BBC Have Broken GetIPlayer
 

On Thu, 30 Oct 2014 16:13:53 +0000
dave wrote:

On 30/10/14 16:05, Brian Gaff wrote:
Have they actually done this deliberately then, or as I said earlier is it
another cock up. I am effectively now completely without I player as I
relied on the audio described sorting on Webbie to find those shows. I
simply scrolled down the list and played what I wanted as it took me
straight to the actual page and set the accessibility settings
appropriately.
Now there are no lists.

Bloody cheek of it!

Brian

It's a deliberate action, though whether it breaks get_iplayer by design
is less certain.

http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/tv/feeds

Hmmm. That link suggests to me they are actually trying to be inclusive. They
specifically mention 'enthusiasts'.

--
W J G

BBC Have Broken GetIPlayer
 

Java Jive wrote:

... get_iplayer --pid b01lxyzc -g
... should retrieve it. I don't know whether the PID will find the
metadata to name the file properly, but I suspect not. My suspicion
is that this was held in the *.cache files.

You're right -- it does not.

Ho hum, I feel a bash script coming on.

So, I want to open Firefox to the iplayer page containing the programme,
then just click an icon in the taskbar that triggers an examination of
Firefox for the relevant information, downloads the programme and gives
it a suitable filename.

Icon linked to this script, set visible shell mode, with work directory
set as wanted:

#!/bin/bash
# Get iplayer video info from Firefox and save video to work dir
fail() { echo "Error: $*"; exit 1; }
[[ ! -f /usr/bin/xdotool ]] && fail "install xdotool"
[[ ! -f /usr/bin/xclip ]] && fail "install xclip"
ffid=$(xdotool search --name 'Mozilla Firefox') # Firefox id
[[ -z "$ffid" ]] && fail "Can not find Firefox window"
xdotool key --window $ffid ctrl+l ctrl+c # get Firefox URL
url=$(xclip -o)
[[ "$url" != *bbc.co.uk/iplayer* ]] && fail "Not an iplayer URL"
pidname=${url#*episode\/}
pid=${pidname%%\/*}
title=${url##*\/}
echo "PID: $pid Title: $title"
read -p "OK to download? [Yn] " yn
[[ "$yn" = [nN]* ]] && fail "canceled by user"
mkdir -p tvr
get_iplayer --modes=best -o tvr --pid "$pid"
suffix=$(ls -1 tvr/BBC_iPl* | head -n1 | grep -o '[.][a-z0-9]*$')
mv tvr/BBC_iPl* "$title$suffix"
rmdir tvr

BBC Have Broken GetIPlayer
 

On 30/10/14 17:07, Folderol wrote:
On Thu, 30 Oct 2014 16:13:53 +0000
dave wrote:

On 30/10/14 16:05, Brian Gaff wrote:
Have they actually done this deliberately then, or as I said earlier is it
another cock up. I am effectively now completely without I player as I
relied on the audio described sorting on Webbie to find those shows. I
simply scrolled down the list and played what I wanted as it took me
straight to the actual page and set the accessibility settings
appropriately.
Now there are no lists.

Bloody cheek of it!

Brian

It's a deliberate action, though whether it breaks get_iplayer by design
is less certain.

http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/tv/feeds

Hmmm. That link suggests to me they are actually trying to be inclusive. They
specifically mention 'enthusiasts'.

This one rather less so.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/...g-Platform-API

especially Comment 6:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/...ment_120679555
--
Dave

BBC Have Broken GetIPlayer
 

On Thu, 30 Oct 2014 17:32:28 +0000
dave wrote:

On 30/10/14 17:07, Folderol wrote:
On Thu, 30 Oct 2014 16:13:53 +0000
dave wrote:

On 30/10/14 16:05, Brian Gaff wrote:
Have they actually done this deliberately then, or as I said earlier is it
another cock up. I am effectively now completely without I player as I
relied on the audio described sorting on Webbie to find those shows. I
simply scrolled down the list and played what I wanted as it took me
straight to the actual page and set the accessibility settings
appropriately.
Now there are no lists.

Bloody cheek of it!

Brian

It's a deliberate action, though whether it breaks get_iplayer by design
is less certain.

http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/tv/feeds

Hmmm. That link suggests to me they are actually trying to be inclusive. They
specifically mention 'enthusiasts'.

This one rather less so.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/...g-Platform-API

especially Comment 6:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/...ment_120679555

You're right. That's not just bad, it's downright arrogantly bad :(

--
W J G

BBC Have Broken GetIPlayer
 

In article [email protected], Folderol
wrote:
On Thu, 30 Oct 2014 17:32:28 +0000 dave wrote:


This one rather less so.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/...g-Platform-API

especially Comment 6:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/...ment_120679555

You're right. That's not just bad, it's downright arrogantly bad :(

Well, "does not sanction" may or may not mean "is determined to prevent
people from using it or anything similar in future".

It may mean "you're on your own, chum, when it comes to working around our
changes". Maybe they had no choice but to switch off due to cuts, etc.
What that means in practice in the end, dunno. Its pretty negative and not
exactly friendly, though. :-/

I'm also curious about what Brian seems to be saying. i.e. That this fouls
up access for the blind. If so, the BBC might be running into legal
trouble.

The messages seem a bit contradictory at this point. Is 'nitro' linked
to dropping the previous feeds or not? What made anyone think it
made sense to drop the feeds months before any 'replacement', or is
this just an absence of joined up management? Was it an absolute
impossibility to extend the use of the old system until the new one
was a success? It does seem risky in engineering terms to break
what you had before a 'replacement' is actually in use and works OK.

Whatever, its bound to prompt a lot of compliants. Wonder what R4's
'Feedback' email pile will look like in the next few days. :-)

I emailed someone I know to ask about this. They are on holiday. Hmmm.
Maybe they decided this was a good time to be away from the office... ;-

All that said, probably best at present to give this a while to let
the situation clarify. Not 'sanctioning' something that has worked
may not mean that the new system won't provide a basis for a decent
alternative. For all we know at present, the eventual replacement
might turn out to be much *better* as a basis of a 'son-of-get-iplayer'
system in the future.


Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

BBC Have Broken GetIPlayer
 

Folderol wrote:
dave wrote:
This one rather less so.
especially Comment 6:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/...ment_120679555

You're right. That's not just bad, it's downright arrogantly bad :(

It's a necesary position for the BBC. It cannot be seen publicly to
be supporting anything that could (easily) allow for programmes to be
stored outside the permitted 7/30 day period. Get_iplayer honours that
restriction, but as the programmes are broadcast - and therefore stored -
without DRM it's potentially a sticking point.

The BBC doesn't sanction the use of get_iplayer, but it hasn't so far
actively attempted to close it down[*].

I haven't read much about Nitro but unless it provides end-to-end
encryption it isn't necessarily a complete show-stopper. Or is it...?

Chris

[*] More than once

BBC Have Broken GetIPlayer
 

In message , Jim Lesurf
writes
Since my main content interests in the iplayer context tend to be concerts
on Radio 3 and various programmes on Radios 4/4extra I have my doubts I'd
prefer 'Netflix' myself. Personally, I'm happy to pay the license fee just
to have such things.


I didn't think you needed a licence for radio programmes, unless you
listen to them on a TV.


Adrian
--
To Reply :
replace "bulleid" with "adrian" - all mail to bulleid is rejected
Sorry for the rigmarole, If I want spam, I'll go to the shops
Every time someone says "I don't believe in trolls", another one dies.

BBC Have Broken GetIPlayer
 

On 30/10/14 17:01, Davey wrote:
On Thu, 30 Oct 2014 12:36:49 +0000
Tim Watts wrote:

On 30/10/14 11:49, Davey wrote:

I had the same problem a couple of weeks ago, and I never found the
answer. It's as though they want to make it harder and harder to
find the programme you want.

Netflix: Excellent streaming quality, always works and fairly easy to
get around their catalogue by browsing or searching.

iPlayer: Getting harder IME to find anything and the streaming seems
to drop off randomly. It's only for Dr Who that I even pay my license
(technically I don't even need to as I only watch it in catch-up mode
on iPlayer - but ethically...)

I'm *this* close to dumping the BBC as I find I can always find
Netflix content and it's cheaper.

I tried Netflix for a one-month trial, and found that they offered very
very little that I wanted. I had no problems using get_iplayer then, of
course, but the cost of Netflix was certainly no value to me.


Yes - the UK catalogue is pants.

OTOH if you add on UnblockUS, you can get all of the netflix catalogues
on demand :)

BBC Have Broken GetIPlayer
 

On Thu, 30 Oct 2014 20:31:49 +0000, Adrian wrote:

In message , Jim Lesurf
writes
Since my main content interests in the iplayer context tend to be
concerts on Radio 3 and various programmes on Radios 4/4extra I have my
doubts I'd prefer 'Netflix' myself. Personally, I'm happy to pay the
license fee just to have such things.


I didn't think you needed a licence for radio programmes, unless you
listen to them on a TV.

You don't AFAIK, but in some ways I rather wish there was one: it would
at least give those receiving the license fee some incentive to take more
notice of their listeners.


--
[email protected] | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

BBC Have Broken GetIPlayer
 

On 29/10/14 21:45, Java Jive wrote:

http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail...er/006240.html

quote
The BBC have removed the programme data feeds used by get_iplayer, so
search and PVR functions no longer work. There is no programme
information to cache, and it was the cache that supported search and
PVR functions. There is no fix available at this time. You can still
download individual programmes via PID or URL.

http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/tv/feeds
/quote

Yes, this is very annoying. Someone I know has a smart TV, and they
changed the way that works to, so now they can't get radio on it either.

SWIM tried to download some of The Code (That BBC4 Australian program
where there's that slightly weird guy who uses all those linux commands
in the first episode.) , using the url yesterday evening and it seems to
not work using get_iplayer now either.

Is there a HTML5 version of the iplayer website? I kind of relied on
get_iplayer so I didn't have to install proprietary flash.