The BBC have kindly responded to posts about iPlayer for S60, claiming that they only support the N96 because of the better way it handles passing an Internet connection through from browser to RealPlayer - and yet Nick Anstee reports that the N96's RealPlayer setup is the same as on other S60 devices, in that you have to manually pick a streaming access point in RealPlayer's settings. Comments welcome if you can shed any light on this confusing situation.
Read on in the full article.
Maybe they mean support for destinations (i.e. groups of access points). If that's the case its a FP2 feature which means they could support the N78 too...
Rafe
The BBC have a habit of "explanations" like this when it comes to mobile services.
For example, BBC live radio streams work with S60 Realplayer if you add the station RTSP address manually, yet the official website has long claimed this isn't technically possible.
It makes you wonder if there's some hidden agenda to all this.
Bizarre. Hopefully the BBC techies have more of a clue than this PHB.
I've been keeping an eye on the iPlayer tech forum and I was under the impression that everybody had figured out how to do the streams on their N-series devices, but were wondering why the downloads only work on the N96. The last explanation for this was that only the N96 does time-limited DRM. One guy thinks that this won't be easily fixed, either in Nokia firmware or anything the BBC do. Downloads, when you think about it, make far more sense than the streams, because if you're at home, with access to your home WiFi, you might as well watch iPlayer on the big screen. Downloading to watch later on your mobile device on a flight or train journey makes much more sense.
I'm not sure about the time-limited DRM explanation, as there is already time-limited DRM available on many S60 devices (for example N-Gage games can optionally be rented for a day or a week instead of being permanently purchased).
Even if downloads are a good reason for making the full player N96-only, why don't they offer a non-downloads version of iPlayer for people with other S60 models?
It just seems crazy to artificially restrict it like this, especially as the BBC is legally obligated to distribute its services to as many licence payers as possible.
actually what he says is true, the N96 treats streaming on realplayer slightly different to older devices.
Regardless of the access point selected in realplayer streaming settings, the browser will carry through wifi connection to realplayer.
So although you could have realplayer set manually to 3G, as long as the initial connection to iplayer is made using wifi the realplayer in the N96 will use wifi.
ratkat: so this is a FP2 thing?
Steve, It appears to be, we were actually playing around trying to get my E71 (&N82) working with the iPlayer 1.5 version.
What we discovered is that not only is iPlayer device dependent, ie N96, but also appears to be somewhat dependent on your phone network too.
For example:
iPlayer 1.5, Nokia N96, Orange Sim, Realplayer default set to 3G
Streaming WiFi: Yes
Streaming 3G: Yes
Downloads WiFi: Yes
Downloads 3G: Yes
iPlayer 1.5, Nokia N96, Vodafone Sim, Realplayer default set to 3G
Streaming WiFi: Yes
Streaming 3G: No
Downloads WiFi: Yes
Downloads 3G: No
iPlayer 1.5, Nokia N95 and N82, Orange Sim, Realplayer default set to 3G
Streaming WiFi: Yes (but Realplayer needs to be set to Wifi manually)
Streaming 3G: Yes
Downloads WiFi: No
Downloads 3G: No
iPlayer 1.5, Nokia N95 and N82, Vodafone Sim, Realplayer default set to WiFi
Streaming WiFi: No (Switch to WiFi message displayed, even though RP default set to Wifi)
Streaming 3G: No
Downloads WiFi: No
Downloads 3G: No
Results for my E71 on Vodafone (with javascript modded iPlayer) were the same as the N95, didn't try with Orange as I was refused to let my brother stick his Orange sim card in after it screwed up all the settings on my N82.
So
1: The N96, regardless of the access point selected in realplayer streaming settings, the browser will carry through wifi connection to realplayer
2: Orange allow you to stream over 3G, but with there dataplan costing �8 per month for 30mb (or one episode of Eastenders) it will be a rich man that uses it.
3: On the N95, the javascript used to block 3G from unsupported networks basically blocks WiFi too, as unlike the N96 the browser doesn't allow the WiFi to pass through to Realplayer.
4: We could only get downloads to work on the N96, on the N95 (orange sim) they would download, but not play (due to DRM?)
So for now on my E71 I will continue to use my modded version of iPlayer 1.0, now further changed to remove the annoying 'Update' latest version message. (simply open widget.html in a text editor and remove the following code)
<div id="update-available">
<h3>Update Available</h3>
<p><a id="update-link" href="#">Click here to download</a></p>
</div>
Ratkat: That's correct, and that's exactly why the *current* version of iPlayer mobile is restricted to that sort of device. If you are attempting to enforce wifi only then having a separate streaming AP be used is somewhat unhelpful and could end up costing licence fee payers a lot of money in data charges.
However, just like on the desktop, iPlayer mobile will get better and be on more devices. It just takes a little while.
There's really nothing to discuss here 😊
S60 IPlayer works *perfectly* on ANY S60 device (AFAIK) with WebRunTime, and perfectly on a 3G device, WiFi is NOT needed.
The edits to make it do this are quick and easy (5 mins tops), and can be found in this thread from the 1st October: http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/forum//forum/thread/76404/
I have had iPlayer running on my 6220 Classic, with no problems (and with the original firmware by the way), since then, and I know it's over 3G as it doesn't have WiFi hardware 😊
I would say - DO NOT use it without an unlimited data plan, and secondly, be aware your battery will drain faster - video + 3G is quite power hungry.
But it all works, and works well.
Your experience may differ, but with a classic N95 I find that on download the message that the format is not supported appears consistently before the DRM key is sent. This could be a DRM issue - as in literally it is trying to open the encrypted DRM format without using the DRM agent - but my guess is that this is something to do with differing audio format. I note that if you download a file on a PC for an N96 (sideload is the BBC term) it downloads a windows video file. This is not supported on an N95.
N96's are based on a later "feature pack" (S60 terminology) than N95's. A key difference IIRC is the version of the real player. N96's is based on helix, and apart from video acceleration. N95's I believe is the old RealOne player, and only really supports streaming of real data.
Summary: the download format is probably windows video and (quite apart from the DRM risk) is not supported on N95.
anyone caught this article on techradar yet ?
http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/bbc-iplayer-on-loadsa-mobiles--475671