add ABC iView for australian viewers

ABC iView would be a fantastic addition to Boxee. Please introduce it!

Awesome, awesome idea.

This would be a wonderful addition (might even prompt an Aus VPN service *grin*)

This would be fantastic. I love boxee but I wish there was more australian content.

Any Boxee staff care to give an update?

I've been working on an XBMC plugin for iView.. although I had to make some minor modifications to the XBMC source. I've got information about how to decipher their XML and how to stream the video. Would love to help build a Boxee app for it.

Any news / progress on this?

YES YES! just got my apple tv running boxee, and this was the first idea that came to mind.

I'm no programmer in all of this, but this seems like the summary of what to do, please correct me if i'm wrong, thanks to Andy Botting (code from http://www.andybotting.com/wordpress/..., all thanks to him)

XML for all of the channels:
http://www.abc.net.au/iview/iview_cha...
Contains image URLs and links to programs eg

Sample Program List for channel:
http://www.abc.net.au/playback/xml/in...
Contains synopsis etc

Get user to select, find associated flv file.

Grab Authentication token:
http://202.125.43.119/iview.asmx/isp

Stream flv using token (code sample to download flv, hopefully streaming would be similar)

rtmpdump-WIN32-1.5.exe -r rtmp://203.18.195.10:1935/ondemand?auth=%TOKEN% -a ondemand?auth=%TOKEN% -y %DLPATH% -u auth=%TOKEN% -t rtmp://cp53909.edgefcs.net/ondemand?auth=%TOKEN% -o "%FILENAME%"

Andy, have you got any feedback from boxee?

Australia would LOVE you if you got this up!

Cheers...

I haven't heard anything from boxee people, but I haven't been pushing it either.

I've had a few people express their interest in this, so it's probably about time we start looking at how we can get this into Boxee.

Do any of the Boxee dev's look at this? Would someone who knows the Boxee API be willing to lend a hand to get this done?

I think the real hurdle is that we need to specify the TCUrl in the RTMP stream, which (last time I checked) XBMC and Boxee don't let you do. I have a patch for XBMC, but the patch may have an impact on other streaming sites using RTMP.

This is a great idea stu0. Hopefully it is possible (Andy Botting, did you have any luck with your checking?)

Just start using boxee and this is one feature I truly love to have

Yep great idea, just ask for it myself.

I've just recently started using Boxee and now can get unmetered ABC iView content through iiNet's freezone. It would really be great if this all worked through Boxee!

an ivew plugin would certainly make boxee a kick arse app for ozzie users...

Yes please !

iview on XBMC will be awesome, keep up the good work guys =)

This is a fantastic idea for all of us down under. Andy / Boxee devs, if there is anything we can do to help / make this happen, let us know.. Great work Andy!

Guys, seems we've hit a hurdle.

ABC has enabled 'SWF Verification' to the iView streams. This means that the iView plugin is dead for now. With SWF Verification, it means that clients need to send a 'hash' back to the server to keep the connection going. This hash is meant to be secret, and only Adobe is supposed to know how to do it.

Some clever people have reverse engineered the algorithm for generating this hash, and it was found in RTMPdump v1.6. You could use RTMPdump v1.6 for downloading and saving shows to your computer, but Adobe threatened the author with the nasty DMCA letter, basically killing the code.

This code *could* have been included in XBMC, but I'm guessing they won't want to, in fear of the Adobe monster and their DMCA letters.

So, sorry to all those wanting iView on XBMC and Boxee. ABC has killed this project.. for now, at least. :(

That is so dissapointing! I was really looking forward to being able to watch iView from my couch, on my Xbox! Damn fascism.

Andy, perhaps you could get the code from RMTPdumpv1.6 and implement it into an 'underground' 'iView Hacked XBMC' release? I mean, you're not going to let this stop all of ur hard work?

And i'm sure you've still got it working on ur xbox =)

If you (Andy) are referring to RTMPE, it's still in rtmpdump according to http://lkcl.net/rtmp/

Regardless, in my experience, the easiest solution that works for me is to just start downloading again with continue specified (-e), and if absolutely required (seems to sometimes), a skip of 1 (-k 1).

I thought it might be a good idea to try and get some response from the ABC in regard to support in XBMC and Boxee.

I have a post on the ABC forum, which you can register to and maybe show your support.

http://www2b.abc.net.au/tmb/Client/Me...

cheers

Can I just bump this along? I noticed that the PS3 now has an iView app installed. Can we have one for Boxee???

I'd say we need to write/contact the ABC and see if we can get their internal IT team to write something for us.

Hi all. I was chatting with Andy last week and using his xbmc app as a base, I now have a working Boxee app for viewing ABC iView shows.

That's the good news, the bad news is:
* Its VERY basic. The UI isn't correct in places and somethings don't work. This can be improved fairly easily though and just requires a little time
* It still has the DRM / hashing limit meaning you can only play the file for about 90 secs before it cuts out. I'm seeing if there's any way to work around this using the libRTMP version included with Boxee, but I wouldn't hold your breath. C'mon ABC, get with the times!!
* A change is required in Boxee to allow libRTMP to see the required info. Unfortunately Boxee doesn't allow direct access to the xbmc objects which libRTMP is looking for so this is not currently possible using a stock Boxee build. I've logged a bug with Boxee to correct this: http://jira.boxee.tv/browse/BOXEE-4325

So that's where I've got to. I know its not terribly helpful but its a start.

ABC seemed very willing to talk to people about a plugin - has anyone actually tried working with them...?

ABC iView are on Twitter ( @ABCiView ) I suggest sending them a couple of tweets to raise their awareness of the issue. I ( @daneglerum ) just sent one then.

It would be great to get some direct input from the ABC as it would be fantastic to see them lead the way with Boxee integration the way they have led the way in so many other online spaces (iView, iPhone App & great website ).

Keep up the good work all of those involved on both sides of the fence!

Dane, according to this thread they've said they're interested, and they've asked for someone to get in touch with them directly about the issue. I'm not sure what posting tweets to them are going to do unless working directly with them fails or stalls.

Problem is that I think someone from Boxee will need to be involved. Marcel? Someone??

Don't mean to marginalize the work that you and Andy have done here. I just think someone from Boxee (particularly a CEO) might have a better chance of convincing or negotiating with the ABC, if that's needed. At the very least it seems like it makes good sense to form a relationship and formal contact of some kind.

ABC seemed to indicate on their forums that DRM was not their choice but imposed upon them by the owners of the content they are streaming on iView (eg BBC/HBO etc). I dont know anything about the issue really but I suspect we'd have more impact by suggesting that alternative solutions can work eg whatever they use in the UK for the BBC iplayer or similar US websites.

For what its worth, the reply from the ABC is below:
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Thanks for contacting us re-Boxee. We agree that it’s a great platform and ultimately appropriate for iView iteration. Currently we’re working out our priorities this year for our small iView team, in terms of extended content offerings, potential platforms and general enhancements to the site.

Just some background on our security settings. We have content agreements with various content owners (individuals, production companies, US TV networks etc) a number require additional security, such as SWF hashing. Our content owners also consider non-ABC rendering of that content as not in the spirit of those agreements.

We appreciate the effort you have put into the plug-in and your general interest in all things iView. So once we are on our way with our development schedule for “out of the browser” iView, we’ll hopefully be in a position to share our priorities a little more. We would like to keep in touch with you this year and if you have any questions or comments my direct email is ********@abc.net.au.
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