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Expiry dates messed up after downloading 2 different formats

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• Message 1. Posted by iSeeker (U14207189) on Sunday, 8th November 2009 permalink

  <brief initial rant>
  I hate DRM. It just gets in the way of doing anything much. I realise that intellectual property needs to be protected, but if I wanted to source BBC programs, there are dozens of stream capture programs out there, and of course there's always my VHS (if I can find the remote) or DVD recorder if I want an even better picture! Also, I can imagine that space on your servers could be a problem, but once its downloaded onto my PC, a time limit by which I start to watch a program is ludicrous. A limit once I've started to watch is annoying but acceptable... but surely if I want to START to watch a program 6 months later, isn't that my business? Its my diskspace I'm wasting, after all!
  </brief inital rant>
  
  I downloaded the last F1 of the season. I have to download because trying to watch online I find the programs jerky and largely unwatchable. But I got a new phone and I wanted to see how well my phone coped, so I downloaded the mobile version a few days later.
  
  The mobile version failed to run. I'm still using Windows 2000 Pro on my PC so I can't use the new Windows Media Player, so I just put it down to software incompatiblity. I was rather surprised I had been given only approximately 8 hours to watch the program when the full version had given me until November 17th, but what the heck - it was only an experiment.
  
  But then I settled down to watch the larger format on my PC and IPlayer Desktop immediately told me that the program had expired and would be removed. Fearing a glitch, I downloaded it again... but although it would let me spend over an hour downloading it, it wouldn't let me play it. And when I shut down and restarted the Desktop, I got the same message as before and pooof - it was gone.
  
  I can only assume you have one download flag and having downloaded the mobile version, it tarred all downloads of that program with the same brush meaning that since my 8 hours had expired, it was tough.
  
  Of course I could watch the thing quite happily online (with all of the jerkiness I have come to know and love (not)) but downloads? No way.
  
  Any chance of applying some intelligence in iPlayer Desktop and downloads in general? Or is that asking a little too much?

  complain

• Message 2. Posted by matt (U8621220) on Sunday, 8th November 2009 permalink

  Hi,
  Programmes are only available to download for 7 days following broadcast but yo can keep the iPlayer Desktop and Windows Media Player downloads for upto 30 days unwatched following broadcast depending on when you download it. Once you start watching for the first time, you then have 7 days left to finish watching. The Portable Devices version however can only be kept for upto 7 days whether you start watching it or not.

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• Message 3. Posted by iSeeker (U14207189) on Sunday, 8th November 2009 permalink

  Perhaps that's the way its meant to be, and I agree that in general that's the way it happens, but that's not my experience in this particular case. But thanks for sharing

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