BBC tweaks obscure Adobe setting to fix iPlayer streaming
Thursday 28 August 2008 13:57:04 by Andrew Ferguson
It has taken a while but a solution to the problems of version 1.x BT Home Hubs locking up when streaming video from the BBC iPlayer has been found according to The Register.
The problem was not limited to BBC iPlayer content, but any site that streams Flash video (YouTube avoids this problem by using progressive downloads for its video) and affected a number of ADSL routers based around Thomson hardware. The solution appears to have been not a change to the routers firmware, but by tweaking an obscure undocumented setting in the Adobe software. The fix has not been fully deployed yet, apparently it is working its way through the BBC's back-end systems.
BBC radio stations are available to listen to online, and only recently have these been absorbed into the iPlayer systems. This has resulted in the previous option of using Windows Media Player or Real Player reducing to requiring people to have Real Player installed. Alas a number of people have commented on the streams failing to work, or switching to low bit rate options on connections that otherwise streamed the content flawlessly. Others with these problems can be seen on the BBC's own iPlayer messageboards at www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbiplayer.
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Jolly good.
Except our Be router fell over with iplayer continuously over the olympics, and it would seem from that register thread the modem is the same and others experienced it.
real alternative appernetly doesnt work on bbc streams for some reason, it didnt when I tried it. I am amazed the bbc still are favouring such a unpopular player.
Real Alternative works for all bbc radio stations which use real to transmit, with that, media player classic and appropriate codecs installed you can even click file, open url in media player classic, type in the real media stream address and listen without even having to go anywhere near the website.Has always worked. May sound rude but the people having issues must be just stupid or not even understand how to set realplayers or real alternatives audio frequency and buffering settings. My god i can even listen to real broadcasts from the bbc and others on my open suse linux machine lol
All I did was install it, clicked the link to play stream, windows media player classic pops up but says a message about incompatible codec. May try again sometime this weekend.
might be worthwile to check the forums for help... (browser, www.free-codecs.com, etc, etc...)
get latest version, check clashing codecs, etc...
I think you'll find that ON A PC, WMP & realplayer are the most used.. Aplle say quicktime of course, even though they are NOT using their codec!!!
And do NOTE! RP alt would not work if it did not 'look' like RP...
BBC shouldn't have to fix BT and Be problems, they should fix their dodgy routers themselves. No router should crash because of data it receives, that tends to leave them open to all sorts of nasties.
Similar to Carpetburn, I wont install WMP or RP on my machines – serious bloatware. Real Alternative, MPC or VLC cover all my viewing / listening needs from the Beeb or others.
another good player is zoomplayer
http://www.inmatrix.com/files/zoomplayer_download.shtml
- the website is helpful on how to set FFDshow etc,and how to get the codecs working!
- the player itself will find codecs, and list missing/bad configs..:)
quote"...requiring people to have Real Player installed."
LMAO obviously they never heard of real alternative
Quote"Alas a number of people have commented on the streams failing to work, or switching to low bit rate options on connections that otherwise streamed the content flawlessly. Others with these problems can be seen on the BBC's own iPlayer messageboards"
Not even gonna bother looking, they obviously have no clue, I dont have WMP or Real Player on my machine and have never had an issue with any BBC radio station.