BBC IPlayer on the N900 - A different approach
 

As reported, Iplayer doesnt seem to work well in the browser on the n900. However, get_iplayer (http://linuxcentre.net/getiplayer) allows you to download iplayer content in a number of formats and runs fine in a debian chroot on the n900 (apt-get install get-iplayer).

I've grabbed a number of shows (in the default mov iphone format) and they play great in the maemo 5 media player.

The PVR (http://linuxcentre.net/getiplayer/ge...er-pvr-manager) is also working from the chroot and can be accessed from the maemo browser, giving an easy way to search and record programmes in a GUI.

http://gplsystems.com/screenshot03.jpg

Hopefully with some effort get_iplayer can be ported to maemo (its a perl script), i'm going to try with scratchbox2 but it has a lot of dependencies so it might not be so simple. Also with a bit of work it may be possible to stream the bbc streams using the media player or mplayer (hopefully soon to be optified for maemo5) via get_iplayer and the pvr.

Anyways, thought someone else may find this information useful...

Re: BBC IPlayer on the N900 - A different approach
 

Great, I'll be happy downloading to the device and then watching :)

Re: BBC IPlayer on the N900 - A different approach
 

Cool! I was wondering about something like this.

I'm assuming that the problem lies in the H.264 codec not being fast enough to decode the very large desktop resolution iplayer will be sending out. I know they have different option for different devices. I'd been wondering how easy it would be to masquerade to iplayer as being a Wii (for which iplayer will use a higher bandwidth, lower complexity Sorensen Spark codec (H263 cut down)). I'm not sure exactly how they decide what an endpoint is though (the Wii iplayer broke recently when they moved from flash 7 to flash lite 3.1, which identifies itself as flash 9, making the iplayer servers dish out the H.264 version).

This sounds a better solution though. Is there anything I can do to help?

Re: BBC IPlayer on the N900 - A different approach
 

I have nothing useful to contribute other than that I'd really, really like to have iplayer functioning no n900. :)

So thanks to all involved!

Re: BBC IPlayer on the N900 - A different approach
 

Hopefully the BBC will decide to support the N900.

If the streaming service is just a matter of redirecting the N900 to the correct format then surely this would not be too much of a problem.

The BCC already have a Linux version of the stand alone download service so perhaps they will modify this for the N900?

Re: BBC IPlayer on the N900 - A different approach
 

I really want iPlayer functionality on the N900 too!

Has anyone confirmed that the standard iPlayer is still unwatchable even after selecting the "Lower Bandwidth" option? I've seen the youtube video of it running a bit choppy but the user (presumably) used the normal bandwidth version!

Re: BBC IPlayer on the N900 - A different approach
 

It is unwatchable, VP6 which iplayer uses for all but the really high quality streams has no optimisations on the device.

Re: BBC IPlayer on the N900 - A different approach
 

This is fantastic news. My shockingly bad programming knowledge means I couldn't do something like this, but I would certainly be a happy user. Standard quality is 640x360 AVC with 48khz AAC audio, wouldn't that run on the N900?

Re: BBC IPlayer on the N900 - A different approach
 

I am working on iplayer stuff now either as part of zoutube or another app with same UI as zoutube. We have good hope for it.

Re: BBC IPlayer on the N900 - A different approach
 

That doesn't appear to be true, based on actually looking at the data. The iPlayer flash streams are h264 for everything except the lowest quality (in get_iplayer terminology flashlow).

The resolutions of the streams are:

flashlow : 384x216 VP6 1012 Kbits/s
flashstd : 640x360 h264 485 Kbits/s
flashhigh : 640x360 h264 830 Kbits/s
flashvhigh : 832x486 h264 1533 Kbits/s
flashhd : 1280x720 h264 3200 Kbits/s

The bitrate figures are all taken from an episode of the 'The Thick Of It', but they should be representative. I think the flashvhigh looks like a good fit for the N900's screen, but it remains to be seen whether (even with the DSP offload) it can handle the bitrate.