First impressions of the BBC iPlayer

2007-08-01T20:19:00.000+01:00

After the extensive press coverage on the development and launch date, I headed over to the iPlayer website on launch day to get me some of this iPlayer action. However it was not a case of downloading the goodies when you want as I was asked to sign up and wait for a confirmation e-mail which didn't arrive until the next day, no one likes to wait for anything when the Internet offers instant gratification for most things so it wasn't a good start.

After signing in with an assigned user name and password that it is not possible to change to something memorable as far as I can tell, I then realise I'm using Firefox which is of course unsupported because of the DRM being employed. So after loading up Internet Explorer and finding something worth watching (programme selection is a bit limited) I was directed to install the BBC iPlayer library programme, which seemed straight forward but proved to be anything but.

Once the installation finished, up popped an aesthetically pleasing program. Three seconds later and error message arrived proclaiming "Delivery Service Manager has encountered a problem" as the iPlayer disappeared from my screen and I noticed the 4oD icon also disappeared from my system tray. I quick trip to the iPlayer 'Support' forums found a thread entitled "Delivery Service Manager has encountered a problem" and revealed other people were having a similar problem. The only solutions suggested was to uninstall both the the BBC iPlayer, 4oD and run a program called KClean.exe. I tried this and reinstalled the iPlayer but still had the same problem. On further investigation and four further installation attempts it seems the a program called KService.exe is the cause of the problem and fragments of this program are left in various hidden folders in the computer system. KService.exe is produced by Kontiki and is part of the peer-to-peer technology behind the iPlayer and 4oD as well as Sky Anytime. It seems that if this program is on your computer already when you try to install the iPlayer then it creates serious problems for all the programs it's used for. The only solution is to uninstall everything: iPlayer, 4oD and use KClean.exe to get rid of the KService.exe, then search all hidden folders for KService and delete anything with KService in the title. Then for anything to work the iPlayer has to be installed first, it seems 4oD is more stable and can cope with being second to the party.

After the three hour fiasco installing the program, I was distinctly unimpressed with the iPlayer as a whole. To find programs to download you have to leave the program and go to the iPlayer website unlike the 4oD where everything is there in the (clunky) program. There is no streaming option like 4oD so everything has to be downloaded which means it takes up to an hour and hoovers up valuable hard drive space. The video quality is good, although one of the shows I downloaded turned out to be signed despite there being no indication of this on the show description.

All in all I think the iPlayer is a total shambles and a waste of development time and money. Why do they insist on making you download the shows when you can't keep them for longer than 7 days after you watch it, if I download something then I want to keep it. I think streaming the shows would have been the optimal solution as it doesn't require the installation of programs, take up large chunks of hard drive space and offers the shows to be instantly watched without having to wait for it to be downloaded. Broadcasters like ABC, CBS and NBC get this and have been highly successful with their Internet offerings, the Beeb it seems doesn't get it at all.

Assorted thoughts on 'The Media'

First impressions of the BBC iPlayer