Anyone else taking part in the BBC iMP trials?

[edesignuk]

BBC iMP. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/imp/)

Just got an email through to say I'd been "selected" (how special :p) to take part in the trial. Unfortunately the iMP app is Windows only at the moment (knew I kept that PC knocking around for a reason ;)).

Looking forward to seeing what the quality, speed, and content is like :)

[greatdevourer]

Yeah, I got selected :cool: But I have 2 PCs remaining, and 1 runs OSx86 and the other runs Gentoo :p

[dcv]

No... I didn't know about it.... but I don't have the hardware to support it anyway. oh well!

[MacSA]

BBC iMP. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/imp/)

Just got an email through to say I'd been "selected" (how special :p) to take part in the trial. Unfortunately the iMP app is Windows only at the moment (knew I kept that PC knocking around for a reason ;)).
:)

I bet it never comes to the Mac.

[edesignuk]

I bet it never comes to the Mac.Don't be such a pessimist!

[pinks]

BBC iMP. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/imp/)

Just got an email through to say I'd been "selected" (how special :p) to take part in the trial. Unfortunately the iMP app is Windows only at the moment (knew I kept that PC knocking around for a reason ;)).

Looking forward to seeing what the quality, speed, and content is like :)

I was selected a few weeks ago and filled in the ediary so I would qualify to download the iMP application. Was really disappointed, though, when the email with the download link confirmed Windows-only (I had hoped that a Mac version might be announced as the system went live).

Fingers crossed for the rapid development of the program for OSX.

For those of you with PCs, how is iMP operating? The screen shots on the BBC website do look quite tasty.

[ensee]

I got the activation email in from the BBC today and downloaded it - just as well I've still got a Windows 2000 PC kicking about. As for not coming to mac, it is. The BBC have said their vendors ( anyone know who's making the software for them?) are working on both Mac and Linux.

The software is pretty good - you get more local content (Reporting Scotland - goodie...) than I had thought and thankfully they've put on the big hit shows like Spooks and Little Britain, as well as some little documentaries like Little Europe which I missed last week so it's already come in handy. It says you get films too - well you can search for them - but I couldn't really get to them easily. I'd prefer browsing by genre, not channel AND genre AND date aired which is a little too restrictive. In any case it's probably BBC films - so that's what exactly? Billy Elliot and... - you get my point.

Downsides, you have to be on the internet to play anything since, unlike a file with FairPlay DRM, it goes out on the internet to get permissions to watch it. And you're tied to your desktop to watch it and since it's Windows media files, it's going to be tricky to come to your shiny new iPod. Content can go to your smartphone/pda but I've got neither.

I don't know what the next step is - I think I fill in another eDiary (wasn't that fun...) and probably give some more feedback. The BBC's head of new content, interactive services or something like that, was on Breakfast the other day after the iPod announcement saying that this looked interesting and cited the iMP - which isn't referred to as I M P but rather imp, like a little goblin thing.

In any case, I've read a couple of pieces saying that the public release could be a couple of weeks away. Couple this with the version of the software - 9.50...something (I'm on my mac now and can't remember) I think it's on track.

It's decent but the files, at over 300MB for an hour seem a little bloated to me. Oh, and there's some HD in there for, well, people who like shiny things.

Enjoy.

EDIT:
We are currently conducting a content trial of iMP with 5,000 users in order to assess audience interest. As this is a trial it has only been possible to develop a version for Windows using Windows Media 9 Digital Rights Management, given time and budget constraints. Should the service be approved, we aim to make it accessible for different platforms, like Macintosh and Linux. Our suppliers are currently working towards this.