Help / Player

There is no sound during playback on the Player - what is the problem?

If you have chosen a show on the BBC Player and it appears to be playing correctly in the left hand "Now Playing" frame but there is no sound, please perform the following checks on your system.

Do you have the necessary software installed on your computer?

In order to listen to the BBC Player, you need to have some "plug-ins" installed on your computer. You'll find more information, links to download, and step-by-step guides here.

Are the plug-ins enabled in your browser?

Once you have installed RealPlayer, you may need to enable the plug-in within your browser. For instance, if you are using Microsfot Internet Explorer 6 or 7, make sure the RealPlayer 'Add-on' is enabled. To do this, select 'Tools', 'Manage Add-ons' and check that the "RealPlayer ActiveX "control is set to Enabled. More advice about managing Add-ons in Internet Explorer can be found here.

Have you turned on your speakers, and turned up your computer's volume?

If the text in the "Now Playing" window says 'Playing' but you still can't hear anything, check that your computer's speakers are on and that the volume is turned up. Be sure to check all cables from your computer to your speakers are plugged in correctly. If you can access your computer's sound card settings, you should also check that the output of both 'master volume' and 'wave' are set to reasonable levels.

Try closing other applications

If you don't hear any sound when listening to radio in BBC Player, try closing any other browser windows or applications you have open which might be using your computer's sound card for other purposes.

Have you tried opening and closing GarageBand on Mac OS X?

Some Mac OS X users have reported they are unable to hear anything even though the iPlayer appears to be initialising and playing normally. If this occurs, you could try opening and closing Apple GarageBand, as some users have informed us this generally solves the problem.

Still having problems?

If none of the steps outlined above helped to solve your problem, we recommend that you try re-installing your Real Player software.

To be sure that Real Player is correctly set up, we recommend uninstalling ALL instances of Real from your machine, rebooting, and then re-installing using the free BBC version available here.

If you still cannot find an answer to your question please click here to contact us

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We appreciate your feedback and endeavour to fix any errors immediately. Unfortunately, due to the huge amount of correspondence we receive, we do not generally reply to fault reports so please accept our thanks for notifying us.


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