Announce: BBCiPlayer Plugin (UK only)

[Ramage]

The real streams will require Alien as this is needed to be able to transcode them. The menus here are also available in the latest alien under "Listen Again Alternative" and may well become the default menus for Alien in time.

Unfortunately its difficult to quess which streams are available as real and otherwise as it depends where you are - we can probably improve this in future, but not at the moment.

Thanks Triode for the response. Great plugin nevertheless.

[Ramage]

I really appreciate this plugin and it could eventually provide a great alternative to AlienBBC, having better quality streams and not having to install MPlayer are real advantages.

But after reading the BBC blogs, I've got concerns that the BBC are planning to migrate to AAC rather than MP3. (Some posts indicate this will happen this year).

If the BBC do move to AAC, is there any reason Logitech can't support AAC natively? (on linux having to install FAAD or MPlayer and manually tweaking configuration files is very messy).

Is it AAC or AAC+ that the Beeb may migrate to?

[bpa]

But after reading the BBC blogs, I've got concerns that the BBC are planning to migrate to AAC rather than MP3. (Some posts indicate this will happen this year).

Some points.

* Besides possible licensing issues - it seems there is not enough room left in SB firmware for another decoder.

* It is not clear whether BBC will provide AACplus (not AACP) over Flash or not (i.e standard HTTP). If it is over Flash (like the MP3 streams) then SB would also have to support Flash transport.

* AACplus is not AAC. However yo keep users happy - firmware support would probably have to support AAC and AACplus v1 and AACplus v2.

* I think the Blogs referred to support AACplus in addition to MP3 not instead of MP3.

* BBC strategy seems to be a bit flexible or not fully detailed in the blogs. A few months ago the only MP3 planned seemed to be secure (over Flash) and now these "unsecured" MP3 streams are available in addition to the secure MP3 streams.

[Triode]

I can't comment on AAC+ streams. I would expect the menu parsing to continue to work with any BBC changes as it uses the new menu feeds they have made available. As for the actual streams we need to see how the BBC streams develop. I've published the plugin to show what is available in addition to the low bitrate real streams used by Alien. Ideally the BBC contintinue to support these streams for use by devices such as the squeezebox with no AAC decoder - if not then we need to lobby otherwise...

[ModelCitizen]

<rant>
God, I am beginning to despair of the BBC. I just wish they'd stick to good old mp3 and stop screwing around. They (and the production companies they get their material from) should just accept that once something is broadcast it is public property and will be captured and copied, secured or not.
</rant>

I am on a 7.2.1 nightly and have installed this. It works perfectly and provides all the functionality I want (I am not interested in local radio or categories). As I use the live wma streams (all set as favourites and assigned to buttons on my Boom) I can't see I have a need for AlienBBC anymore.

However, uninstalling AlienBBC will make me feel like some sort of traitor. :-(

MC

[Triode]

I've updated the attachments in the first post.

There is now a version which works on 7.3 (BBCiPlayer-7_3.zip). Please note that this is slightly limited in comparsion to the 7.2 version - it does not get the correct stream lengths for radio3 and radio5 programs. This means scanning forwards and back in these programs may take to you the wrong place. [this is working fully on 7.2 and is due to some of the changes in 7.3 - hopefully will fix soon]

MC - don't feel like a traitor uninstalling Alien - I see this as an evolution of Alien for uk only streams. It may be all you need - its what I am finding myself using all the time...

[mick_w]

If anyone's interested, I've modified the menus of the plugin to add the live wma streams.

Just replace the menu.opml file in the plugin folder with the one attached.

Mick

[ModelCitizen]

Thanks Mick. I'm interested! :-)
We need some version control! Triode, is there any chance of adding these menus into your iPlayer plugin, otherwise it's going to get messy! :-)

Triode.
The letter keys on the remote have odd results when using them to locate a show. For instance, if I hit the M key to find MoneyBox I am taken to Monday. This means that the results of using the letter keys are not consistent (M,T,W,T,F,S takes you to days, all others to shows).

As the days of the week are right at the top of the menu is it possible to exclude them from access by the number keys?

Another thing. Saturday's MoneyBox is listed twice, one at 12.00am and another at 12.04am. Both listings play exactly the same sound file.

I know this is frivolous but.... I've already changed the iPlayer plugin image to be the BBC logo image I used for AlienBBC. I have a whole bunch of other prepared icons too, one for each BBC channel. It'd be great if the appropriate logo could be displayed on the controller when listening to a show from a particular BBC station. Is there any chance of that being possible at all?

And... it seems much slower than it could be to access the iPlayer menus (i.e fetch the stuff from the BBC web site).

MC

[ian_heys]

Great plug-in - even better with the live stations.

Haven't commented on these pages for ages - but a couple of comments and questions.

Can the Live Stations include Five Live Sports Extra for those of us who are avid followers of cricket and other sports?

(I can do this for myself of course but we were talking about version control here).

Is there any way of parsing the BBC's asx playlists as these may change dynamically and include even higher bit rate streams in the near future - possibly. Or have I got the wrong end of the stick in trying to follow the BBC Radio Blogs?

[Triode]

I've updated the attachments on the first post to version 0.2

This includes menu items for live streams using the asx urls used by iplayer's web pages (thanks mick_w and ian_heys).