I was delighted to receive a beta invite to the BBC’s new iPlayer application last night. I logged in with the details supplied, to find a really quite slick ajax-based web interface, and a wealth of BBC content within. Hot pink isn’t really a colour I’d associate with the Beeb, but it works well against the black-and-charcoal background.
Having not had a functional TV since last Friday lunchtime, it was a good chance to see a few things I’d missed. Er, no: not on Vista, not on Firefox. I’ll try it all again later, when I find a slightly older PC.
Actually, I’m finding a growing number of reasons to dislike Vista. If I get brave in the next week or two, I may finally stick Ubuntu alongside it on my laptop. The new visual effects in this October’s Ubuntu release are really quite mouthwatering.
Responses
Re: Ubuntu, do it, Simon. Especially when you have VMWare installed too, so you can have the best of both worlds all the time. The other advantage of linux for web types is that you can have your own private web server available for testing all the time…
[…] Simon Dickson.: BBC iPlayer: old kit only Simon Dickson can’t use the BBC iPlayer: “Er, no: not on Vista, not on Firefox. I’ll try it all again later, when I find a slightly older PC.” (tags: bbc iplayer vista firefox) […]
[…] At last, iPlayer was unveiled to the public this week. I visited the website to register my interest — only to find that I couldn’t. Seemingly, my computer is too new for iPlayer. […]
Hi there,
I got the iPlayer working on Vista earlier on today after I saw an article on The Register that someone else had got it working.
I published a blog post about it that can be found on Digg here:-
http://digg.com/software/How_to_install_the_BBC_iPlayer_on_Windows_Vista
Bob
I think there’s plenty wrong with iPlayer and the BBC tie-up with Microsoft. I don’t care if its black, white or pink. Trying to make DRM work will fail and the Beeb shouldn’t be getting involved with doomed technology.
For Microsoft, read George Bush. For BBC, read Tony Blair. Need I say more?
http://www.webswonder.co.uk/the-bbc-iplayer-a-step-backwards
Jeremy Clulow