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I am running Ubuntu 19.10 as the only OS on my laptop. Up until recently, that is a few days ago, I regularly watched ITVHub in the Chrome browser on my laptop.

Yesterday I tried to watch a programme only to get the warning that I needed to enable "Protected Content" in Chrome or "Digital Right Management (DRM) Content" in Firefox. I tried to stream the programme in Firefox but got the same warning. I checked and the options were enabled in the Chrome and Firefox browsers. I can stream the BBC iPlayer and All4, two other UK streaming sites without any problem.

I then tried streaming ITVHub using Chrome in my Android tablet and it worked perfectly.

I regularly update my Ubuntu OS and there was an update prior to this problem occuring. Because Chrome can stream ITVHub on my Android tablet but not on my Ubuntu laptop I suspect the problem may be an OS problem.

I have all of the ubuntu-restricted-extras etc installed and the ITVHub was working on my 19.10 OS until very recently.

Any ideas of what may be causing this?

SteveInBavaria
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6 Answers6

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Not exactly an answer, but I can't post a comment...

I emailed ITV about this problem and received this reply:

Thank you for your email.

I'm afraid that Linux hasn't ever been fully supported on our website.

We are however looking into an issue where DRM content is causing a error message to appear on our website.

If you are getting a message to update your browser, this will probably be resolved for you once they have fixed the issue with DRM content.

If I can be of further assistance, please do get back in touch. 

So I guess we wait and see, but doesn't sound hopeful. It's not clear to me who "they" are (as in "...once they have fixed..."); ITV or browser authors? Nor if this is definitely related to the problem - I have not been prompted to update my browser.

Andrew Woodward
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ITVHub have replied to my emails confirming that the issue is a "Widevine issue". They said that they hoped to resolve the issue by last Tuesday but, as I wrote and told them, it has still not been resolved.

I'm afraid this is not a lot of help to Martin Thoma but at least he could write to MaxDome.de and specify that ITV-Hub recognize that it is a Widevine issue.

SteveInBavaria
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This is the reason for some streaming-services not working with linux and chrome OS anymore:

https://www.widevine.com/news

They need to set an override for the new standard-rule:

All Widevine browser-based integrations (platforms and applications) must support VMP.

Only Windows- and Apple- based Browsers support VMP (verified media path). Android is still working, because widevine is implemented in Android OS, but not in the browser.

zx485
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Dirk
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I have has some problems playing DRM content when the resolution is set higher than 1080p. As far as I can tell in my case; this is because DRM components often are proprietary black-box DRM setups that negotiate an unbroken chain of DRM from decryption to screen. These are not available as open-source, and therefore not in Linux. Microsoft and Intel probably regard this DRM as a competitive advantage they can offer to rights-holders.

I suspect that your ITV would work on Windows with high resolution in the default browser. Alternatively set the resolution to 720p (good enough for streaming on a PC) and try again since the DRM implemented in Firefox supports that for sure.

SLS
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I contacted ITV support and they said that they intentionally didn't support Linux. I used Virtualbox to run W10 and it still didn't work using "Edge" but did with FF until today when it bombed halfway through.I think they're paranoid about people skipping ads.

John Collins
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Since yesterday ITVHub seems to be working again.

SteveInBavaria
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