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Thread ID: 143204 2016-12-16 01:47:00 Problem with TVNZ on demand with Linux. mzee (3324) Press F1
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1429903 2016-12-16 01:47:00 When I use Puppy Linux 6 with Chrome browser I have a problem with TVNZ on demand. Everything is normal until I run the video, then it shows the loading rotating icon and gets no further. Eventually a note pups up suggesting that I install Microsoft Silver-lite. Apart from this being Linux and not Windows, my Windows (dual booted) on the same computer, does not have Silver-lite installed and does not have a problem with TVNZ. mzee (3324)
1429904 2016-12-16 01:57:00 with videos, I found that you may need to pause then play, you only pause for a split second then hit play.

I haven't actually looked into the reason for this but it could be a result of an addon.
Kame (312)
1429905 2016-12-16 05:15:00 I gave up trying to run tv demand on Linux.
Some days it would work, others it wouldn't.
Android is much the same.
Driftwood (5551)
1429906 2016-12-16 05:24:00 I gave up trying to run tv demand on Linux.
Some days it would work, others it wouldn't.
Android is much the same.

+1
gary67 (56)
1429907 2016-12-16 06:05:00 The problem appears to be Adobe flash, which is still used.

If you do a google search for "TV on demand Linux problems" There's quite a few posts stating adobes non support.

Including from TV on Demand:

While we are unable to support our video player on the Linux operating systems

Also from Adobe:
while Adobe plans to keep these new builds up to date and in sync with major releases on Windows and Mac, it doesn’t plan to support or add any advanced features and capabilities, like DRM, GPU acceleration, Stage 3D, etc. to the NPAPI version on Linux.


BM might be able to offer some solution, he's been playing about with that sort of thing.
wainuitech (129)
1429908 2016-12-16 06:39:00 I did get it going on Firefox in Mint using the methods mentioned Here (forums.linuxmint.com).

Choice TV is another matter as it needs Widevine which is a pita to get going on anything really from MS to Linux
gary67 (56)
1429909 2016-12-16 09:25:00 Chrome doesn't need flash in Windows, maybe it does in Linux? Works Ok in Chromebook. mzee (3324)
1429910 2016-12-16 21:05:00 Chrome has an inbuilt Flash player.

The problem appears its the Linux OS. TV on Demand state its not supported. No doubt it can be made to work if a person knows how, but the linux experts may need to advise.

how-to-use-chromes-built-in-flash-instead-of-adobe-flash-install (superuser.com)
wainuitech (129)
1429911 2016-12-17 08:17:00 Edit: Sorry, tried to reference a previous post, (went totally wrong)
Good old C & P





'The sooner HTML5 gets universally accepted the better . "
Laggard (17509)
1429912 2016-12-17 11:44:00 Sigh, TVNZ's On Demand is a proper PITA! DRM is the problem, and TVNZ's policy seems to be to make it as difficult as possible to play their videos on anything but MS Windows and mobile devices (maybe even on those platforms I suspect it can be problematic sometimes).

However, it can be done in Linux and I have had it working fine for some time now in a VirtualBox version of Linux Xubuntu I have specially set up for this. I have personal reasons why I use a Virtual PC to do this as I refuse to install Adobe Flash in my main browser, basically because of Adobe's lack of support for Linux and the fact that Flash's days are numbered anyway. It will eventually be phased out by HTLM5 and the sooner the better IMHO.

Anyway, my solution should work for Ubuntu and derivatives using Firefox and the system plugin for Adobe Flash ... don't know about Puppy Linux and Chrome though. In fact, I know it won't work with Chrome as the special package that needs to be installed only works with the Firefox version of Flash.

1. Install a package called "Zombie Hal" ... you won't find it in a repository (at least not the version that works), you have to go the PPA way to install it. Just execute the following lines in a terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mjblenner/ppa-hal

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install hal

2. Make sure you have the plugin for Flash installed in Firefox. You can test this by going to Adobe's Flash site: www.adobe.com If you see a message saying: "A plugin is needed to display this content." it means that the Flash plugin is NOT installed.

3. Restart the system just to be sure that everything is set up.

4. Now try playing TVNZ On Demand videos ... cross your fingers that it works, and keeps working (until TVNZ inevitably change the requirements yet again, that is).

It's quite possible Linux Mint will play the TVNZ On Demand videos without all this flaffing around, maybe BM could let us know. I will try it with Mint Xfce on my laptop later today just to see.
Rod J (451)
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