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iPlayer HD
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There were numerous reports in the press stating that iPlayer HD would be launched by the end of March. Is there a new ETA for this?
Also what are the technical details of the player. By HD do you just mean the 1500 kbps stream which is currently available through labs? I sure hope not.
Thanks in advance. -
Anyone? Mods?
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Looking at the most recent iPlayer blog entry, it looks like there will be some news soon. www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/...
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Good spot - I hadn't seen those particular comments.
NickReynolds wrote:
"if you're just patient for a little longer, there will be some exciting news soon."
I wonder how far away "soon" is. Who is Nick Reynolds by the way?This is a reply to this message.
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all slated for HD release
From the article.... I trust that is not the pejorative meaning of slated!!
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(partly cross-posted from a thread in Labs & Desktop which I started before I noticed this one)
So it seems that the BBC have (finally) launched iPlayer HD (only about a week late
). Although they seem to be trying to keep it quiet for some reason; other than the BBC News story there's no post on the BBC Internet blog ( www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/... ) and nothing looks particularly different on the iPlayer website (certainly no obvious announcement that HD content is now available).
Also iPlayer Desktop has been updated to v.1.0.2302 (release notes: www.bbc.co.uk/iplaye... ).
Can anyone else find any HD content to download? I assumed that the Doctor Who special would be in HD ( www.bbc.co.uk/iplaye... ) but I can only see the regular iPlayer Desktop download link.This is a reply to this message.
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Also, I noticed that the new version of iPlayer Desktop now comes with a special "Parental Guildance Lock"
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And to answer one of iaTa's original questions, I read somewhere that the HD downloads will be 4 Mbps (which is very similar to what the iTunes Store uses for TV shows in HD).
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I still cannot find anything in the area of true HD on iPlayer despite various articles reporting it to be live. According to Cnet crave, it was up and then it was down again.
crave.cnet.co.uk/sof...
Other articles reporting it:
www.pocket-lint.com/...
www.techradar.com/ne...
www.ispreview.co.uk/...
www.thinkbroadband.c...
www.webuser.co.uk/ne...
www.engadgethd.com/2...
mobile.broadbandgeni...
stuff.tv/news/BBC-iP...
hdtvorg.co.uk/news/a...
www.expertreviews.co...
www.trustedreviews.c...
www.techwatch.co.uk/...
Apparently downloads are live in HD?
www.broadbandchoices...
In line with the first post I need to know whether this 1500kbps bitrate is the top stream rate or does the 4mb/s mentioned reflect the highest rate?
I wonder if this variable bitrate monitor tool is already active and none of us have a fast enough connection to keep up with it. I suppose you wouldn't post here about it if you were getting HD iPlayer already, you'd be watching Dr. Who or The Apprentice.This is a reply to this message.
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If you right click on a 1500kbps stream you can see that the resolution is standard definition. The download sizes displayed indicate that the downloads haven't changed yet either. What's going on?
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Interestingly enough the original news article is no longer available on technology section. If you search for it, or use one of the links to the original article you can get back to it.
Crave on CNET has an update:
A BBC spokesperson has told CNET UK that "a deployment issue" prevented the HD iPlayer service from going live yesterday, and that it wasn't "anything to do with the HD content itself." We'll keep you posted as to when the service will be online.
from crave.cnet.co.uk/sof...
There is some more information about the bitrates in the comments section on the Crave article.This is a reply to this message.
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Some great updates and links posted - thanks everyone.
andrew646 - Can you remember where you saw the 4 mbps stream specs?
Very interesting to see that the HD iPlayer was pulled yesterday. Nice of the BBC to inform us! Been a very stange launch for such an important step up in tech.
I did notice that the Formula 1 practice this morning had a new version of the streaming player with high and low quality options which looked to dynamically adjust bitrate. Not HD though as F1 doesn't have an HD feed yet but interesting nonetheless.This is a reply to this message.
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To answer some points raised in previous posts:
The Apprentice will not be available in HD because it is not yet filmed in HD (see this comment from Andy Quested from the BBC: www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/... ), although I think there's a good chance that next year's series will be in HD.
I'm afraid I can't remember where exactly I read the 4 Mbps figure, but looking at the mediaselector file for the Doctor Who special ( www.bbc.co.uk/medias... ) which lists all the available streams, downloads, and subtitles, right at the bottom there is one which has a bitrate of 3200 (kbps, so 3.2 Mbps) which I assume is the HD one; maybe it was the downloads that are 4 Mbps or maybe the place I read it was just wrong.
And I am assuming that all the changes will be launched as a package at the same time, i.e. the higher-quality 1500 kbps streams that up till now were only available in Labs, the automatic bitrate detection as well as HD streaming and downloads.
iaTa, if you saw a new verison of the streaming player this morning, then I'm guessing you were seeing the new version that had been rolled out, but I guess it wasn't working properly and so they had to change it back?
I think it is a shame that the rollout has been bungled, but hopefully they'll get their act together soon.This is a reply to this message.
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I was glad to see that the BBC updated cnet on this but that media selector file link doesn't work now either.
I imagine they found some glaringly obvious bug shortly after putting it up and had to withdraw it until it is fixed.
I hope they work weekends....
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The HD iplayer streams are definitely there, just not 'live' on the iPlayer site.
The video resolution is 720p (1280x720), video is 3072Kbps and audio is 128Kbps (could have done with being a little higher for HD, beeb!)
dl.getdropbox.com/u/...
The iPlayer website isn't yet providing the links to download the files, but there any many shows already encoded in HD, including Jonathon Ross, Dr Who, 'A Question of Genius', Antiques Roadshow, Doctors, Gardner's World, Jools Holland, Robin Hood, and The No. 1 Ladies' Detective.
I do wonder whether this will be download-only or streaming. The Flash-based player performs badly on Linux machines, and the scaling is distorted somewhat via the Air app on windows.
Looking forward to seeing progress!This is a reply to this message.
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Yeah I thought they were there. I tried to get access to them last night but I got stuck after a while. Where did you find that screen grab?
Also it says on BBC new article that it will be streams and downloads.This is a reply to this message.
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"Where did you find that screen grab?"
I took it. Here's one from Friday's Jonathon Ross:
dl.getdropbox.com/u/...
I'm a Flash developer, so I've built quite a few tools dealing with RTMP streams. As I say, HD files are appearing on the servers, but the 'interface' (iPlayer itself) is just not listing the links.This is a reply to this message.
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... iPlayer HD
Nick Reynolds - Editor BBC Internet Blog - in a reply to a question I posed - promises news next week
[url="www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/..."][color="red"][b]BBC Internet Blog[/b][/color][/url]This is a reply to this message.
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ChrisCornwall, I see you made the mistake of thinking that this board might use standard, modern message board syntax
No such luck I'm afraid (after all, we don't even have a search function or the ability to preview our posts yet...)This is a reply to this message.
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