Time for a tangent ...
Back in July the BBC launched the iPlayer, a piece of software that would allow you to download and view programmes from the last seven days.
There were two problems: the player was only available for Windows, shutting out anyone with a Mac or Linux and a lot of people (myself included) are put off these days by having to install yet another client to watch/listen to locked content - most of the major channels seem to have their own versions of these things (e.g. Sky, Channel4), yet we're supposed to moving into a Video on Demand world in which we can watch anything at any time through our set top boxes.
Today, the BBC has launched a new version of the iPlayer. This time it's online. No downloads (apart from upgrading Flash if you still have an old version) - the videos just play in your web browser, like YouTube. This is great for me as I often find myself forgetting about things I meant to watch until shortly after they have ended.
OK, so it's nowhere near HD quality, but its good enough. If you have a web-enabled gaming console, you might even be able to get the service working through that, onto your TV, rather than watching on a monitor.
Content is only available if you live in the UK, but if you meet that criteria give it a go - I just discovered a show I'd never heard of before, The History of the World Backwards. Only the final episode is still available, so we're at the end (beginning) of history, featuring a henge design review meeting and talk of the hunting of a pre(post)-historic car wash. I'll now be watching out for earlier episodes when they are repeated.
Right, I'm off to watch last week's Top Gear...
6 comments:
Woo hoo. And it works in the office! And it works on Firefox (even though the iPlayer page itself says it only works in IE).
Woo hoo - I can spell download and you can't!
That's two misspellings of the same word in the same post! I hang my head in shame.
The IE bit is if you want to download the show to the old installed iPlayer - who'd bother with that now anyway?
Don't use it too much at work though - new company police-y states they are watching you
Ahhhhhhh!!!!
It would sure be nice to have these kinds of things available in other countries!
When I was doing my Survivor China series on my blog there were all these cool widgets you could get off the CBS Survivor page but only for the US plus the streaming video was only available in the US! I am thankful for Youtube! No wonder my blog is getting thousands of hits, they have to start thinking BIG if they want to capture the global market….
I love Top Gear, but it is not on cable here just satellite….of course there is yet again Youtube!
We just purchased a brand new wide screen TV and its great, I haven’t run my computers through it yet but soon….
Are you getting the latest season of Battlestar Galactica?
Interesting this is what the player told me when I tried it out….
Why do I need to be in the UK to use BBC iPlayer?
Rights agreements mean that BBC iPlayer is only available to users in the UK. However, BBC Worldwide is working on an international version, which we will make available as soon as possible.
Some content, such as podcasts, are available to users outside the UK at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/directory/. Many BBC News programmes are available for viewers outside the UK at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/video_and_audio/default.stm, BBC Sport highlights are available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport and BBC Radio stations are available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/
I think the BBC are looking at ways of monetising their content for other countries - the UK household pays for all the content after all with the yearly TV License fee so we should get it for free, but we want some return on our money - haha.
You may have noticed I haven't been commenting on your Survivor pieces since the first couple of episodes - I decided not to read them as I want to try and catch the show when its on over here. Maybe I will leave comments on them in one year :-)
We got Razor a couple of weeks ago - cool episode. Looking forward to the new season tremendously!
Hi Dave too bad it only works for UK, I really liked the interface and flexibility of watching it from my laptop. I never really watched anything on Internet, other than YouTube videos - Its like watchting America Funniest Videos on TV, lol. However, not that I know that it is that easy, may be I cancel my TV cable, lol. I will check out LSs links, if he is seeing anything, then I should be too, lol. BTW thanks for the recent visit. Happy Holidays, Anna :)
Post a Comment