenguin.co.uk/forums/topic/error-closing-connection-netstream-failed/
https://squarepenguin.co.uk/forums/topic/trouble-downloading-octonauts-s01e02-in-hd/

and in the forums of other tools that can download from BBC iPlayer...

> Is this something with gip (wrong token or auth)?

It appears NOT!

> flashhd1 works but is akamai server.

Now, let's get it in the open:
Had you been physically in the UK, you would've grabbed the HD file
via the Akamai CDN (which indeed works as usual, but is strictly
geo-filtered at RTMP server level for UK-only clients) and all would
have been fine...
So, you are trying to access the other CDN (Level 3) by using GiP
with a geo-location circumvention method, most probably a UK
proxy or a DNS spoofing service...

> I notice most HD programs don't work on the Level3/flashhd2
> server anymore (unless show is older than 4 or 5 days,
> where they seem to work sometimes)

Yeap, this is the current situation; I would say that this change
was brought about sometime during the last week of Jan 2015;
older video content in HD can be fetched from L3 no probs,
but the majority of newer iPlayer video content can only be
downloaded in HD from the Ak CDN...
 It has been implied this is a result of the Beeb blocking
(illicit) overseas HD downloads - while this may well be true,
Level 3 CDN HD streams DO NOT WORK even from
within the UK!
The mediaselector/5 API (for UK IPs) continues to produce
stream data for the L3 CDN, however when these are used
to compose (by GiP or manually) a rtmpdump download
command, the stream does not start, with the error you quoted.

 I have conducted some "Level 3 experiments", see attached
text file; I e-mailed a friend currently in Glasgow to aid me,
and she can reproduce my findings from her Scottish IP!
 Some recent files DO download from L3
(e.g. pid=p02hhz0m from Feb 2nd), they are a minority
 though, I'm afraid...
If you ask me, my gut feeling is this issue is a consequence of
problematic file uploads on the L3 servers, rather than an
executive decision by Auntie to decommision Level 3 CDN;
if and when they do, there'll be only one flashhd mode in GiP (i.e. Ak)!

Regards 
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