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BBC iPlayer 2.0 And iPhone

T

trevreyno

macrumors member
Original poster
The BBC has just released a new version of their iPlayer .

Although still in beta, its due to run along side the old site untill 7th July. The beeb has done us iPhone owners proud again! -the new version looks brilliant on the iPhone.😀

You get the feeling most of the people working on this project are Mac fans and iPhone users.

All we need now is downloading for the Mac🙂
 
trevreyno said:
The BBC has just released a new version of their iPlayer .

Although still in beta, its due to run along side the old site untill 7th July. The beeb has done us iPhone owners proud again! -the new version looks brilliant on the iPhone.😀

You get the feeling most of the people working on this project are Mac fans and iPhone users.

All we need now is downloading for the Mac🙂
Click to expand...

just checked. looks MUCh better than before. actually usable now.

i wonder if 3G will allow watching this on cellular?
 
It'll probably work.. after all O2 themselves stream video (currently only via rtsp streams though that the iphone doesn't support - hopefully they'll add quicktime streams).

If you were to read the T&C literally even using Youtube is against them.. can't see them enforcing those clauses unless you take the smeg. If you keep your overall data usage sane I can't see them looking too closely.

One thing you can be sure of - loads of new iphone users will immediately begin using the iplayer along with other streaming services (because hardly anyone reads T&C) so they're going to have to deal with the 'problem' either by cutting thousands of people of, blocking the site, or living wth it.
 
Until we see the O2 T's & C's we won't know the answer to that one, but it would be awesome if this was available...... That's my commute sorted then!
 
Does iPlayer allow you to download programmes to the iPhone? Or is it streaming only?

I would love to be able to download something, then watch it in my lunch hour at work.
 
Sounds like a perfect App. The BBC are looking to implement downloadable iPlayer on many platforms, so I don't see why this shouldn't be one of them.
 
trevreyno said:
All we need now is downloading for the Mac🙂
Click to expand...

Actually, all we need now is them to put all the iplayer content on itunes (as free rentals, perhaps, if they're worried about people keeping the shows) so we can play them on Apple TV. Or iPhone. Or our macs.
 
Am very impressed, it's so new they haven't even added a bookmark yet! People should be sure to give positive feedback to the Beeb because you can guarantee that a bunch of miserable naysayers will be whining about them favouring Apple products.
 
I'm sure I have read somewhere that the BBC have blocked the iPlayer from being accessed from the O2 mobile network on O2's request, presumably to prevent excessive data traffic. Indeed I think that O2 threatened to block access to the iPlayer themselves if the BBC didn't comply with their request 😱

Surely O2 ought to allow some form of iPlayer access - their network ought to be made capable of withstanding such usage; after all this is the 21st century.

At least if someone could provide an iPhone WMA audio stream player then you could listen to BBC radio stations live (unless those streams have been blocked as well).
 
iMachine said:
Surely O2 ought to allow some form of iPlayer access - their network ought to be made capable of withstanding such usage; after all this is the 21st century.
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Totally agree-makes faster data access via 3G pretty pointless if your unable to stream media.

I thought the so called "3G revolution" that we were promised a couple of years ago meant we were supposed to have access to streaming media via our mobile phones?.

Slightly faster loading web pages only don't really cut it.

It will be interesting to see how 02 handle this one.
 
tiguk said:
Until we see the O2 T's & C's we won't know the answer to that one, but it would be awesome if this was available...... That's my commute sorted then!
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i second that!

though i'll need to buffer ahead because as soon as i hit baron's court it's underground till i get off at South Ken
 
alFR said:
Actually, all we need now is them to put all the iplayer content on itunes (as free rentals, perhaps, if they're worried about people keeping the shows) so we can play them on Apple TV. Or iPhone. Or our macs.
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The BBC asked. Apple said they weren't interested since there was no money in it.

Phazer
 
The Phazer said:
The BBC asked. Apple said they weren't interested since there was no money in it.

Phazer
Click to expand...

Was you involved in the discussions? If not, a link?

Theres plenty of free content on iTunes for me not to believe that. Free apps on the AppStore, iTunes U, Podcasts, free premiere episodes of TV series and so on.

And it creates a compelling reason to stay with the iPod ecosystem as the content will be ladened with FairPlay.
 
iplayer radio on iphone even using edge!

Just found this on iplayer, i selected radio, then picked a radio podcast (chris moyles show for example) and then download podcast and it then played right on the iphone. i thought you could only download podcasts in itunes, even playeed using EDGE.
d
 
Project said:
Was you involved in the discussions?
Click to expand...

A little.

Theres plenty of free content on iTunes for me not to believe that. Free apps on the AppStore,
Click to expand...

Yep, we thought that was "interesting" - though the reality is that the bandwidth free apps on the iTunes store will use up in a year is about what iPlayer uses per day, if that.

iTunes U, Podcasts,
Click to expand...

Podcasts aren't distributed by Apple - they just collect the RSS feeds. They come from other people's servers. Same with iTunes U IIRC.

And hence those services don't get Fairplay. For example, music rights are probably *just about* doable for most UK broadcasters for programme downloads if there's timed expiry DRM. You could get podcasts with the music back in (as long as they expire after a few days)!

Podcast producers have asked for that for years. Apple has always refused to give it to them.

free premiere episodes of TV series and so on.
Click to expand...

They're considered promo bits to get people to buy the rest of the season.

And it creates a compelling reason to stay with the iPod ecosystem as the content will be ladened with FairPlay.
Click to expand...

You would think. But given the bandwidth implications it needs to be tied into a peer to peer system like the Windows iPlayer is (to do otherwise is a breach of bbc.co.uk's service licence from the BBC Trust), so it will have to sit outside of iTunes, at least to download the files in the first place. And sitting outside of iTunes is somewhere Apple doesn't want Fairplay to be.

Phazer
 
davidjtaylor07 said:
Just found this on iplayer, i selected radio, then picked a radio podcast (chris moyles show for example) and then download podcast and it then played right on the iphone. i thought you could only download podcasts in itunes, even playeed using EDGE.
d
Click to expand...

Since the podcasts are mp3's anyway, the iPhone will stream them.

You can only *download* them in iTunes - but you can stream podcasts on the iPhone fine if the website is configured to let you.

Phazer
 
How do you know what tv programmes are iphone compatible? I clicked on a few of the popular ones such as topgear, and none of the played.
 
The Phazer said:
But given the bandwidth implications it needs to be tied into a peer to peer system like the Windows iPlayer is (to do otherwise is a breach of bbc.co.uk's service licence from the BBC Trust)
Click to expand...

Sorry, I don't understand this - can you expand a bit on why it would breach the licence to have direct downloads?
 
The Phazer said:
Yep, we thought that was "interesting" - though the reality is that the bandwidth free apps on the iTunes store will use up in a year is about what iPlayer uses per day, if that.

...

And sitting outside of iTunes is somewhere Apple doesn't want Fairplay to be.
Click to expand...
Good informative post, Phazer. It's a shame Apple is resisting this, as the iTunes/iPod/iPhone/AppleTV eco-system really would make sense as a consumer (licence fee payer) friendly means of distributing content. The free rentals idea, or time limited drmd files, would help Apple if you ask me - if I went to iTunes as a matter of course to catch up on BBC programmes, I'd be much more likely to go there next time I wanted to rent a film.
In the mean time, we can always do as Stephen Fry does...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/thefuture/transcript_fry.shtml
edit: I realise the Fry speech is quite long - the bit about iPlayer is on page 3, and includes things such as
at the moment it’s relying on the fact that you have to be slightly dorky to record from the iPlayer, but believe me that will change. It will soon be the work of a moment for my mother to get an iPlayer programme off her computer and onto her iPod, iPhone, or whatever device she chooses
Click to expand...
 
Will we ever see live radio streaming to the iPhone/iPod Touch so we can listen to the radio? At the moment its only available as a REAL or WMP stream.
 
i Just want downloads on the mac version. My DSL is only 512Kbps (or 0.5 Mb) and trying to stream from iplayer is painfull, load for 5 mins watch 2, load another 5, watch 2, oops iphone went to sleap, wake it, have to restart stream, same on my imac, without the sleep thing. its dismal.

WE WANT DOWNLOADS FOR MAC! Personally I'm not fussed about DL's on iphone if i can get them to my mac.
 
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