Channel 4oD

[Woolly One]

Hi,
Just a quickie, I hope! Have just downloaded the 4oD player, so that I could watch last weeks Ramseys Kitchen Nightmares. During install, my Norton picked up that a 'Kservices' thing(for want of a better word!) needed to be there aswell. It recommended that I allow it. To which I did, and quite happily watched Ramsey.

I've seen Kservices mentioned on a thread to do with the BBCi Player.

Can someone let me know exactly what it is please? Should it be there? If not, how do I get rid of it? And will the player still work without it?

Cheers in advance - Woolly One

[bob_a_builder]

Player wont work without it AFAIK

Its all part of the underlying p2p stuff which moves the progs (files) around between users

[Woolly One]

Thanks 4 that. So if I right click on 4oD icon and totally exit out of it when I'm finished watching a prog. It won't be using me as a P2P while I'm not using it? Is that right?

[alferret]

I would bring up the task manager and stop the process from there. Also once the file has been watched delete it from your PC s it cannot be shared.
While 4oD and BBCi are quite good for catch-up. Your with a traffic managed ISP and KSERVICE doesnt know that. So you could find yourself shaped without even realising it.

[ShadowTD]

The underlying framework for iPlayer and 4oD is Kontiki - a P2P framework for DRM content. This runs in the background hammering away at your download limit until you stop it.

[Horace]

On the BBCi Player tray icon, right click, select preferences and click the Advanced tab. Then untick "Allow programmes to be shared when you exit BBC iPlayer". I'm not sure if the CH4 version also has that option.

[cookie_365]

I don't use 4oD but this works for BBC iPlayer so something similar should work for 4oD too. No guarantees mind you.

1. Use WinPatrol or something similar to stop the kservice service from automatically starting with Windows.
2. Install AutoHotKey which lets you create script programs.
3. Have a look at the txt file attached.
4. Change the h_target= bit to match the shortcut that starts 4oD (right click on the 4oD shortcut, choose Properties, Shortcut, Target).
5. Compile the script into an .exe file - see the AutoHotKey site - and save into the Kontiki program files folder.
6. Create shortcuts to that file instead of the normal 4oD program file.
7. You can change the icon for the shortcuts too if you want too.

Basically it starts iPlayer, which automatically starts kservice too. You might have to add another line at the start to force the service to start if 4oD doesn't do it for you. It then waits for iPlayer to finish running (when you right click the system tray icon and exit). Then it stops kservice, waits for that to complete, then finishes. You see a green icon in the system tray while its doing its thing.

Once you know it works, you can delete the old shortcuts - or move them into the program files folder in case you want them back

You may have to tweak it for 4oD but it should basically be the same. I think Sky uses kservice too so it might work on that as well.

Does that help?