BBC iPlayer service to be re-engineered to work on Macs

[thworple]

Check this out from the BBC - their iPlayer is being re-engineered to work on Macs!!

Guess the complaints they had about it originally being Windows only helped...


(although our version will take longer to be released due to the fact that Apple's "proprietary and closed framework for digital rights management gives us headaches," but, "it is one of our top priorities to re-engineer our proposed BBC iPlayer service to work on Macs".)

 

[iGav]

Apple's "proprietary and closed framework for digital rights management gives us headaches," but, "it is one of our top priorities to re-engineer our proposed BBC iPlayer service to work on Macs".)

No... if you'd just done it properly in the first place.

"one day enabling any viewer to access any BBC programme ever broadcast via their television"

Right... he is aware that Auntie doesn't actually have copies of every BBC program ever broadcast.

The BBC could be so good. As is... it's nothing other than a half arsed disgrace.

 

[cwedl]

Apple's "proprietary and closed framework for digital rights management gives us headaches," but, "it is one of our top priorities to re-engineer our proposed BBC iPlayer service to work on Macs".)

Don't use it then! DRM sucks!

 

[iGav]

Don't use it then! DRM sucks!

This is the Beeb we're talking about.

 

[thworple]

Right... he is aware that Auntie doesn't actually have copies of every BBC program ever broadcast.

Ha - so true - they're forever putting out requests for people who may have 'lost' episodes of Doctor Who, Dad's Army, Till Death Do Us Part etc. etc... They deleted so much stuff due to shortage of tape stock back in the day.

The BBC could be so good. As is... it's nothing other than a half arsed disgrace.

Again, have to agree with you, about the only thing about the Beeb I struggle to complain about is their website, which I frequent more often than I do Macrumors!

 

[Photo Monkey]

In the BBC's defense, they do make some of the best quaility programming in the world.

 

[Queso]

In the BBC's defense, they do make some of the best quaility programming in the world.

They also make a lot of crap.

 

[PreacherKane]

They have a good balance between the great Life on Mars and the crappy Torchwood. But all of the terrestial UK TV channels are too obsessed with cheap as chips reality TV. Like the Maria thing and the Joseph programme.

 

[Blue Velvet]

But all of the terrestial UK TV channels are too obsessed with cheap as chips reality TV. Like the Maria thing and the Joseph programme.

Precisely because they're cheap as chips and popular as well... hands up for a doubling of the price of a TV license!

No? Thought so.

 

[PreacherKane]

Precisely because they're cheap as chips and popular as well... hands up for a doubling of the price of a TV license!

No? Thought so.

But it's all a con. Premium rate phone numbers. £1 plus network rate to text. You can undertsand that kind of materialistic attitude on other channels but you need a license to watch TV and the money goes to the BBC.

 

[Queso]

But it's all a con. Premium rate phone numbers. £1 plus network rate to text. You can undertsand that kind of materialistic attitude on other channels but you need a license to watch TV and the money goes to the BBC.

So don't call. Let the idiots who haven't worked it out pay for your evening's viewing.

Or...

Switch off the TV set and go out and do something less boring instead

 

[PreacherKane]

So don't call. Let the idiots who haven't worked it out pay for your evening's viewing.

Or...

Switch off the TV set and go out and do something less boring instead

Fair enough.
It is good that they are listening to the complaints. More services should be Mac compliant from the beginning, not after a round of compaints.

 

[mctones]

Not there yet!

Don't all get too excited. The BBC Trust have today formally approved the BBC iPlayer, BUT dig a little into the report and you will see this little gem:

seven-day catch-up television over the internet, which relies on digital rights management licensing provided by Microsoft, was required to be made available to users of Apple and Linux operating systems within a reasonable timeframe, which the Trust proposed should be two years

TWO YEARS!?!? Surely the iPlayer needs to be delayed completely untill a cross-platform solution is found?

 

[Queso]

I particularly love this quote

But the BBC said it could not commit to a two-year deadline to achieve this goal, saying it was up to the third parties concerned.

Welcome to the reality of working with Microsoft on something chaps.


Idiots.

 

[arkitect]

However from here

"…the BBC Trust said it would audit the BBC's progress against this objective every six months to ensure that members of the public not using Windows PCs would not be disadvantaged."

So hopefully someone will be looking out for the other platforms.

Until the Mac version comes out I guess running it under Paralells would be the answer. Works for Channel 4's 4OD.

Don't all get too excited. The BBC Trust have today formally approved the BBC iPlayer, BUT dig a little into the report and you will see this little gem:



TWO YEARS!?!? Surely the iPlayer needs to be delayed completely untill a cross-platform solution is found?

 

[mctones]

However from here

Damn, wish I had captured the original version of that article this morning. It most definitely did NOT have that sentence in, and was about half the length in its entirety.

A two year time scale, thats dependent on 3rd parties, although audited every six months, still gives us mac/*nix users what?? To me, lip serivce, nothing else.

I feel myself going from disappointment to anger. Maybe it is slightly cutting off my nose to spite my face but surely there must be a stronger outcome here; delay release until platform agnostic?

A little over the top, but I wonder whether this is giving MS based systems an unfair commercial edge; buy our system and you get BBC ondemand service? Paying for a Microsoft based software app is most certainly NOT what my license fee should be paying towards.

 

[mkrishnan]

Paying for a Microsoft based software app is most certainly NOT what my license fee should be paying towards.

Yeah...although, if you add up all the license fees of all the citizens of the UK who have non-Windows computers... will it be enough to justify the cost of developing iPlayer on Mac and Linux?

They should not have gotten locked into something that had little capacity to be cross-platform in the first place, and then tried to backtrack. However, Linux does pose a problem, doesn't it? Is there really any support for DRM used outside of Linux in Linux? MS's solution is out. Apple's solution is out.

Although...then there's the can of worms question.... why does the BBC really need DRM on a service that is already being provided without a direct end-user cost? This service would be free, even, say, to that lowest of all mean characters, the American, no? So why couldn't they just do this without DRM?

 

[Queso]

Although...then there's the can of worms question.... why does the BBC really need DRM on a service that is already being provided without a direct end-user cost? This service would be free, even, say, to that lowest of all mean characters, the American, no? So why couldn't they just do this without DRM?

I think it's to satisfy the independent production companies and other content providers that supply the BBC with its programmes. Although it's a good point. Why couldn't iPlayer be DRM-free and only be used for BBC-produced content until they could devise a better DRM solution?

Why? Because they are still living with this mistaken belief that Microsoft can be trusted, that's why.

 

[mctones]

Yeah...although, if you add up all the license fees of all the citizens of the UK who have non-Windows computers... will it be enough to justify the cost of developing iPlayer on Mac and Linux?

If you add up all the license fees of all the citizens of the UK who have hearing/sight problems and access the bbc website... will it be enough to justify the cost of developing an accessible BBC website?

Probably not, but that is not the issue. It is about accessibility, and accessibility is more than physical or the speed of your internet connection. I would be happy for a proportion of my license fee to contribute to the MS sytem AS LONG as it was being developed and released at the same time as mac and *nix, just as I am happy for money to be spent on hearing/sight accessibility because it is being done at the same time as the normal website.

Although Apple have DRM avalable, I believe Microsofts allow for timed expiration, whereas Apple's is for keeps, even though it is DRM. That is the crux of the issue I think, that the beeb want the downloaded content to expire after 30 days which it is not possible to do with Apples DRM. And yes, a Linux DRM solution is a bigger can of worms.

So, you are probably right to question the use of DRM, and this argument has been had many a time before - it does not punish pirates, it punishes us genuine users.

 

[mkrishnan]

If you add up all the license fees of all the citizens of the UK who have hearing/sight problems and access the bbc website... will it be enough to justify the cost of developing an accessible BBC website?

Sorry... I agree with this argument. My point was that what the government does in these cases shouldn't be based on arguments like, "I use xxx and my fees should only be used to develop stuff for xxx." The government has to do what's *right* -- not what's dictated by who pays what fees. This is coming as an American, mind you, but I think it's an important general principle.

 

[Project]

Im so disappointed with this news. It read like a Microsoft press release. iPlayer will work on your PC, Media Center and Xbox before us Mac and Linux users get so much as a sniff. It for one makes Apple TV a hell of a lot less appealing than a 360 as a Media Extender. So the Beeb is essentially handing an incredible competitive advantage to a commercial entity. Its not on.

Apple seriously need to work on a time lapsing solution for Fairplay. Sky, Channel 4 and now the BBC have basically said **** you to Macs/*nix users in favour of WM DRM because of this.

 

[mkrishnan]

Apple seriously need to work on a time lapsing solution for Fairplay. Sky, Channel 4 and now the BBC have basically said **** you to Macs/*nix users in favour of WM DRM because of this.

Time lapsing solution? Do you mean in the sense that the video becomes unplayable after time, or in the sense that it becomes unprotected after time? I thought there were already players out on the Apple market that used Quicktime and implemented time-lapse DRM (i.e. Jaman)?

 

[Project]

Time lapsing solution? Do you mean in the sense that the video becomes unplayable after time, or in the sense that it becomes unprotected after time? I thought there were already players out on the Apple market that used Quicktime and implemented time-lapse DRM (i.e. Jaman)?

Yeah so the video effectively expires after x number of days. I was under the impression that Fairplay doesnt support this.

 

[PreacherKane]

So basically, the BBC iPlayer isn't available for Macs or Linux at the present moment. There is a two year time frame for the BBC to get it sorted but they can't guarantee that it will be ready in the time frame due to third party concerns.
What would happen if we just stopped paying the TV license? Because it seems to me that the money is just being used to keep Graham Norton in new suits and to keep Microsoft happy.