TVs / media players

Suggestions
1

Would it be possible if you could have the media players go to other websites than just YouTube and SoundCloud saying if you wanted a host like a watch party I don’t know the technical know-how to get something like that to work.

You know like KissAnime and other anime sites

I just think having more options with the media player would be a nice change than just having SoundCloud and YouTube.

Or am I just completely off base, just thought I’d throw that in there.

Also someone tell me is this the right place to put my suggestion because I don’t know where it should be

2

Devs have already said that pirate sites are a big no-no.

3

You can enter some sites and they’ll display, but not function properly. Watch2Gether is an example: if you enter a W2G lobby, it’ll load everything, but it won’t be fullscreen and the Login popup will appear.

4

Web browser was something that was going to be a thing, but I haven’t heard anything in a very long time ever since Steam changed their browser stuff, breaking a lot in TU and now I think we use an Unreal plugin for it to work (the Steam change is what broke stream and Twitch support iirc).

5

As others have said, pirate sites are something the devs are very against.

And to elaborate on the media player support, here’s this. This image is about 2 or 3 years old now, but I think this is still pretty much the case.

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Whilst there is a H.264 codec available to license, it is something that would be wildly expensive for the devs:

I don’t know if there has been any updates to the Steam browser that would have fixed the issues, but at this point even if it was fixed, I doubt there is any priority for PT to reimplement it.

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6

Mac did try out the Steam browser again fairly recently, but it was still as broken as it was years ago, so an easy fix seems to be out of the question.

Codec-wise, it may be possible to integrate OpenH264 as a method to use the H.264 codec without royalties, as Cisco will front the licensing fees for programs that interface with their provided OpenH264 binaries (as long as those binaries are downloaded to the user’s device, rather than bundled directly with another program). Given Tower is a commercial program, there may be some other issues regarding licensing if using this route, but it does seem like integration is possible without having to pay royalties as the end user is using the binaries for their personal use (see License question. · Issue #943 · cisco/openh264 · GitHub).

As for the actual question being asked, piracy issues aside, site integration tends to be difficult (and/or impossible) unless the developers have access to an API they can use. Youtube and Soundcloud both have APIs available, but those types of sites typically don’t have those available.

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