What have they done to the BBC iPlayer?

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Posted on 2 Jul 2007 at 12:18

The BBC's much-vaunted iPlayer is struggling with a barrage of technical flaws just weeks before it's due to go live.

The iPlayer is the BBC's peer-to-peer download service, which will allow viewers to catch-up on shows broadcast across the Beeb's television network over the past week. The Corporation has been trialling the iPlayer in its various guises for nearly two years, but has radically redesigned the software for the latest beta trial, which the BBC insists is the final design.

Out goes the seamless, slickly-designed application of previous betas, which allowed you to browse the catalogue of available programmes, schedule the downloads and watch the shows from a single window.

The stylish looking iMP, the precursor to today's iPlayer

In comes a garish black and pink design that awkwardly splits the iPlayer's functions into two parts. The first part is a poorly designed show guide, where viewers can select the programmes they wish to download.

Shows are listed chronologically or by genre, but navigation is poor and there's a great deal of repetition. For example, there are 14 instances of Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps in the "entertainment & comedy" section, without any indication of which episode is which until you click through for details. (In fact, describing Two Pints of Lager... as either comedy or entertainment is technically inaccurate).

Worse still, when you actually click on the relevant shows, a message often appears informing you that there are no episodes of this particular show available. Why bother listing it then?

There's also a worryingly thin selection of content to choose from at present. Sports coverage is largely absent, no doubt due to the troublesome issue of internet broadcasting rights. So too are current affairs staples, such as Andrew Marr's Sunday AM. Hopefully a wider choice will be made available by the time the service launches.

The guide abysmally fails to distinguish between different episodes of the same series

DRM disaster

The second part of the iPlayer is the Library, a desktop application that manages the downloading and playback of programmes. At least, that's the theory. In our tests, shows downloaded as expected (taking up to 45 minutes for an hour long-show), however they often refuse to play.

The problem appears to lie with the DRM, with a pop-up message claiming that you haven't got the correct licences to play the selected show. It took us three days before we could successfully play a single programme.

And we're far from alone. The BBC iPlayer's support messageboard contains several threads with people complaining about the licence problem, one of which boasts 115 replies. "So far very few of the listed programmes seem to actually be downloadable and of those very few are actually playable. A deeply frustrating experience," complains one trialist. "A high proportion of the comments on this messagebaord concern the 'No Licence' error message. Downloading rights are clearly a more complex issue than anticipated," says another.