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revford blog

Remove the secondary EPS channel

Blade Runner is on the iPlayer

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:26:22 GMT

This is fairly fucking awesome, the BBC are showing Blade Runner on the iPlayer this week.

Nice one BBC Two.

Blade Runner

iPlayer Search Updated

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:22:30 GMT

I know it's been a while without it working now but I've finally updated my iPlayer search tool, the BBC changed the format of the results pages again which broke the old version.

Just replace the old lib-rf-iplayer.dl with this new version.

# lib-rf-iplayer.pl # by Gav Ford # gav@revford.co.uk # http://revford.co.uk # 2008-04-17, updated 2009-04-24 # subroutines for dealing with the BBC iPlayer sub iplayersearch # search the iPlayer and return a list of result URLs { $searchterm = $_[0]; @resultspage = split(/\n/, get('http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search/?q=' . $searchterm)); ($resultbox) = grep {/div\ class\=\"episode/} @resultspage; @results = split (/\>/, $resultbox); @results = grep {/a\ class\=\"episode-title/} @results; foreach (@results) { $thisresulturl = $_; ($null, $null, $null, $thisresulturl) = split(/\"/, $thisresulturl); push(@resultlist, 'http://www.bbc.co.uk' . $thisresulturl); } return (@resultlist); } sub iplayertitle # take an iPlayer URL and find some program information { $pageurl = $_[0]; @showpage = split(/\n/, get($pageurl)); ($showtitle) = grep {/title/} @showpage; $showtitle =~ s/\ \ /\ /g; $showtitle =~ s/\<[^\<]+\>//g; $showtitle =~ s/\t|\n|//g; $showtitle =~ s/BBC\ iPlayer\ -\ //; return ($showtitle); } 1;

Now I can go back to forgetting Heroes is on Mondays and catching up on the iPlayer.

The Doctor Returns Tonight in "Planet of the Dead", BBC One, 18:45

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 10:37:17 GMT

Nuff Said.

Top Gear Tesla Test Shenanigans

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 12:23:54 GMT

Looks like the BBC lied about the Tesla Roadster in the Top Gear review.

The news as it unfolded on The Register:

Tesla takes Top Gear test to task

Top Gear Tesla didn't run out of juice

So, when Clarkson said the battery ran out, it didn't.

Also the Brake Failure when charging, was actually a blown fuse that was replaced immediately.

They also said that charging from a standard plug can take as long as 16 hours, this is true, but they don't point out that the car is supplied with a unit that can be installed at home and can charge it in 3.5 hours.

That leaves the only real faults Top Gear found with the Tesla, are that it's heavy and expensive compared to the Lotus it thrashed in drag and track races.

It really is expensive, a 2008 Lotus Elise costs $53,500 and a 2008 Tesla Roadster costs $98,000. Not quite the three times Top Gear claimed, but it is a more expensive machine.

The Lotus weighs 2,006 lbs while the Tesla weighs in at 2,723 lbs. So the Top Gear are right on the money there.

I don't really understand why Top Gear felt the need to deceive people in their review of the Tesla. Could it be that the Petrol Fetishists can't admit that there is now a credible alternative fuel sports car?

BBC One and Two have gone live online today

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 15:56:25 GMT

Yesterday I posted links to BBC Three and Four live streams from the BBC website, as of today, BBC One and Two are live online too.

BBC One Live
BBC Two Live

iPlayer 2 coming soon

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:10:07 GMT

The BBC have posted a preview of the upcoming iPlayer revision.

Plenty of interesting new features, RSS feeds of searches is a great feature.

No mention of providing a download service for Mac and Linux users. Ah well.

BBC iPlayer 2.0: Sneak Preview

Death in Sakkara, an Egyptian Adventure

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:54:09 GMT

We finished the adventure, Death in Sakkara today. Great fun.

However the link I posted yesterday was incorrect, it only takes you to the first part and won't let you continue from there. My fault, sorry.

A correct link here:

Death in Sakkara, an Egyptian Adventure

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 13:41:22 GMT

We've been having loads of fun today with the adventure game Death in Sakkara on the BBC History website.

Many thanks to Burgundavia on the Lead Adventure Forum for posting the link.

Death in Sakkara, an Egyptian Adventure

The Doctor Returns, BBC One April 5th 6:20pm

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 01:57:39 GMT

The Doctor returns to BBC One, for Season 30, or Season 4 in new money. The trailer looks great with appearances from Martha, Rose, The Ood, Sontarans, UNIT and all sorts of great stuff.

Rumour has is that this will be the last full series for the 10th Incarnation of The Doctor, with BBC Wales taking a year off in 2009 and producing a few specials, then another full series in 2010.

David Tennant has been great in the role, made especially difficult as he had to follow the fantastic Christopher Eccleston. I'm not sure if we're due a regeneration at the end of this season, or if that will happen during one of the 2009 specials.

Another many Doctors story would be nice, they've not done one since the 2005 return.

Doctor Who: BBC One April 5th 6:20pm

Doctor Who

iPlayer on Linux, Mac, iPhone and Windows

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 17:59:45 GMT

The BBC iPlayer is a strange beast.

If you are a Windows user, you get to download shows and keep them for a month.

If you're not, you don't.

If you're an iPhone user, you get a better quality MPEG4 h.264 stream.

If you're not, you don't.

It's a strange arrangement. Providing a very different quality of service for different BBC licence payers.

The downloads issue first, as that covers parts of the other one.

It's all about DRM, that is Digital Rights Management. A system to enforce who can watch content and how long they can keep it.

The content providers who the BBC buy content from want DRM on the iPlayer downloads so people can't keep them. The fear being that if people download and keep shows from the BBC, they won't buy the DVDs as well.

The DRM selected by the BBC is available for Microsoft Windows only.

So the downloads of shows is Windows only for now. But the BBC Trust want this reviewed every six months.

Oh and like all DRM, this DRM doesn't work, you can simply remove it.

The BBC website told me so and what tool use.

So the BBC knows that DRM is worthless. So the deal they made with the content providers is based on the fantasy that DRM'ed files will help DVD sales.

Also, the BBC transmit all programs over the air DRM free in both digital and analogue formats.

So anyone can grab whatever they like from the BBC using a video recorder, DVR, DVD Recorder or any other simple and commonly available system.

So really, anyone who wants can save BBC content in whatever format they like using a selection of tech from the last 30 or more years.

So, why not just make the batter quality stream available to everyone?

While they're at it, let people download them too.

If you're telling Windows users how to remove the DRM, why put it on in the first place.

It's going to save the BBC some work, they only need encode two streams (MPEG2 for Set-tops and MPEG4 for everyone else) and they don't have to spend my licence money on a DRM system that they told me doesn't work.

Reference and Further Reading:
DefectiveByDesign.org
BBC Trust approves BBC's on-demand proposals
BBC iPlayer On iPhone: Behind The Scenes
Quick guide: Cracked DRM systems

Useful while it lasted, iPlayer downloads back to Windows only

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:32:30 GMT

Well, the BBC have changed something in their setup that stopping my iplayer-download tool working, this means that it's back to streaming only for me, for now.

I'll have a look at getting around this, but I don't see why I should have to.

I'm a British TV Licence holder, I've paid for this the same way as Windows users have, why should I get a lesser service?

And why should I have to fight the BBC website to get it?

They promised this service to us free software users within 2 years, I wrote a script to do it in twenty minutes and they've changed their setup to block it working.

Bad BBC.