Nexus 7 & Adobe Flash Player

[sobeitjedi]

Hi.

I have a Nexus 7 and I have Adobe Flash Player installed. Since the upgrade to 4.4 KitKat, flash no longer works.

I only use the device for Flash, so if it doesn't work, I have an expensive brick!

How can I get it to work? Can I roll back to 4.3?

 

[funkylogik]

Hmm. have you switched to ART in Developer Options? i know flash wont work with that.
If not, im not sure if flash still works with 4.4.... what browser you using? Try Firefox :thumbup:

 

[sobeitjedi]

Yes, I am using Firefox

 

[mikedt]

I think Flash is pretty much broken as of Kitkat. Adobe no longer supports mobile Flash and is discontinued, it's Mac and Windows only now. Could try Puffin browser, that's supposed to support Flash content on Android.

If you're trying to view streaming video from Netflix or something, they should have an app you can use instead.

 

[funkylogik]

Yeah they stopped supporting at android 4.0 but it still worked on jellybean. There arent many sites left where i could test it on KK..

 

[sobeitjedi]

I tried Puffin but it said it wouldn't work in the evening unless I used the paid version.

For example, last night I was trying to watch live ITV: ITV - Watch Live TV online for free

It just kept telling me to upgrade my Flash Player.

 

[funkylogik]

If youre in UK, get the "Tv Catchup" app to watch free live UK tv :thumbup:

And i just tried that site lol. Flash isnt working for me either. Dont know if its KitKat or because im using ART though

 

[mikedt]

If it's ITV, there's an app for that.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.ITVMobilePlayer

This is what the broadcasters are having to do, make apps, because flash on mobile OSs is very much dead now, having been abandoned by Adobe.

 

[sobeitjedi]

Yes, there is an ITV player app, which allows you to watch TV shows that have already been on, but not shows that are on LIVE, which the website allows you to do.

 

[funkylogik]

And which Tv Catchup DOES let you do lol. Most of the freeview channels

(Ive always thought tv CATCHUP is a stupid name for a live streaming site/app lol but hey)
EDIT sorry theres no space https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gzero.tv

 

[sobeitjedi]

I think we've gone off on a tangent here, my query is not how do I watch ITV, but how do I watch sites that use flash? ITV was just an example!

 

[funkylogik]

Yeah think that was my fault bro sorry.
So you have adobe flash for android installed? Youve tried several browsers? Youve enabled flash/pop ups in browser settings? It worked before 4.4?

 

[sobeitjedi]

Tried Chrome, Firefox, Dolphin & Puffin. Flash is installed via the apk.

It worked on 4.3 but not 4.4

 

[funkylogik]

Must be 4.4 then man. I havent read anythin about it though tbh..

 

[jhawkkw]

I've been seeing this come up in a few topics, but with no solutions. If you want to downgrade, you'll have to unlock your bootloader and flash a factory image. However you'll probably be constantly annoyed by Google to update to 4.4 again.

 

[mikedt]

Yeh, I'm almost certain that proprietary Flash is broken as of 4.4. Obviously Adobe won't be interested in fixing it because they've stopped supporting Flash for mobile OSs. So likely the only way to get it working would to downgrade back to 4.3. Or if a dev were to come up with a custom 4.4 ROM that has or supports Flash. Most mainstream TV sites now haveapps you can use. Or sometimes they make provision so it does work in a browser without Flash, YouTube does that. Flash in the long term is going to die, sooner or later.

As for ITV not showing live TV via the their app, that might be a rights issue or their policy, i.e. they only have the rights to distribute live TV or they only want you to watch their live TV on a PC or your TV set, and not mobile devices, I dunno it's just a guess. Now I know with CCTV, Hunan TV and Inner Mongolia Satellite TV, you can watch live TV via their apps, and they don't geo-restrict either, unlike BBC, ITV, Hulu, etc.

 

[funkylogik]

Yeah how open are adobe with flash? Instead of changing 4.4, would it be possible for someone to make a modded flash player?
Tbh im noticing less and less sites that requre flash so the net is finally catching up but obv' not fast enough :beer:

 

[mikedt]

Yeah how open are adobe with flash? Instead of changing 4.4, would it be possible for someone to make a modded flash player?

Probably not too easy, Flash is proprietary, think it would have to be reverse engineered somehow. On Linux there are a couple of open source things that are supposedly compatible with Flash, like Gnash. Problem is they don't support the DRM that commercial TV services often employ. DRM by it's very nature is proprietary. I know there's Puffin browser, which apparently does support Flash. But I think how that works is using a remote server that actually runs Flash, and then it streams something that's compatible for the Puffin browser client. And probably why it's a paid app, because of the servers.

Tbh im noticing less and less sites that requre flash so the net is finally catching up but obv' not fast enough :beer:

Oh I'm absolutely sure it's dying. I think it's the popularity of Apple's iOS that's really done it in, that's never had Flash. Basically if websites get enough complaints that they can't be viewed on people's iPads and iPhones, along with Android tablets and phones, they'll want to do something about it. I'm almost certain that's what's happened. It must cost Adobe real money to develop and keep on supporting something that they're basically giving away.

 

[Goodspike]

Why not just get the paid version of Puffin or some other browser that supports Flash?

 

[nickdalzell]

Photon works in JB and KK and I use it when the time comes (rare as it is) to play some of the Facebook games. Using flash player on a tablet flat out sucks though and I'd hate to watch video without a dedicated app.

 

[funkylogik]

Word on the street is a modded version of flash is being worked on to work with 4.4 :thumbup:

 

[mikedt]

http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/03/ad...-and-data-for-2-9m-customers-likely-accessed/

I wonder if they got the source code for Flash. Would likely make the task of modding it much easier and quicker.

 

[funkylogik]

Totally man. It was a Liquid Smooth rom dev that told me its in the works
Google break things, 3rd party devs fix them lol.
Its like the battery monitor thing, now you have to be rooted for Gsam to work now because google have prevented 3rd party apps access to battery stats in 4.4! Like WHY GOOGLE?? lol

 

[Shocky]

Photon works in JB and KK and I use it when the time comes (rare as it is) to play some of the Facebook games. Using flash player on a tablet flat out sucks though and I'd hate to watch video without a dedicated app.

I agree it's not perfect but in some cases it provided much better result than the available app.

Take Crunchyroll for example, the app only supports SD resolution on Android but via the website with flash you could watch in 1080p up to 4.3.

With 4.4 you can't do this anymore, puffin is the only option atm but it won't allow many websites to go fullscreen or ends up playing the wrong flash content like advertisements.

Word on the street is a modded version of flash is being worked on to work with 4.4 :thumbup:

Please let this be true, I want HD Anime back on my tablet.

 

[funkylogik]

Ill report back as soon as i see it published bro. It may require root access though, i dont know :thumbup: