android app locking stream to device with password

[stewart]

Hi is there a way or can you please add a password protection to the select server on the app. The reason i ask is we have 3 kids all with phones with the app and all at different age settings. now if one of the kids ask another kid with higher access to stream it to there tv for them this would work because it gose on the what ever the access is of the phone and over rides the device being streamed to. Now if there was some way to lock the stream to device settings after it has been set then this would stop this problem. thanks

[Peter]

Hi,
in 'Media Devices' in Mezzmo you can double-click the device and on the content ratings tab http://www.mezzmo.com/wiki/doku.php?id=device_settings#content_ratings_tab set the maximum content rating that should be streamed to the device and this will prevent another app from streaming the content to the device.

[stewart]

hi i tryed that eg i set the device to rating g in the device manager and the andiord app to rating r int the drvice manager and the app override the device and played the r movie

i don't think you understand what im saying ill try to be more clear

let say there are two rooms both rooms have a media player with two different rattings we will say peter is G and sam is R

Now both kids have a phone and have the mezzmo app on it peter android phone is set to G in the device manager and sam's is set to R Both phones can see both media players in the stream to device in the mezzmo app setting peters is set to (G no problem because sam can watch (G) anywhay) and sam is set to (R) Big problem keep reading

Now if peter (G) goes to sam (R) and ask sam to stream a (R) rated video or file to peters media player (G) it will stream and play on peters media player.

Now if the select stream to device was password protected in the mezzmo android app this would mean sam with (R) could not stream to peter (G) because he would not be able to select his device.

EVEN BETTER would be to have a option to lock the phone device mac address to the media player mac address or ip's so they could not share high ratings with low rating devices maybe theres a better way but that is the problem with the andiord app it can stream high rating videos to a device that is ment to be set lower.

thanks hope this helps

[Hania22]

very Nice Idea as well .

[Peter]

I tested this here and found that if you set the content rating to G on the device then this allows all content to be streamed to it because the minimum age for G is 'None' or 0. The setting for the Device is 'Do not stream files with the following content rating or higher' so setting it to G should prevent all files from playing as the content rating will test to see if the minimum age is less than 0, try setting it to 'M' or 'PG-13' if you are using US Content Ratings and this will prevent an R rated file being streamed to the device.

[stewart]

i was using (G) as a sample it dose the same if a device is set to pg or (m) it does not work its a HUGE hole in the android app. you are not understanding what im saying maybe i know more about your app than you do lol:) anyone keen to try and explane it to them better because im tell you it does not work and is a huge security problem.

[Peter]

When a device requests a file from the Mezzmo server the content rating of the file is checked against the current content rating settings for that device, if the file's content rating is above the content rating set for the device then a 403 forbidden response is returned to the device. If in the Mezzmo android app you have used the PIN in settings to unlock the content ratings then the file will be able to be streamed to the device regardless of the content rating set. We have tested both of these scenarios here using the same setup you have described and the only way to stream the R rated file to the device is if the PIN is entered, please check to see if you have http://www.mezzmo.com/wiki/doku.php?id=mezzmo_android_bypass_content_rating_r estrictions&s[]=pin the PIN set. You can try exiting the Mezzmo android app then change the PIN in Options in Mezzmo then run the Android app again to see if the file still plays on the device when played from the android app.

[stewart]

Werd then because if i have say a media device set to (pg) in the device manager and i have the cellphone app set to (R) in the device manager. Then i tell the phone to stream a video that is (R) to that media device that is set to (pg) it will play on that device ????

[Peter]

Can you please enable diagnostic logging http://www.mezzmo.com/wiki/doku.php?id=using_logging&s[]=diagnostic then after restarting your Mezzmo media server try repeating this by streaming an R video to the pg device then send us the logs so we can investigate what is happening.

[stewart]

Can you please enable diagnostic logging http://www.mezzmo.com/wiki/doku.php?id=using_logging&s[]=diagnostic then after restarting your Mezzmo media server try repeating this by streaming an R video to the pg device then send us the logs so we can investigate what is happening.

Hi again looks like its working now tried on all tvs and works. Not shore why it was not working before must of been somthing i was doing. ONE think tho i still would like to lock out the devices accept the device they are using eg there app (tablet or phone) and there tv in there own room. I can just see my younger kids sending a (g) or (pg) to my older kids tv with a rating or (r) just to annoy them. Eg if my 18yo is watching a move and one of the younger kid sends a lower rating to the 18yo tv using there tablet or phone it will play on there tv stoping the move they are watching i can see a fight happening lol. :)

thanks

[Peter]

Glad to hear it is working, your idea for locking the app to only send content to a specific device is interesting. We could add a password or pin to lock the device list to only allow certain devices to be selected but this would not prevent using another app to play a file to the TV and interrupt the playing content. We may consider adding something like this.

[stewart]

maybe lock the tablet or phone to the device on the server side so only that phone or device will work with that tv or with itself

[Peter]

The app doesn't actually talk to the server when playing a file or when performing an action such as pause, stop, seek, etc. The app talks directly to the device and tells it which URL to request and then to stop, play or pause, etc. so it would not be possible to use the Mezzmo server to prevent actions being performed on the device.

[stewart]

maybe lock the tablet or phone to the device on the server side so only that phone or device will work with that tv or with itself

yep i realize that but i have a way around that lol i have locked the google play store on the tablets and phones giveing me more control this means they can not download other apps lol

[Peter]

One possible way you could keep them separate would be to put each TV and phone in a separate subnet and this would prevent them from controlling each other's TV using the app, this would probably require adding an extra router and also you would need to have the PC running Mezzmo server in both subnets.