zero point nine

BBC Streaming Content #

Posted on: January 2, 2008 - 2:00 pm

The new BBC’s new iPlayer service has given me a chance to catch up on Still Game.

The player itself worked okay, although the controls are a bit dodgy — the slider didn’t move and there is a button that I’m guessing is supposed to switch to full screen mode, but doesn’t. However the volume button does go up to 11, which is one more than everyone else (©This is Spın̈al Tap - 1984).

You still cannot download the content on anything other than Windows, and even if you do it will be crippled by DRM which presumably prevent playing after 7 days. This ain’t a huge problem, it’s not as if people will be making compilation DVDs given the quality, but this 7 day window is a step backwards from the idea that what the BBC make is publically owned.

Second problem is that the sports broadcasts — that is the stuff I’m most likely to want online — is still using the hoary old Real Player/Windows Media technology (while the cooking shows which have a nice flash based player). Hopefully they’ll catch up soon.

Tagged as: bbc, streaming media