NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] How to *Bypass* the Blocking of Google TV by Hulu and Other Networks
How to *Bypass* the Blocking of Google TV by Hulu and Other Networks
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000785.html
Greetings. You're stuffed with turkey and pumpkin pie. The in-laws
just noticed a shiny Google TV box -- such as the Logitech Revue --
sitting over by your big screen.
"Let's watch Hulu!" they all yell in unison. You scowl. As I've
explained in "The Stream of Fear: The Real Reason They're Blocking
Google TV" ( http://bit.ly/aAmzCd ) and various linked postings, Hulu,
CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, and a growing list of other TV networks are
selectively, obnoxiously, and inappropriately discriminating against
Google TV buyers by blocking the online versions of their full
shows -- both free and pay -- from Google TV units. Yet the shows will
play just fine on a conventional PC sitting on the other side of the same
room.
Since this blocking is apparently based on the Flash player ID
embedded within Google TV itself, there is currently no reasonable
direct way to "trick" services into treating Google TV in an
appropriate manner -- that is, just like any PC running a browser and
Flash.
But -- and this is the good news -- there is another approach to
watching these "forbidden" services on GTV, and while it isn't free,
and won't be appropriate for everyone, it is remarkably quick and
simple to set up, and extremely functional -- assuming you have a
reasonably powerful Windows-based PC available somewhere on the same
LAN.
The goal is to let a local PC be the "official" client that is
"viewing" the network TV service, then to have that PC pass the data
along to Google TV. It's somewhat roundabout, and wouldn't be
necessary if the networks weren't hell bent on treating potential
viewers so badly, but a useful approach that works for the time being
is the goal at this point. While it's not impossible that this method
will also be attacked by the networks, the "use your own computer to
transcode" technique presents some interesting challenges to blocking
from both a technical and legal perspective.
There are various software packages -- free and pay -- that can
provide transcoding (conversion) between different audio and video
formats, then stream the results to playback devices, including in
some cases smartphones.
In the Windows world, Orb, TVersity, TVMOBiLi, even venerable VLC and
native Windows 7 itself have various capabilities in these regards,
some providing compliance (more or less) with the DLNA media sharing
protocol, which also provides for sharing of locally-based media (e.g.
local video and audio files) across various devices.
But in my testing of the packages listed above in conjunction with
Google TV, they all failed my tests in one respect or another.
So I was very pleased to discover that one package/service in
particular -- "PlayOn" ( http://www.playon.tv ) -- not only
passed my testing regime with flying colors, but far surpassed my
expectations by providing a user experience specifically tailored for
Google TV. See below for a video demo.
By running PlayOn, the Google TV user can access full-length Hulu
programing, plus the programming of most of the other blocked networks
(either directly through PlayOn provided interfaces and
scripts/plugins, or via the PlayOn transcoding of Hulu itself, which
carries programming for many networks).
At least in my tests, display quality on Google TV via PlayOn was
generally very good. There were variations and occasional glitches
related to the source video/audio quality, Net traffic conditions, and
things that go bump in the night of course -- and not all programs
appear to be accessible at any given time. But both 4:3 and 16:9
video displayed fine, with program access via a quickly traversed
series of menus.
Random access video seek capabilities of the current PlayOn system are
limited, but I didn't find this to be a troublesome issue in normal
use. I was very pleasantly surprised to discover that PlayOn also was
able to transcode and stream to Google TV virtually every video file
in my collection, across a very wide and somewhat eclectic range of
formats and encoding rates.
It takes a fair bit of computing horsepower to pull this off
successfully, since the video transcoding is all being done on the
local PC, which essentially becomes a local Web server for Google TV
to access. Network programming flows from the Net to the PC, is
transcoded, then feeds directly to Google TV. On my 2 Ghz dual core
system, typical transcoded streaming seemed to take about 20-40% of
CPU while viewing was in progress and didn't represent a strain.
Setup of PlayOn was a snap. After hassling in various ways with the
other packages I tried, PlayOn was a breath of fresh air -- though
while I could view the program menus directly via the Google TV (in
this case Logitech Revue) Media Player, I was unable to access video
in this manner.
Not a problem. Simply use the Google TV Chrome browser and head over
to gtv.playon.tv, and a Google TV interface appears that provides
direct local access to network video streams and your local video
files -- clean and neat.
The list of devices beyond Google TV that reportedly work with PlayOn
is a long one -- Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, iPhone, iPad, and
various others, including specifically Android coming up soon I'm told
(I have not yet tested PlayOn under Android 2.2 Froyo using the
standard Flash player).
Anyway, PlayOn is working like a charm with Google TV on my Logitech
Revue. And suddenly most of those blocked networks just ... well ...
aren't really blocked anymore.
Here is a quickie YouTube video ( http://bit.ly/hfepBa ) I shot
showing how this works in action with Google TV viewing Hulu shows
(quickly shot off the big screen -- apologies for the overexposure of
displayed text -- it all looks fine on the actual screen). The video
specifically shows accessing Hulu from Google TV through PlayOn, via a
shortcut (I actually could have made this one step shorter, but I left
in the PlayON splash screen for illustrative purposes).
PlayOn has a two week free trial, then is either about $20/yr, or an
alternative one-time fee of about $60. (These are apparently sale
prices in effect until November 30, after that subscriptions go to
around $40 for first year -- $20 for following years -- or about $80
as the alternative one-time payment).
Is PlayOn worth these various prices? That depends on your estimates
of how long the blocking battle between Google TV and the networks
will continue, the value of PlayOn to you both for Google TV and
perhaps for streaming to other hardware as well, and your guesstimates
as to the potential for network blocking of PlayOn and the longevity
of PlayOn itself. If nothing else, if you're interested, at least
consider giving the free trial a try. If it works for you, it's hard
to see how you can go far wrong with a $20 subscription for a year (if
you buy before the end of this month) even with the rapid rate of
change we're all facing.
If you do decide to trial PlayOn with Google TV, here are a few
operational suggestions based on my testing with the Logitech Revue
Google TV unit.
On the General Settings page of PlayOn, I recommend unchecking the
"Resuming Playback" Enable box. If this is left checked, the server
may continue transcoding of a stream after you are no longer watching,
in the hope that you might want to continue later. Since this can
result in unnecessary load on the PC if this isn't your typical
viewing procedure, unchecking the option will avoid this behavior.
Also, be sure you leave the Google TV Chrome browser User Agent at its
Default setting. If you've changed it, the gtv.playon.tv site may not
recognize your configuration properly.
Finally, when backing "up" the menu tree, I obtained very consistent
results in most cases using the Google TV keyboard dedicated "back"
key rather than clicking on the backarrow present as part of the
PlayOn pages.
Again, this should all be utterly unnecessary of course. While PlayOn
provides a host of capabilities beyond streaming to Google TV, it
should be possible to watch whichever network you choose on GTV just
like anyone at an ordinary PC.
But for now, PlayOn does appear to offer a practical approach that
works. And in today's Internet video world, that's definitely not a
trivial accomplishment.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com)
http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
Co-Founder, PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility): http://www.pfir.org
Founder, NNSquad (Network Neutrality Squad): http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, GCTIP (Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance):
http://www.gctip.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Google Buzz: http://bit.ly/lauren-buzz