Notices

Yup "--type=radio,podcast" does help but doesn't get everything e.g. misses some episodes in a series.

I also find sometimes, especially for longer items e.g. plays and stories, whatever is used to convert the flv to aac doesn't work properly so I get "flv conversion failed". The flv container is generally not readable by ffmpeg to do it from "--raw" either.

Back on topic
Anyone have any ideas how to either get the 400kbps stream in http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/bigscreen/ OR, preferably, view content on the main iplayer website?

I've filed a complaint on the recent Open Thread on the Beeb's Internet blog.

Cannot for the life of me understand why they're doing this...

It'll be interesting to hear what they say, if anything. Does seem very odd. v10.1 is not actually necessary for their content or controls, merely their politics.

Would be good if the big screen version (designed for Wii etc) had better speed detection - I find it sets itself to the 800kbps stream and no other.

... and now they appear to have dropped the 400kbps stream altogether; even for programmes where the first few in a series were available at this bit rate, the stream has now been withdrawn! (this is the --mode=flashlow version). They are trying to thwart us!

So, the only way to watch unconverted content is by O/C-ing to at least 850 and using the 500kbps stream with mplayer. This stream won't play on the stock media player because it is "main" profile*.

Side note: ffmpeg

Downloading Main/High videos and converting is quite inefficient in terms of power, bandwidth and time but doing so overnight, while charging and connected to wifi, it's an option. However, Maemo's ffmpeg (v0.5) cannot convert from High/Main to Baseline - it seems to be limited to being a transcoder. A new version was released recently (v0.55), which might make its way to the repositories (with a bit of luck!) - maybe this will make conversion possible.

Maemo versions aside, I have seen reports of people using ffmpeg in EasyDebian to convert videos from Main or High to Baseline
Questions
- What version of ffmpeg can be used with EasyDebian?
- Is it necessary to upgrade to Squeeze (or will Lenny handle it?)?
- If you're an EasyDebian-ffmpeg user and have found a client, what is it and can you recommend it?
- If you just use CLI ffmpeg, what switches/values would be suitable to make the following mp4-h264 streams play on the N900 (a) 500kbps @640x360 and (b) 1500kbps @832x468; padding permitted but no cropping. (stream info can be found here - filter to show video only then click on an item)
- Also, Do the more recent versions of rtmpdump work OK in EasyDebian?

*Not accounting the new DSP driver and DSP-overclocking.

What a heap of turds... so that's why it's no longer working.

What is they want? For viewers to have to constantly buy new kit?

Apparently so!

There must be someone you can email about it. I have a friend who's a broadcast engineer at the beeb...I can try and find out if he has a point of contact if you like?

The BBC are taking the piss. All licence fee payers should be equal. I support any N900 owner in the UK that refuses to pay the licence fee. Fvck the BBC.

Thanks. That would be useful. I did contact them via the website. I'm trying to track down the original message. Dammit. Seems I didn't save a copy - thought I did!

The actual message went something like this but had to be very carefully engineered to fit into the nChars < 351 ! Not sure what order I put the points in but here's roughly what I wrote:

(1) Has the 400kbps stream been withdrawn altogether?
(2) If so, please would the BBC set the h.264 profile of the 500kbps stream from "Main" to "Baseline" because it currently restricts access.
(3) iPlayer content does not require flash v10+ (e.g. Wii can use BigScreen version). However, by demanding users have it you are further restricting access. So called Improvements do not make things better if they cannot be used.
(4) How can the BigScreen iplayer be forced to play low-bandwidth for both tv and radio streams.
(5) Please don't use the word "support" in the response.

Re: 1 & 2: The meaning of the first two points are pretty obvious.

Re: 3: It is possible to access iplayer content via the BigScreen version. But, unlike the old web version, it can't determine speed as well. Although, it's a bit of a null point if the N900 can't properly play the even the slowest streams broadcast.

Re: 4:
The low bandwidth option has been removed so (a) if you want to listen to radio on 3G via the BigScreen iPlayer (flash 7 version) one is forced to gobble data at 128kbps, rather than the 64 or 96 streams that sound acceptable and used to be accessed from the normal version (non-BigScreen) but are more difficult to track down (still available via rtmp at the moment). And, (b) if the connection supports the 800kbps stream, the device you're using will try to use it; obviously there's a problem with the N900 which can't even handle the 500kbps stream (and when downloaded this one needs MPlayer*).

*Can anyone stream better h.264 than 400kbps/Baseline with these new graphics drivers? If 500/Main is possible then with some artificial throttling of the connection, viewing the BigScreen version might be possible. Thinking aloud here.

Re: 5:
I put in the last comment because I can support myself perfectly well. I just want access! Also, I was especially on edge because, I had had an email from my building society which said, amongst other things, that they "don't support the linux operating system [...] because of the number of versions". Wrong in so many ways. I was somewhere between fits of laughter, hysterical tears and deafening rage. Anyway... calm now.

The response is somewhat risible; proper buck-passing management speak:

Dear [-me-]

Reference [-ref-]

Thank you for contacting the BBC iPlayer Support Team.

We aim to make information available on the BBC iPlayer Help website wherever possible because we know that information about accessing content through BBC iPlayer is important to all of our audience. We make the most requested information available, and in most cases can advise where it can be found, but in practice it's impossible to provide answers to everything that people ask us about.

The BBC is committed to ensuring that the Licence Fee is used to provide the best value to our audiences, and as such so we cannot always undertake to research individual user issues to their resolution. We receive many unique enquiries each week. I hope that you understand the reasons for this.

We do however capture the details of all enquiries we receive so that we can provide reports to programmes about the nature and type of information people are requesting. This is to encourage better provision of information online on programme websites.

You may wish to know that technical questions are discussed on external messageboards. Details can be found on []http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/using_bbc_iplayer/_messageboards[/]

Please note that the BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Once again thank you for contacting BBC iPlayer.

Kind Regards
[-sender-]

BBC Audience Services

[]www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer[/]

NB This is sent from an outgoing account only which is not monitored. You cannot reply to this email address but if necessary please contact us via our webform quoting any case number we provided.

Quite frankly: WTF! I'm sure the main aim of this chap's reply was to insight rage because not only did it not make any reference to the content of my message, it makes very little sense. Aaarrggghhh!

Side note: @Marxian
The notion of a media group that's state funded (or as good as) is worthwhile because it is able to pursue activities that have no or only a long term financial return yet inform/entertain/etc. where as officially commercial stations need to get a shorter return to pay their way. However, it seems that short-termism and corporate selling-out is pervading. And, it appears many of the concerns of Phil Lewis (get_iplayer founder) are being realised/we justified [1] [2]. The irony is that the BBC use a lot of OSS products and are funding OSS projects - it's just access to their services must be with proprietary products; weird.
... anyway, the merits of the BBC and how it's being (mis-)managed would take up a 300,000 word PhD thesis so not really appropriate for TMO!

Possibly I should have put this post in a [RantNRage][/RantNRage] tag?