ABC/CBS/NBC blocked (as reported earlier)

[skell]

I have the Sony Blu-Ray player w/ Google TV.

As reported here:

No CSI on Your Google TV? It

 

[Swizz]

A squid proxy was the weapon of choice for the Hulu block that was implemented some time ago for game consoles like the PS3. Unfortunately, a system like that is out of reach for the vast majority of users.

We may just have to weather the storm and hope that Google can pull a Clinton-on-Korea with the Big Three.

To be honest, the networks are concerned about leaching ad revenue. While the ads on the website bring in less money than broadcasted television, it's also a fraction of the cost to host a show on the web versus broadcast TV. Once the networks realize what Google will do for them, they'll ease up. Hopefully even start broadcasting live TV over the web, such as sports. That would be the death knell for cable/satellite providers.

 

[skell]

Hey Swizz,

A squid proxy was the weapon of choice for the Hulu block that was implemented some time ago for game consoles like the PS3. Unfortunately, a system like that is out of reach for the vast majority of users.

Yes, but the information I can find on this workaround indicates that they simply altered the User-Agent header. Chrome as provided in GoogleTV gives you the option to alter User-Agent already... And it doesn't seem to work (and playing with it is tedious because a reboot is required between changes... Wonder why? At most restarting Chrome should do the trick? Hopefully Google is not welding Chrome in to the OS as MS did with IE). Do you know if there is anything more involved than altering the User-Agent header?

Agree 110% that the solution is beyond what most users will be easily able to do.

Incidentally, I am doing my packet sniffing with my WRT54GS router running Tomato. I've compiled tcpdump and copied it to the router, and I take take packet logs directly from the router. I've seen some threads indicating that some people have successfully installed squid *on the router* which might make this whole thing much easier.

To be honest, the networks are concerned about leaching ad revenue. While the ads on the website bring in less money than broadcasted television, it's also a fraction of the cost to host a show on the web versus broadcast TV. Once the networks realize what Google will do for them, they'll ease up. Hopefully even start broadcasting live TV over the web, such as sports. That would be the death knell for cable/satellite providers.

It will be interesting to see what happens. On one had this device could help the networks promote their programs, but the networks are making their money on advertising too. So Google, with an ad-based revenue model as well, is likely seen as a major threat to the ad revenue of television networks.

I'm not so sure if Google wants to put ads on top of content that clearly isn't theirs (i.e. TV shows) or if they just want to have *their* content available to *you* while you're in front of the TV (i.e. Gmail, Reader, YouTube, etc.). This is probably what is being hammered out -- that Google will not try to monetize content that they don't actually own.

 

[skell]

And I just thought of one more thing ... GoogleTV doesn't actually *know* what channel is actually tuned. My wife grabs the Comcast remote and still changes channels the conventional way. So Google could never guarantee a potential client that their ad would be shown during a certain program -- tThey have no way of knowing what is actually on the screen when you are in Live TV mode.

 

[Swizz]

While user-agent can be changed and things should work, I believe they've started to read OS versus user-agent. That's what tricked Hulu into working through squid.

 

[cace2002]

I read over under either Chrome Help or Support that the Chrome PC browser itself was having problem streaming from these networks.

 

[cace2002]

Can't some sort of proxy front end fix this?

 

[skell]

Chrome on the PC works fine with abc.com. Chrome's User-Agent string is:

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/7.0.517.41 Safari/534.7

Also, with this UA string, I can navigate around on the Google episode list page (earlier I mentioned this was a Google bug). So, either Google likes this UA string, or they've fixed the issue before (would only work with the default UA string)

Still no go with abc.com. So, the checking goes deeper than User-Agent.

 

[Lock-N-Load]

simple but maybe dumb question.. does this mean if you try to watch any of those 3 networks with a Revue attached, you get blank screens? Like, you cannot watch anything from those networks?? but if you take your Revue off your back to normal access?

what do you see if you try to watch those networks?

 

[razaclaciv]

The networks changed from checking the UA string to Flash detecting the OS.

Same thing happened on Android phones a while back. Eventually someone created a Flash fix that bypassed the check, and installing on a rooted Android phone allowed Hulu viewing.

Imagine we're gonna have to wait until the Revue is rooted to get similar functionality, or wait until the networks wisen up.

 

[skell]

The networks changed from checking the UA string to Flash detecting the OS.

AH, thank you raza. I can stop looking at these network traces.

@Lock/Load: This thread is about abc.com, nbc.com, and cbs.com blocking viewing of their online content. The Google TV lets you find the shows you want to watch, whether they are on right now, in the future, or available on the network websites, or available for pay from Amazon.com.

The big three networks have decided to block access to their online episode viewers, for now at least.

 

[PastorOfMuppets]

The networks changed from checking the UA string to Flash detecting the OS.

Same thing happened on Android phones a while back. Eventually someone created a Flash fix that bypassed the check, and installing on a rooted Android phone allowed Hulu viewing.

Imagine we're gonna have to wait until the Revue is rooted to get similar functionality, or wait until the networks wisen up.

It has been rooted, no? I have the Sony bluray. Not sure what has or has not been rooted but I thought I read somewhere that one of em was.

I'm sure there are a ton of fat cat syndicaters if that's a word and cable providers in the networks' ear telling them how evil Google TV and the internet are. Google will have a tough time getting through that smoke screen but hopefully they will sooner than later.

 

[Chahk]

It has been rooted, no? I have the Sony bluray. Not sure what has or has not been rooted but I thought I read somewhere that one of em was.

As far as I know, Sony's and Logitech's boxes/TVs have not been rooted yet. The best they've been able to do is get into the recovery mode on the Sony's BR box.

I'm sure there are a ton of fat cat syndicaters if that's a word and cable providers in the networks' ear telling them how evil Google TV and the internet are. Google will have a tough time getting through that smoke screen but hopefully they will sooner than later.

I hope not. After all they did build the websites, and they are providing content online. They just need to get over their fear that Google will replace them. Because it's going to happen whether they like it or not. They are only shooting themselves in the foot by pissing off consumers.

 

[PastorOfMuppets]

I hope not too. It seems irrational to offer it online and then attempt to dictate which screen we view the content on. If I wasn't so lazy i might write someone.

 

[skell]

It seems that you can watch full episodes of 60 Minutes to your heart's content through cbsnews.com, for now anyway.

 

[aselvan]

The networks changed from checking the UA string to Flash detecting the OS.

Same thing happened on Android phones a while back. Eventually someone created a Flash fix that bypassed the check, and installing on a rooted Android phone allowed Hulu viewing.

Imagine we're gonna have to wait until the Revue is rooted to get similar functionality, or wait until the networks wisen up.

When Flash detects the OS, the OS info will eventually end up as part of the http headers which can be replaced by a squid proxy right?. Or does Flash bypass proxy and goes direct?

 

[StrifeJester]

The thing about flash is that it is detecting the OS and then not passing it in the header like a UA string. Flash is sending its packets back to the streaming server and may be using a custom format for OS type. Might even be using a hex code. I have not sat down to tear apart the packets yet. I was figuring it was flash that was blocking not the UA String. UA strings have been around too long for the developers to not expect that. There are things like Play-On and Orb and I am sure someone will create something to get around this when the market goes live. I know I will be spending most of this weekend trying different things out.