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BBC iPlayer Now iPhone Compatible

Wow - quality is brilliant on my iPod Touch.

Will be great if we can download this content, or if a 3G iPhone will allow streaming over the mobile network. :)
 
UltraNurd said:
Maybe a dumb question... but why can't international users pay some fee to access the content (something like the fee people pay in the UK, with possible extra to cover that we're not paying any taxes that help subsidize the programming)?
Click to expand...

In the USA, you'll probably be able to buy the content on iTMS.
 
It's pretty easy to get the H.264 versions downloaded to your Mac, then you can transfer them straight to your ipod and watch them whenever you want without any DRM restrictions. Good work BBC!
 

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starnox said:
It's pretty easy to get the H.264 versions downloaded to your Mac, then you can transfer them straight to your ipod and watch them whenever you want without any DRM restrictions. Good work BBC!
Click to expand...

Mind giving a hint as to how you do this? I haven't found a way but I'm probably missing something obvious :)
 
Method 1 [Easy]

Turn on the debug menu in safari (use tinkertools or terminal).

Set the user agent to Mobile Safari 1.0

Navigate to the BBC website.

Play an episode (note you will just see the quicktime logo and safari will seem to lock up as it's pre-loading the whole of the video first, but be patient and depending on your connection eventually the movie will load in the window and you can just right-click and save as if you have quicktime pro, if you don't have quicktime pro use the method below).

[30min ~110MB, 60min ~250MB]


Method 2 [Advanced]

Navigate to the movie page in Mobile Safari 1.0.

Open up web inspector and inspect the #mip-flash-player element and copy and paste the href pram into another safari window (note it will always start bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/3/auth/iplayer_streaming_http_mp4/ and the access code on the end will be different).

Before you hit enter to navigate to the movie open up the Activity Monitor (Window > Activity).

Then hit enter, you will see a line pop up in the activity monitor, hold down alt and double click on the line (note Safari will be running very slow at this point).

The movie file will then start to download via safari's download manager.

Close the window to remove the slowdown on safari.
 
Method 1 works a treat

Goes straight on the Apple TV too. Quality on a 42inch LCD is not too bad.. not HD by any means but ok

Good work Starnox :D
 
starnox said:
Method 1 [Easy]

Turn on the debug menu in safari (use tinkertools or terminal).

Set the user agent to Mobile Safari 1.0

Navigate to the BBC website.

Play an episode (note you will just see the quicktime logo and safari will seem to lock up as it's pre-loading the whole of the video first, but be patient and depending on your connection eventually the movie will load in the window and you can just right-click and save as if you have quicktime pro, if you don't have quicktime pro use the method below).

[30min ~110MB, 60min ~250MB]
Click to expand...


I have tried both methods, and cannot get either to work. When I navigate to an iPlayer video with mobile safari as the user agent, the video never plays. It locks up Safari as described and then after ages (1h 20m) of apparently intense activity (fans running constantly etc) the quicktime icon changes to one with a question mark floating above it, so I cannot right click and save (I do have QT pro). Also the #mip-flash-player element never appears in the web inspector. It would be amazing to able to download this stuff so its really annoying that I can't get it to work - any ideas about what I'm doing wrong? iPlayer normally works for me.
 
bentoms said:
Actually that was Channel 4 http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/P/peoplesbookofrecords/news/lip.html

& I once drank a horrible cocktail on it....
Click to expand...

Shoot, that's what I meant. Ahhhh I remember that show.. I actually got to be on it too! I was the winner of the human zit one. One of my most proud moments in life filmed a few days before returning to the states after a semester over there. So I never got to see it in the show.

I'm glad I wasn't the banger wanger, but I would have loved to be on the Jaws Theme Swimming
 
blacksheepblues said:
I have tried both methods, and cannot get either to work. When I navigate to an iPlayer video with mobile safari as the user agent, the video never plays. It locks up Safari as described and then after ages (1h 20m) of apparently intense activity (fans running constantly etc) the quicktime icon changes to one with a question mark floating above it, so I cannot right click and save (I do have QT pro). Also the #mip-flash-player element never appears in the web inspector. It would be amazing to able to download this stuff so its really annoying that I can't get it to work - any ideas about what I'm doing wrong? iPlayer normally works for me.
Click to expand...

Some files have corrupt headers which is why you get the ? (I found this was the case with top gear, however if you use method two to download the file it will open in VLC.). Hopefully it's just a one off as I haven't had an issue with anything else. Method 2 also returns your mac back to normal (e.g. no high fans etc.) luckily I am on a 10MB connection so it only takes a few minutes to download the files for me.

Someone has created a script to get do most of the dirty work in method two ( http://hublog.hubmed.org/archives/001632.html ). If you do it in firefox then it will download the file, in safari you will have to still go in activity monitor and alt double click on the file to force download.
 
starnox said:
Some files have corrupt headers which is why you get the ? (I found this was the case with top gear, however if you use method two to download the file it will open in VLC.). Hopefully it's just a one off as I haven't had an issue with anything else. Method 2 also returns your mac back to normal (e.g. no high fans etc.) luckily I am on a 10MB connection so it only takes a few minutes to download the files for me.

Someone has created a script to get do most of the dirty work in method two ( http://hublog.hubmed.org/archives/001632.html ). If you do it in firefox then it will download the file, in safari you will have to still go in activity monitor and alt double click on the file to force download.
Click to expand...

I've tried it with several different programmes, and by both methods and in Safari and Firefox and the bookmarklet, and I get exactly the same problem - the file never plays and the web inspector/activity don't show the files. Grrrr - this would be so useful since I don't have wifi most of the time & I would love to be able to watch Ashes to Ashes on the way to work. If anybody has an idea what I'm doing wrong please tell me!
 
No luck

starnox said:
Care to describe what you do and what you see?
Click to expand...

I am having trouble, as well. In the web inspector I see:

HTML.push('<param name="href" value="http://'+iplayer.host+'/mediaselector/3/auth/iplayer_streaming_http_mp4/' + availableStreams[0].pid + '">');

In which format should I write this in Safari?
 
ok in web inspector if you type in 'mip-flash-player' in the search box and double click on the one which says DOM. disclose a few triangle and you should see a real href without those javascript bits.
 
for some reason i find the iPlayer kills my ipod touch battery very very fast... :(
 
Just a thought...

It sounds very obvious, so forgive me if I am insulting your intelligence, but as you know, not all shows are encoded yet - I have had no problems with the download methods mentioned above for shows that load OK on my iPhone when I navigate to them, but have experienced the same problems as others with shows that are not encoded yet (e.g. ashes to ashes).
 
starnox said:
Care to describe what you do and what you see?
Click to expand...

OK, I go to Debug>User Agent>Mobile Safari 1.0 as instructed, then navigate towards an iPlayer vid, click play, Safari grids to a halt and starts using close to 100 of my CPU (according to activity monitor). Left to do its thing for a while, it does not become right clickable at anytime. Eventually the floating Question mark appears.



gareth davies said:
It sounds very obvious, so forgive me if I am insulting your intelligence, but as you know, not all shows are encoded yet - I have had no problems with the download methods mentioned above for shows that load OK on my iPhone when I navigate to them, but have experienced the same problems as others with shows that are not encoded yet (e.g. ashes to ashes).
Click to expand...

Hehe, don't worry, I did think of that. I've tried a whole bunch of shows, including the Jonathon Ross shown above, the show linked to from the bookmarklet page and *last* weeks Ashes to Ashes, which does work on my iPod :)
 
The download methods don't work for videos which haven't been encoded yet, so check they work on your iPod first.

The episode of Jonathan Ross I downloaded above is no longer available, will have to wait for them to encode the next one.

Try 'that Mitchell and Webb look' as that works for me and is still available.

Top Gear I got the quicktime question mark after waiting, which basically means a corrupt header file, if you use method 2 to download that file you can play the video in VLC and not quicktime.

Currently at my sisters house so I don't have fast internet, will try ashes to ashes later on when I get back home.
 
starnox said:
Someone has created a script to get do most of the dirty work in method two ( http://hublog.hubmed.org/archives/001632.html ). If you do it in firefox then it will download the file, in safari you will have to still go in activity monitor and alt double click on the file to force download.
Click to expand...

works in safari with this procedure:

save bookmarklet to bookmarks toolbar

head over to bbc.co.uk/iplayer

select show

click iPlayLater in bookmark bar

click in to address bar, press alt/opt + enter to download video.
 
bigandy said:
works in safari with this procedure:

save bookmarklet to bookmarks toolbar

head over to bbc.co.uk/iplayer

select show

click iPlayLater in bookmark bar

click in to address bar, press alt/opt + enter to download video.
Click to expand...

Thanks, now I managed to get Safari to download. Only VLC plays the videos, though ( I have no QT Pro)
 
Thanks for your help Starnox but I gave up in the end. I think maybe my internet is just too slow :( Or maybe my computer is too old to cope. I guess I'll just have to wait till the BBC deigns to product a Mac version of iPlayer...
 
Do not give up

blacksheepblues said:
Thanks for your help Starnox but I gave up in the end. I think maybe my internet is just too slow :( Or maybe my computer is too old to cope. I guess I'll just have to wait till the BBC deigns to product a Mac version of iPlayer...
Click to expand...

Try bigandy´s method (#96), it worked on my MBP first time. I had trouble with other methods.
 
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