Comments on: Comedy Central Feed Creator http://log.makedatamakesense.com/2006/12/10/comedy-central-feed-creator/ Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:42:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 hourly 1 By: Scott Reynen http://log.makedatamakesense.com/2006/12/10/comedy-central-feed-creator/comment-page-1/#comment-7297 Scott Reynen Mon, 05 Feb 2007 02:08:54 +0000 http://log.makedatamakesense.com/2006/12/10/7/#comment-7297 Comedy Central's video files are hidden a few steps deep, and they don't even have stable locations. The locations are created new whenever your browser requests the file containing the locations, and they expire some time later. Here's a quick rundown on how it works: Any page that plays videos on ComedyCentral.com loads a file with an address like this: http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/xml/data_mini.jhtml?xml_id=[UNIQUE_SHOW_ID] That XML file contains a list of individual video clips, with addresses like this: http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/xml/flv_xml_gen.jhtml?ml_video=[UNIQUE_VIDEO_CLIP_ID]&hiLoPref=lo The "hiLoPref" determines the quality/size of the video. When you load that URL, ComedyCentral.com asks Akamai.net (a streaming video service) to create a file for the video. Akamai.net returns the URL to ComedyCentral.com, and ComedyCentral.com passes the URL on to you. That's the URL of the FLV files that I put in the feeds. But it expires after a few hours, so I update the URL every time a feed is requested. I hope this helps. Comedy Central’s video files are hidden a few steps deep, and they don’t even have stable locations. The locations are created new whenever your browser requests the file containing the locations, and they expire some time later. Here’s a quick rundown on how it works:

Any page that plays videos on ComedyCentral.com loads a file with an address like this:

http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/xml/data_mini.jhtml?xml_id=UNIQUE_SHOW_ID

That XML file contains a list of individual video clips, with addresses like this:

http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/xml/flv_xml_gen.jhtml?ml_video=UNIQUE_VIDEO_CLIP_ID&hiLoPref=lo

The “hiLoPref” determines the quality/size of the video. When you load that URL, ComedyCentral.com asks Akamai.net (a streaming video service) to create a file for the video. Akamai.net returns the URL to ComedyCentral.com, and ComedyCentral.com passes the URL on to you. That’s the URL of the FLV files that I put in the feeds. But it expires after a few hours, so I update the URL every time a feed is requested.

I hope this helps.

]]> By: Finite http://log.makedatamakesense.com/2006/12/10/comedy-central-feed-creator/comment-page-1/#comment-6625 Finite Thu, 01 Feb 2007 01:55:02 +0000 http://log.makedatamakesense.com/2006/12/10/7/#comment-6625 Thanks for your work! Got any tips on how to get the .flv URLs for clips that aren't in your feeds? There are javascript "bookmarklets" for YouTube and other sites, but I haven't been able to find one for Comedy Central yet. Irritatingly, I'm not even looking to download any video to keep it... I just want to watch it, and I happen to not run windows! Just like with DeCSS, I am forced to seek out illicit copying tools for mere playback. Comedy Central's web staff should be fired :( Thanks for your work! Got any tips on how to get the .flv URLs for clips that aren’t in your feeds? There are javascript “bookmarklets” for YouTube and other sites, but I haven’t been able to find one for Comedy Central yet. Irritatingly, I’m not even looking to download any video to keep it… I just want to watch it, and I happen to not run windows! Just like with DeCSS, I am forced to seek out illicit copying tools for mere playback.

Comedy Central’s web staff should be fired :(

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