Jump to content

BBC iPlayer online


Para Handy
 Share

Is it Good or bad  

6 members have voted

  1. 1. Is it Good or bad

    • Good
      2
    • Bad
      4


Recommended Posts

I don't see why they can't release the stuff as standard media player file types. Then there wouldn't be a problem and I wouldn't have to download yet another media player (and quite a crap one by all accounts) to go along with REALPlayer, Windows Media Player and DivX. I haven't looked at the BBC one yet, but the C4 one launched a couple of months ago was on my PC for about 1/2 an hour before I deleted it 'cos it was crap. :roll:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...
  • 3 months later...

Just read that after the release of iPhone / iPod Touch versions of iPlayer there's a Wii version meant to be going live some time today :D Hopefully it'll be a great way to get it on to a telly. From TFA:

The BBC said gamers who have hooked the machine up to their broadband line will get an alert as soon as the service goes live today. Selecting iPlayer from the main menu will give them access to shows via the console's Opera-based browser.

Virgin Media cable set-top boxes are set to get the same treatment very soon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The BBC has launched it's online version of the iPlayer seven day TV catch-up service thing. The original DRM ridden desktop program was Windows only. With this online version using the latest Flash plug-in, it's now open to all platforms (with Flash support of course) :D

 

Thank you Roachmill, I used your link and caught up on a couple of things I thought I'd missed, this is great for when footie's on, not my game I'm afraid :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree. Well done to Roachmill for bringing this back into Shetlink's eye.

 

I have been using it on and off for the past little while and it is (for me) a far better alternative to the iPlayer application. The only thing that annoys me is when you run it full screen on one screen and then click to the next screen it resorts to windowed mode. This is more a limitation of Flash than anything else, still bloody annoying though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the thanks... at least I'm no talking to myself any more :wink:

 

The linked article above said Wii Owners would "get an alert as soon as the service goes live today" and iPlayer would be available by "selecting iPlayer from the main menu". Sounded good!. So I walked in the door the other night and fired up the Wii expecting to get some big flashing message saying "W00t woot iPlayer is available!!!". Instead I got the normal "update available" message and 5 minutes later it was done. Nothing appeared in the home screen. No new iPlayer channel. Nada.

 

All the update did was seemingly upgrade the flash video component for the Opera browser. You can browse to the iPlayer page and work it from there using Opera (the "Internet Channel"). Sadly, if you don't have Opera on your Wii yet, it'll cost you something like £3.50 in Wii Points to get it.

 

Once you're in the user interface is exactly the same as seen through a normal browser... which is pants on a low res TV screen :cry: You can watch whatever and, after a bit of nudging the page around, you can get near full-screen viewing by zooming in. It's a bit blocky... but watchable none the less. I'd have thought in this day and age of separating content from display there would've been a Wii + TV friendly front put on to the iPlayer. Sadly, no.

 

So what about the other consoles? The PS3 and XBox are playing hard to get wanting more control over the "experience". More on that here. Although there's no official support for the PS3 you can, apparently, get to iPlayer by pointing it's built in browser at http://www.ps3iplayer.com/. The site only works through a PS3 browser though. If anyone wants to buy me a PS3 I'll be more than happy to report back how it works :wink:

 

Oh, and all you *nix heads out there - the web based iPlayer is meant to work on most (but not all) distros. You probably knew that already :wink:

 

It's great to see the BBC have listened and opened up ways for more and more systems to get to the content. Hopefully they'll set to working on providing customised front ends to make the content easier to work with.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

The next version of the web based iPlayer is in beta at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayerbeta/. There's visual changes, personalisation stuff (more to come apparently), 25% resolution increase and radio is now included. There's more info all about it here.

 

Also, for anyone running Vista Media Centre, there's a sweet plug-in called TunerFreeMCE available here. It's freeware and still under development but works pretty well so far. As well as making iPlayer content accessible you also get ITV and Channel 4 channels as well. If you do try it out... make sure you install it to the default path on the C drive as it has a hard coded path in the source code which falls over (it fails to play BBC content) when installed anywhere else.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 9 months later...

Is anyone else having issues with the BBC iPlayer?

 

I've just attempted to Listen Live to Radio Scotland and every time I try to get the iPlayer console going on Firefox it shuts it down and I have to relaunch it. I fared slightly better using Internet Explorer, however when it came up it failed to play.

 

Is this affecting anyone else?

 

(***Mod Edit - Merged with existing thread***)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is anyone else having issues with the BBC iPlayer?

 

I've just attempted to Listen Live to Radio Scotland and every time I try to get the iPlayer console going on Firefox it shuts it down and I have to relaunch it. I fared slightly better using Internet Explorer, however when it came up it failed to play.

 

Is this affecting anyone else?

 

(***Mod Edit - Merged with existing thread***)

 

Do you mean it closes the window? Hmm... You might have either a problem with flash or you may even have some spyware. Your browser shouldn't be just closing windows like that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...