itv and channel4

[Andy Mack]

ITV uses Microsoft silverlight, WIndow's only. Disgrace.
Channel 4 is WIndows and possibly Mac only.

Could install XP in virtualbox or vmware.

Should have went the BBC way.

[newW2]

Yes with either Vbox or VMWare. I have used both, however, VMWare Workstation was by far the easiest to install and use. VMWorkstation has a trial period if you'd like to try it and I think VMPlayer may be free. Others I know have used QEMU. And Ubuntu will start shipping with KVMa special version of QEMU.
Vbox was OK but there were some issues with USB support as I recall and you had to use NAT to connect to the internet. Not too hard. Vbox is free, so check it out as well.

[belovedmonster]

Flash is so common on peoples computers that choosing not to use it is just retarded. Why do these media companies just not get it? Give me high quality streaming flash videos and I wont need to torrent missed TV shows.

[bobm]

This baffles me. The BBC state that I can't watch it - but I can?? Is there something they don't know going on?

[belovedmonster]

What is the reason for you saying you shouldn't be able to watch?

[bobm]

When I go to iplayer, this message pops up, "Download information

Sorry, downloading BBC iPlayer programmes is currently only available for Windows. (Why?)" Then the programme just starts playing anyway. I'm just curious.

[belovedmonster]

When you say the programme starts playing anyway do you mean on your browser? That is not downloading it, that is streaming it online. Downloading it is when you download the video file to your harddrive where it remains playable for 30 days before the DRM cripples it.

The online streaming was designed as just a work around for Mac and Linux users but now everyone uses it almost exclusively. The number of people who actually download the shows are a very small percentage. You do get higher quality if you download, but obviously not enough to make windows users bother with it.

[merlwiz79]

You might get videos using User Agent Switcher and switching it to IE7.
Moonlight is the Linux version of Silverlight.
http://www.mono-project.com/Moonlight
http://www.go-mono.com/moonlight/#instructions

[merlwiz79]

Well after I installed moonlight, I still had problems.
I could get it to work but most sites still said I needed silverlight to use them.
I had the plugin installed for firefox but it must not be a version match to what the sites needed.

I used the how to here:
http://www.deepakg.com/blog/archives/39.htm
With tweaks:
Like installing libswscale-dev instead of backporting.
sudo cp *.so moonlight.exe /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins
should be:
cd /usr/lib/moon/plugin/
then
sudo cp *.so moonlight.exe /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins