Videos not playing on ' hotstar.com '

[Techguyprivate]

Description

Videos are not playing on hotstar.com. It shows " Uh oh , something went wrong " .

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a new profile. Don't change any setting. Keep all the setting as default.
2. Go to ' hotstar.com '
3. Click on any videos , episodes, films or serials .

 Important Note :  

1. If you visit ' hotstar.com ' from India or having an Indian IP address , it will take you to the ' hotstar.com/in ' , where one can find some free videos and one can watch without logging in , without registration , without a paid subscription or paid membership or paid premium account .

2. There are some videos available as free , without a account or paid membership, paid premium account or subscription. The free videos don't have a tiny star sign/symbol on the upper left side .

3. Click on videos, films not having a star mark on upper left side of the videos or films. The videos not having any star sign on the upper left side , don't require a premium paid account or paid subscription.

4. Videos or films having the star sign on it need a paid subscription or premium paid account.

5 . But if you acess the site from US or IP address coming from USA, it will take you to the ' hotstar.com/us ' . Where there is no free videos or films or any star sign or symbols on videos . You must have an paid membership or paid premium account .

6. So access it from an Indian IP address ( pretend to be aceesing from India through any vpn) to play videos and reproduce the bug without the hassle of having a paid premoium account or paid membership .

Actual result:

Showing " uh oh , something went wrong "

Expected result:

Videos should play .

Either video ads come first, then the videos having content , videos of serials or films.

See on the upper right side for indication and text of advertising .

The exact word ' Visit Advertiser ' .

Video ads before videos are short about 6 sec with a yellow progress bar and on the upper right side showing " Video starts in 5 or 4 sec " .

Or

Videos starts playing with the normal intro and disclaimer with a sound icon on lower left side , a progress bar on lower side indicating how long the video, and a setting to adjust quality of the video and subtitles on lower right side.

With adblocker or no ads , video ads at first .

Reproduces how often:

Easily reproduced.

Brave version (brave://version info)

Brave 0.70.123 Chromium: 78.0.3904.97 (Official Build) (64-bit)
Revision 021b9028c246d820be17a10e5b393ee90f41375e-refs/branch-heads/3904@{#859}
OS Linux
JavaScript V8 7.8.279.23
Flash (Disabled)
User Agent Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/78.0.3904.97 Safari/537.36
Command Line /opt/brave.com/brave/brave --enable-dom-distiller --disable-domain-reliability --no-pings --extension-content-verification=enforce_strict --extensions-install-verification=enforce --sync-url=https://no-thanks.invalid --enable-features=NewExtensionUpdaterService,PasswordImport,WebUIDarkMode,SimplifyHttpsIndicator --disable-features=AutofillServerCommunication,LookalikeUrlNavigationSuggestionsUI,SmsReceiver,AudioServiceOutOfProcess,NotificationTriggers,SyncUSSBookmarks,UnifiedConsent --flag-switches-begin --flag-switches-end
Executable Path /opt/brave.com/brave/brave
Profile Path /home/linux/.config/BraveSoftware/Brave-Browser/Profile 4

Version/Channel Information:

• Can you reproduce this issue with the current release? Yes
• Can you reproduce this issue with the beta channel? Yes
• Can you reproduce this issue with the dev channel? Yes
• Can you reproduce this issue with the nightly channel? Yes

Other Additional Information:

• Does the issue resolve itself when disabling Brave Shields? Yes
• Does the issue resolve itself when disabling Brave Rewards? No
• Is the issue reproducible on the latest version of Chrome? No

Miscellaneous Information:

1. Disabling shields , the videos starts playing. But ads come up.

2.Keeping shields on , but disabling cross site cookies blocked by changing it to allow all cookies , videos starts playing.

3. Enabling shields , but disabling cross site trackers blocked videos don't play. Ads come up .

4. So it seems blocking cross site cookie is the causing the problem .

5. But In Google Chrome, Vivaldi , blocking third party cookies , video starts playing.

6. It works with Ublock origin, nano adblocker too installed and third party cookie blocking on / enabled on latest Chromium and chromium beta .
   
   

[Techguyprivate]

Link to youtube videos expalining the bug without any sound.

https://youtu.be/NvqX7utkGas

In start of the video given in below link, it shows how in latest chrome with adblocker and blocking third party cookie al together, videos starts playing in .

Also in below link explains how hotstar.com is different in India and US . There are free videos avail in India , but paid prime membership is compulsory for US .

https://youtu.be/vPBi7Hi8Hog.

[rebron]

@Techguyprivate Is `hotstar.com in your autoplay list? brave://settings/content/autoplay

[rebron]

cc: @GeetaSarvadnya Can you take a look?

[rebron]

cc: @srirambv I think this might be autoplay?

[ryanbr]

Tested https://www.hotstar.com/in/chhapaak-promo/1260020933

Only works if Shields is configured with Allow all cookies .