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Niconico Video and Windows XP


TrevMUN

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Hey all,

In the past I've sometimes perused Nicovideo if I was looking for something specific that wasn't uploaded to YouTube. Or, if I wanted to see reactions to Western content (e.g. Paul "Otaking" Johnson's TIE Fighter short film) given the unique comment system that Nicovideo uses.

Recently I tried to watch a video I've seen there before, only to come up with this message:

Quote

お使いの環境では動画を再生できません

niconico動作環境をご確認下さい。

Without attempting to translate it I thought maybe that meant the video had been deleted, but this message was showing up in lieu of any video I found.

Then I tried translating it:

Quote

Videos cannot be played in your environment

Please confirm the operating environment of niconico.

So I thought ... hey, maybe this is like what happens with Firefox on YouTube if you have the Flash plugin installed; YouTube has been randomly upgrading older videos with HTML5-only, and for some stupid reason if Flash is installed, Firefox will only attempt to use that over HTML5. My other browsers which don't have Flash (New Moon, Chrome, Advanced Chrome) still work fine on YouTube.

But ... No matter which browser I tried, I still got the same error.

So I looked into what this message means. Turns out, Niconico Video terminated support for Windows XP last August.

Quote

Thank you for always using Nico Nico Douga.

As of August 15, 2018 (Wednesday), support for devices with Windows XP will be discontinued.

If you are using a target device, the player will not be displayed on the video viewing page and will not be supported .
To continue using it, please use it in the environment described in the operating environment of niconico .

Now the thing is, Advanced Chrome has usually been enough by itself to bypass any attempts to prevent Windows XP access to websites. It seems like Niconico Video is doing something different though, and not merely checking for browser version/type but operating system, too. What's a good way to get around that?

Edited by TrevMUN
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I agree with @win32; they're probably sniffing the OS version in the user-agent string.

Why they suddenly think that matters is beyond me. "Not supported" should merely mean, "if it doesn't work, don't call us;" it shouldn't mean "we're going to deliberately lock you out."

In FF 52 or one of its derivatives, go to about:config and try setting general.useragent.override to Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:60.9) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/60.9

That will tell them you're using 32-bit Firefox, version 60.9, on 64-bit Windows 7.

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Based on my testing these fools are doing this solely based on the OS version part of the user agent string, e.g. "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/52.0" works, but "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/52.0" doesn't. Good old FF ESR 52.0 seems to work fine otherwise (I don't have an account, so can't check for logged-in features).

It never ceases to amaze me how lazy web developers can be with their a**-umptions, even though there are ways to check if the actually needed functionality is present or not. It's not as if a major site like NicoNico doesn't have the funds to pay their developers for this small bit of extra work...:thumbdown

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I've been trying the agent overrides suggested. Something else seems to be going on, I'm not sure what, but both in New Moon 27.9.1a1 (64-bit) and FF52, some videos still won't play. I get a different message, though:

Quote

 

Failure to play the video.

If the video does not play after reloading, please wait a moment and try again.

 

Test this one and see if it works for you guys? It should be a Japanese upload of Otaking's TIE fighter short film, but I get that message when trying to watch.

I don't think this is related to the weird conflict with the Flash plugin and HTML5 that happens with YouTube, since it's happening with both Firefox-derived browsers and only my copy of FF52 has Flash installed.

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Works for me on Serpent 52 2019.08.16. And I'm using a Windows 2000 user agent to boot! No Bloadobe Flash.

New Moon 28.7.0a1 x86 as well.

Edited by win32
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mixit said:


Based on my testing these fools are doing this solely based on the OS version part of the user agent string


Everyone since ages is bashing websites if they block users based on the useragent string, instead of checking features.
I disagree more and more. The truth is: in today's web with the growing hostily and downright war against users of older systems and browsers, by big corporations and even Mozilla now, this is the best thing that can happen to us! We can be mightly GLAD that so far most websites try to kick us out "only" based on UA string. Considering that's no prob at all, just fake it and we get full access to as many parts of the website as really possible, even on the most ancient systems.
If instead they'd kick us out based on browser features, users of older systems and browsers would get no access at all, without any fix possible. I just don't buy it anymore that all websites were inherently benign, just too stupid or lazy to check features. That's a fairy tale. Perhaps was true twenty years ago, for more or less sites, and probably still for some minor hobby sites. But today the big corporations and even formerly user friendly companies like Mozilla, have started acting so hostile and destructive towards us, fighting us with all they can, to me it's very clear they really want to just get rid of us.

Then again, doesn't matter much anymore, they've won anyway. The Google bosses found the ultimate 100% successful weapon to kick out all users of old systems and browsers, once and for all: just command to encrypt the whole web, as if all pages were banking transactions. End of story. Poof - all empty. Old browsers would still be able to read almost everything, without getting blocked artificially, but that's war. For the moment a few of us are still saved by some special browser builds, but it's only a delay.
So while still able to get in where we can, I'm just glad if the only joke-barriere is UA checking.
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