iPlayer arrives on portable media players

 

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Posted on 10 Oct 2008 at 09:35

The BBC has extended the scope of its iPlayer to include portable media players and home media streaming devices.

Portable devices including the Archos 605 Wi-Fi, Sony Walkman E and S Series, and Samsung's Samsung YP-P2 and YP-Q1 are all included on the list of officially compatible devices.

They join the Nokia N96 mobile phone, which was also recently included in the full download service, whilst devices such as Apple's iPhone and iPod touch are restricted to streamed video.

The portable download service is, in fact, compatible with any device that supports Windows Media DRM - the list of officially supported devices merely consisting of those products that the BBC have tested satisfactorily.

Any television programme that's available for download on the service now includes the option to download for media players. "We now encode all BBC iPlayer programmes in an additional file format (320x180 pixels 500Kb/sec video, 128Kbps 48KHz sampling audio, WMV file format) suitable for this class of portable media players," writes Anthony Rose, head of the online media group at the BBC, on the Corporation's Internet Blog.

"To do this, we added an extra transcode format into our workflow, able to transcode all 400 hours per week of available BBC iPlayer programmes in this additional format."

Shows are added to the portable devices by first downloading them on the PC and then transferring them to the player - a process dubbed "sideloading" by the BBC.

Media streaming devices such as the NetGear EVA8000 and Linksys DMA2200 also join the fold.

New DRM

The BBC is also moving away from its Microsoft-only DRM, by supporting new copy protection for Nokia mobile phones. "These Nokia devices support Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) DRM - so, to make BBC iPlayer content available on those devices, we've built an OMA DRM service," says Rose.

"[This] should allow us to, in due course and where technically feasible, make BBC iPlayer programmes available on a whole new class of mobile phones and other devices that support the OMA content protection standard."

Many sites are already reporting that the N96 iPlayer software works with a range of other S60 devices, including the N95 and Nokia's E series phones, with a few minor hacks.

The BBC says this software "will also allow you to download programmes over the air to your Nokia N96" without downloading them on a PC first, which could put the BBC on a collision course with mobile networks, who may see mobile data usage spike if this service takes off.

The BBC has also taken a dig at Apple for blocking the path to a full download service for the iPhone. "Apple keeps its DRM technology close to its chest and has so far not licensed that technology to third parties," says Rose.

"This means that as of today, it's not technically possible for us to make rights-protected BBC iPlayer programmes available for download from the bbc.co.uk/iplayer website in a format compatible with Apple devices. That's a major missing piece for us and a disappointment for Apple device owners, so please know that this has our full attention."

Author: Barry Collins