The PlayOn browser extension was the one thing that always worked, and now Playon has taken it away. The older version is not compatible with newer versions of Firefox or Opera and flat doesn't work in Chrome. In the latest version of Playon, it has been completely removed. With the PlayOn browser extension it was at least helpful for downloading multi-segment videos, but now that it's gone the already low value of Playon is now even lower.
Date
Votes
26 comments
-
David S. They've dropped support for that too? I hadn't noticed yet. I suppose not very many people used it, and the development team was forced to choose where they focus their efforts on maintaining features.
-
lynn Seems like dropping a feature instead of fixing the problem has become their standard mode of operation. As to their development team having to set priorities, I don't believe they have more than 1 or perhaps 2 people in their development and support teams combined. If you look at their feature and channel list from a year ago and compare it to what they are advertising now, it's like night and day. I've come to believe that they are just riding Playon down the curve taking whatever sales come in until it dwindles to nothing.
-
Tim Rude I'm not happy about the removal of the browser extension either. Since they keep dropping to fewer and fewer channels, it was a way to record from unsupported sources. Now there's no way to do so.
I agree, PlayOn seems to be tanking.
-
lynn I was able to install an older version of both PlayOn and Firefox and got the PlayOn Plugin working again. Of all the things PlayOn does, the browser extension is one of the best, or at least it was until they took it away. Fortunately I was able to roll back the clock on my versions and freeze any updates so it will keep working..
-
Robin Dunn Lynn, which versions did you roll back to?
-
lynn Robin,
I rolled it back to version 4.4.39.23447, and it seems to work as it originally did.
-
Karl hamilton I agree, the channels have been dwindling and the browser extension was the only way to record much. Not sure if I want to roll back FF and Playon. Are there any alternatives to PlayOn?
-
lynn Alternatives to the PlayOn browser plugin ... depends. The PlayOn browser plugin is the only one that I'm aware of that works correctly with the JW Player streaming system. That system is used by some streaming hosts to thwart the user making a local copy of their videos by breaking the stream up into separate 2 Kb videos that are reassembled by the JW Player. For most everything else, the Video Download Helper works great. Warning: Video Download Helper must be run on a browser other than Chrome to record any YouTube video. I use FireFox to record anything from YouTube that I want. You can get the free Video Download Helper at:
https://www.downloadhelper.net/
Good luck !
-
Karl hamilton Thanks Lynn,
Downloaded Video Download Helper and it worked well on AHS from FxNetworks. Too bad PlayOn is fading away.
-
lynn Glad it worked out for you. As to PlayOn at this point, all I use it for is to record one particular website that streams in the JW Player streaming system. Otherwise, I've written it off completely.
-
Karl hamilton I still use it for the channels that remain, when they work
-
David S. PlayOn Desktop has been gradually losing services it supports, but I expect a lot of that is due to the additional work needed to maintain and add services for PlayOn Cloud. Losing the PlayMark browser extension is disappointing though. (Although the timing suggests they didn't want to spend the resources needed to rewrite the Firefox version for compatibility with recent versions of Firefox.)
-
Bill Batty Jr I'm having the problem with the Amazon channel, so I thought "I know, I'll use the plug in and download my content that way." I guess not. I guess the lifetime license wasn't such a good buy after all.
-
lynn The lifetime license was, I thought, a god investment for a long term solution to recording streaming videos locally. Unfortunately, I bought it right before it all started going downhill. And, of course, I had to seriously upgrade my computer, and added an expensive graphics card so it would record HD without dropping frames. So here I am, LOTS of $$ later with nothing to show for it but lots of wasted time and effort.
-
Randy Rosebrock lynn, any chance you can share the download. I have PlayOnSetup.4.4.17. I have a couple of series I need to record.
-
lynn Randy,
Are you wanting the download for an older version of PlayOn or for the Video Download helper?
- Easiest first: Video Download Helper is an extension available in the FireFox extension library, and it's free. The latest version works just fine.
- As to an earlier version of PlayOn, I'm running a newer version that you have as mine is Version 4.4.39.23447.. So, yours should work . However, if you want a yet earlier version, you can get Version 4.4.18 here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/niaa2txo2nxxggt/PlayOnSetup.4.4.18.exe?dl=0
Not sure I answered your question, so please let me know ...
-
Randy Rosebrock pretty close. Two thing,
first thing "https://www.downloadhelper.net/ " does not work.
Second thing, I was hoping to get the newer one you were using. " 4.4.39.23447 ". I've been a chrome user , only used firefox maybe 10-20 times in my life. Does it run better on Firefox?
-
Randy Rosebrock Lynn, oops hit the enter key too soon. I as lead to believe you need both PlayOn installed and the chrome, firefox, IE extension to kick off video recording in chrome/firefox/IE. Is the Video Download helper you talking about the extension? Are there updated extension out there that i just install and add it back in?
-
lynn Randy,
I am using the Version 4.4.39.23447, but I retrieved it from a system backup I did earlier (I do a full, 100% backup of all my computers every night). Unfortunately, I don't have the install package for that version.
However, any of the older PlayOn versions should contain the plugin for FireFox. I use FireFox instead of Chrome since Chrome will interfere with some video downloads. All I use FireFox for is the PlayOn plugin, and it works well with it. Of course, you have to have an older version of FireFox as well. I am running Version 60.0.2 (which I also retrieved from a backup).
Hope this helps. As we all know, sometimes progress can actually be a step backwards.
-
Rick Mandl Lynn,
Can you provide a link to download the older version of Playon?
I tried
https://www.dropbox.com/s/niaa2txo2nxxggt/PlayOnSetup.4.4.18.exe?dl=0
But that link comes up dead.
-
lynn And now it appears that the last working channel that I have been using, ABC, is not working anymore. PlayOn was such a great idea and a great solution, but it's management has just let it dwindle into nothingness. Sad.
-
David S. Lynn, have you submitted a support ticket for the ABC channel? They're much more likely to fix it after it's been reported it as broken.
-
lynn David,
As best I can tell, PlayOn has let most, if not all, of their development team go and is riding PlayOn to the end, accepting money from anyone that buys into the story their advertising and old reviews promote. I've turned in a number of support tickets, and have never gotten any of them resolved. I have gotten notes back on some of them saying they were prioritizing them along with their other work. In response to the last several support tickets I submitted, they simply removed that channel from their list. None have ever reappeared as a functioning channel.
-
Rob Holman Regarding the discussion of downloading/installing older versions of Firefox & PlayOn:
-Every version of Firefox can be downloaded from filehippo.com and v60.0.1 64-bit is at https://filehippo.com/download_mozilla-firefox-64/84532/
-Every version of PlayOn can be downloaded at https://www.videohelp.com/software/PlayOn/old-versions
Based on what was discussed here, I installed Firefox v60.0.1 64-bit & PlayOn 4.4.38 in a current version of Windows 10 Pro, but Firefox kept crashing and it was related to the PlayOn extension. I then tried the same two versions of Firefox & PlayOn in a Windows 7 Pro 64-Bit Virtual Machine environment and, as before, I made sure to immediately go into the Firefox settings and turn off auto-update. In the Windows 7 VM, I am able to successfully capture Amazon Video via PlayOn's Firefox launch/record feature and the plus with this is that I can better control the software versions staying the same in Windows 7.
-
Randy Rosebrock Can't seem to win. I installed Firefox v60.0.1 64-bit & PlayOn 4.4.38 in most current win 10.
a. Made sure internet connect was pulled and no access.
b. Set both to no update.
c. Connected internet.
d. Went to setting in playon and turned in IE, Google and firefox. Applied then exited.
Playon icon only shows up in IE so I try it. When I try to go to AMC.com in IE it works great work for a few seconds till I start scrolling down to find the sow I want to start to record, AMC puts up and notice tell me to upgrade the browsers. So next I know Firefox v60.0.1 32 just worked on my older laptop I'm going to uninstall firefox and try 32 bit.
-
Mark Toomey Not directly related, but when Video Download Helper and Playon Ext. started to fail, I looked for alternatives, and while not perfect, JDownloader 2 downloads most any stream you can throw at it (on Firefox). Chrome still prevents captures of YouTube and YouTubeTV.
Tooms
Please sign in to leave a comment.