cbs.com issues (can't watch Survivor, Amazing Race, etc)

[Mannequin]

I have trouble playing video from CBS.com for the shows Survivor and The Amazing Race. They use the same player. Usually I will not have trouble loading the video initially, but if I skip ahead or wait for one of the commercials to load in the middle of the show, that's when I run into trouble. Here's an example URL: http://www.cbs.com/primetime/survivor/video/. If you click, the video will probably load at first, but if you skip to one of the circular dots on the timeline that's when you'll see a commercial.

Sometimes AdBlock will prevent the ad from loading, however, CBS has gotten smart and figured out a way to shut the video down if an ad is blocked:



I've tried customizing my own filters, disabling this or enabling that... and I'm having real problems getting anything to work. I am using Firefox and the EasyList susbscription. I also submitted an Issue Report here: https://reports.adblockplus.org/226004c ... b=requests

Would you recommend I add another subscription to AdBlock? Any other recommendations to get around this issue? It has been driving me nuts for the longest time.

[fanboy]

I managed to play it fine here, using http://www.cbs.com/primetime/survivor/v ... vs=Default as a test

[Mannequin]

I got an ad that played right away. This is the problem -- you either see an ad or you see a message telling you an ad was blocked, and then the video won't load and you can't watch your show. Go back to your URL and try skipping ahead to a later part, and then you might run into the problem I explained.

[fanboy]

Not every site allows you to stop the video ad, media/entertainment companies are slowly getting more clued on about this.

[Micky'D]

There's always a way. admuncher blocks cbs.com video ads just fine.

[Mannequin]

Not every site allows you to stop the video ad, media/entertainment companies are slowly getting more clued on about this.

I am thinking with Action Script Viewer you could decompile the player and take a look at the actionscript and how it's pulling in the ads. Then you could put a block on those sites/links. It might not work. I'm guessing what it does is request the ad and upon completion of the ad playing it returns a variable indicating it's been played, and then the video picks up again. I'm wondering if there is a way to acquire the video itself, again by decompiling the player and looking at the script. It's probably not that easy but it would be worth a shot. I haven't used Action Script Viewer in a couple of years and don't even own a copy of it any longer, but I'm sure the action script would tell us something.

There's always a way. admuncher blocks cbs.com video ads just fine.

I'll give this a shot, thanks.

[Michael]

The verification of content is often completed by Flash, which Adblock Plus cannot control to the required degree to avoid the "functionality".