experiences with BBC iPlayer streaming

[Robert Parker]

I'd be interested to hear what experiences people have had streaming programmes from the BBC iPlayer (BBC iPlayer - Home) through the Internet Channel.

Since early April 2008, the BBC have been encoding their programmes to be compatable with Flash 7 so that the programmes can be viewed in the Wii Opera browser. They are continuing to encode using the more advanced flash 9 as well, so presumably the BBC website detects the browser type before streaming.

I've seen some comments on news announcement sites (around 9th / 10th April) saying that it works ok, other postings have said the flash streaming stutters very badly. These news announcement pages have since been closed to postings and I havent found further comments since early April.

My experience is that the streaming stutters so badly that it is effectively unusable. The need to manually centre the play window and the poor quality video doesnt bother me too much but the pauses in the stream every 2 or 3 seconds render it useless. BBC say they will be working to improve the quality and maybe even a dedicated iPlayer Wii channel but no firm commitments.

speedtest.net reports my broadband to be 3.2Mbps and the iPlayer streams perfectly ok to a wireless PC at any time of day, so what's the problem with streaming to the Wii? is it that the flash 7 encoding does not compress sufficiently or is it the actual processing power of the Wii?

Has anyone got the streaming of iPlayer to their Wii working satisfactorily? and if so how? (wired connection? time of day?)

Thanks,
Robert

[biddenden_sue]

Just checked it here, as I am at home. I knew it didn't work well enough to use at present. I was hoping that they would sort the streaming out by the end of the year.

I used Speedtest.net to check my Broadband speed on Orange - my PC is also connected wirelessly to the router, as is the Wii.

Download speed = 1058 kb/s
Upload = 376 kb/s

Basically it pauses approx 7 times per minute and each pause is over 5 seconds long. There is no lag or pausing on the PC.

At that rate, an hour long programme would take over 90 minutes to view!

Hope that helps. I really hope the Beeb tweak it and sort out the glitches as the idea of the service is great in theory, but is not working in practise.

Youtube runs flawlessly on the Wii, by the way.

[solid]

I have ntl with a 2meg connection, and iPlayer runs perfectly on my Wii.

Not sure if I am lucky, but it is certainly watchable

[coruja]

It was mentioned around May we should be getting a specific Wii iPlayer, just like there is one for the iPhone. I'm waiting for that.

BBC Internet Blog
BBC iPlayer on Wii | Games | Guardian Unlimited

[MacsRule]

Try the WiiPlayer or whatever it is called. Works well for me

[qama786]

I have had good experience on using the Iplayer on Wii and on my laptop and on mine it does'nt pause through or anything and I am only using 2meg Virgin Broadband and a wireless router and I have also had good experience using channel 4 4od service too.

[Ricksta7]

I havent tried much, but as a few of you above have mentioned, I am also on 2meg Virgin broadband and BBC Iplayer like Sue pauses roughly every 5 - 10 secs... Youtube sometimes also, I have to let them buffer before watching for smothness, and I have never heard of Wiiplayer but am about to google it now

[solid]

Well, this website has hacked the iPlayer, and reformatted it so it looks better for the Wii

A

[Robert Parker]

I just tried it again today (early afternoon), "iPlayer on Wii" works without stuttering. My broadband speed still reports the same as before (3.2Mbps), so it looks like "iPlayer on Wii" is affected by the load on the BBC servers (early afternoon = low traffic ?) or the BBC have have improved their service to Wii browsers somehow.

[Ricksta7]

I know there is alot of threads on BBC iPlayer so I didn't want to make another lol, Has anyone tried the new version on the Wii and seen if it works any better?

BBC launches new iPlayer - Computer Business Review