ITV Player (UK only)

[mittfh]

(This workaround's been around since last Autumn, but since I've seen mention of BBC iPlayer here but none of ITV player, thought I'd give it a quick mention)

 

Preamble:

 

In the past couple of years, the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 have launched web-based video-on-demand offerings, allowing you to catch up with programmes you've missed (as long as you're using a UK IP address). However, whereas the BBC and Channel 4 opted to use a Flash-based solution, ITV decided to "upgrade" to Silverlight. And have also coded their pages in such a way that although the "Install Silverlight" link will take you to the Moonlight installation page, it still claims Silverlight isn't installed. There have also been reports from Windows users (who could theoretically use it) that it frequently pauses for buffering, and doesn't allow you to skip forwards or backwards (probably so you can't skip the adverts!).

 

Workaround solution:

 

Whilst reading an ITV forum on issues with ITV Player ( http://forums.itv.com/1/626841/ShowThread.aspx ), I chanced upon an unofficial third party workaround involving a Firefox plugin - http://chris.orr.me.uk/caughtup/

Somehow this channels content via his site, where it is converted into a playlist of WMV streams (minus the adverts), which are played in your system's default media player. Interestingly, while ITV have taken steps to remove its listing from Firefox Addons, they don't appear to have taken out any action against Christopher Orr himself...yet.

Edited April 2, 2009 by mittfh

[ianw1974]

The other way would be to use a UK-based Proxy server.

[tux99]

Workaround solution:

 

Whilst reading an ITV forum on issues with ITV Player ( http://forums.itv.com/1/626841/ShowThread.aspx ), I chanced upon an unofficial third party workaround involving a Firefox plugin - http://chris.orr.me.uk/caughtup/

Somehow this channels content via his site, where it is converted into a playlist of WMV streams (minus the adverts), which are played in your system's default media player. Interestingly, while ITV have taken steps to remove its listing from Firefox Addons, they don't appear to have taken out any action against Christopher Orr himself...yet.

 

Thanks for letting us know about this, although personally I would be very hesitant about installing a random browser plugin from a random website, a browser plugin has full access to anything on the PC as the user running the browser has, so this can be a potential security issue (it could contain malicious code).

Of course a solution could be to use it with a browser running in a separate virtual machine and not use that specific browser for anything security critical, like online banking/shopping etc.

Edited April 2, 2009 by tux99