Interesting interview regarding BBC IPlayer and Android

Holwill · 17 Dec 2012 at 18:48

As above, really found it quite interesting as having been a user of both, but preferring Android overall, I guess this applies to Sky and Virgin apps to.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20754182

muon · 17 Dec 2012 at 19:13

Whilst true, Sky's incompetence is on a whole different level and they are supposed to be making money as a provider of media and spend a lot of money on it.

Slinky1989 · 17 Dec 2012 at 19:37

I'm a bit curious as to why he said the Galaxy S2 is incapable of handling advanced video, but I agree with the rest of the points made.

Em3bbs · 17 Dec 2012 at 19:38

Before Ice Cream Sandwich (an early variant of the Android operating system) most Android devices lacked the ability to play high quality video.

lol wut. ICS an early variant? If they can't even get details like that right plus the S2 and ITV Player comments it doesn't give you much hope.

Verbium · 17 Dec 2012 at 19:59

From a developers perspective anything below ICS really is a pain in the arse to get working correctly. I think the BBC also use html5 video to stream and gingerbread was awful at that, it was more like a pseudo feature.

robgmun · 17 Dec 2012 at 20:13

"slinky" said:
I'm a bit curious as to why he said the Galaxy S2 is incapable of handling advanced video, but I agree with the rest of the points made.

I almost stopped reading at that point, i had an S2 and i played 720p MKV perfectly.

Just cements my view that the tech department at the BBC is run by luddite chimps with a hard on for Apple

Mr Paul · 17 Dec 2012 at 20:16

Same as Sky then....

muon · 17 Dec 2012 at 20:19

robgmun said:
I almost stopped reading at that point, i had an S2 and i played 720p MKV perfectly.

Just cements my view that the tech department at the BBC is run by luddite chimps with a hard on for Apple

I think it was more to do with a lot of S2 devices still having Gingerbread.

robgmun · 17 Dec 2012 at 20:22

muon said:
I think it was more to do with a lot of S2 devices still having Gingerbread.

And? It still was perfectly powerful enough

muon · 17 Dec 2012 at 20:23

robgmun said:
And? It still was perfectly powerful enough

It lacks http live streaming (hls).

I'd have thought you'd be clued up on this.

Tweaker · 17 Dec 2012 at 20:39

robgmun said:
I almost stopped reading at that point, i had an S2 and i played 720p MKV perfectly.

Just cements my view that the tech department at the BBC is run by luddite chimps with a hard on for Apple

I'm going to have to respond to that one, as I work in Future media for news. You cant paint us all with the same brush, News on Android is far better than iOS. Also, the news app on android delivered lock screen widgets a month after the SDK was released, that is very good going considering the other updates and changes that went into that release.
I think the only thing that people ask for from the News Android app is landscape mode on the Nexus 7..........

The iplayer streaming aspect is a difficult one, it is the same reason why the responsive/mobile news site doesn't have "proper" live streaming. It is to do with codecs and with HLS on Android, which a large amount of devices do not support. Once we have more users on Android 4+, we will start to see better developments in features, for now though, 50% of users are still on Android 2.3

Fillado · 17 Dec 2012 at 20:55

I don't think I'd be able to find the article but I remember reading about a smallish mobile game developer. They had their game on iOS and Android but something like 30% of their time was spent solving specific issues with specific devices on Android. So they just abandoned Android and went iOS only.

Since Android is on its march to smartphone marketshare domination it's a curious future. Either developers are going to have to put up with the utterly horrific - yes it's that word again - fragmentation or Google are going to have to do something about it.

McMav · 17 Dec 2012 at 20:57

For me it's still website and flash player. Much better on my nexus than the app.

muon · 17 Dec 2012 at 21:01

McMav said:
For me it's still website and flash player. Much better on my nexus than the app.

Yep, a shame flash isn't being supported anymore.

High quality streaming working flawlessly on decent devices.

Caged · 18 Dec 2012 at 00:06

I think it was a pretty interesting article, and seemed to support everything else I've read about the specific platforms. Targeting Android 4+ only would enable lots of features that people seem to want (proper streaming etc), yet devices purchased as recently as a year ago would be shut out from being able to use it. In the Apple camp you can target iOS 6 exclusively and still get everything from the 3GS upwards, which was a mid-2009 phone.

Personally I think they should stop bothering to support anything pre-4.0, and tell people to go and whinge at their handset manufacturers for being incompetent and lazy. However, as a public service broadcaster this wouldn't be the most popular option.

Locke · 18 Dec 2012 at 00:21

Honestly, I don't see why they should develop below ICS when there are millions on newer versions of Android!

I can see the "We're not developing for Android 4.x + because 50% of users are on 2.3x still", however, I bet a lot of users in that Gingerbread share probably wouldn't want to use iPlayer anyway.

Even if they did, the BBC would at least encourage people to update their Galaxy S II, since it has been updated to ICS.

McMav · 18 Dec 2012 at 07:06

The thing is. If you are on pure 4.0.x you still get flash player on play store so don't really need the app. They should go all out for 4+ only development of the app.

Myshra · 18 Dec 2012 at 08:53

They admit their faults and have a good plan for the future, sounds like good first steps to me. I'd prefer native HTML 5 and cross platform dev but I'll take what I can get. the BBC apps in general are much more pleasing to use on iOS for me, I hope a little bit of that can be back ported.

Em3bbs · 18 Dec 2012 at 09:03

Most of the arguments are fine, if we we sitting here 12 months ago. You only need to support a minority of devices to capture the majority of the Android units that have been sold over the past year in the UK, and these will all be ICS and above. This is exactly what Sky have done and look how much better Sky Go is than any of the BBC offerings.

robgmun · 18 Dec 2012 at 10:29

Tweaker said:
I'm going to have to respond to that one, as I work in Future media for news. You cant paint us all with the same brush, News on Android is far better than iOS. Also, the news app on android delivered lock screen widgets a month after the SDK was released, that is very good going considering the other updates and changes that went into that release.
I think the only thing that people ask for from the News Android app is landscape mode on the Nexus 7.........

I don't have a problem with the news app, i agree it's actually quite good. The only gripe i have with it is that the widget doesn't resize very well so look silly small on a Note 2 when you want it to fill half a screen. It's doesn't match my other news apps like Flipboard and Pulse. Please fix this!!

The iplayer streaming aspect is a difficult one, it is the same reason why the responsive/mobile news site doesn't have "proper" live streaming. It is to do with codecs and with HLS on Android, which a large amount of devices do not support. Once we have more users on Android 4+, we will start to see better developments in features, for now though, 50% of users are still on Android 2.3

What gets my goat is that you need to install two apps for iPlayer now and the video quality is actually worse now then ever (although it has improved again with the last update)

It was simpler a year ago on my S2! I also want to see a the choice given to me to see it in HD. My S2 can handle it, now my Note 2 more so. And please don't tell me it's a minority phone. The note 2 and the SIII are selling by the million, so you have to see that excuses are starting to wear very thin