Announce: BBCiPlayer Plugin (UK only)

[eag23]

I'm a huge fan of the BBC and I use Triode's plugin multiple times throughout each day. I was disappointed to discover recently that the live BBC World Service stream now only comes in at 32kbps AAC, rather than the 128kbps AAC that I had been receiving it in. Does this have anything to do with the recent update of Triode's plugin to version 1.2.7, or is it the result of actions by the BBC on their end? As far as I can tell from the Triode's code, he is pulling in the identical URL for the live World Service feed in both version 1.2.5 and version 1.2.7 of his plugin. I should reiterate that I am located in the USA ... not sure if being outside the UK could be creating this situation or not.

[Triode]

I've just updated the BBCRadio Applet (the version of this plugin which is installed as an app directly on Touch/Radio)

This adds experimental support for RadioVis slideshow images which will display while Radio1 and 1Xtra live stations are playing. This is currently using a demo server from the BBC, but it sounds like they are embracing the RadioVis standard which includes text and slideshow streams, so I hope that in future there will be slideshow streams available for other stations.

I've done this in the applet only for the moment as it means I can add code to display on the screen at maximum size.

Please post feedback here on how well it works - though I can't influence the content of the slides.... Is this useful? How well does it work on the display of radio and touch (the actual images are currently the right size for radio, they are scaled up slightly for touch)

[bonze]

Slides appear to display OK on the SBT.
But if the Text option is selected, then the menu options seem to stop working. Can't select 'Listen Live'.

As for usefulness would it be possible for the output, text/images, to be available in Erland's Custom Clock?

[Triode]

Slides appear to display OK on the SBT.
But if the Text option is selected, then the menu options seem to stop working. Can't select 'Listen Live'.

Oops - yes there is a bug in 1.13, I've just uploaded 1.14 to fix this.

As for usefulness would it be possible for the output, text/images, to be available in Erland's Custom Clock?

At present the applet only displays images if the current screen is the now playing screen, this is to avoid it putting images on top of other screens such as menus etc. I don't really know how it would integrate with custom clock without looking at it.

[bonze]

Oops - yes there is a bug in 1.13, I've just uploaded 1.14 to fix this.

Retried with 1.14, it now gets past the menu item, but no 'text' is shown.

At present the applet only displays images if the current screen is the now playing screen, this is to avoid it putting images on top of other screens such as menus etc. I don't really know how it would integrate with custom clock without looking at it.

So it is a 'screensaver' itself, rather than fetching the image for another screensaver to display?

[Triode]

Retried with 1.14, it now gets past the menu item, but no 'text' is shown.

Looks like the old livetext feed is no longer producing updates - I will need to move the text display to the radiovis server too. I originally didn't do this as the text on the old service was less chatty and seemed more appropriate to me.

So it is a 'screensaver' itself, rather than fetching the image for another screensaver to display?

Yes it acts as its own screensaver - there is no common api to make dynamic images available to other screensavers.

[bonze]

Looks like the old livetext feed is no longer producing updates - I will need to move the text display to the radiovis server too. I originally didn't do this as the text on the old service was less chatty and seemed more appropriate to me.

I noticed it seemed to stop updating sometime yesterday and wasn't sure if it was related.
It sometimes used to stop for a day or two.

Yes it acts as its own screensaver - there is no common api to make dynamic images available to other screensavers.

No problem, I'll wait and see what they output before deciding on 'usefulness'

Maybe they will use the current webcam images as output.

[mrw]

I've just updated the BBCRadio Applet (the version of this plugin which is installed as an app directly on Touch/Radio)

This adds experimental support for RadioVis slideshow images which will display while Radio1 and 1Xtra live stations are playing. This is currently using a demo server from the BBC, but it sounds like they are embracing the RadioVis standard which includes text and slideshow streams, so I hope that in future there will be slideshow streams available for other stations.

I've done this in the applet only for the moment as it means I can add code to display on the screen at maximum size.

Please post feedback here on how well it works - though I can't influence the content of the slides.... Is this useful? How well does it work on the display of radio and touch (the actual images are currently the right size for radio, they are scaled up slightly for touch)

I think it works well. I don't have a Touch, but the upscaling seems to work well in Squeezeplay and on a 'non-standard' tablet with screen size 800x480. The pillar-box result looks fine to me.

I know that Classic FM and its siblings also offer RadioVis, and I believe that Absolute Radio does as well. I tinkered with the former a while back, but was diverted. I'm inclined to look again.

In an ideal world the Now Playing applet would be made extensible to accomodate plug-ins. Or perhaps a 'RadioVis' NP provided and made available according to some appropriate trigger. Although I think the trigger would present a challenge at present, as I sense that 'RadioVis IP stream discovery' may not be mature, or consistently implemented, at present.

[Triode]

I understand from the BBC that for the duration of the BBC Proms season, the Radio 3 HD (320k) stream will be available outside the uk.

This stream is only available as flashaac so requires you to have flashaac streams enabled. I've added a new entry to the special events menu which I hope will make this easier to use for default settings. You should be able to reach the HD stream outside the UK by one of the following:

1) BBCiPlayer plugin via normal Radio 3 live menu entry if the live stream preference is set to "Flash AAC > WMA"
2) BBCiPlayer plugin via the Special Events menu as long as "Flash AAC" is included in the live stream preference (this is the default)
3) BBC Radio applet via the Special Events meny as long as the stream setting at the bottom of the main menu is set to "Highest Bitrate" or "AAC/MP3"

Please can someone confirm these work.

[rabbit]

Looking at the BBC website it implies that "Listen Again" on iPlayer is now available in HD 320kb stream.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/help/hd-sound.shtml

I have been listening the Proms on iPlayer but they only come through as 128kb aac streams. I'm in the UK. Can anybody receive iPlayer streams in HD?

Thanks