The Unmissable BBC iPlayer
Monday, December 24th, 2007Auntie’s Christmas Present
Just in time for Chrimbo, the Beeb unwrapped the wrapping paper on their hotly-anticipated iPlayer service – the on-demand online feature which promises to make “the unmissable, unmissable”.
Basically a TV version of their existing BBC Radio Listen Again platform, which streams audio content from BBC Radio stations from the last seven days, the BBC iPlayer has existed in trial form for a number of months now, and has finally been given the final heave-ho into the arms of the licence-fee paying public, after compatibility issues with Windows Vista and Apple machines had been ironed out.
The last seven days of BBC telly is made available for downloading to your computer – files come with a Mission Impossible-esque lifespan of seven days after which they self-destruct themselves from your hard drive. Of the downloadable material available, exclusive behind the scenes footage of Heroes has been a favourite, in our office along with old episodes of QI
and Screenwipe.
The picture quality of the files is good, obviously dependent on your computer’s specs – having a decent graphics card helps loads – and we managed to install the iPlayer on machines running both XP and Vista.
So far so good – we’re hoping that the BBC make good on their word to unroll the service over to DTT and IPTV – in April earlier this year, the BBC’s Ashley Highfield said that once general internet rollout of the iPlayer had taken place; “we’ll turn to the really tricky platforms: DTT via either PVRs or IP hybrid boxes.”
If Channel 4 follow suit with 4oD for Freeview and everything else, then that would be sweet - Father Ted and The Fast Show at your beck and call.
December 6th, 2007 at 10:00 am
I thought this was going to be more in line with what Virgin are offering, only via terrestrial.
If you can transfer downloaded stuff to your TV on BT Vision etc, then surely its technically possible to offer the same service on Freeview?
February 15th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
I love the BBC iPlayer, the quality is great and being able to catch up on TV you have missed has been a long time coming.
My only regret is that the service does not hold the programme information indefinitely, it is great when you can watch a series you may have missed from start to finish.