BBC iPlayer - some programmes not downloading fully

Plugin working, but... files downloading with 50 FPS. Why?

rancor wrote:
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> Plugin working, but... files downloading with 50
> FPS. Why?

Previous plugin used the legacy RTMP streams;
in these streams, HD is supplied as a 720p25fps encode.
In the past week or so, much of the HD RTMP (or flash)
streams were corrupted, resulting in only partial downloads.

The BBC have announced almost a year ago that the legacy
RTMP streams (for both TV+Radio) are to be scrapped,
but no definitive date has been announced yet.

Apart from the legacy RTMP streams, BBC offers other forms of streams:

1. Legacy AppleHLS streams; they do include a 720p25 encode but,
again, most of those streams are corrupted and not downloadable
in theit entirety; last time the same problem occurred with the legacy
RTMP+AppleHLS streams, it took more than a month to rectify itself...

2. More recent types of streams prepared by the Video/Audio Factory
department of the BBC; these come in three different flavours:
a) AdobeHDS (the one current FRD plugin uses to fetch)
b) MPEG-DASH
c) (Video Factory, not legacy) AppleHLS.

These 3 flavours are just 3 different methods of stream delivery,
but all 3 use pretty much the same encodes/quality variants.
These quality variants do not include 720p25, only 720p50
with almost double filesize; next lower quality variant is 540p50,
540p25 etc.
If you want to learn more, do a search for the specialized tool for
BBCiPlayer called get_iplayer and its wiki documentation....

[github.com]
[github.com]

BTW, on May 10th 2017 it was finalised and announced
that imminently BBCiPlayer (both TV+Radio) would require
a log-in to access anything available there (LIve TV+Radio,
AOD+VOD). If they implement this in way that access to
stream data required by FRD to download programmes is
blocked without login credentials, then you may soon find
the FRD plugin will stop working...

The issue is more pronounced for overseas iPlayer users
(they can legally only access low bitrate radio); they, too,
would have to create an account (BBC ID) to access low
quality radio, but those who wish to access also TV (via
VPS/VPN/Proxy,SmartDNS etc) may find it impossible to do so then.

The BBC would know when an overseas user is logged-in
and may forbid access to TV streams for that user even if a
geo-filtering circumvention tool is used...
And for those in the UK, they would have to provide, when
creating their account, a valid UK address with a valid UK e-mail,
and on their site the beeb do admit checking your IP and UK
postcode (so they can roughly estimate your exact physical
location) and comparing it against the TV Licencing database
to verify you are legally watching/downloading iPlayer content;
if it so happens that you don't, expect an e-mail from them...

Things look grim...

After trying the new version of plugin for bbc, I found the speed of downloading gets slower, and I was reminded of unexpected EOF.
The setting I am using :

Plugin version :1.40
Freferred quaility 480p
RTMP port 1935(default)
CDN: akamai
enable tor
download subtitles

Is it because HDS has higher priority than rtmp?
How can I change the plugin into the former version of 1.31 if I want to ?

Thank you.

I think we need to add RTMP, HDS option to plugin settings, so users can choose the streaming type. In addition to that, I think we also need to add bitrate, fps information to video quality setttings. I hope those additional options will not confuse users.

We'll see if we can implement those things. And if I can get a working UK VPN node. Finding a working UK VPN node is quite troublesome..

As for login, well it definitely will be a nightmare to maintain BBC iplayer plugin. None of plugin developers are UK resident. Maintaining, fixing plugin is fun, it's one of hobby of mine. I'm happy if users are happy. But with the strict login mechanism, I don't know.. it will give me more trouble..

So I'll be glad if anyone want to take over maintainer-ship of BBC iplayer plugin.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/12/2017 11:46AM by tong2shot.

Plugin v1.5.0 now supports stream type selection (HDS, RTMP). Also bitrate and fps infos have been added.

Thanks a lot for the new version of 1.50!
It works greatly.