New iPlayer, new downloader

The new version of the iPlayer site went live late last week, and is significantly different from the old version. As a side effect, downloads were broken. However, with the aid of a session trace sent to me by a kind reader, I’ve made the necessary amendments.

  • The method to find the version PID has changed.
  • The page served to mobile clients has a different address.

There are still a few questions left (I’m almost certainly not finding the version PID in the best way), but it does work. With a little further effort, it should be possible to grab the radio files as well, which would be a nice bonus.

You can get the updated files in the usual place.

Incidentally, I don’t think they’ve announced it, but from the HTML and JavaScript source, it looks like the Beeb are doing a trial of Nokia N95 support. Has anyone tried?

2008-07-06 19:07 UTC. Comments: 16.

Comments

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  1. Doug

    Wrote at 2008-07-06 20:22 UTC using Firefox 3.0 on Windows Vista:

    Great utility – newest version works for me.

    “With a little further effort, it should be possible to grab the radio files as well, which would be a nice bonus.”

    Now that would be useful!

  2. Ed

    Wrote at 2008-07-06 22:02 UTC using Firefox 3.0 on Windows XP:

    Radio files will be massively appreciated! Keep up all the good work :)

  3. Richard Mace

    Wrote at 2008-07-07 00:18 UTC using Firefox 3.0 on Linux:

    Nice work, much appreciated. Looking forward to the radio file downloads!

  4. owh

    Wrote at 2008-07-07 08:30 UTC using Firefox 3.0 on Windows Vista:

    This is the new version of iPlayer that debuted with the live News stream, and has been proxy-proofed for those of us who are not UK viewers.

    You wouldn’t have happened to know what changed there, would you? I miss iPlayer already.

  5. Phil Wilson

    Wrote at 2008-07-07 12:17 UTC using Firefox 3.0 on Windows XP:

    From my N95 I just get the normal full-fat iPlayer and video doesn’t work.

  6. thatguy

    Wrote at 2008-07-07 21:09 UTC using Safari 419.3 on Mac OS X:

    As an aside the mobile pages don’t serve up radio links. So I doubt they are accesible in the usual manner.

  7. Ed

    Wrote at 2008-07-08 00:26 UTC using Safari 525.20.1 on Mac OS X:

    Really need to be able to open the radio programmes in an external player so I can control it with my Apple Remote – the flash player doesn’t respond to any key presses, so I can’t control it with my remote like the old radio player :(

    Keep up the good work, can’t wait :)

  8. Chris Warren

    Wrote at 2008-07-09 10:46 UTC using Firefox 3.0 on Windows XP:

    Yep, although not announced, N95/mobile-optimsed streams are at:
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/4/sdp/{pid}/iplayer_streaming_n95_wifi

    e.g.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/4/sdp/b00cgpnp/iplayer_streaming_n95_wifi

    Should be pretty easy for someone to set up a mobile-optimised interface from the RSS, pointing to these URLs. :-)

  9. Jonathan

    Wrote at 2008-07-09 20:51 UTC using Internet Explorer 7.0 on Windows XP:

    Thanks for the software, I can now get a step closer to putting BBC Programs on my iPod!!!!

    Thanks Again

    Jonathan

  10. dref

    Wrote at 2008-07-10 06:29 UTC using Firefox 2.0.0.15 on Windows Vista:

    Thanks very much – I find that Doctor DivX from Divx itself is great for converting the mov files to a suitable format for the Core media player on Windows Mobile.

    Looking forward to radio if that comes off…

  11. Ricahrd

    Wrote at 2008-07-10 20:17 UTC using Firefox 3.0b5 on Linux:

    +1 for ability to download radio streams!

  12. Atticbob

    Wrote at 2008-07-20 10:23 UTC using Firefox 3.0.1 on Windows XP:

    Your newest version works a treat for me – keep up the good work. Radio files would be a much appreciated bonus.

  13. Russ

    Wrote at 2008-07-22 07:02 UTC using Firefox 3.0.1 on Mac OS X:

    Tried
    iplayer-dl b00cmn1z
    (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00cmn1z)

    Unable to parse the metadata for this programme.

    Same for previous episode and others like Lab Rats… I’m getting this on quite a few programs now. Seems like they may have re-altered their metdata?

    You can still download manually if you specify the -f option – but it is a pain ;-) Any ideas.

  14. strengthofmind

    Wrote at 2008-07-30 10:35 UTC using Firefox 3.0.1 on Windows XP:

    I download radio off iplayer a fair bit.

    I use HiDownload:
    http://www.hidownload.com/download-bbc-iplayer-radio.htm
    http://isohunt.com/torrents/HiDownload?ihp

    Then convert to mp3 using dBpoweramp:
    http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm
    http://www.dbpoweramp.com/codec-central-realaudio.htm
    http://isohunt.com/torrents/dBpoweramp?ihp

  15. Greg

    Wrote at 2008-08-07 14:36 UTC using Firefox 3.0.1 on Linux:

    You can download http://linuxcentre.net/get_iplayer/get_iplayer

    Then do “get_iplayer -pid=b00534538”

  16. Angus

    Wrote at 2008-08-11 22:07 UTC using Firefox 2.0.0.16 on Windows XP:

    I have been using fairuse4wm. this allows me to bypass the 30day delete.
    Since the change I have found that this no longer works and it asks for a new key!!
    Any ideas??

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