About
This is a powerful Web-based search front-end to get_iplayer which allows you, through a web browser, to manage the get_iplayer PVR and start recordings. You are able to search all of the programmes indexed by get_iplayer. It also has a built-in streaming proxy server so you can play get_iplayer content from the web browser or using simple HTTP URLs. It automatically generates OPML and M3U playlists for any programme type so that media players can use the streams.
THIS IS BETA CODE!!!
***DO NOT RUN THIS ON AN UNTRUSTED NETWORK***
Platforms:
I am only testing this on Linux and Windows. However it is reported to work on OS X and Cygwin. I’ve only tested with Firefox 3.5. Ensure you have any ‘NoScript’ type plug-ins disabled). It does not work correctly in IE6/7/8/9 but let me know if there are any fixes/patches that you can suggest…
Requirements:
The software requires Perl and a number of fairly standard perl modules. For Windows you should install the latest get_iplayer installer which will install everything you need. For the other platforms you must have a recent get_iplayer installed and working. ffmpeg and flvstreamer are also required if you want to do streaming or recording of flash streams. It is a good idea to install VLC Media Player if you want the ‘Play’ links to work in the GUI.
Download
You can download it from here.
The README file with latest usage and instructions for installation are here.
The Change Log is here
Starting the Web PVR Manager service
You need to run this service (unless you plan to install under Apache web server). This service contains it’s own embedded web server which can run on any free TCP port above 1024.
On Linux/Unix/MacOSX start it using:
perl get_iplayer.cgi –port=1935 –getiplayer=/path/to/get_iplayer
Then you point your firefox web browser at http://127.0.0.1:1935/
On Win32, start it using the menu: ‘Start -> Programs -> get_iplayer -> Web PVR Manager’
Usage
Web GUI
There are several different tabs along the top of the page:
- Search – Shows you a list of all available programmes that match your default options. Use any of the search criteria presented, enter a search term then click the ‘Search‘ button below (select the ‘Advanced Options‘ tab to get more search options).
- Recordings – Shows you a list of all recorded programmes that match your default options. Use any of the search criteria presented, enter a search term then click the ‘Search‘ button below (click ‘Advanced Search‘ to get more search options).
- PVR List – Shows you a list of currently saved PVR searches or queued recordings (you can delete them from here also)
- Run PVR – Runs the PVR immediately in a new tab – make sure you wait for it to fully complete before closing the browser screen. If you do not close the tab it will automatically run the PVR every 4 hours.
- Update Software – Updates to the latest PVR Manager script (if it is writable) – make sure you restart the service after doing so. This feature is unavailable in Windows – use the installer and re-install the get_iplayer component to get the latest Web PVR Manager.
- Help – Sends you here.
There are several different action buttons along the top and bottom of the search results:
- Record – select the checkbox next to the programme(s) you want to record and click this for immediate recording in a separate browser tab.
- Play – select the checkbox next to the programme(s) you want to playback and click this to download an m3u playlist (you should associate m3u playlists with VLC in your browser for immediate playback).
- Queue – select the checkbox next to the programme(s) you want to record and click this to queue them for when the PVR next runs (i.e. by clicking ‘Run PVR’).
- Add Search to PVR – Once you have added the search terms to get the list of programmes you wish to regularly record, click this button.
- Refresh Cache – You must regularly refresh the programme cache to see new programmes. Clicking this opens another tab that refreshes the list of programmes from the online feeds of the selected programme type web sites. If you leave it open it will auto-refresh every 2 hours unless you override the settings.
- To Record or Play a BBC audio or video URL, paste the URL into the ‘Quick URL’ box with a iPlayer URL in it and click ‘Play’ or ‘Record’
- You can play back the programme using the ‘Play‘ link on each programme. The Play link just generates an m3u playlist with a single programme in it. (you should associate m3u playlists with VLC in your firefox browser for immediate playback).
- You can immediately queue a programme for recording if you simply click the ‘Queue‘ link next to any programme.
- You can immediately record a programme (opens a new tab) if you simply click the ‘Record‘ link next to any programme.
- You can immediately add a whole series (including future episodes) to the PVR if you simply click the ‘Add Series‘ link next to any programme.
- You can search the PVR recordings history instead of the available programmes by selecting ‘Search History’
- Clicking any programme description text will get it’s full info
- Clicking any underlined programme text will search only for that clicked text
- Clicking the Thumbnail will go to the episode web site
- You can sort columns by clicking the heading
- Columns can be added and removed by clicking the checkbox in the Columns tab.
- Apply Settings applies the options in settings tabs to the current search.
- Save As Default saves the options in settings tabs and a few of the standard settings such as Programme Type. The settings are saved as browser cookies.
- Inherits default settings from get_iplayer if not available in this GUI
Notes
- The queued recordings and PVR searches that you add will only actually get recorded when you click ‘Run PVR’.
- Recordings are saved in the directory where you started the service under Linux/unix/OS X. Under the Windows installer version the files are recorded to the usual ‘iPlayer Recordings’ folder. You can override this in the get_iplayer default options should you wish.
Direct Streaming URLs
Web PVR Manager allows you to stream audio and video to media player software such as vlc, mplayer, ffplay and hardware streamers such as the Logitech Squeezebox by creating URLs for the following:
- Stream BBC iPlayer programmes directly from the Internet as flv streams
- Stream any Pre-recorded programme losslessly or by transcoding on-the-fly
- Stream any mp3 files using the localfiles get_iplayer plugin
The README file gives full examples.
Automatic Playlist URLs
Web PVR Manager allows you to create M3U playlists on-the-fly from searches to enable you to stream audio and video to media player software such as vlc, mplayer, ffplay and hardware streamers such as the Logitech Squeezebox. These playlist URLs can:
- Create playlists of currently available programmes based on user defined search criteria
- Create playlists of any pre-recorded programme based on user defined search criteria
- Create OPML playlists which can be used to selectively navigate on devices like the Logitech Squeezebox
The README file gives full examples.
Caveats
Sometimes takes a while to load page while refreshing caches.
Only two simultaneous recording tabs can work at any one time (will fix this soon).
When using the stream, playlist or play links directly, cookies are not sent and the settings are not applied.
Doesn’t work with Internet Explorer yet.
You are doing it the hard way. Use the embedded web server. get_iplayer.cgi -p 1935
Nah. I’ve fixed it by adding the HOME environment variable to the script that crontab runs. The only problem now is that I haven’t had a successful complete download yet, only partial ones. Any idea why that might be?
When ITV downloads worked in the past, I set the Web PVR Manager to default to ITV when opening. Since then the ability to change the default way for the program to start has been removed. I understand that the ITV tick has since been removed on later versions, but no matter how many times I uninstall and reinstall the program, the ITV box still appears as the default along with it’s list of programs, but obviously they are not downloadable. How can I remove the default ITV setting and just get back to the BBC as the default. I am currently using version 2.49. Any help would be appreciated.
Hi
dont know if this is a bug but using the latest web pvr manager 0.59 / 2.49 get iplayer, searching everything on BBC tv only, the time added for the latest programs is showing as :-
d h ago
The last value with any data in it shows :-
5d 22h ago
I havent seen any new programs added on refresh or force refresh..should this happer?
I have re-installed over the current setup.
Ok, as the iPlayer saviour is on his break…..I have removed the software completely and re-installed. This seems to have removed the bug above and the latest programmes are now available…if that helps
Just transfered to Windows 7 and started to use the Web PVR. Everything is fine apart from the default settings for mode. I want iphone(mp3) but the settings given by default are flashacc. I have tried setting my preferences manually but this doesn’t seem to override what is used by the PVR. Any ideas how I can change this?
Same position as you. Editing the recording options: recording modes to list ‘iphone’ first i.e. iphone,flashaachigh,flashaacstd,flashaudio,flashhigh,flashstd,flashnormal,realaudio,flashaaclow
worked for me.
I just updated to v. 0.59 and the list of recordings has vanished.
Recordings are still physically present. Explicitly setting the directory in the “Override Recording Folder” settings makes no difference, nor does a reboot.
Any suggestions?
Hi there,
The PS3 will definitely playback mp4/h264, but it has to be marked as having a “level” of not greater than 4.1.
I believe this should be trivial to add this tag to the video, although I’ve only just installed get-iplayer, so I haven’t tried it yet.
See:
http://archives.free.net.ph/message/20080922.070953.c8b550ea.en.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Levels
This is a pretty daft & arbitrary requirement, IMO – it could simply give a warning and ask to “attempt to playback unsupported data?”.
I can’t say for sure this is the sole cause of your BBC-for-iphone content not playing back, but I think it might be so.
Stroller.
Where do get_iplayer and get_iplayer.cgi store there config files on linux? Specifically there list of downloaded programs. I want to clear the list of what has been downloaded clear what has been added to the pvr list for download via the web pvr and start again. Randomly deleting stuff in the .get_iplayer dir has achieved nothing
Is there any way to change the default value for the ‘modes’ field in Download Options? I would like to have it try flashhd, flashvhigh etc.
I can set this option for each download but it is not remembered.
Oops. Sorry. Answered my own question. I was looking for a command line solution. Turns out there is a ‘Save as Default’ button in the web interface which does exactly what it says on the tin.
Can you improve the instructions please for the average user, to make them far easier to follow?
I’ve just spent a frustrating hour trying to get my head around them to record the last episode of wogan before it vanishes forever
Take these examples for instance :
1, “run pvr” – you don’t say you need to run pvr to record a programme.
2. You don’t say where the recorded files are stored
3. It needs proof reading e.g. the text “paste the URL into the ‘Quick URL’ box with a iPlayer player in it” – What is a “box with an iplayer in it”? That text doesn’t make any sense.
4. Getting started – Labelling the paragraph on how to start the program with “How to start the server” is confusing. It should be titled “How to start WebPVR Manager.” I missed it because I didn’t know what the server was all about
In my view the documentation really needs improvement.
Thanks for proof reading this. I’ve reduced the xmas bonus from my documentation writer by 80% to teach him a lesson 😉
Hi
I’ve just done a clean install with latest wersion on a brand new W7 machine and am having some difficulties with the Web PVR – this only displays standard and advanced search, and doesn’t offer me any options to change display, recording or streaming options or to save altered default settings.
I can’t see anything in the instructions to help resolve this.
There are virtually no other applications installed on the machine excpet the default MS stuff plus Firefox and Quicktime. get_iplayer was installed using the all in one WIndows installer.
Any help gratefully accepted.
TIA
Robert
Are you actually viewing the Web PVR in firefox – IE hasn’t really been tested much yet.
slaps forehead; nope was running with IE8 in native mode. Sorry – it works fine in FF.
Thanks,
I am having a lot of problems with this (windows 7 version). Programmes I know are on iplayer aren’t appearing in search.(I’ve downloaded them using the other recorder from Paul Battley. And when I do download something all the recording modes fail, sometimes iphone works , it says its recorded it to the Downloads folder. I got to the folder and its empty. After about 10 attempts I have one successful download. That was the first own I did – everything else hasn’t worked. Has the programme corrupted itself or something?
I have figured out the search problem. But the contents never appearing in the Downloads folder is still an issue as is the issue that I only seem to be able to get iphone versions. Below is an example of what the PVR reports it is doing:
Matches:
10400: Book of the Week – Paw Tracks in the Moonlight: Episode 5, BBC Radio 4, Drama,Factual,Life Stories,Pets & Animals,Radio
INFO: 1 Matching Programmes
INFO: Checking existence of default version
INFO: flashaacstd1,flashaudio1,iphone1,realaudio1,realaudio2,realaudio3,flashaaclow1 modes will be tried for version default
INFO: Trying flashaacstd1 mode to record radio: Book of the Week – Paw Tracks in the Moonlight: Episode 5
INFO: File name prefix = Book_of_the_Week_-_Paw_Tracks_in_the_Moonlight_Episode_5_b00pbpcm_default
FLVStreamer v1.9
(c) 2009 Andrej Stepanchuk, Howard Chu, The Flvstreamer Team; license: GPL
Failed to open file! C:/Program Files/get_iplayer/Downloads/Book_of_the_Week_-_Paw_Tracks_in_the_Moonlight_Episode_5_b00pbpcm_default.partial.aac.flv
INFO: Command exit code 1 (raw code = 256)
WARNING: Failed to stream file C:/Program Files/get_iplayer/Downloads/Book_of_the_Week_-_Paw_Tracks_in_the_Moonlight_Episode_5_b00pbpcm_default.partial.aac.flv via RTMP
INFO: skipping flashaacstd1 mode
INFO: Trying flashaudio1 mode to record radio: Book of the Week – Paw Tracks in the Moonlight: Episode 5
INFO: File name prefix = Book_of_the_Week_-_Paw_Tracks_in_the_Moonlight_Episode_5_b00pbpcm_default
FLVStreamer v1.9
(c) 2009 Andrej Stepanchuk, Howard Chu, The Flvstreamer Team; license: GPL
Failed to open file! C:/Program Files/get_iplayer/Downloads/Book_of_the_Week_-_Paw_Tracks_in_the_Moonlight_Episode_5_b00pbpcm_default.partial.mp3.flv
INFO: Command exit code 1 (raw code = 256)
WARNING: Failed to stream file C:/Program Files/get_iplayer/Downloads/Book_of_the_Week_-_Paw_Tracks_in_the_Moonlight_Episode_5_b00pbpcm_default.partial.mp3.flv via RTMP
INFO: skipping flashaudio1 mode
INFO: Trying iphone1 mode to record radio: Book of the Week – Paw Tracks in the Moonlight: Episode 5
INFO: File name prefix = Book_of_the_Week_-_Paw_Tracks_in_the_Moonlight_Episode_5_b00pbpcm_default
###################################################################################################
INFO: Recorded 13.74MB in 00:00:20 at 5626kbps to C:/Program Files/get_iplayer/Downloads/Book_of_the_Week_-_Paw_Tracks_in_the_Moonlight_Episode_5_b00pbpcm_default.aac
INFO: Downloaded Thumbnail to ‘C:/Program Files/get_iplayer/Downloads/Book_of_the_Week_-_Paw_Tracks_in_the_Moonlight_Episode_5_b00pbpcm_default.jpg’
New radio programme: ‘Book of the Week – Paw Tracks in the Moonlight: Episode 5’, ‘It’s Christmas Day and O’Connor reflects on his life since he rescued the kitten.’
INFO: Deleted PVR search ‘ONCE_b00pbpcm’
ONCE_b00ph78j
INFO Trying to stream pid using type tv
INFO: pid found in cache
Outcome from the above is the downloads folder is empty!
Read the FAQ Q15.
Does the web interface search the cache for upcoming programmes (already published on iPlayer by the BBC)?
For example, I’d like to series-link some stuff before broadcast but I can’t find it by search even though it’s visible on the iPlayer website.
No, but you can add with command line:
get_iplayer –pvr-add=name_of_search
followed by your search terms.
On the cmdline you can now use (to additionally get future programme feeds):
get_iplayer –refresh-future –refresh (to additionally get future programme feeds)
Then search as usual just adding –future to search the schedule. e.g.:
get_iplayer QI –future
You can also add an index number of a future programme to the PVR for a one-off recording as follows:
get_iplayer 123 –pvrqueue
where 123 is a programme index (don’t worry if the index chages – get_iplayer stores the upcoming pid)
I’ve just got this running under Apache on my SheevaPlug but there are a few gotcha’s.
As mentioned previously, the Apache user on Ubuntu is www-data, not apache.
Since the plug only has half a gig of internal storage, you WILL need an external USB drive for your goodies. For the PVR to work, you need to set the Override Recordings Folder in Recording options and www-data will need to chown the entire top-down chain of directories – e.g. /media/USB/iplayer.
Don’t forget to allow them to be browsed by normal users, or you’ll never see or hear them!
Any chance of a new update that refreshes the cache whenever the service is loaded?
It used to do a refresh everytime it expired but that got very annoying when the page took so long to load. If I do it upon service start it could be several minutes before you can use it. If you click ‘Refresh Cache’ and leave open that tab in firefox, it will auto-refresh the caches every 2 hrs.
the pvr doesn’t appear to be auto-running. the tab has a little icon that’s going round and round as if it’s waiting for something but nothing ever happens. when i first started using it i think it probably was working but i can’t be sure. any idea what might be preventing it?
What is the tab displaying? (on windows it never seems to finish loading but it works fine for me on XP regardless)
Browser Busy Indicators are triggered by any number of events, some of which may be benign. What is your browser and operating system?
FF 3.5.7 on XP
I thought this was related to NoScript and made a reply about it but that doesn’t seem to have posted. disabling NoScript got it working for a bit but I have since uninstalled NoScript and it still isn’t working…
The browser busy problem is most likely a bug in my homebrew web server that I wrote in perl. It only happens in Windows but the auto-run of the PVR is unaffected by this (as long as NoScript is disabled). When you say it isn’t working – what exactly are you expecting?
Can you please help?
I have just upgraded my PVR to the latest version and now get the following error message when a select any of the PVR buttons in the browse.
ERROR: Duplicate Option defined ‘itvnothread’ -> ‘mmsnothread’ and ‘itvnothread’
I have already tried the following
+ Error message is the same both in IE and fire fox
+ Uninstalling and reinstalling the software via get_iplayer_setup_latest.exe
Many thanks in advance
Read the FAQ
Can anyone help with my post below that was originally submitted at the end of November. One of the updates since then defaulted the program back to BBC and left the ITV option still there but not selected. This sort of solved the problem, but the recent update of v2.58 now defaults the program back to ITV, so I am back at square one.
*******
Original post below:
When ITV downloads worked in the past, I set the Web PVR Manager to default to ITV when opening. Since then the ability to change the default way for the program to start has been removed. I understand that the ITV tick has since been removed on later versions, but no matter how many times I uninstall and reinstall the program, the ITV box still appears as the default along with it’s list of programs, but obviously they are not downloadable. How can I remove the default ITV setting and just get back to the BBC as the default. I am currently using version 2.49. Any help would be appreciated.
Try removing the file called itv.plugin (do a search for it under documents and settings). Nothing has changed with the status of ITV when it was removed mid last year.
That worked a treat, thanks very much.
I get the same problem as this
As what exactly!
As Elizabeth Jahn’s 2009.08.04. See the threaded view.
Ah, yes, sorry, there is a bug in this darned comment threading system.
Which installer version (if any) have you used and which version of get_iplayer. Also, what OS?
Hello. I just wanted to say that I’m using get_iplayer and the web PVR on Windows 7 x64 and it’s working marvellously straight out of the box. It is awesome. Cheers mate!
Hey, I’ve followed the instructions, but i always get a 500 Internal Server Error, due to misconfiguration. I can’t possibly think what I did wrong though :S Please help
Not unless you tell me the details.
having problems with the comnversion from flash with flvstreamer, here’s the log:
Running PVR Searches:
ONCE_b00jtrd6
INFO Trying to stream pid using type tv
INFO: pid found in cache
Matches:
653: Timmy Time – Timmy the Artist, CBeebies, Animation,Children’s,Entertainment & Comedy,TV, default
INFO: 1 Matching Programmes
INFO: Checking existence of default version
INFO: flashhigh1,flashhigh2,flashstd1,flashstd2 modes will be tried for version default
INFO: Trying flashhigh1 mode to record tv: Timmy Time – Timmy the Artist
INFO: File name prefix = Timmy_Time_-_Timmy_the_Artist_b00jtrd6_default
FLVStreamer v1.8k
(c) 2009 Andrej Stepanchuk, The Flvstreamer Team, license: GPL
Connecting …
Starting download at: 0.000 kB
Metadata:
duration 600.06
moovPosition 32
width 640
height 360
videocodecid avc1
audiocodecid mp4a
avcprofile 77
avclevel 30
aacaot 2
videoframerate 25
audiosamplerate 48000
audiochannels 2
trackinfo:
length 15001000
timescale 25000
language eng
sampledescription:
sampletype avc1
length 28803072
timescale 48000
language eng
sampledescription:
sampletype mp4a
###################################################################################################
Download complete
FFmpeg version git-91be88c, Copyright (c) 2000-2009 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
configuration: –enable-gpl –enable-nonfree –enable-shared –enable-pthreads –enable-libx264 –enable-libfaac –enable-libtheora
libavutil 50. 3. 0 / 50. 3. 0
libavcodec 52.32. 0 / 52.20. 0
libavformat 52.36. 0 / 52.31. 0
libavdevice 52. 2. 0 / 52. 1. 0
libswscale 0. 7. 1 / 0. 7. 1
built on Jul 24 2009 21:22:03, gcc: 4.3.3
[h264 @ 0x96c3d90]no picture
Seems stream 0 codec frame rate differs from container frame rate: 50.00 (50/1) -> 25.00 (25/1)
Input #0, flv, from ‘/home/keith/Downloads/Timmy_Time_-_Timmy_the_Artist_b00jtrd6_default.partial.mp4.flv’:
Duration: 00:10:00.06, start: 0.000000, bitrate: N/A
Stream #0.0, 1/1000: Video: h264, yuv420p, 640×360 [PAR 90:90 DAR 16:9], 1/50, 25 tbr, 1k tbn, 50 tbc
Stream #0.1, 1/1000: Audio: aac, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16
Output #0, mp4, to ‘/home/keith/Downloads/Timmy_Time_-_Timmy_the_Artist_b00jtrd6_default.partial.mp4’:
Stream #0.0, 1/50: Video: 0x0021, yuv420p, 640×360 [PAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 1/25, q=2-31, 50 tbn, 25 tbc
Stream #0.1, 1/48000: Audio: 0x0040, 48000 Hz, stereo, s16
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
Stream #0.1 -> #0.1
Press [q] to stop encoding
ffmpeg: symbol lookup error: ffmpeg: undefined symbol: av_free_packet
INFO: Command exit code 127 (raw code = 32512)
WARNING: flv conversion failed – retaining flv file
INFO: Recorded /home/keith/Downloads/Timmy_Time_-_Timmy_the_Artist_b00jtrd6_default.partial.mp4.flv
INFO: Deleted PVR search ‘ONCE_b00jtrd6’
New tv programme: ‘Timmy Time – Timmy the Artist’, ‘Timmy and Mittens get messy when they are supposed to paint each other’s portraits.’
If this is a one-off then it’s a corrupted stream either from the bbc or flvstreamer. Try upgrading anyway – you are using a old version. If this happens always then get a better ffmpeg build.
It’s happened a number of times. What should I upgrade and how. thanks.
flvstreamer and ffmpeg. FOr flvstreamer binaries see the Installation page. FFmpeg – check your OS for updates. Best update get_iplayer if you haven’t already also (get_iplayer -u)
How can i get web pvr to download iplayer hd streams?
1) Make sure you are running firefox. 2) Go the ‘Recording Options’. 3) Add ‘flashhd,’ at the beginning of the line of text in ‘Recording Modes’. 4) Click on ‘Advanced Search’. 5) ‘Save as default’.
Now do your search again
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