BIG changes coming to API related to Videos

EDIT 11/19/2105

This post is out of date. See this post for the latest on this

http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/api-developers-3017/video-api-changes-this-is-happening-people-read-th-1786460/#3

We will be removing all video sources from all API responses and replacing them with links to our embed player. Don't Panic! I know this will probably affect a few of you significantly. In most cases we'll work with you to use our Embed player. We're creating an API to control the embed player with window.postMessage so you shouldn't lose functionality (though you will need to change your code).

FAQs:

Q: When will this happen?

A: ASAP. Possible is when we have received enough feedback from you guys and have worked with you to move to our embed player.

Q: WTF I can't use your embed player in my iOS/Android/OTT app!

A: Contact me (edgework) directly. We can work with you to keep using the raw mp4 video source, but you will be using a new API endpoint. Not everyone will get this. We'll approve on a case by case basis. Some of you will be directly contacted soon.

Q: Does this mean you will run ads on my site?

A: Maybe. If a premium user is logged in to Giant Bomb their cookie will be read by the embed player and no ads will play for them. You will be able to detect if a video is premium or not and be able to direct your user to giantbomb.com to log in and get the cookie.

Don't know which user runs this, but I hope he gets contacted! Definitely how I consume 99% of my GB VODs.

ATTN @soup_menu.

@slowhanded: We have contacted them. Can you tell me more about HOW you are using that? I need a better understanding of how NOT to break that.

Hope qlcrew.com doesn't break! Think @szlifier runs that.

@christaran: He's heavily involved in the embed player API.

@edgework Do you know if this affects the roku app? I use that when I want to watch gb content on my tv.

@wikitoups: We're going to make sure it doesn't.

Currently i am using the old API solution through The video buddy app. It enables me to stream from my IOS device to my chromecast. That function is something i really don't want to be without.

@saerdna: We've contacted the developer.

@chaser324: Thanks for havin' my back! Edgework's been in touch and we'll do our best to keep GBVB from tipping over and bursting into flames when the transition hits.

How long before this all breaks? :D

I use the Plex app to view most of my videos. I have no idea who maintains that plugin, but I hope it will keep working.

As long as i can still watch archived stuff on my tablet, if not probably cancel membership i barely watch stuff on computer anymore so it'd be a waste.

Does this mean we won't be able to download .mp4 files from the main website to watch on long trips from other devices?

@len1444: Premium members will still be allowed to download invisibly watermarked .mp4s for private use only.

@edgework: will all the old videos be watermarked or will it only be videos from now on?

@dante_the_jedi: All videos, the watermark won't be visible but if we see a video pop up in a place it shouldn't be we'll know who it came from and ban that person.

@edgework: Right, I was worried for a bit. As watermarks we can see are really lame.

any idea of the xbmc/kodi addon devs have been contacted or will be approved for the new api?

Aw I am sure this means the boxee app is kaput (which is kinda funny since the url for the API code is still /boxee ). Oh well!

@stopmakingsense: Nope. We're not going to make this change until every active API user is migrated. We won't break anything that is under active development. My understanding is that Boxee uses Kodi (XMBC) and that is a huge priority for us to get right.

@mattpannella: I'm the Kodi add-on developer, and I've been talking with @edgework about this via email.

Is there any substantial reason for these changes being made? I'm not an app dev or anything, I'm just interested in why you guys do certain things and how it'll make GB better or worse

I hope this doesn't break the Kodi plugin because if it does you will probably have at least one less subscriber. :/

@jporter: Why isn't your updated plugin the default in kodi btw?

@dimmuxx: Because I only just fixed it to meet Kodi's code standards a few weeks ago, and I haven't had time to finish everything up. I was also hesitant to perform a "hostile takeover" of the old Whiskey Media version, but @edgework and I have agreed to make my version the official one when it's ready.

@jporter: That sounds like a great plan! Thanks for the info.

I use the api to download videos through a command line programm so I can then watch them in a light weight player. Your video player is too taxing for the machine I like to watch videos on. Any chance I'll be able to continue to watch Giant Bomb videos this way?

@cyborgx7: no... but what you're doing makes sense. We could add that directly into the site and give you a page to multi-select recent videos for mass download. Will that work for you?

@ottoman673: We're growing and what worked for what was a small site and small team is getting out of hand now and we really don't know where a lot of our content ends up. This is mostly so we (the dev team) can get a better handle on our assets. There's lots of stuff we need to get right here. First and foremost is not going corporate and adding restrictions and stupidity and breaking what now works but still being able to answer to the corporate guys that the dev team has our shit in order and Vladimir Pirate can't go creating a rip off site with all our content.

@edgework: "Vladimir Pirate is the name of my new electro-swing band." ~ Alex Navarro

@edgework: It'll still be a lot less convenient than what I'm doing now. I also built in a way to search for videos in my script through the search api and your solution wouldn't replicate that feature at all.

To be honest, I liked the feature of being able to download videos through the api so much, it was one of the main reasons I payed for premium in the first place.

Can you send me your script? Send to edgework (at) giantbomb.com

@edgework: you can see a slightly out of date version at https://github.com/cyborgx7/bomber/blob/master/bomber.sh . It's written in bash, made to work on linux and requires xmlstarlet. You also need to create the folders .bomber and .bomber/videos in your home directory.

Listen, I realize I'm an edgecase and not really worth supporting. I just enjoyed having such easy access to the videos. Anything that requires me to use a webbrowser to get the videos won't be as good for the way I enjoy to interface with the site. It doesn't seem like your new solution makes it possible not to use a webbrowser if you want to download the videos. It's fine. I get it.

@cyborgx7: The Kodi add-on is actually in a pretty similar spot. It runs on devices with no web browser and needs to download the .mp4 files to play (well, stream) locally. Since the Kodi add-on is open source (and must remain so if it's going to go into the official add-on repo), you should be able to look at the source code and do something similar when I make the change. That said, I don't think @edgework has come to a final decision about what the new API needs to look like (or at least, I haven't seen it). Nevertheless, if it works for Kodi, it should work for you too.

Will the invisible watermarks affect playback in any way on devices such as PS3s or mobile phones?

@sor_eddie: Not at all. We'll be using a service from Akamai that's been in use for many years on many many sites.

The IE 360 browser can't play the embed player (although xbone can) so on the 360 I click the little download button to get direct mp4 files, which the 360 can play for some reason. Is this still going to be available?

@edgework I'm in the middle of building a tvOS app to view videos from the site. Am I good to continue or are we still going to lose the video urls from the API as per the above?

@edgework Is it still happening?

@szlifier: There will be an announcement on this today or tomorrow. Short answer is yes but not nearly as drastic as originally thought.

@brianmcdon: Yes you're good. When you get close to being done contact me at edgework (at) giantbomb.com you will need to pull the videos in a new way but for now you can continue you development as you are.

@edgework: That's good news. Thanks.

@edgework sweet will do.