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BBC's iPlayer To Be Crossplatform
craig1709 writes "10 Downing Street has responded to the petition to open up iPlayer access for those on other operating systems. While the wording is confusing, near as I can tell, they say they will make the iPlayer available to users of those operating systems. 'The BBC Trust made it a condition of approval for the BBC's on-demand services that the iPlayer is available to users of a range of operating systems, and has given a commitment that it will ensure that the BBC meets this demand as soon as possible. They will measure the BBC's progress on this every six months and publish the findings.'"
Of course it'll be multiplatform. Why, you can run it on XP *and* Vista!
You're kidding right?
How we know is more important than what we know.
[John Cleese mode=on]
6 months: "Not done yet? Carry on."
12 months: "Still not cross platform? Jolly good."
18 months: "What, no Linux so far? You chaps are putting on a fine show."
And so on
"We can categorically state we have not released man-eating badgers into the area." - UK military spokesman, July 2007
If you read the article and related items you will fin that this is NOT NEWS. The prime minster has simply said that it is already being taken care of by the BBC TRUST and that the UK government need take NO ACTION. "They will measure the BBC's progress on this every six months and publish the findings." They being the BBC TRUST not the government. AND it a REVIEW not a "in 6 months we will have a cross platform player", its a promise to look to see if anything has been done - no word on any actions that can be taken to force the production of any such player in the likely event of it's non-existence. In short : Convicted Fellon (Microsoft) 1 : License Payers 0 Disclaimer I'm from the UK and this really hacks me off.
The BBC (Microsoft) player wraps everything in Microsoft DRM - VLC CANNOT PLAY IT.
I have searched the BBC Trust Website for any evidence of a change of heart, and found none.
This is exactly the same response they gave in the original approval for the iPlayer service.
Full text of the decision from April this year can be found here. From this document:
I neither admit nor deny and involvement in such illegal behavior ;-)
The iPlayer is an opportunity to get it MADE LEGAL - all that is needed is the cross platform support, and then you won't need to break the law to download your tv.
Now if we only had a similarly simple way of changing the drugs/speeding laws.......
I suspect that you are NOT from the UK.
The BBC unlike most other broadcasters if funded by UK residents paying an annual license fee.
What I object to is the misuse of OUR funding by paying a convicted felon for what is essentially a MONOPOLY lock into their technology.
What was it Microsoft were convicted TWICE for (once in the USA and once in the EU) ?
Ahhh yes being a monopoly.
You also fail to cover MAC users - cross platform is not just about linux.
Here's how it works:
...
Month 1
Week 1: Debate which OS/Distro to develop on.
Week 2: Submit recommendations/analysis to superiors.
Week 3: Wait
Week 4: Submission was going to be revised. Resubmit. Hope that it is okay this time.
Month 2
Week 1: Accepted. Determine the priority of the modules to port.
Week 2: Make new test scenarios with regards to the target environment.
Week 3: Buy development pc/server, install the target OS/distro. set it up.
Week 4: Manager decides to do team building at the beach.
Month 3
Week 1: Start to port the code to the new environment.
Week 2: same as Week 1
Week 3: Employees all got common cold.
Week 4: Coding Finished.
Month 4
Week 1: Run Tests and modify code as necessary.
Week 2: Continue testing and make initial builds.
Week 3: Install initail build on test server and demo it.
Week 4: Continue the iterations until an acceptable build was made.
Month 5
Week 1: Had the QA run the build on their tests.
Week 2: QA tests the build and determines if the video would no longer play after a few weeks.
Week 3: QA waiting for the two week expiration of video. CEO resigns.
Week 4: QA test completed, bugs logged, dev goes into cramming.
Month 6
Week 1: QA runs tests as necessary.
Week 2: Management determines product is good even with active bugs.
Week 3: Marketing announces the launch date of the product.
Week 4: Dev copies the exe from his bin...
Month 7
The BBC does not own ALL of the rights for it's programming. A lot of it is produced FOR the BBC by outside parties.
As a UK citizen I acknowledge that the BBC is restricted as to what it CAN provide by those who in turn supply it.
What I do not accept is the "Use Microsoft watch BBC" "Use linux/mac and you are shit out of luck".
Essentially HANDING microsoft a FREE selling point - "You can't watch the BBC on anything else", AND PAYING THEM OUT OF OUR LICENSEE FEE.
Convicted Felon (Microsoft) : 1
License Payers : 0
Why this this cross-platformness farce even exist? Just use an open standard/codec - boom, problem solved, noone is forcibly excluded. Or even use something like Flash video. Hell, it's not like there's any shortage of audio/video formats to choose from which run on multiple platforms and architectures.
If I were to look, would I be likely to discover the involvement of a certain company known for pushing closed, incompatible data formats centered on it's closed operating system?
I guess since the software AND the content it plays are paid with public money the right thing to do is make everything open source.
-- Cheers!
I'd like the iPlayer on Linux. You can do that? Great! It'll play swimmingly on my SPARC box then, right?
-jX
Don't you just love politics? It's like a comedy of errors.
I'll gladly explain.
Each household with a TV HAS to pay a license fee - it is illegal not to.
This funding is the passed onto the BBC (with additional government/public funding).
The actions of the BBC are regulated by the BBC Trust on "OUR" behalf.
They have been informed that a Microsoft lock in is unacceptable by US and are refusing to do anything concrete.
The PM was petitioned to step in and tell the BBC / the BBC Trust to solve the cross platform issue.
The response - The BBC Trust is on the case I (the PM) don't need to do anything.
Problem - the trusts proposal is to LAUNCH with Microsoft ONLY, and then REVIEW the cross platform issue every six months.
This is a REVIEW with NO "or else" attached, in other words there is NO commitment by ANY of the parties (BBC / BBC Trust / Government) to DO ANYTHING AT ALL!
The BBC is supposed to be "run for the people by the people" and this is simple NOT HAPPENING.
They know it's an issue that we the people care about - they just don't plan on doing sod all about it.
Flamebait? What the fuck?
/. just have no clue how true pofessionals work.
These kids at
On the first 6 month reporting time I would ask for extra two weeks to prepare my report!
Bot Assisted Blogging
'The BBC Trust made it a condition of approval for the BBC's on-demand services that the iPlayer is available to users of a range of operating systems, and has given a commitment that it will ensure that the BBC meets this demand as soon as possible.
I hate to say it, but that demand has already been meet. Via Bittorrent. Everyone who knows the phrase "Vote Saxon" will agree with me.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Please get a clue before posting. This is a *big* issue and your showing your inability to read.
Everyone in the UK pays TV tax. Said tax goes to the BBC.
See the problem? The BBC has to provide people with the content.
This isnt your standard DRM case.
VLC does NOT contain any code to watch DRM infected content.
The content available through Bittorrent etc are usualy "TV rips" that is captured via a "TV tuner card" or as direct hdtv rips from satellite or cable providers.
This is NOT the same content that we are discussing as such content is technically illegal.
Since the iPlayer service is currently (I believe) in closed beta no one will have seen the files to try with VLC, however since this is FULLY DRM'd up complete with a "dies after a certain amount of time" and would require authentication of the iPlayer servers in order to work I cannot see VLC doing ANYTHING with these files. I really would love to be wrong, but since it cannot play encrypted tracks purchased from iTunes I doubt it.
Yep I'd prefer open formats, but the BBC don't own all the rights to it's content, so I'm prepared to meet them half way. I'll accept the DRM for as long as it does not force me into using a Microsoft OS.
The contents of the government's 'response' is almost an exact copy of the BBC own press release from earlier this year. They announced in April that there would be a 6-month review, which should be around this time. However, both texts don't tell us anything, there is no time plan, nothing. I very much doubt that there will be an iPlayer for other platforms before the end of this year.
-- Neminem laede, immo omnes, quantum potes, iuva.
Timelines for other platforms
There will be a Vista version of BBC iPlayer available this year. We are actively working on Mac and cross platform support.
It shows where their priority is
Rather simply the platyer is tied to MS. At the moment the DRM is Microsoft and the player only works with Internet Explorer so cross platform is going to require a complete overhaul and re-write. To be honest I registered, downloaded and try to use and it was a process I care not to go through again. the hoops you are made to jump through make no sense at all. After about a 48 hour turn around from registering, downloading and installing the application. the 1st and only pro gramme I downloaded was 220MB and then refused to play due to DRM license being missing and the KB solution was to delete it and download it again. At that point I un-installed the rubbish. This player is in Alpha as far as I'm concerned, most people won't put up with the hassle that I went through to not watch something. A complete an utter disappointment, but that's what I come to expect that at the end of the day is government driven. Nice to know my TV tax is being well spent as usual.
Let's see a bit more of the quoted response:
...
The BBC Trust made it a condition of approval for the BBC's on-demand services that the iPlayer is available to users of a range of operating systems, and has given a commitment that it will ensure that the BBC meets this demand as soon as possible. They will measure the BBC's progress on this every six months and publish the findings....
So, if the BBC Trust's conditions have not been met by the BBC, why is this service being allowed to operate at all? There is no need to measure 'progress' on a commitment; it is just a YES or a NO.
What if only a few distros that accept DRM in the form of proprietary drivers from some select video cards.. are able to participate in this new thingy? Will that be measured as 'available on Linux'?
It's sad to see the BBC disobeying the BBC Trust, and getting away with this nonsense. While we get to read such nice articles on... yes, the same BBC!!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6325353.stm
The freedoms built in to the net are under attack like never before, argues regular columnist Bill Thompson.
While Bill Thompson was talking about Windows Vista, he might have as well been referring to his own employer, the BBC. Sad state of affairs, really.
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
The tough part is the DRM and frankly I think they should forget about it, or at least loosen it up so it's not so evil. Let's face it, the majority of people just want to watch the shows on the computer or their other devices, not trade them on P2P networks. I doubt the trading scene for domestic non-commissioned shows isn't massive anyway. So make the app great and make people trust the app - it should allow me to choose how many files to cache and how long to keep them for. I should even be able to "keep" a file forever in the app's cache.
Furthermore I should be able to export files to H264, MPEG-SP or similar. The app could apply a watermark during export in case the file shows up in the wild but otherwise you have a genuine unencumbered file. Watermarking would require users to register their TV licence to use the app but that should be a pre-requisite anyway.
The net result would hopefully be a damned site better than the bloody mess that the BBC have inflicted on people with the iPlayer at moment. It's extremely badly written, requiring not only Windows XP (not Vista) but also IE6 and WMP. The developers would be far better off to cut the strings with Windows for their own sanity if for no other reason.
that's what I come to expect that at the end of the day is government driven
The UK government certainly are absolutely awful where IT projects are concerned, but in this case it's not really fair to blame them since the BBC is autonomous in this respect.
Please get a clue before posting. Not everyone in the UK pays TV tax. Not even everyone with a TV in the UK pays a TV tax. Everyone in the UK who has a TV tuned to terrestrial analog or digital broadcasts should pay for a TV license. I get all my bbc content from bbc.co.uk without giving them a penny myself.
There is nothing interesting going on at my blog
I hope that television (especially the beeb) is going the way of the music and newspaper business. file sharing and other internet goodies will certainly help to that end.
Why;
they have dumbed tv down to the point of no return (along with the other uk channels, especially the now dismal ch4)
even the dumb content is nowhere near as good as it used to be (apart from radio 4)
they have failed utterly to conceal their cynical efforts to deceive and defraud their dosile audience (since when has public service broadcasting included stealing from gullible people who phone up to participate in shows?)
If they think that the iplayer (cross platform or not) can justify their upcoming efforts to levy the licence fee on anyone who has a computer then i would say that they have another thing coming.
A: You only pay the TV license if you own TV reception equipment - whether or not that makes it a "tax" is up for debate, but it is more-or-less ring fenced for broadcasting, and doesn't (e.g.) just disappear into the Inland Revenue coffers with your income tax. (There's a side-issue with convincing the TV license stormtroopers that you don't have TV reception equipment, but that's incompetence, not the law). Actually, I'd predict that as soon as media convergence "matures" this system will collapse - I don't think extending the definition of TV reception equipment to PCs and Internet would be tolerated - big media and comms. companies are already hostile towards this system and would roll out the astroturf like mad. In a sense, by pursuing online TV in any form, the BBC turkeys are voting for Christmas.
B: The BBC is not "run" by the government - lots of effort has been made to ensure that the management from the BBC is apolitical. Of course, this is totally immune from political appointments and back-room arm twisting - not!!! - but the thought is there. Like all journalists, the BBC news service is in the business of telling ripping yarns that get the viewers in, with accuracy and objectivity distinctly optional (e.g. the recent documentary on how nasty WiFi radiation fries kids brains, in which a tinfoil-hat salesman was given an uncritical platform) and this occasionally gets mistaken for political bias.
C: As far as I am aware, the BBC has no Royal Exemption from copyright and contract law and they have to deal with rights holders - much of their content is outsourced, bought in, involves card-carrying actors or is sold overseas (with various guarantees of exclusivity).
OTOH, this is all a bit nuts, since if you bung a DVB-T (terrestrial broadcast digital TV) card in your PC you can grab Dr Who, Torchwood and Heroes in ad-free wide-screen unencrypted MPEG2 goodness anyway (and 'Who is on continual re-run on BBC3 so you can't miss it!).
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
spoken by someone who presumably does not work in the content-production industry, and maybe not even a British licence fee payer, so in short, you are swearing and ranting about how the work of thousands of people should be given to you for free, on your terms.
What is it with people on slashdot thinking the world owes them everything?
If the BBC was american, they would probably ban foreigners from even accessing their site, let alone watching their content.
DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games