iPlayer Desktop on Linux - poor quality with all distros?

[Icm76]

I don't use iPlayer Desktop regularly, but I wanted to download an HD quality video today (my Internet connection isn't fast enough to stream) It took a couple of attempts to install in Ubuntu 10.10, but it's very buggy:


at first I couldn't even download correctly, the download would start and then immediately stop.
Removed and reinstalled, this time downloading works but the iPlayer Desktop frequently hangs either when the application starts or when a video starts. It then becomes necessary to start System Monitor and kill the process before attempting to restart the app
When playing full screen video the playback is very jerky (windowed playback is OK)

The last time I used iPlayer Desktop was about a year ago, running Fedora 12 (I think) It was problematic getting it working back then as well, although iirc the playback quality was a little better.

So today I'm thinking iPlayer on Linux is still pretty sucky, and BBC's platform neutral policy is a load of hogwash. Am I right? or are there Linux users on other distros having a good experience with iPlayer Desktop? particularly with the HD videos?

[tawmjk]

It's working great for me, not that I'll want to use it much either. I'm running Ubuntu 11.04 on a core i7.

I also tried a HD (1280x720) movie and it played smoother that it would under Windows so I guess there's not as much running in the background to slow it down.

[michaelkenward]

It isn't surprising that the BBC does a poor job of supporting exotic environments used by a tiny percentage of its audience. So you might want to try using one of the more conventional platforms to get these files.

My guess is that most Unix users also do Windows, or something more mainstream. That is one way to get at these files.

The BBC isn't big on the details, but it is relatively easy to copy files between computers. So it might not be difficult to move downloads from one operating system to another.

All I do is to copy the files over, with iPlayer closed. Then, when I open iPlayer it goes and gets the rights to run the files.

If you don't have access to mainstream – as in widely used by the viewer in the street – software, then you might find tips on the iPlayer forum.

[Icm76]

hmm, I wonder if it's the ATI driver that's the problem with this system? using i7 860 + 5850 (I had Nvidia last year with fedora) Quite irritating, I can't even get it to open now, the task bar briefly says "Starting BBC iPlayer Desktop" then vanishes and nothing happens - there is an IPlayer Desktop process showing in System Monitor.

I'm not going to spend a lot of time trying to figure it out. It doesn't work and I think by now iPlayer ought to be a robust and reliable product on all systems. Not impressed.



My guess is that most Unix users also do Windows, or something more mainstream.
I do have a copy of Windows 7, it's just not installed right now (only reason I bought it is for some occasional gaming) and I couldn't be bothered installing for the purpose of watching a couple of videos


The BBC isn't big on the details, but it is relatively easy to copy files between computers. So it might not be difficult to move downloads from one operating system to anotherLast time I tried that the 2nd iPlayer desktop wouldn't recognise the files downloaded by the 1st, but maybe these days that's not a problem...

[tawmjk]

You might want to get all the latest packages too. :thumb:

[Lorem-Ipsum]

I used it for about a day and hated it...... but it worked OK. But I use arch linux 64 bit with an nvidia card and the proprietary drivers,