The iPlayer is the best thing to come out of British television for a long long time, along with Dr Who!
I use the iPlayer almost every day, generally just catching up on TV that I don’t watch when it airs. I also used the radio iPlayer almost every day to listen to my favourite radio shows.
Today, the BBC launched a new iPlayer interface in beta, combining both television and radio. I was really looking forward to being able to listen to the radio catch-up on my iPhone in bed through the new iPlayer beta, and whilst this is no problem using my computer, I didn’t realise that the programmes are encoded in Real player format, obviously meaning my iPhone is a no-go. I have sent a feature request into the BBC for this, I really hope others do the same.
Otherwise, I really like the new interface. The ‘recently watched’ section is extremely useful, recording what shows have been accessed recently and updating those with new episodes as they become available. There are also RSS feeds available now for certain streams of programs.
I encourage you to try it out if you haven’t already done so. I realise this post sounds like a promotion, I don’t work for (or have anything to do with) the BBC 
4 responses so far ↓
James Cridland (BBC) // June 27, 2008 at 12:57 am |
Hi, Andrew – in fact, most of the national radio content is Flash-encoded. You must have found one of the files we’ve had problems with. Enjoy Jonathan Ross in decent-quality Flash.
For now, iPlayer on iPhone (which has a snazzy new interface) is TV-only. You can use http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts to listen to selected programmes (with the added advantage that as soon as the file’s loaded into your iPhone, you can wander about outside your wifi area).
Thanks for your comments. Keep listening.
The Captain // July 6, 2008 at 12:41 pm |
I love iPlayer, I see it and similar services as the future of television. Soon programmes will be posted on the internet to be watched at our leisure.
The late Douglas Adams saw this coming many years ago.
Alan // July 12, 2008 at 9:33 pm |
That’s fine – if you live in the UK. The rest of the world can’t view any of it.
abooth202 // July 12, 2008 at 11:14 pm |
@Alan Perhaps it isn’t accessible from anywhere else in the world, and in my opinion, that’s the way it should be. I’m not sure where you’re from, but in the UK, to watch TV you have to pay a TV license by law – this funds the BBC (the UK’s premier TV broadcaster) and allows us to view BBC channels without adverts. Now, if we have to pay the BBC a fee each year in order to help fund their productions, then those productions should only be made available to those who pay the fee.