BBC iPlayer

King Kelly

Trying to get content from this site

BBC iPlayer

The site only allows UK users access. Is there anyway around this problem?

HELPPAGE
"" Can I download programmes from outside the UK?

The BBC uses Geo-IP technology to identify where your are based on the location of your internet service provider (ISP). This ensures that only internet users in the UK can enjoy programmes on BBC iPlayer."

Bros123

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055130891&highlight=bbc+iplayer



Doubt you can really.
PM'd you;)

Cabaal

Basically BBC are only supplying the service at present to people who are likkely to hold a UK TV license (as such live in the UK), if you don't have a UK IP then your out of luck.

I know when NTL used to have UK IP#s it would have worked but this has since changed,

watty

the Radio stations work here. They seem to be Realplayer repackaged. I use my phone via WiFi to listen.

BigEejit

I saw it advertised and decided to test it (I am in the UK) and its really good. Enjoying it enormously.

Just thought you'd like to know


(p.s. no buffering either on my 20Mb NTL)

Oh and the volume goes up to 11 (yay programmer Spinal tap fan)

Cabaal

I'd imagine some kind of VPN tunnel or proxy with a UK IP should work just fine,

Arthurdaly

Just watching the extra's crimbo special in work at the mo (dublin 2).

Really good service, hope I can get this at home!

boardsdotie

Arthurdaly wrote: »

Just watching the extra's crimbo special in work at the mo (dublin 2).

Really good service, hope I can get this at home!

How do you do that ?

irishgeo

woot got it to work and its so simple.

if you are on utv broadband just use the nothern ireland proxy server settings and its works.

maximus02

irishgeo

I am with UTV. Can you tell me those proxy settings and do I just input these into Firefox?

Thanks in advance for help.
Max

bryanL33

The UTV Internet Proxy Servers are...
ni-cache.utvinternet.com Port 80



After setting this I could use the BBC iplayer and view TV programs on ITV.com

How to configure Internet Explorer to use a proxy server


http://support.microsoft.com/kb/135982

maximus02

Thanks a lot. Works great.

Max

djmarkus

Does this proxy still work?

Cameraman

Seems to work fine.

However, be aware that, as a side-effect, Google will now give you the NI/UK version, so your search results will be different.

Praetorian

Doesn't work for me on IE or FF.

Cameraman

Praetorian wrote: »

Doesn't work for me on IE or FF.

It should work - IF UTV is your ISP.

Praetorian

Yea, thats the reason. Had a blonde moment

robo

Any advice for how a Smart user could get this working? What proxy settings would work?

watty

It won't work for Smart users.
The UTV proxy is only availabe to people connected via UTV.

Skyuser

Works for me but the speed is a bit slower when using ni proxy.

Simon201

Cheers BryanL33 - brill!
BBC iPlayer now working on my Mac with Safari. Had it working a couple of weeks ago after scouring the net for some socks 5 proxy but it only seemed to be temporary.

pauly3

I am with UTV Internet. I entered the ni-cache info and can access the BBC content here in Kildare. While troubleshooting a Netopia modem at a friends house (they have Eircom broadband) I connected my own Netopia router with the UTV settings to their line and was connected straight away! Does this mean I can carry around a spare Netopia router with my settings (I have two of them) and watch, or demonstrate, the BBC iPlayer in any home that has broadband in Ireland (since they are all ultimately derived from Eircom)? Or is it just Eircom who do not authenticate their users? And anyone know how my web pages were routed onto UTV's network from an Eircom line?

Moriarty

Short answer: Yes.

Slightly less short answer: You can use any bitstream DSL account (eircom, bt (non-llu), utv, digiweb, etc) on any bitstream DSL line. It's just a matter of having an account with one of the ISPs so you can authenticate it.

ZENER

[stupid question] If I'm with BT can I use their NI proxy to the same effect ? Would it have to be llu or any bitstream product ?[/stoopid question]

ZEN

Skyuser

The ni-cache proxy for UTV is not working for me anymore. Anyone else?

Cabaal

Skyuser wrote: »

The ni-cache proxy for UTV is not working for me anymore. Anyone else?

its dead in the water for some time now, shame

byte

Yeah, a massive loss

long_b

Ah crap - just got around to trying it now

barnicles

My exchange is being enabled next year and NICACHE would be handy:(

jocko4

Yes you can do it from any ISP, just follow these instructions: http://hurwi.net/blog/?p=28

Essentially, it involves using a Firefox add-on "FoxyProxy" to reroute the traffic through a UK proxy - all the details are there - it works fine - watched the full Welsh V France rugby game the other night because I missed in on Friday. Only two or three pauses in the whole transmission (on a 3Mb DSl line) and it was in high def - you could see the pores on Chaval's face (oh the horror!)

Edit: I will accept applause & thank yous in a brown paper bag please - just PM me for the drop off point! Oh, did I forget to say I was an FF'er and am still on the make - ask any of my buddies - the developers or the bankers?

pauly3

I have been watching the BBC services with their iPlayer for ages without a proxy in Firefox. I am with UTV Internet. Does anyone else know if it is only UTV Internet that allow access to the iPlayer content here in the South?

Cabaal

jocko4 wrote: »

Yes you can do it from any ISP, just follow these instructions: http://hurwi.net/blog/?p=28

Essentially, it involves using a Firefox add-on "FoxyProxy" to reroute the traffic through a UK proxy - all the details are there - it works fine - watched the full Welsh V France rugby game the other night because I missed in on Friday. Only two or three pauses in the whole transmission (on a 3Mb DSl line) and it was in high def - you could see the pores on Chaval's face (oh the horror!)

Edit: I will accept applause & thank yous in a brown paper bag please - just PM me for the drop off point! Oh, did I forget to say I was an FF'er and am still on the make - ask any of my buddies - the developers or the bankers?

After just testing this it now, it works although its extremely slow for me

paddyb125

pauly3 wrote: »

I have been watching the BBC services with their iPlayer for ages without a proxy in Firefox. I am with UTV Internet. Does anyone else know if it is only UTV Internet that allow access to the iPlayer content here in the South?

I'm using UTV Broadband and it doesn't work for me:(

Cabaal

pauly3 wrote: »

I have been watching the BBC services with their iPlayer for ages without a proxy in Firefox. I am with UTV Internet. Does anyone else know if it is only UTV Internet that allow access to the iPlayer content here in the South?

UTv certainly doesn't work for me, UTV used to operate a UK proxy which people in Ireland could use but they shut this down last summer.

No other Irish ISP will work with iPlayer

Cabaal

Right best way to do this is forget about Tor for streaming is a nightmare and is far far too slow, install Tor etc BUT then download the BBC Iplayer download client and do this

Also in order to download episodes you must download the bbc download manager
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/BBC-iPlayer_Setup.exe

Once installed you can now download episodes through firefox using tor/fireproxy setup. But in order for the video to play the software will try to download a license for WMP

It will deny you so you must temporarily change the proxy settings within windows so you can get the license

Open IE, Click Tools and then Internet Options. Go into the “Connections” tab.

At the bottom click the “LAN Settings” button. At the bottom of the new window it says “Proxy Server”. Check“Use a proxy server for LAN” box.

Below that set the address to “127.0.0.1″ and the port to “8118″. Untick the “Bypass proxy server for local connections”

Once you download the license you can undo these proxy settings within IE

godskitchen

I use a proxy service from these guys www.consult-here.com/vpn.html to view BBCiplayer from here in Ireland.

It works very well, never had any problems. The streaming is the same as if you were in the UK, no slowness at all. I am also pretty sure you can use their USA proxy too, which would be handy for services like Hulu. Not tried that myself.

jocko4

Cabaal, Have you tried this? I could never get it to work! Does this setting/resetting of proxy settings have to be done for each download?

Using Tor for streaming is slightly frustrating in obtaining the connection but once the clip starts to play then I find it runs fairly smoothly - I guess this is based on a lot of factors though.

Edit: Another problem with downloading is that there are DRM locks built into the downloaded file so you can only play back with iplayer and then only for a restricted period of time

pauly3

Watching the BBC on iPlayer now. I wonder why I am getting it and others not? I only watch through the embedded Flash player, not the downloadable one.
The high quality stream is very good. I have my Firefox set to 'No Proxy'. My router is the Eircom silver netopia one, into which I have added my UTV login details.
Would be interested to hear if anyone else can watch BBC online here in the South? Also, if anyone can suggest a good Irish Proxy Server so that my brother in California can watch RTE live programming.

jocko4

Pauly3
If you go here: https://torstat.xenobite.eu/index.php?FilterIsExit=1
you can find proxy servers for any country - there appears to be just one for IE which has an exit flag which is apparently what you need to operate this sort of thing.

Again all the instructions are in my link above - just change the country to Ireland!

Blindpew

I use a program called "hideyouripaddressv10" to view BBC Iplayer, you need to get a uk proxy on it and it works fine. The free version is limited in the amount of proxy changes per day and the regged version costs 50 euro. It does work though.

jocko4

Another pay for service - can't get a UK proxy without paying!

byte

I did all what was required in jocko4's link, and finally got it working.

Initially, something happened somehow, where I lost Java, and it was contrary trying to get Firefox to use Java again, despite installing Java again. Anyway, it has rectified itself, and I can now watch iPlayer, site loads slow, but streams seem OK.

robo

I am trying to do this but stupid question...when you are configuring the FoxyProxy, what do you put in on the hostname and port number under Proxy details? I have installed the Tor privoxy and all that but when I go to http://torcheck.xenobite.eu/index.php it says

Your IP is NOT identified to be a Tor-EXIT.
So you are NOT using Tor to reach the web!

byte

robo wrote: »

I am trying to do this but stupid question...when you are configuring the FoxyProxy, what do you put in on the hostname and port number under Proxy details? I have installed the Tor privoxy and all that but when I go to http://torcheck.xenobite.eu/index.php it says

Did you restart Privoxy, Tor and Firefox after making the changes to the textfile?

byte

To update, I've now changed the Pattern from the one listed on http://hurwi.net/blog/?p=28

Instead of http://*bbc.co.uk/*, now I've deleted that one, and added these two patterns... taken from here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/*
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/4/mtis/stream*

By doing this, the whole BBC site doesn't go thru the proxy, just the parts that identify your location. Working OK at the moment anyway.

jocko4

Hi Byte,
I tried this & it does make getting to the episodes much faster but there's something wrong in the streams pattern - it plays an episode fine until about half way through when it stops and says it's not available for your area. Have you found this? BBC must be changing it's url half way through, I'd imagine

Sorted you just need to change the stream pattern to http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/*

byte

jocko4 wrote: »

Hi Byte,
I tried this & it does make getting to the episodes much faster but there's something wrong in the streams pattern - it plays an episode fine until about half way through when it stops and says it's not available for your area. Have you found this? BBC must be changing it's url half way through, I'd imagine

Sorted you just need to change the stream pattern to http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/*

I didn't watch a full episode of anything yet, so not sure on that front. But you could be right, the stream could be seperated into different chunks.

I'll update my pattern with the one you have just given.

ongarite

I view BBC iPlayer all the time using FoxyProxy also but not using TOR as in the link earlier in the thread.
I used this guide here and these proxy server lists:
http://www.showmethetelly.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2
http://www.samair.ru/proxy/type-19.htm

Spear

byte wrote: »

I didn't watch a full episode of anything yet, so not sure on that front. But you could be right, the stream could be seperated into different chunks.

I'll update my pattern with the one you have just given.

The high quality streams are single files. I can't speak for the low quality ones.

Simon201

Yeah I've got it to work as well using the Cherie's Blog page and Vidalia/Tor, but I don't use Firefox at all, I just use the '127.0.0.1' and port 9050 proxy in the IE connections settings. Seems to work ok. Bit slow when it first opens, but plays the stuff ok.

But here's something - I'm able to click the 'download' to computer link on the programme page and the programme starts to download in the iPlayer (beta) desktop player) but it's slow (cos it's still going through the Tor thingy - says 2 1/2 hours download time for an hour prog). But if you then cancel the proxy settings in IE and re-open the iPlayer downloader you can resume the downloading at your normal d/l speed (without proxies or Vidalia running). Now says 6 minutes to download!
But (there's always a but!) you have to re-connect to Vidalia/Tor and set the IE proxy back when you want to watch it from the iPlayer desktop prog.

The thing that annoys me tho is like... we pay a TV licence fee, so yeah that is for the RTE crap. No getting out of that. But assuming that UPC pass on something to the BBC out of our subscription fees, why cant we watch the iPlayer without all this proxy stuff?
Grrr.....!

pauly3

The BBC launched their HD service on iPlayer yesterday. For the first time I am watching HD television on my PC which is coming down my phone line and over my power supply. (I have a few wireless dead spots so I am using Devolo HomePlug adapters). How weird is that!

The bitrate is 3.5mbps and the BBC have put up a speedtest checker for you to see if you can handle the stream. They are using adaptive bitrate technology, so if you cannot handle the higher bitrates it automatically defaults back down to 1.5mbps or 800kbps.

I am aware that most people in the Rebublic will not be able to access the iPlayer content without using a proxy; I am on UTV Internet and have not had trouble accessing the site. I was wondering if anyone else on UTV can also access the content here? I am on the 7.6mbps tariff.

Link to HD content: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/tv/bbc_hd
Link to announcement: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/
Link to SpeedTest checker: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/diagnostics