Mar 10 2010

The events of the past two weeks (here, here, here, here and here) have clarified the BBC’s stance on allowing interoperability with open-source iPlayer clients. I have therefore decided to withdraw get_iplayer with immediate effect.

Ian Hunter’s post (Managing Editor, BBC Online) provided very clear guidance on the way the BBC feels about open-source applications accessing iPlayer streams. I have no desire act against the BBC’s wishes in this respect.

The BBC iPlayer is built on many open-source products and yet, in this case, they have failed to let open-source clients access the very same service. The BBC have clearly not followed the spirit of open-source here.

From the outset, exactly 2 years ago when I developed get_iplayer, my intentions have been to never harm the BBC but to just provide a convenient way for me to watch iPlayer programmes on my TV with the hardware that I own. However, the BBC clearly considers such methods to be somehow detrimental to their service and therefore with great regret I have decided to cease development.

I sincerely hope that, in the future, the BBC will make steps to support open source given that they have gained so much from it.

256 Comments

  • On May 24th, 2010, keswick said:

    Conrad I’m using v2.72 windows installer. I have followed the instructions but still not working! Is this the correct line to put in or is it missing any details?

    Also, where can I get v2.76?

    Thanks for your help

    $conn->{application}=”$cattribs->{application}?$cattribs->{authSt

    • On May 24th, 2010, fizz said:
      • On May 24th, 2010, fizz said:

        backup current content in folder C:\Program Files (x86)\get_iplayer - excluding the downlaods folder

        unzip the .tar from the git and copy and paste to C:\Program Files (x86)\get_iplayer replacing all files

        you may need to do following to, I did

        find get_iplayer.pl file and rename to get_iplayer_OLD.pl

        find the new get_iplayer (no extension) and add extension to it so it becomes get_iplayer.pl

        you should now have 2.76 and works with web pvr too

        Credit to those above for the fix - i can now download mindless violence that is ooglies again :-)

      • On May 24th, 2010, keswick said:

        Can anyone understand this?

        WARNING: Please download and run latest installer or install the XML::Simple pe
        l module to use the Series and Brand pid parsing functionality
        INFO: Trying pid: b00slpty using type: tv
        INFO Trying to stream pid using type tv
        INFO: pid not found in tv cache
        INFO: Checking existence of default version
        INFO: iphone1,flashhigh1,flashhigh2,flashstd1,flashstd2 modes will be tried for
        version default
        INFO: Trying iphone1 mode to record tv: -
        INFO: File name prefix = Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: Series 3 - Curtis
        owling v James Lewis: 11. Antiques Market b00slpty default
        ERROR: Cannot write or append to Downloads\/Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is:
        Series 3 - Curtis Dowling v James Lewis: 11. Antiques Market b00slpty default.p
        rtial.mov

        Where do I get the latest installer?

        Cheers!

        • On May 24th, 2010, braindead said:

          Hi
          I think you just need the perl-XML-Simple package
          I’m guessing you’re using windows so hopefully another windows user could direct you to how/where to install it

          • On June 1st, 2010, Coup said:

            Hi,

            It would be great to find an answer to this if anyone can help. I have used the v4 installer on windows and unfortunately I am still getting the “WARNING: Please download and run latest installer or install the XML::Simple perl module to use the Series and Brand pid parsing functionality” error.

            Looking in the get_iplayer folder it looks like there is Perl 5.10.1.2 in there. I have researched on the web and it seems I need Strawbwrry Perl 5.12.0.1 which includes the XML::Simple module.

            What I don’t know is how to install this later version. Do I just run the msi? Where do I install it? How does get_iplyer know that I have installed a later version?

            Many thanks for any advice.

            • On June 1st, 2010, linuxcentre said:

              Hi Peter, Maybe your employer would rather you used their own official iPlayer downloader ;-) get_iplayer is no longer supported here. That downloader is from some other site. It clearly isn’t working quite right yet. Maybe have a google around….

        • On May 24th, 2010, Tim said:

          For Debian users make the changes in /usr/bin/get_iplayer, but I’m sure you already knew that ;)

          • On May 24th, 2010, braindead said:

            scroll up about 30 posts and download the script from the git repo, if you’re using linux, I just copied the get_iplayer executable to /usr/bin/
            as root cp /home/user/downloads/get_iplayer-a2aeb65/get_iplayer /usr/bin/
            tried it earlier and same error as yours just copied new executable to /usr/bin and am now going to watch yesterday’s motogp
            more big thanks to Phil and fsck for the fix

            • On May 25th, 2010, JR said:

              Thanks guys, really appreciated your help

              • On May 25th, 2010, BigD said:

                Hurrah thanks so much

                • On May 26th, 2010, TW said:

                  http://git.infradead.org/get_iplayer.git

                  Remember to always take care when using community-contributed code or GIT.

                  Downloaded a fixed version from there and it fixed the problem I’ve been having for the past few weeks. Cheers guys! :-)

                  • On May 27th, 2010, Andy said:

                    Spot on, worked for me too - thanks for the update!

                  • On May 26th, 2010, holly said:

                    Wow what a genius, I bow down to thee.

                    • On May 28th, 2010, Elena said:

                      Hi,
                      Can someone please post the line of code I’m supposed to type in if I just want to download one BBC programme with its b00 code number. I never expected the instructions to disappear.

                      Or if somebody could post a link to the full page of instructions on a forum somewhere that would be magic!

                      • On May 29th, 2010, Roadcone said:

                        I could not get my get_iplayer to work even with the mods to the .pl and by taking a more recent .pl from a link above.

                        In renamed my folder get_iplayer OLD and put a copy from another computer into the folder get_iplayer. Now, oddly, when I run it, it fails, reporting v2.66. If I rename the folder to (say get_iplayer_) underscore at the end, it runs, to downloads and it reports v2.77.

                        Can anyone enlighten me please?

                        Yours - Mystified of the Midlands

                        • On May 30th, 2010, linuxcentre said:

                          LOL! You must be using windows :-) UAC is your problem.

                          • On May 30th, 2010, Roadcone said:

                            You’re right, I am, and you’re right, it is. I switched off UAC and renamed the folder to the default get_iplayer - and it works fine, no problems. I turn UAC back on and it fails. I rename the default folder by adding an underscore at the end (get_iplayer_) and it works again.

                            OK - anyone know how I make it such that it works fine when it is in the default folder please? Anyone? Mmmm?

                            Clive

                        • On May 31st, 2010, Rob said:

                          Worked a treat for me, too, thanks for the work guys. I guess inevitably it will be killed off completely soon. I have to hope that if they’re monitoring this then they don’t care about the few people that go to the lengths of replacing lines of code.

                          • On May 31st, 2010, braindead said:

                            Hello
                            can anyone tell me the actual ffmpeg commands get_iplayer uses to encode to mp4, I found this in the code
                            # Convert video flv to mp4/avi if required
                            } else {
                            @cmd = (
                            $bin->{ffmpeg},
                            ‘-i’, $file_tmp,
                            ‘-vcodec’, ‘copy’,
                            ‘-acodec’, ‘copy’,
                            ‘-f’, $prog->{ext},
                            ‘-y’, $prog->{filepart},
                            the -f is force format, I’ll do some tests in the meantime

                            • On May 31st, 2010, braindead said:

                              ok managed to answer my own question, here’s the command ffmpeg -i ~/tv/Our_World-Front_Line_Helmand.mov -vcodec copy -acodec copy -f mp4 ~/tv/frontline.mp4
                              as you can see it also works for ipod/mov versions so can watch on my telly via ps3 again (like I used to before sony removed linux)

                            • On June 1st, 2010, Steve said:

                              I’ve been using v2.76 in Debian and getting nowhere. I just upgraded to v2.78 after reading this thread and everything’s moving again. Woo hoo!

                              • On June 1st, 2010, axisofevil said:

                                Me too!
                                Tried the BBC official download on the BBC website (on a M$ PC).
                                Ran like treacle.
                                Just have to uninstall it now.

                                • On June 1st, 2010, linuxcentre said:

                                  LOL! I think the fork maintainers might actually see this as a complement - i.e. that they are so young ;-)

                                  • On June 1st, 2010, mkfs said:

                                    Well, compliment or not, I find it difficult to trust somebody that starts the fork with ‘get_iplayer is a tangled mess, I’m going to refactor it!’ followed by a series of rollbacks to the original source since the changes aren’t really working.

                                    I believe that any fork (to be successful) needs to carry a degree of momentum. Criticising previous author is a way of deflecting that momentum. ;)
                                    This opinion of course applies to a small part of timespace and I’m happy to eat my hat once the situation improves. :)
                                    PS. This capcha is a pain. :P

                                    • On June 1st, 2010, linuxcentre said:

                                      I see your point. Checkout the infradead.org fork… Anyway, all developers have the urge to rewrite a piece of code when they first see it - almost always not a good idea (i.e. reinventing the wheel, going over old same ground with bugs etc) but quite a natural first response I find.. Yes, code has 2 or 3 globals but I think that is it and then code could be split up with a few hrs refactoring if you really wanted it split up…

                                      • On June 1st, 2010, mkfs said:

                                        re: infradead

                                        Thanks for that! :D
                                        That looks like a sensible fork :)

                                  • On June 1st, 2010, keswick said:

                                    Hi what and where do i put this code?

                                    kind regards

                                    ffmpeg -i ~/tv/Our_World-Front_Line_Helmand.mov -vcodec copy -acodec copy -f mp4 ~/tv/frontline.mp4

                                    • On June 1st, 2010, braindead said:

                                      Hello
                                      I was just trying to figure out what ffmpeg command is used by get_iplayer to convert .flv files (the video format flash uses) to .mp4, so I could use my ps3 to watch get_iplayer recordings on my tv.
                                      ffmpeg is an audio/video converter, that above command goes in a command line terminal and will convert .flv or .mov files to mp4.
                                      If you’re using windows read this http://ffmpeg.arrozcru.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page there are some gui front ends available just have a google, unfortunately this is no help to the problem you’re having a few posts up, hopefully a helpful windows user will steer you towards a solution, as a helpful linux user I can suggest installing a linux distro beside windows and using get_iplayer in that

                                      • On June 5th, 2010, thekernel said:

                                        ffmpeg -i inputfile.flv -vcodec copy -acodec copy -f mp4 -y outfile.mp4

                                    • On June 1st, 2010, alan said:

                                      Now that realaudio is gone only wma is available outside uk. Is there a way to have wma automatically transcoded to mp3?

                                      • On June 2nd, 2010, linuxcentre said:

                                        I think flashaaclow worked and probably still does outside of the UK on the infradead.org fork.

                                        • On June 3rd, 2010, alan said:

                                          Yes thanks, I see that now - it looks like wma is the only available mode but get_iplayer converts this to aac. But my portable player doesn’t do aac so I’ll have to convert after the download. I wonder why get_iplayer was designed to convert real to mp3 but wma to aac?

                                          • On June 3rd, 2010, linuxcentre said:

                                            It does not convert wma to aac. It uses the flash streams which are native aac/mp4a. Hmm, maybe it converts real to mp3 because real format is a streaming format. If it doesn’t work for you then this clearly is not the place to get support. This is just a comment thread on how support has been dropped.

                                      • On June 2nd, 2010, keswick said:

                                        braindead:

                                        Thank you for that, but I’m a bit of a novice and i’m using windows. I just want to know how to convert .mov’s so I could use my ps3 to watch get_iplayer recordings on my tv.

                                        Cheers for the help

                                        • On June 5th, 2010, JohnC said:

                                          You need a program to change (transcode) video formats. The best IMHO is FFMpeg which can transcode almost anything into anything. ‘flv’ and ‘mp4′ wrap (or bind) an audio and video stream together. FFMpeg unwraps and can then change the audio and video streams (codecs) before rewrapping them into the required format for whatever you want. You just need to Google around to learn a bit about this stuff.

                                          FFMpeg can also be used to crop the extra 12 lines that the BBC puts on their flash streams (to break XBMC and AppleTV) to convert 640×372 (flashhigh) back to the standard 640×360.

                                          Now if somebody could get get-iplayer to do that automatically…….

                                          Definitely worthwhile!

                                          • On June 5th, 2010, Thomas Willson said:

                                            There isn’t a way of cropping the 12 lines without re-encoding the whole thing is there?

                                        • On June 6th, 2010, JohnC said:

                                          Not that I’m aware of. That’s why it would be good to integrate the process in get_iplayers flv to mp4 conversion step.
                                          That said, you can batch the process for FFMpeg using WinFF so that it chugs away in the background. The other workaround is to use VLC to crop as it plays but I haven’t seen a way of getting VLC to do that as a ‘preset’.

                                          • On June 6th, 2010, linuxcentre said:

                                            Integrating it into get_iplayer’s conversion between flv->mp4 wouldn’t make things much faster. That is just a simple demux - i.e. just changes the container format - not transcoding the video. To remove lines AFAIK you HAVE to transcode thus losing some quality, using a lot of CPU cycles and generally taking a long time.

                                            • On June 7th, 2010, David Woodhouse said:

                                              It would be quite useful to have an optional generic transcode stage which happens _after_ the download (not during it, as in the case of the RTMP streamer for the flv->mp4 container format change). That way, people who want to resize and transcode could do it there.

                                              This is a discussion best taken to the get_iplayer mailing list though.

                                              • On June 7th, 2010, linuxcentre said:

                                                Yes TBH this was always an option with the --command option. Maybe simplifying a similar option specifically for transcoding might be useful!

                                          • On June 6th, 2010, thekernel said:

                                            Most of the time, I find if I use --vmode=flashvhigh
                                            I don’t get a problem and so no need for cropping.

                                            • On June 8th, 2010, keswick said:

                                              How do you use FFmpeg?

                                              I’m using windows get_iplayer installer!!

                                              Cheers

                                              • On June 10th, 2010, braindead said:

                                                Hello
                                                still trying to get your ps3 to play your recorded .mov’s ? as I am completely unfamiliar with windows I can’t begin to tell you how to use ffmpeg from the windows command line or even open a terminal, but the first hit on google for “ffmpeg gui” came up with this http://www.videohelp.com/tools/ffmpegGUI
                                                The .mov and .flv video and audio can be played by the ps3, the problem is the container, the ps3 just doesn’t recognise mov or flv, so all you need to do is copy the vid and audio but change the format/container to mp4.
                                                It might be possible to set get_iplayer to do this automatically by setting a preset command when downloading, I’ll have to experiment, but again I’ll only be doing this in linux

                                              • On June 9th, 2010, davidt said:

                                                Using easy peasy and 2.78, I have problems with guidance. -Cannot get isOver 16 to record even with -v flagged. Wonderful program by the way.
                                                ps as its end product is little different from a VHS/dvd/hard drive recording, apart from file size etc I still find it difficult to understand its end and I am glad others have taken up the challenge.

                                                • On June 10th, 2010, davidt said:

                                                  Since posting, windows based version will generate a partial flv but linux based system records nothing. Is there something obvious I have overlooked - I can post a debug verbose if that would help.

                                                • On June 10th, 2010, Matthew said:

                                                  Is there a way to download programmes from BBC pages that aren’t on iPlayer? For example the episode of Pulse which is available here http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcthree/2010/05/watch-pulse-online-now-and-tel.shtml

                                                  The PID seems to be p0082d9v but get_iplayer doesn’t recognise it when it’s put into the --pid command.

                                                • On June 28th, 2010, Energy said:

                                                  Please help - trying to get a glastonbury stream using the unofficial update. Strangely even tho it claims to be in the brand ‘glastonbury’ it doesn’t appear on the main list. And if I put the PID in directly nothing happens… Any help? Here’s the links:
                                                  http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/playlist/p008kh9m/
                                                  http://www.bbc.co.uk/glastonbury/2010/artists/imogenheap/

                                                  Thanks for any time spent helping…

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