BBC iPlayer Desktop for Mac and Linux

[chriswyatt]

This has just been released by the Beeb. Had problems with iPlayer not working (Flash problems), then had a hard time actually finding a link to install the software on the BBCs website, I've finally managed to get it to work and I'm currently downloading Never Mind The Buzzcocks.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00g33d7/Never_Mind_the_Buzzcocks_Series_22_Episode_11/

There were a lot of other programmes I was trying to download before this which did not have a link to download. Thanks to someone on the Beeb messageboards for pointing me to this page :) .

Finally the BBC have started to support iPlayer, took a bit longer than it should but I'm happy now.

By the way, you need to sign up as a lab tester and have Adobe AIR installed.

[ajcham]

I can't find a link to this - the iPlayer website still says there isn't a Linux client. Where did you download it?

EDIT: Never mind - found it. It is part of the BBC iPlayer Labs - you have to sign up to be a tester: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/labs

[DMcA]

It's just a news article at the moment. They won't implement this for a while. EDIT: ok so maybe it is available as a beta version already

I'm not sure what to make of this. Of course platform neutrality is vital to the BBC and it would be outrageous if they got away with favouring Microsoft. On the other hand I resent DRM in any form. As far as I'm aware, any content that is streamable is downloadable, so I'm not really sure if this is an improvement.

[gn2]

Downloads from the beeb have been available for ages.

http://linuxcentre.net/getiplayer/

[jeyaganesh]

Good News!:guitar:

[kamitsukai]

Direct link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/install/bbc_iplayer_desktop

[macintosh]

good glad to see they support OS's other than Windows as they use Mac's in there studio's and I think they use Linux on there severs?

[rob_quill]

It keeps telling me I need to upgrade my Flash before I can install it. I'm running Intrepid x64 with the x64 flash 10 version from the adobe labs website. Any tips?

Thanks for your help,

Rob

[kamitsukai]

There still cheating using Adobe® AIR™...(Had to complain about something :P)

Also can someone explain how the DRM works on this??

[albinootje]

Downloads from the beeb have been available for ages.

http://linuxcentre.net/getiplayer/

Yes, that's obvious ;-)

Fedora 10 is out (They mention Fedora Core 8)
Ubuntu 8.10 is out (They mention Ubuntu 7.10 which is 1 year old).

[ajcham]

It keeps telling me I need to upgrade my Flash before I can install it. I'm running Intrepid x64 with the x64 flash 10 version from the adobe labs website. Any tips?

Thanks for your help,

Rob

I was running Flash 9 from the repos. It told me to upgrade so I followed their link to the Adobe site and installed Flash 10. It still didn't work, and according to the FAQs you should remove the installed version before installing the upgrade. Did that, now it works. I'm running 32bit, however, so it may not be so easy for you.

I've just watched an episode of Doctor Who using the player, but to be honest I'm going to remove it. It doesn't provide any advantage to me over streaming. (YMMV) In fact, the subtitling no longer works so I end up worse off.

Until I can download better quality videos, without DRM, I may as well just stream.

EDIT: Just to clarify I'm not picking on the Beeb with the above comments - a step in the right direction, however big or small, is a step in the right direction nonetheless.

[Mazza558]

Yes, that's obvious ;-)

Fedora 10 is out (They mention Fedora Core 8)
Ubuntu 8.10 is out (They mention Ubuntu 7.10 which is 1 year old).

I think they mean 7.10 and newer (I.E it'll work on anything newer than 7.10).

[kamitsukai]

How do you actually download the programes? all i get is the same things as usual even with the download mamanger installed

[kamitsukai]

How do you actually download the programes? all i get is the same things as usual even with the download mamanger installed

Just noticed that it's limited to only a handful of shows think I'll stick with the ever useful get_iplayer much better:guitar:

[ajcham]

How do you actually download the programes? all i get is the same things as usual even with the download mamanger installed

I think it only works on a selection of programmes at the moment - Doctor Who Ep. 4.8 has a download link, but Ep. 4.6 doesn't, for example.

[solitaire]

I think it only works on a selection of programmes at the moment - Doctor Who Ep. 4.8 has a download link, but Ep. 4.6 doesn't, for example.

Urgh! Relief!

Here I was thinking it was not working. I installed and un-installed it twice when the program i wanted to d/l didn't have the "Download" button!

They could have told us that!!

Well at least it's a step in the right direction. :D

[kamitsukai]

Well all I can say is that they better improve that actually video payer a hell of a lot you cant even set the aspect ratio!! and the quality is dreadful (but I suppose there crank that up when there out of beta...)

[okey666]

I'm using intrepid 64-bit. Air works alright, and I can run the download manager, but whenever I click download it just asks me to install it again. Any suggestions?

[kerr.andy]

About time that got round to this! I presume we are subject to the same 30 days holding time limits as ******* users!

Time I started to try it out... how well does it really work!?!

[kamitsukai]

About time that got round to this! I presume we are subject to the same 30 days holding time limits as ******* users!

Time I started to try it out... how well does it really work!?!

It actually works surprisingly well but your tied to playing it in the built in video player and the quality is the same as the streaming one if not worse...and yes there is a 30 day limit imposed by some kind of adobe drm this time:mad:

[robtuk]

Works a treat! Also had problems with Flash, and had to remove & re-install from the Adobe site for it to work.

I gather the content is being backfilled, so not all programmes are available for download yet, but more recent shows are already available.

Glad to see the Beeb properly supporting Linux at last! Now, if only there was something worth downloading....

[langdona]

Is the quality any better than the high quality streaming option?
If not what's the point?

[gn2]

Is the quality any better than the high quality streaming option?
If not what's the point?

No pauses for buffering on a slow internet connection and ability to watch it when away from the net?

[Malcy]

BBC iPlayer for Linux installs and runs slickly. I downloaded the Horizon Robots episode in just over a minute and a half but the picture quality is worse than the streamed version.

I don't think that you can play the downloads in an mp3 player or mobile or even put it onto DVD to watch on TV, so what's the point? :confused:

[kamitsukai]

BBC iPlayer for Linux installs and runs slickly. I downloaded the Horizon Robots episode in just over a minute and a half but the picture quality is worse than the streamed version.

I don't think that you can play the downloads in an mp3 player or mobile or even put it onto DVD to watch on TV, so what's the point? :confused:

The whole point of this is more to stop them from getting sued for not having cross platform support:popcorn:

[popkid]

I've managed to get it installed and downloaded a show (this seems a bit hit and miss, download button only seems to work about 10% of time) but when I try to play the downloaded content back I just get a blank video window... the time marker moves along happily enough, but no sound or video... Streaming direct from site still works fine so don't think it's an issue with the new Flash.... I've googled for this but can't find anyone else with this specific issue.

pK;)

[dannytatom]

Do they include documentaries? That's about the only thing I watch from BBC.

[Malcy]

Yes, they include documentaries but iPlayer is only available to UK Internet users.

[GOROSSI]

I posted this on the IPlayer message boards thought it may be of use here also

anyone else who is having corruption issues with the gnome add-remove programs client after installing IPlayer Desktop
(Most likely it's an issue with the new version of Adobe Air which is required.)

You can fix this in Debian or Debian based distro's like Ubuntu Hardy (On which I had the issue) by reinstalling the following package app-install-data in Synaptic or other package managers.

If you use Ubuntu you will have to also reinstall the app-install-data-commercial package to get the full list of available applications

the reinstall of either of these package does not affect IPlayer Desktop or Adobe Air 1.5 on my system

hope this help's anyone who's stuck

[thomaswp]

I have everything working well - the programs download, but when I click on them I get "xxxxx is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later"

Anyone else had that? I can't get passed this :(

[aikiwolfie]

It works great on 32-bit systems. I'm having trouble getting it to work on my 64-bit system though. I also don't like the installation method. It's too confusing. The BBC really needs to get the iPlayer page sorted. The navigation is worse that Dell Forums.

[phenest]

Doesn't work on my 64 bit system. Downloaded the Adobe AIR and signed up as a Lab tester, but nothing. In fact, I can't even stream the video anymore. Damn BBC and Adobe!

Good news is get_iplayer works a treat.

[Earl_Maroon]

I am experiencing the same problem. I have no idea what the problem is though.

[Philip Farrugia]

Been trying to get this to work on 8.10 64bit.
Tried the instructions on the adobe site for 64bit ubuntu but still can't download. Streaming works though.

Think we have to wait for bbc and adobe to work out the 64bit bugs.

Works well on my 32bit virtual machines fine.