“We knew this day would come, but didn’t quite expect it so soon. The BBC iPlayer is now available as a beta for the iPhone and iPod touch. Streaming only, mind,” Dan Grabham reports for TechRadar.
MacDailyNews Take: Surely Dan’s heard this one before, but, since we’re feeling a bit playful as we wait for Wall Street to figure out the implications of what Apple did yesterday (it’ll probably take ’em awhile) and to beat Ampar to the punch: Were Dan’s ancestors pig rustlers?
Grabham continues, “‘We’re creating 516Kbps streams (400Kbps H.264 video, 116Kbps AAC audio) that show off BBC programmes brilliantly on an iPhone,’ says Anthony Rose, head of Digital Media Technologies at the BBC in a blog post about the launch.”
“So what’s it like to use? Well firstly, you’ll need a Wi-Fi connection. It won’t work over anything else,” Grabham explains. “It has to be said that quality is excellent, both visually and surprisingly in terms of sound… If you exit the programme at any stage to check your mail or make a call, the vid will resume at the same place – very handy. If a call comes in, you can start the video at the same place by clicking play after the call has ended.”
Grabham reports, “One problem with the decidedly beta release of the iPlayer for iPhone is the lack of programming available in the new encoding. That’s something which will obviously change.”
More in the full article here.
Chris Williams reports for The Register, “We’ve had a quick look on our iPod Touch via the office Wi-Fi, and it’s the closest thing to watchable mobile TV we’ve yet seen, so thumbs up from us.”
“It’s worth noting again the BBC’s deal with The Cloud means there’ll be free access across thousands of public locations too,” Williams reports.
Full article here.
The Beeb’s Anthony Rose offers a behind-the-scenes look at BBC iPlayer on Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch here.
The BBC iPlayer site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/
Posted last night at RIM.
“All Hands Meeting. 8 a.m. Mandatory Attendance.”
“Were Dan’s ancestors pig rustlers?”
Pearls before swine?
cept none of the shows will play outside the UK..
R.I.P. RIM
Still only works in the UK. Nothing will play if you are out of the area. GARBAGE!
World version is coming, trash…..
don’t write off RIM – Competition GOOD!
“PARTNERNING” – BETTER as long as one isn’t labeled MSFT
Is the service specifically detecting the iPod/iPhone or is it a URL? Can this be made to work (for UK users) in Safari and/or Quicktime directly?
The Radio programmes play, and they do say that an international version is coming.
“World version is coming, trash…..”
I hope so, TowerTone. And soon. They’d have a lot of viewers here in the US. I want streaming Doctor Who and Torchwood on an iPhone! 😀
Any BBC iPlayer outside the UK would be a paid for or subscription service. UK Households pay for a Television license and this is why the service is a: free and b: currently restricted to the UK.
Those of use lucky enough to have a VPN connection to a UK based server can of course use the system for “free”.
NB I do not as a network admin advocate this as a good practice or indeed use for VPN
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Does this mean that Brits will have to attach a tax medallion to their iPhones and iPodTouches?
Anyone know if this stuff is DRMd? I assume it is, but I didn’t know Quicktime handled DRM streams.
Note to BBC: I live in the US. Since I have a half hour train ride to work, I greatly enjoy watching Doctor Who, Torchwood and Ashes to Ashes on my iPhone. Right now I download them from usenet and covert them for the iPhone (btw, love those dual core Intel processors for video conversion — iSquint converts an hour TV show AVI to a iPhone-compatible MP4 in like 7-8 minutes on my 24″ iMac) and you don’t get a cent–or a pence for that matter. Howzabout making iPlayer available in the US for a fee? At least when I used to watch Doctor Who on the old PBS station (anyone remember Doctor Who on Channel 2 in Miami?) when I was kid you were getting paid by the local station….
BBC, just put the programs on iTMS at a modest fee for us non-UK-residents. That’s all it’ll take to make me happy.
Can I use BBC iPlayer outside the UK?
Rights agreements mean that BBC iPlayer television programmes are only available to users to download or stream (Click to Play) in the UK. However, BBC Worldwide is working on an international version, which we will make available as soon as possible.
Thanks Jeff. Glad to hear what BBC Worldwide is up to.
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I think the idea of iTMS offering programmes is also an excellent one.