BBC iPlayer 2.0 And iPhone

[The Phazer]

Sorry, I don't understand this - can you expand a bit on why it would breach the licence to have direct downloads?

The licence only allows for P2P downloads due to bandwidth implications and restrictions brought on at the behest of ISPs by Ofcom's Market Impact Assessment.

A new service licence can be submitted to the Trust for review of course, but that would require another public consultation etc - changing the service licence isn't quick (6 months +) or cheap (seven figures plus).

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.

Yep. If nothing else it would sell tons of iPods. I find Apple's attitude baffling. But then Microsoft are no better - the head of Xbox UK said in the Guardian that they had no interest in getting any UK content in their media store (which means no iPlayer there either)!

That said, to do it actually *through iTunes* is a bit more difficult - the p2p client at least would need to sit outside it. But I'm still amazed that Apple seem content to hand this to Adobe, because it will be a huge boost to AIR.

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

These things will become increasingly difficult, and one would note that unlike recording off the telly recording on demand programmes is illegal in the UK.

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.

James Criland's (who is the grand poobah of BBC Radio online distribution) personal blog this morning says there's a big blog post from him on the BBC Internet blog going up this afternoon, and that there are two more codecs coming for the radio iPlayer later this year. Hopefully one will work on the iPhone, but they will have to be something that is reasonably difficult to capture.

EDIT: Said blog post is here http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radiolabs/2008/06/under_the_iplayer_hood_for_rad.shtml

Phazer

 

[The Phazer]

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.

They're coming before Christmas. An alternative DRM system wasn't available for downloads until a few weeks ago, and now the player has to be built around it.

Phazer

 

[ne0star]

They should all be save for technical problems.

Phazer

Right cheers. Its probably the work firewall thats causing issues. I will test it when I get home.

 

[alabastercodify]

Hopefully one will work on the iPhone, but they will have to be something that is reasonably difficult to capture.
Phazer

What do you mean by 'reasonably difficult to capture'?

 

[The Phazer]

Right cheers. Its probably the work firewall thats causing issues. I will test it when I get home.

It might be problems on the BBC's end too - encoding failures etc do happen, and I suspect all the measures the BBC have taken to prevent people ripping the MP4 streams have lowered the reliability of the service too. I don't have a wifi connection at the moment or I'd check it on mine for you.

But rights issues between the iPhone player and the web player are very, very rare and wouldn't be an issue for Top Gear where there are few external rights holders anyway.

Phazer

 

[The Phazer]

What do you mean by 'reasonably difficult to capture'?

Harder than the mp4 streams were for the video iPlayer at first ( I do believe the current system is uncracked for now).

They can't just stick up mp3 links that only require someone to right click and "save as" for example - the streams being used for the Flash player now are mp3s which the iPhone could play if there was a direct link to them and it wasn't hidden behind Flash, but that would make them too easy for people to illegally download and rights holders would kick off.

Phazer

 

[alabastercodify]

Harder than the mp4 streams were for the video iPlayer at first ( I do believe the current system is uncracked for now).

They can't just stick up mp3 links that only require someone to right click and "save as" for example - the streams being used for the Flash player now are mp3s which the iPhone could play if there was a direct link to them and it wasn't hidden behind Flash, but that would make them too easy for people to illegally download and rights holders would kick off.

Phazer

I thought that's what you meant, but if audio can be streamed, it can be recorded. Or is that considered too geeky to be problem?

 

[The Phazer]

I thought that's what you meant, but if audio can be streamed, it can be recorded. Or is that considered too geeky to be problem?

Pretty much. Any lock can be picked, but the idea is just to be sufficiently slow and difficult few people bother.

Phazer

 

[alFR]

These things will become increasingly difficult, and one would note that unlike recording off the telly recording on demand programmes is illegal in the UK.

Looks like the way forward is a freesat card, an EyeTV 310 and a bit of AppleScript/folder actions then: hey presto, Mac -> DVR.

 

[AJC999]

i have a new 3G iPhone, how do I get the iPlayer on the iPhone?

 

[03sho]

i have a new 3G iPhone, how do I get the iPlayer on the iPhone?

ummm ever thought of going to the iplayer site?

 

[AJC999]

i thought it was a separate application

 

[Lara F]

I thought the iphone didn't support real player or windows media so how can it play ?

It can't. Nice spam though.

The WMP streams could be played via a 3rd party like FStream (ie. not directly linked from Safari) but unfortunately those are geolocked for BBC Radio 1-4, so there's no way to get them outside the UK. BBC's apparently aware and working on a solution, but for the moment I share your frustration.

This is the site to go to btw:
http://bbcstreams.com

 

[steverunner]

I thought the iphone didn't support real player or windows media so how can it play ?

Is it possible to get BBC radio on my iphone in Australia?

I can listen to them and listen again on my PC but not my iphone.

Iv'e been searching everywhere on how to do it. Majorly frustrating.t

Check out the Wunderradio app, has all the BBC radio stations on and works really well.

 

[shotts56]

Doesn't have Radio Scotland. No use if you want to listen to the football.

 

[Lara F]

Check out the Wunderradio app, has all the BBC radio stations on and works really well.

steverunner, you're in the UK I presume from your location. BBC 1-4 won't work on Wunderradio outside the country because it uses the geolocked streams. I can get BBC 6 Music though.

Now if someone's actually managed to get them outside the UK I'm all ears.

I guess the mods removed the spam links? Good (even though my earlier post makes no sense now lol).

 

[Daveecee]

Why did this six month old thread get resurrected?

 

[stevearm]

Why did this six month old thread get resurrected?

Because a poster wanted to add something to the discussion.

Is that a problem for you?