2008-05-02, 22:21
Just read Elan's interview over at Automated Home and had a thought...
I agree with the overall thought that we are slowly moving into a space where the majority of content will be streamed. In fact, I am in the process of developing a platform currently that attempts to do just that with some very valuable content that currently can't be legally shared online. I will be using Flash to do this.
Currently XBMC supports flv, wmv and mp4 in all their various flavors. However, Adobe has recently shipped Flash Media Server 3.0, which introduces RTMPE streaming encryption, as well as encrypted playlist and token authentication support. Similarly, the "final" version of Microsoft Silverlight is expected to include Windows Media DRM. As mainstream media slowly starts moving their content legitimately on the internet, it is widely expected to use one or the other format.
As these are obstensibly DRM formats, there is no chance they can be directly integrated into an open source project like XBMC. However, as XBMC moves from the closed XBox environment to the more open environments of computer platforms, the ability to work with the already-installed closed frameworks Flash and the forthcoming Silverlight become more of a possibility.
(I should note that Flash is available for Linux, OSX and Windows, but Silverlight is not planning a Windows version.)
As a developer of a platform that is using encrypted Flash transport, I would love for nothing more than to develop an XBMC plug-in. As with anyone working with copyright-sensitive "big company"-sourced media, I absolutely must use DRM. (My business model is also 100% ad supported, so I need to ensure that at structure works properly.) Would it be at all feasable to integrate a swf or silverlight framework within the non-XBox XBMC builds to be able to play these formats?
I would like to point to Jereon Wijering's excellent FLV Media Player and his new WMV Player as open-source, creative-commons license players that might be able to be integrated.
I agree with the overall thought that we are slowly moving into a space where the majority of content will be streamed. In fact, I am in the process of developing a platform currently that attempts to do just that with some very valuable content that currently can't be legally shared online. I will be using Flash to do this.
Currently XBMC supports flv, wmv and mp4 in all their various flavors. However, Adobe has recently shipped Flash Media Server 3.0, which introduces RTMPE streaming encryption, as well as encrypted playlist and token authentication support. Similarly, the "final" version of Microsoft Silverlight is expected to include Windows Media DRM. As mainstream media slowly starts moving their content legitimately on the internet, it is widely expected to use one or the other format.
As these are obstensibly DRM formats, there is no chance they can be directly integrated into an open source project like XBMC. However, as XBMC moves from the closed XBox environment to the more open environments of computer platforms, the ability to work with the already-installed closed frameworks Flash and the forthcoming Silverlight become more of a possibility.
(I should note that Flash is available for Linux, OSX and Windows, but Silverlight is not planning a Windows version.)
As a developer of a platform that is using encrypted Flash transport, I would love for nothing more than to develop an XBMC plug-in. As with anyone working with copyright-sensitive "big company"-sourced media, I absolutely must use DRM. (My business model is also 100% ad supported, so I need to ensure that at structure works properly.) Would it be at all feasable to integrate a swf or silverlight framework within the non-XBox XBMC builds to be able to play these formats?
I would like to point to Jereon Wijering's excellent FLV Media Player and his new WMV Player as open-source, creative-commons license players that might be able to be integrated.