Rise of iPlayer

Masterdog · 24 Nov 2008 at 11:27

I love the Beeb. The amount of quality, ad-free stuff they produce is well worth the license fee imo.

Things change I've changed · 24 Nov 2008 at 11:27

I don't pay for a TV license, I only use iPlayer and 4OD myself, perfectly fine for me, I only switch the TV on if I want to play a game on my console.

[DOD]Asprilla · 24 Nov 2008 at 11:29

daz said:
I think you'll eventually have to register to use iPlayer, give your name and address and licence number, and you'll have to register a IP to use with the service (max of 3 IPs allowed to be registered at any one time).

I've not heard any mention of this and I still hand around with a lot of the BBC systems analysts dealing with iPlayer. I think iPlayer will always be free and available to anyone in the UK since the new service containing more programmes and possibly the entire back catalogue, including ITV & C4 will include ad-supported programmes, download-to-own and download-to-rent options.

Vegetarian · 24 Nov 2008 at 11:30

Jez said:
How people can realistically consider i-player as an alternative to live TV is beyond me. The quality on streamed stuff is fairly terrible beyond a quick catch up windowed in the office, and the downloads take so long through the terrible p2p system that they are not instantly watchable.

I'll stick with Sky and a huge HDD for the time being until something better with true on demand comes along.

If you download the quality is the same as DVB-T so Im happy... Only got 32" so it looks just as good as anything else I throw at the TV.

Participant · 24 Nov 2008 at 11:56

Jez said:
Our opinions on fine clearly differ then, it is "fine" if we are talking catching up on a programme on the computer screen, but display it on anything bigger than your average plasma telly and it isnt there...yet.

By "fine" I mean exactly the same as watching Freeview TV on my 40" CRT.

theboyrob · 24 Nov 2008 at 12:35

I love iplayer, quite often I just tend to not bother watching programmes when they are on and watch them at my convenience with iplayer.

Got it hooked up through my pc through the tv, the high quality stream is pretty good (infact not far at all behind my sky sd) and its great to be able to flick through or go back with ease!

Mad old tory · 24 Nov 2008 at 12:38

One plus point of Virgin media is the ability to use iplayer through your tv. Just a shame that certain programmes aren't on it, like MoTD, guessing that's a licensing issue though.

Stretch · 24 Nov 2008 at 12:42

This sounds like the BBC making moves to charge a licence free for desktops and laptops as they've wanted to do for sometime. If they do I hope the backlash sparks a rethink of the licence fee system as a whole.

Mad old tory said:
One plus point of Virgin media is the ability to use iplayer through your tv. Just a shame that certain programmes aren't on it, like MoTD, guessing that's a licensing issue though.

If you own a tv that's connected to live broadcast equipment (such as virgin media) then you must pay a licence fee.

Participant · 24 Nov 2008 at 12:45

Mad old tory said:
One plus point of Virgin media is the ability to use iplayer through your tv. Just a shame that certain programmes aren't on it, like MoTD, guessing that's a licensing issue though.

It's probably something to do with Sky kicking up a stink about showing highlights. It will all have been hammered out in rights distribution agreements.

leaskovski · 24 Nov 2008 at 12:49

daz said:
I think you'll eventually have to register to use iPlayer, give your name and address and licence number, and you'll have to register a IP to use with the service (max of 3 IPs allowed to be registered at any one time).

Interesting that the article says that watching the show after it has been first aired is free and thus what they are doing is not illegal. So in theory, the beeb couldnt do that. It probably wont stop them though.

Clipsey · 24 Nov 2008 at 13:19

The license fee is now 140pounds???? Holy price increase!!

SB118 · 24 Nov 2008 at 15:39

I find the Hi-Q version of stuff are fine on our 37" wall telly (whi-kung-ji or some other popular brand i think it is), the only downside is that you can't do anything else or the iplayer window drops out of "maximised" to a normal window and the program is only using a 1/4 of the screen.

Also i've probably got my resolution set up wrong as a maximised widescreen image has HUGE black bars at top and bottom and the video plays in a band 1/3rd of the screen size in the middle.

Cr0fty · 24 Nov 2008 at 15:43

Mad old tory said:
One plus point of Virgin media is the ability to use iplayer through your tv. Just a shame that certain programmes aren't on it, like MoTD, guessing that's a licensing issue though.

I noticed this the other day, was chuffed

Werewolf · 24 Nov 2008 at 15:54

Robbie G said:
By "fine" I mean exactly the same as watching Freeview TV on my 40" CRT.

The amusing thing is, that because the Iplayer uses computer based encoding/decoding it could probably beat the (relatively ancient) mpeg 2 quality used for freeview, due to better codecs and still use much less bandwidth.

Personally I love the iplayer, especially in it's incarnation on the cable network

Mad old tory · 24 Nov 2008 at 20:07

Stretch said:
This sounds like the BBC making moves to charge a licence free for desktops and laptops as they've wanted to do for sometime. If they do I hope the backlash sparks a rethink of the licence fee system as a whole.

If you own a tv that's connected to live broadcast equipment (such as virgin media) then you must pay a licence fee.

Indeed and I do, it's well worth it in my opinion considering the quality of BBC programming versus the other channels, especially compared to the dross which ITV churns out.