Comments on: iPlayer gets radio. Properly this time.

By: Trace

Trace — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 07:56:25 +0000

“The joy is that the iPlayer looks really simple, but behind the scenes it’s a really, really complicated thing.”

The best software seems to always be that way. Thanks for the work.

By: Martin

Martin — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 22:46:35 +0000

I think it could just be an intermittent thing!

I just tried again and it was ok. But, I definitely saw the “Audio Stream is unavailable at this time” message when I tried after reading Michael’s posting.

It could be the Olympics copyright rules getting out of control - I hadn’t thought of that. Here in Canada we have the CRTC that (mandate) the blocking of American advertising and port cable channels to the Canadian affiliates of the US stations. This sometimes has a lag and we get to see things that we shouldn’t! This is an illustration that nothing is perfect when it comes the almighty revenue dollar (or pound/Yuan in this case!)

Just to close, I think the new player is going well. You can’t please all the people all of the time! I have it working in Windows and Linux just fine now. Sure there are buttons that are different and controls that respond differently depending on your Flash version - keep-up the good work.

By: James Cridland

James Cridland — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 22:25:45 +0000

Although I’m on holiday, I am unaware of any reason why you should not be able to listen to the Saturday Play from a Canadian ISP. The Olympics has a particularly draconian set of copyright rules; but that shouldn’t affect the Saturday Play as far as I’m aware.

By: Martin

Martin — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:43:00 +0000

iPlayer is not broken! It is working the way it was designed.

I just tried to listen to the Saturday Play from Canada and I was greeted with the message that the programme was not available at this time. If I connect from a UK ip …… it’s ok!

It’s called DRM - GeoIP filtering. It seems that the BBC is asserting it’s copyright privileges.

By: Michael Rosen

Michael Rosen — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:38:54 +0000

Since Friday August 8th, most Radio 4 Listen Again programmes have been unavailable me in the USA as well as many other listeners overseas, plus some listeners in the UK. This is the biggest crash I’ve ever experienced with this service, by far, in the four years I’ve been using Listen Again. There are various message threads about it on the bbc site, including this one:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbiplayer/F7331805?thread=5756765

So far, no sign of it being fixed - indeed it seems to be getting worse, as I haven’t found a single Radio 4 programme broadcast today (Tuesday) that I’ve been able to listen again to.

By: Adam Taylor

Adam Taylor — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 12:35:43 +0000

It’s still very buggy in FF3. Pause and resume play often do nothing, which pretty much means it’s useless, unless I want to sit through an entire show without a break.

It’s been like this for several weeks, which is very poor testing on the BBC’s part.

By: James Cridland

James Cridland — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 20:37:23 +0000

The “pause for live streams” issue is something that’s popped up over the past few days; peculiar, I think, to Apple Macs only. I’ve reported it as a bug.

By: Gary Smith

Gary Smith — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:49:08 +0000

Isn’t this a step backwards? Where’s the pause gone for live streams?

By: anon

anon — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 07:53:01 +0000

the new iplayer radio is a big step back. Where’ve the stop and pause buttons gone? Rubbish.

By: chris vesey

chris vesey — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 09:14:11 +0000

I have listened to radio 1 every day for at least 5 years via the internet. I understand you’re trying to push the iPlayer, but I can’t get it to work. I have followed all the steps several times. Can’t we have the old player as an alternative? At least until all your listeners have the iPlayer working correctly.

By: Stuart

Stuart — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:14:59 +0000

I can see a way to listen to a programme in RealPlayer (although it’s not as obvious as the current setup) but not the live radio.

Flash is all very well, but I can’t pause and rewind live radio streams with the new interface

By: Rob

Rob — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 14:55:27 +0000

Just a quick note to show my appreciation for all your (and the rest of your team’s) hard graft. The new iPlayer is excellent, and I look forward to the new streams (I think I read somewhere you hope to get the streams working in iTunes which would be excellent!). As James Martin said the “You also might like” feature needs some tinkering…. seems to often give polar opposite programs… I guess that wasn’t a design feature, unless you’re trying to broaden people’s horizons!

I’m really impressed with the BBC at the moment. The speed of progress seems top notch - I guess soon we’ll have “Now Playing” display for on-demand, bookmarkable links to specific time-points in programs, atom feeds of series,…. the works!

Cheers!

By: James Martin

James Martin — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 09:43:58 +0000

Love the improved interface and the rollovers.

Particularly amused that when watching a bit of Glastonbury this morning, I was told that I might also like to watch Songs Of Praise!

Nah, your ok thanks…

By: Peter Jackson

Peter Jackson — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 08:56:10 +0000

Thanks James, but it seems from searching around that both the BBC and BT are aware of the problem - what’s missing is any information about potential fixes, or when they might arrive. I was hoping that you might be able to find some inside information…

All the best anyway!

By: James Cridland

James Cridland — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 08:45:41 +0000

@giuseppe - my comments about speech are related to the content of podcasts, which by and large don’t contain stereo speech (like drama, especially) which Radio 4 broadcasts.

@peterjackson - I would report this problem to BT, as well as to the BBC iPlayer team. Follow the ‘help’ link from the iPlayer. There is nothing particularly special about how the BBC serves its Flash content, which is done via Akamai; but with some useful feedback, both parties can look into it.

@neil - the iPlayer doesn’t display bitrates. You’ll just have to trust me. In our tests, classical music (both the dynamic range and specific instruments) are hardest to encode. That should be coupled with the relative popularity of Radio 3 versus Radio 1, remembering the bandwidth costs. If you judge that Radio 3 is nothing special, then I can always cut it to 128k… (grin)

By: Neil

Neil — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:53:54 +0000

Hi James

Can you tell me where I can see in black & white that the on demand section is 128k?
It sounds good but I like confirmation that I am indeed listening to an improved audio feed.
Also why should classical music get a 192k bitrate? If I want to hear Giles Peterson in that quality, then its considered not worthy of that.
I pay the licence fee like BBC Radio 3 listeners,is my money not good enough?
I am a football fan and acknowledge football coverage does not merit stereo,but judging Classical to merit a better bit rate does not impress me at all. Bring me David Jacobs show in 192 bit rate please too.

By: Peter Jackson

Peter Jackson — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:37:26 +0000

The new iPlayer and interface looks great, and will certainly make it easier to navigate around the various listen again options. The only problem I have is that any Flash content from the BBC site, TV or radio, causes a full reset of my BT Home Hub. This is consistent, although at different time intervals after starting the player, and I’ve seen that other users are having the same problem.

Do you know whose responsibility this is, and if some kind of fix is in the pipeline from the BBC or BT?

I really look forward to using the new iPlayer, but have had to go back to Real for now.

By: Giuseppe

Giuseppe — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:55:25 +0000

I didn’t mean to have a go at anybody, nor do I consider my comments to be unfair, but nevermind, it’s good to see things are set to improve in the near future.
However, if “speech doesn’t need stereo” why is Radio 4 in stereo on FM to begin with?

By: Jean-François

Jean-François — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 19:51:03 +0000

@ Guiseppe

Maybe I should not comment a comment but what I was just trying to say is that I like the BBC IPlayer because it gathers all BBC Audio and Video content in one place. You do not have to search on every radio station website to find a show then click several times before you reach a stream. Everything is just at a click of a button. Switching between stations as well as between live and on-demand is easy and this is what I want a radio player to be: easy to use.

I don’t really know if the bitrates are the best on earth but what I know is that I can listen to BBC content easily…and improve my english (well, I hope ;-)

By: James Cridland

James Cridland — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:29:31 +0000

Being fair, the Radio Labs blog I’ve posted makes it clear that we will have streams that can be accessed from any player (currently therefore we offer Real, Windows and Flash-wrapped MP3). We will provide links from our website for other players, though we expect most listeners to use the iPlayer. All our music podcasts are 128k stereo (speech doesn’t need stereo), and all our output is available throughout the world with the exception of music podcasts (out of our hands), football commentaries (out of our hands), and high-bitrate streams (which we’re keeping within the UK for budgetary reasons). So by all means have a go, Guiseppe, but be fair too.