Mud-club

Chat & Social => The Bar - General Chat => Topic started by: Edge on January 04, 2008, 16:41:21

Title: BBC i-player
Post by: Edge on January 04, 2008, 16:41:21
Hands up those who've used it?
I'll be trying it out later if i can get my laptop to run through the tv :rolleyes: Going to watch "top gear polar thingy again" just wanna see clarkson getting pushed in that icy water lol.
Title: Re: BBC i-player
Post by: MuddyMachine on January 04, 2008, 16:47:15
Its good, but you have to watch it in the small setting. It not good enough quality to watch it in full screen
Title: Re: BBC i-player
Post by: Wolfie on January 04, 2008, 16:51:32
You also will need to watch your bandwith usage, it's P2P software.
Title: Re: BBC i-player
Post by: muddyjames on January 04, 2008, 17:11:11
i have used it and found it highly annoying as it only allows about 15 seconds to download then another 8seconds to download next 15seconds. very annoying. Might not use it again :(

I also installed the iplayer downloader but everytime I try and download a program all I get is that sorry thier servers are busy, try another time  :twisted:
Title: Re: BBC i-player
Post by: thermidorthelobster on January 04, 2008, 17:13:43
Muddyjames, you do know it's not intended for streaming?  ie, you're supposed to let it mooch off and download the WHOLE programme, and only watch it once it's complete.

I use it with Vista and I've found the quality perfectly satisfactory on a laptop screen;  I've not viewed it on a TV, but given TV resolution is well under half that of my laptop, I would expect it should be quite good.  Might try it later.
Title: Re: BBC i-player
Post by: muddyjames on January 04, 2008, 17:25:51
Yesterday I did try the mooch off and let it download option. I set it going, served up me dinner and made a drink and a few other bits and bobs for about 5 minutes. Played it and yup, I got 15seconds worth of program  :twisted:

I must be doing something wrong  :(
Title: Re: BBC i-player
Post by: Henry Webster on January 04, 2008, 17:27:58
There's some confusion here now.  The iPlayer now supports Flash streaming on the website (at a reduced quality of 500kbps) and full quality download through the aforementioned peer to peer client.

If you are having problems streaming, then this is probably due to your local connection, what speed BB are you on?  You should be able to stream 500kbps on a 2mb connection with few problems in ordinary circumstances.


Title: Re: BBC i-player
Post by: Freelander1980 on January 04, 2008, 17:50:37
The only time i have tried to use it i also found only got about 15 seconds at a time, now dont bother with it as cant be doing with the hassle
Title: Re: BBC i-player
Post by: muddyjames on January 04, 2008, 18:02:23

, what speed BB are you on?  


2.2mbps my little box in the bottom of my screen says.

I used to be able to stream programs from VEOH web site but now that doesnt happen either unless I leave it for 5 mins. Think I may remove Iplayer download.
Title: Re: BBC i-player
Post by: thermidorthelobster on January 04, 2008, 19:02:56
There's some confusion here now.  The iPlayer now supports Flash streaming on the website (at a reduced quality of 500kbps) and full quality download through the aforementioned peer to peer client.

Ah, I didn't realise it did streaming as well.  Is that new?

The quality of the downloaded files seems excellent.  It makes sense that it comes in 15 second chunks as it's p2p...  I found the download speed was slow to start with but got much quicker as time went on, but I've not used it recently so I may be out of date now.
Title: Re: BBC i-player
Post by: Henry Webster on January 04, 2008, 19:12:38
Ah, I didn't realise it did streaming as well.  Is that new?

Launched a couple of weeks before Christmas.  Still a few glitches, but works pretty well for me!

H
Title: Re: BBC i-player
Post by: Evilgoat on January 04, 2008, 21:40:48
Virgin/NTL Actively traffic shape P2P traffic so expect probvlems using it with broadband connections from them. They'll also drop your rate if you pull over X Gb per month and traffic shape on top of that, Net result, I have 10k/sec available for p2p

Title: Re: BBC i-player
Post by: Edge on January 04, 2008, 22:29:43
Had no probs watching it on my laptop (vista), on bt broadband.
Title: Re: BBC i-player
Post by: muddyjames on January 05, 2008, 17:21:49
After uninstalling Iplayer downloader top gear streamed for 50 minutes of the program ok. Eastenders (yes I know but tryingit on another program at random) and that is back to the 15sec watch 8 sec stream. but leaving it seems to streem a bit more on pause.
Title: Re: BBC i-player
Post by: Henry Webster on January 19, 2008, 17:59:43
Virgin/NTL Actively traffic shape P2P traffic so expect probvlems using it with broadband connections from them. They'll also drop your rate if you pull over X Gb per month and traffic shape on top of that, Net result, I have 10k/sec available for p2p



The streaming stuff isn't P2P, but I was aware that several of the ISPs are now traffic shaping!

H
Title: Re: BBC i-player
Post by: carbore on January 19, 2008, 18:32:19
BBC are in troublea it only works on Microsoft technologies. Numpties, they really should think this through.  There was a good article about it on the "Register" but I cant find the link.

Title: Re: BBC i-player
Post by: muddyjames on January 19, 2008, 18:59:44
I find that I can now stream 45mins perfectly. the last 15mins does the usual play 8 seconds then buffer. I think it is due to my provider tiscali lowering my down load to the fair useage policy. only thing i can think of.
Title: Re: BBC i-player
Post by: Henry Webster on January 19, 2008, 20:15:57
BBC are in troublea it only works on Microsoft technologies. Numpties, they really should think this through.  There was a good article about it on the "Register" but I cant find the link.



The streaming player is in Flash so works on both PCs and Macs.  If you want to download the better quality version then you will need to use Windows Media Player still.

H
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