BBC iplayer
 

The Beeb has made available a service called iplayer, whereby people can catch up on episodes of their fave series. Available on Internet via their website, iPod, iPhone, and now even on the Wii.:thumbup:

Sounded great when I heard about it, and then read the small print. Only available to people in the UK due to viewing rights:curse:. Am I to assume that this simply means that as we don't pay the TV Tax in the UK, we can't see British TV?:confused:

Oh well, the good news is that they are looking to launch an inernational version "soon". When soon is i HAVE NO IDEA! Watch this space.

Re: BBC iplayer
 

You can download a program for your IP address which will give you a British proxy IP and therefore allow you to use iplayer

Re: BBC iplayer
 

Bit late with that one, but you can watch it via a good proxy server and the international version will be very limited. Falling the proxy server you can VPN to the UK and connect to it. What is good they have finally allowed OSX users to connect to it.:lol:

Re: BBC iplayer
 

Story of my life, always the last to know!! (La cinquieme roue d'l carette).


I'll have to look into getting a British IP. Where can I download the program (torrent?), and what's it called?

Re: BBC iplayer
 

You need to download iplayer then find a Proxy server which are free or use a VPN which will cost. But to be quite honest being in France why don't you just buy a Digital Free to Air Satellite box and watch it all on your TV.

Re: BBC iplayer
 

I supose that's not a bad idea, but all these peritel connections into the back of my TV (VHS, Home Cinema/DVD, Playstation, and Livebox, plus the occasional SVideo PC linkup), what harm would one more do?

Re: BBC iplayer
 

Hi I am a british national now living in the US and was wondering what this above program was called?

Re: BBC iplayer
 

just google proxy IP's and you'll see a lot of sites

Re: BBC iplayer
 

Here in France we get adverts on the bbc internet site - short clips for insurance etc that run before the news item is shown.

Re: BBC iplayer
 

I don't have a TV here in France, and asides from the odd programme, I don't feel I'm missing anything. :) There are some free proxies out there, but the ones I've tried in the past, tend to link you via Vietnam or China, and the connection is slllllllloooooooowwwwwwwwww.

Re: BBC iplayer
 

After looking around at some of the forums on the web, it seems the general consensus is the free proxies are not safe, in that it opens ports on your computer which then leave it vulnerable to attacks by the so-called "generous" proxy provider.
I think I'll stick to the Satellite option.

Re: BBC iplayer
 

It's easy enough to do.

1. Make a note of your IP address, if you don't know it, use a site like http://whatismyipaddress.com/
2. Find a UK proxy IP address and port from a site like this (they do get updated regularly as proxy addresses don't usually last long) http://www.proxy4free.com/page1.html
3. In Firefox, go to Tools, Options, Advanced, Settings. Check the box which says 'Manual Proxy Configuration and put in your proxy IP and port into the box underneath, HTTP proxy.

It is best to only use the proxy address when you are accessing the iPlayer site as you may be blocked from other sites using a proxy (I couldn't get onto BE for example).

Re: BBC iplayer
 

I have found a way to view the BBC iPlayer without having to set a proxy in your web browser. Been catching up with Eastenders this morning. I am not sure of the legalities of it all though.

Re: BBC iplayer
 

Tell us then?

Re: BBC iplayer
 

Yeah, come on, tell us all about it!!

Re: BBC iplayer
 

Here is a link to a video I made showing that it does work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIyiOB64fc8

Re: BBC iplayer
 

That could of been done anywhere, and you still haven't said what your big secret is it makes no odds to me as i have Sky HD. I know the proxy method works and i posted a fast working UK proxy in the Lab not so long ago, and the VPN method works very well but costs. Post a video but not telling people how you went about it suggests its a wind up.;)

Re: BBC iplayer
 

I sill didn't understand anything anyway!!!:confused::p

Re: BBC iplayer
 

All this very complicated, retirement is not for complications; We have 3 HDTVs in the house all fitted with sat receivers with freeview. Things have move on since,BBC & ITV have introduced the Freesat HD; cute little receivers are sold in the UK for a £100 or so. All you have to do is to plug it to a Sat dish facing Astra2D & to your tv. You will receive 100s of channels in HD (Mpeg4) I shall have to get 3 of them & give away the sky ones with freeview crds. Move on mate.pier

Re: BBC iplayer
 

Not all the channels on Freesat are High Def they are just up scaled by the boxes to the output settings You have BBC HD and soon ITV HD but the ITV one will only have a limited number of True HD programs on. as it stands even with out Freesat or SKY you can just buy a Digital Freeview Sat box in Bricolage and a Dish point it to 28.2 East with the correct elevation for your area if you get a HD one you can Get BBC HD as well.

Re: BBC iplayer
 

Hosted at http://www.darkedges.com/bbc/

Indeed you are correct to not to believe me, as there is nothing to prove where that video came from, but unlike those lamers with the PS3 I am going to document what I did. Well not 100% as you will have to find your own UK host to hold some files, and that version will be release later on once I have finished documenting it.

Here is another way that does not involve hosted files, and uses GreaseMonkey and FoxyProxy to emulate what I did to make it all work.

1. Download the addons for for FoxyProxy and GreaseMonkey.
   https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2464
   https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748
2. Next we need to configure FoxyProxy to be used in Patterns mode so that when the request to get a particular URL from the BBC is made it is made via the UK Proxy. This URL contains the token to view the video.
3. From within FireFox select the Tools Menu then FoxProxy menu and then the Options Menu.
4. Click the Add New Proxy button
5. In the Proxy Name Field enter BBC iPlayer Proxy
6. Select the Proxy Details Tab
7. Select the Manual Proxy Configuration Radio Button
8. In Hostname and Port enter the Hostname and Port (and select if it is a SOCKS Proxy and version if using SOCKS)
9. Select the Patterns tab
10. Click the Add New Pattern button
11. In the Pattern Name field enter "BBC iPlayer Media Selector Pattern"
12. In the URL Pattern enter http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/*
13. Leave the WhiteList and WildCards radio buttons selected
14. Click the Ok Button
15. Click the OK Button
16. Go to http://www.darkedges.com/bbc/iPlayer.user.js
17. When prompted click the Install button to add the GreaseMonkey Script
18. Go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/ and select a video to stream
19. A preview image will show and and a white "Click to play" button should appear and now your should be able to view the video. First the ident appears and then the video, which is not streamed via the proxy.

What my GreaseMonkey script does it to replace the "Sorry" information with an embded iplayer (Found out how to do that here http://jonathan.tweed.name/2007/12/h...yer-embedded-m) and examines the URL to find the PID of the programme to be viewed and replaces it. The FoxyProxy addon enables all requests to http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/* to go via the UK proxy, which returns the correct token etc and the video plays.

My original version replaces all links to http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/* with a PHP script located on a UK based server, and so you do not need to have a UK proxy configured within your browser. The request is proxied via the UK Web server and all the user needs is GreaseMonkey. I have tried to write a bookmarklet so that GreaseMonkey is not required, but could not get it to work properly, but will continue to make this as easy as possible so that a wider audience can use it.

For those who want to know how to change the location of where the mediaselector is called from take a look @ the following code.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/emp/xml/config.xml contains the configuration of the iPlayer and also where to check that the user is in the UK. Looking at that file we see it contains the following
So if we replace it with say

and add a crossdomain.xml file to the root of your webserver, you will find that if you write a script to proxy the request via a UK proxy, or host in the UK it will return the correct token for you.

That is all you need to do to get this to work.

Too technical? I guess so, but it works:):):):):):)

Re: BBC iplayer
 

Far from to technical for me im always curios as to which way people do it and if it fits with my downloading the drm free versions from the BBC by spoofing the iPhone in firefox. Thanks for posting it.

Re: BBC iplayer
 

Piece of cake!!!.............................NOT!!!

:blink::confused::blink::confused::blink::confused :

Re: BBC iplayer
 

Yes it is a technical thing that you need to do to get this to work, and I have yet to figure out a way to make it easier to do. Another way would be to use Tor with a UK endpoint, which a couple of Americans have got working after I documented the instructions.


Never said it was going to be a piece of cake, hacking the iPlayer requires some back door tricks, as you need a physical presence in the UK to get the authorisation token for the video to play. If you look at some of the scripts out in the public space, they require you to be technically minded.

Re: BBC iplayer
 

Err, doesn't "hacking" rhyme with "srictly illegal"?

Re: BBC iplayer
 

That depends on what side of the line you stand. Its not hacking anyway i would class it as reverse engineering with an intent to identify design flaws and improve the quality of service to a broader audience.;)


Its at a technical level that i understand i did not mean it was easy for the average Joe.

Re: BBC iplayer
 

Well i can confirm it works a treat...started watching that Russia thingy with Johnathan whatshisname. Thank You again, i would be very interested to see how this goes and if you manage to simplify the process.

Re: BBC iplayer
 

Well in nay case, your instructions are excellent. I've "cracked" it!!:unsure:

Cheers mate

Re: BBC iplayer
 

Okay perhaps hacking is the wrong word to use here. I found a flaw that allows me to gain access to content that I should not have, and it is simply a flaw. The BBC will discover this hole soon enough and close it, but I am not sure how exactly they will achieve this, as with using a programmable Web Proxy such as WebScarab it would be possible to rewrite the content back to what I need it to do. This is exactly what I do when I want to watch videos on www.hulu.com.

For those who don;t know hulu.com has a lot of content for the US only, but they do a geo check to confirm that you are in the US, so all you need to do is either use FoxyProxy to direct requests to http://releasegeo.hulu.com/geoCheck to use a US Proxy, or use WebScarab to programmatically change the response from not-valid to valid and use FoxyProxy to use WebScarab for that URL. I have written a FireFox plugin to rewrite the content, but it does not work with Flash players, but I am working on that.

Re: BBC iplayer
 

OK, I'll take your word for it. I'll just use you as my reference when I get done for it!! Nah, only kidding, you're probably right, the Beeb will get wind of what's going on soon enough, if they don't already know, and do something about it. By then, guys like you will probably have found another "back door".

Keep up the good work. :thumbsup:

Re: BBC iplayer
 

Well. Ive nearly got it to work! - The first segment of the clip plays, -the introduction - e.g.the BBC 2 spinning reel, but after that my firefox browser just says 'connecting to www.bbc.co.uk..." and the screen just shows the BBC 2 loading logo..

Anybody any ideas on how to proceed?

Re: BBC iplayer
 

Wait it out, it's bandwidth issues.

Re: BBC iplayer
 

I hope so but Ive been waiting for about an hour fo it to load, and no luck!!

Re: BBC iplayer
 

Try quiting the browser but bookmark the link to the page your on and reload it again if by chance your using osx make sure you truly quit firefox. I needed to do that before it would work.

Re: BBC iplayer
 

I agree with the bandwidth issues, as I am having a tough time down here in Australia getting the feeds to play consistently. I will have a look over the weekend and see if there is any else I can do with the scripts, but I doubt it. It seems to work better for me around 5-6am Melbourne time which much be late in the evening in the UK.

Re: BBC iplayer
 

Hi,

Sorry, I'm not very technical - when you say enter Hostname and Port - where do we get that info from? Is the hostname a proxy??

:confused:

Re: BBC iplayer
 

Yes, you need to find a UK proxy just for that request, and that is why I am suggesting FoxyProxy as it allows you to configure proxies based on the URL requested. Do a search for UK Proxy in google and you should find a couple around. Another option is to use Tor and configure FoxyProxy to use that. There are a couple of examples of getting a UK server for TOR on Google, and if your stuck I will document the process and store on my website.

Re: BBC iplayer
 

Is someone trawling the replies on this thread for spam? Because it's only since I replied on here that I've been getting e-mails from 'nimberoneongoogle.co.uk' encouraging me to visit their website to do something I already know how to do. It's bloody annoying, so stop it!

Re: BBC iplayer
 

How do you know the spam you are getting is anything to do with BE?

Re: BBC iplayer
 

I don't, that's why I asked the question, to see if anyone else has. As I said, I haven't posted about the iPlayer anywhere else, so I found it funny that I started to receive e-mails about it after I posted here.