Is decompiling SWF and/or de-obfuscating Javascript really necessary?
Years ago, I approached these sites like the author in the blog post. I spent hours reading about Flash and figuring out the schemes websites used. I decompiled swf. I also tried rtmpdump, livestreamer and other all-in-one solutions. I used early youtube downloaders (clive, etc) and later quvi. I also used /dev/bpf to capture HTTP requests. I tried it all.
I can relate to what the author is trying to do. I never settle for "streaming". Download only.
However I found over the years either the websites have made things easier or I was simply trying too hard. Or maybe I just am not interested in the type of video that is served in this way. For some reason it takes much less effort now.
To make sure I am not imagining this, I decided to try one of the author's examples.
I chose projectfreetv.so
1. I followed a link on the main page for some TV show I have never seen.
2. I read the HTML.
3. I noticed /watch/?aff_id= URL's.
4. I chose the first one, 493165, and followed it.
5. I read the HTML.
6. I noticed a URL pointing to a website that serves TV shows and followed it.
7. I read the HTML.
8. I noticed a URL pointing to an MP4 file.
9. I downloaded the file.
I assume I got the TV episode on offer. The screen size is a little small but the file was about 89MB and appeared to be the full episode.
Total time: less than 10min
What did I use? sed, netcat, less and ftp for the download. The entire process is a one-liner.
If anyone has some more examples to try, please list them. I would welcome the challenge.