Comments on: Should the Linux community reverse enginner iPlayer and 4OD?

By: Sam Albuquerque

Sam Albuquerque — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:00:55 +0000

get_iplayer works with BBC iplayer and ITV Player as well a with HULU.

From BBC you can download non-DRM MOV files(iphone version) or 3gP files Nokia Version or if you have rtmpdump and ffmpeg installed you can even get 720p mp4 files which is a better resolution than the WMV Files that are being downloaded from the iPlayer App. plus they are DRM free.

By: Raj

Raj — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 11:22:54 +0000

This may be an aside and only works for BBC’s iplayer, but I use get_iplayer from http://linuxcentre.net/iplayer.

Its a perl script and there appears to be no GUI for it (yet) but it works a treat. The video is passable but the radio is great.

By: will

will — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 01:09:28 +0000

Here’s a solution to the Iplayer issue for now:- http://po-ru.com/projects/iplayer-downloader/

I think it’s brilliant, they produce a DRM free source for the Iphone/touch that doesn’t support DRM but not for the Linux community.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 23:44:42 +0000

I’ve noticed that both iPlayer and 4OD use khost.exe produced by Kontiki specifically for video and program sharing. I realise that I may not have done my research properly and I’m just talking utter rubbish, but surely it would be easier to reverse engineer the application used by both.

By: ed

ed — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 20:21:46 +0000

“No Mr. Anonymous. Linux users install rootkits on, or own, the BBC servers.”

This Linux user read your comment and thought “what an idiot”.

By: dave massingham

dave massingham — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 13:47:14 +0000

Surely it is a challenge any self-respecting member of the ‘Community’ is going to tackle?
The free / open source stuff I’ve downloaded for my Linux
boxes, (device drivers, applications, etc.) has worked a treat, never crashes, (unlike my XP at work!).
The quality of code is the best, and done for little if no financial reward, just to do a good job, or prove a point.

In the end it’s all just 0s and 1s, but in a certain order…

By: voraistos

voraistos — Mon, 12 May 2008 01:13:16 +0000

No Mr. Anonymous. Linux users install rootkits on, or own, the BBC servers. The pirates are the ones running windows (a pirated version) and use word (a pirated version) along with photoshop (a pirated version). Pirates lack the brain power needed to run linux, open office and the gimp. Linux users do not pirate music either: most of it is being distributed in the lower quality, patent-crippled mp3 format. Linux users, however, have a streaming server somewhere near a backbone, and distribute freeview in vorbis+theora.ogg

Moreover, running the damn thing under wine must be possible.

By: zerofool2005

zerofool2005 — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:14:46 +0000

If you packet sniff the communication. Then you preety much know the syntax it uses. 4od just loads IE inside its app. So its easy just to fake the User-Agent and add the extra lines in the header.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 01 May 2008 11:33:55 +0000

Theres another obvious reason why they arn’t offering it linux, same goes for 4oD.

Linux users are the exact type of people that distribute pirated material over p2p networks.

I.e. young, geeky, men. Am i rite?

By: Jake

Jake — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:36:04 +0000

I agree totally. We should do something to allow us to watch 4OD, of-course iPlayer have their flash player however this is buggy. I can’t fast forward the video or it just starts from the beginning.

I would like to be able to watch 4OD videos soon. Setup a website and ask for donations / help, i’m sure there is help out there somewhere .

Jake.