Re: BBC IPlayer on the N900 - A different approach
 

I think it's only hardware accelerated on mobile devices in Player 10.1, due for Maemo some time next year.

Re: BBC IPlayer on the N900 - A different approach
 

OK, well that bit I can do. Add http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/listen/live/r5lsp.asx to your internet radio stations - no need to go via iplayer.

Re: BBC IPlayer on the N900 - A different approach
 

Thank you! I'll try it out tomorrow having missed Swanny's fivefer today. :)

Re: BBC IPlayer on the N900 - A different approach
 

After a bit of scratching around i was able to get the basic get_iplayer script installed and running on my N900 without the chrooted debian environment. I have not tried the web front end.

Key to this is the need to have the libwww-perl module installed, great it is in extras-devel (alarm bell #1 should now be ringing) however it will not install due to missing dependencies. There is a helpful page on the maemo.org wiki that explains the status of Perl in Fremantle. The upshot of this is that you could install packages from the SDK repository to get this working (alarm bell #2 starts).

!!WARNING!!
If you are not comfortable with putting your device in a state where you will need to re-flash the software manually, walk away now.
!!WARNING!!

Installing packages from the SDK repository effectively changes the software configuration so that it is no longer recognised as running Maemo 5. You will not receive future updates in the application manager for the operating system. Yes, hacking around like this bit me hard on the N810.

You will need to have root privileges in the xterminal for the following:

1. Edit the file /etc/apt/sources.list to include the Fremantle SDK repository
2. Run 'apt-get update'
3. Run 'apt-get install libwww-perl' with the SDK repository installed this will resolve the dependencies.
4. Download the get_iplayer script and set as executable.
5. Run 'get_iplayer -h' for help.

While this works I would strongly recommend against following these instructions and disclaim any problems that arise.

IMO it would be much easier to run the web PVR front end on a personal server and connect to it from the N900 using just the web browser but this is a nice hack.

Have fun,
LES..

Re: BBC IPlayer on the N900 - A different approach
 

It works! I can haz Aggers! Now all I need to worry about is the data transfer and signal quality. So.. what are our chances of losing dismally now I can listen?

Re: BBC IPlayer on the N900 - A different approach
 

I am assuming that this script still has the limitations of you having to be in the UK or content is blocked? Or can an expat Aussie, now in the USA, who is seriously missing his cricket etc use it?

Re: BBC IPlayer on the N900 - A different approach
 

unfortunately, bbc restricts access to content to within the UK, although downloading through a proxy shouldn't be too hard :)

Re: BBC IPlayer on the N900 - A different approach
 

Fyi:

I did contact BBC basically asking nicely that they maybe consider writing an app for the N900 due to its (hopefull) popularity.

This is what i had back

So, As they seem to have apps for pretty much all other N series phone. Hopefully they will consider the N900.

Fingers crossed.

It is strange how the phone can handle high quality videos ( downloaded ) however can handle a few mbit stream from wireless.

Re: BBC IPlayer on the N900 - A different approach
 

All the other N-series devices run S60 and all have more or less the same capabilities and built-in software. Adding support for a new device is probably very little work for them. I'm guessing that they just need to test and possibly do a few tweaks to accomodate a new screen resolution or work around some software glitch in the firmware.

The N900 is another beast altogether since it runs a completely different operating system and has a completely different set of built-in software and libraries. I too hope that they'll consider supporting it but the fact that they support the S60-based N-series is little indication that they'll support the N900 unfortunately.

Re: BBC IPlayer on the N900 - A different approach
 

Hi,

yeah i completely agree and am fully aware that the OS isnt the same as the rest ( The reason why i got this bad boy )

Its just promising that BBC recognise the N-series phones. So maybe in the future they will have a client for it.

They already have linux clients for the iplayer download's so they evidently have dev's capable of such a task.

I suppose only time will tell. ( Or if nokia / maemo ) can fix the browser to actually render at a decent framerate.

Tbh, for such a good phone. Its a bad thing that only low bitrate youtube plays and no iplayer.

Even nokias budget phones work with Iplayer ( albeit not the desktop version )

But its still something i think they need to address before this phone gets any more bad publicity.


Not only do they need to address it, They also need to be a bit more transparent on what they are doing and when before this phone flops and never gets used like it should do.

Just my 2c