iPlayer - laggy, weird starts!

[Noggin]

Does anyone use iPlayer and watch much stuff on catch up?

I'm watching past series of things at the moment and have been blaming the VPN for lagging/pause/twirling thing in the screen!

But - I also get an issue of the episode starting partway through, anything from a 1/4 of the way through or 3/4 of the way through. No way of going back to the beginning.

So, I'm wondering - is that iplayer or is it the VPN.

Really don't want to start on a different VPN, but if no one else ever gets this issue with watching past series, then I reckon its that and not the iplayer thingy!!


The series are Doctor Who and Great British Sewing Bee!!

[Mussels]

I've used iplayer a fair bit but not for those series, mostly it works fine. If they won't play properly live then can you download and watch them that way?

[Noggin]

I've used iplayer a fair bit but not for those series, mostly it works fine. If they won't play properly live then can you download and watch them that way?

I'll give that a go, but I'm basically sitting with a series on in the background and every other one (sometimes each episode) just starts partway through. Currently I have given up on a part one on Dr Who cos it wouldn't finish - the part two started seven mins in and won't play past ten mins

On that basis (and from experience of a few series of sewing bee) I'd end up downloading half the series to watch! And I'm not sure I have a big memory on the ipad! LOL

This was supposed to be a simple fix to catch up on stuff I like and watch current stuff, but it's not

[Noggin]

And, I have turned it on and off and cleared the cookies

[mangocrazy]

I'd suggest get_iplayer to download and store BBC iPlayer content, but it's definitely built by nerds/geeks for a target audience of nerds/geeks. Once you get the hang of it, it's great. I've got Terabytes of stuff I've downloaded over the years. You do need a big hard drive though - it eats up disk space for fun.

[Noggin]

I'd suggest get_iplayer to download and store BBC iPlayer content, but it's definitely built by nerds/geeks for a target audience of nerds/geeks. Once you get the hang of it, it's great. I've got Terabytes of stuff I've downloaded over the years. You do need a big hard drive though - it eats up disk space for fun.

How do you download? Or do I have to do that on a laptop not an iPad? Only I've looked at the screen and there is no option to download

It would be aces to have it downloaded, but equally, cos I'm an Applefan, it would restrict rewatching as it's a challenge to plug in a memory card and still keep charge in the pad!!

But I could download and keep it which would be cool


Just cannot understand why it won't just play - I mean, that's what it's for right? To play older series so people can rewatch (or in my case quite often, watch for the first time to catch up!!)

[Noggin]

And I've tried Safari and Google to watch (cos I can't seem to fool the app store into letting me download the app )

Google lags as much as Safari, they both have given me a message saying "the content doesn't seem to be working" - but nothing about what country I'm in, so don't think it's that

[Noggin]

Ok, how do I test the bandwidth (is that the speed?) of the Wi-Fi?

Have now started it on the lap top and on one pause it said lacking in bandwidth - although I find that weird as I can play Netflix, Disney and Canal+ with no issues

Is the problem that I’m not using an app? Don’t understand why that should make any difference. But???

[ChrisW]

Ok, how do I test the bandwidth (is that the speed?) of the Wi-Fi?

I always use https://www.speedtest.net/, they have an app too if you prefer.

[mangocrazy]

This is the get_iplayer info page...

get_iplayer: BBC iPlayer/BBC Sounds Indexing Tool and PVR

Features

Downloads TV and radio programmes from BBC iPlayer/BBC Sounds
Allows multiple programmes to be downloaded using a single command
Indexing of most available iPlayer/Sounds catch-up programmes from previous 30 days (not Red Button, iPlayer Exclusive, or Podcast-only)
Caching of programme index with automatic updating
Regex search on programme name
Regex search on programme description and episode title
Filter search results by channel
Direct download via programme ID or URL
PVR capability (may be used with cron or Task Scheduler)
HTTP proxy support
Perl 5.16+ required, plus LWP, LWP::Protocol::https, XML::LibXML, Mojolicious, and CGI modules
Requires ffmpeg for conversion to MP4 and AtomicParsley for metadata tagging
Runs on Linux/BSD (Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenBSD and others), macOS (10.10+), Windows (7/8/10)

Basically it's an executable package you install on your PC/Laptop/Mac. It doesn't work on phones (to the best of my knowledge, so that may be the sticking point for you.

[DefTrap]

I've just been watching iPlayer for a few hours, on a VPN on my phone, cast to a TV (not on a VPN) in my Airbnb in Spain.
It shouldn't work but it does, perfectly, way better than when I try to do the same fecking thing at home.

[Noggin]

Is this any good??




Weirdly, on the laptop it seemed to be much better, certainly played all of each episode instead of bitsa. Trying the ipad again this morning - been playing stuff on Netflix for a couple of hours with no issues at all, see how long that lasts with bbc! LOL

[Mussels]

That's many times more than you need for iPlayer, how about through the VPN?
The best test is other streaming services, how well does youtube work through it?

[Noggin]

That's many times more than you need for iPlayer, how about through the VPN?
The best test is other streaming services, how well does youtube work through it?

I’ll rest again in the morning on the pad and the laptop.

I’m starting to think the main issue is not having the app and using a browser. Although not sure why it should be an issue?

[Mussels]

Like many streaming services the BBC is always trying to prevent the wrong people using it (you ). This is a cat and mouse game and why they block many VPN services, your problem could be as simple as that but I know little of how these things work.
If they think multiple people on the VPN are the same person it could explain why you are getting the odd start point. Usually I wouldn't expect that as it works fine behind company firewalls which function much like a VPN.

[Noggin]

Like many streaming services the BBC is always trying to prevent the wrong people using it (you ). This is a cat and mouse game and why they block many VPN services, your problem could be as simple as that but I know little of how these things work.
If they think multiple people on the VPN are the same person it could explain why you are getting the odd start point. Usually I wouldn't expect that as it works fine behind company firewalls which function much like a VPN.

There's a fancy geographical thingy that is used by Discovery+ so probably BBC too! I could sign up to an account with Discovery+ using a VPN but because my bank card is French (even though it's Revolut so was paying in Sterling), they refused payment so I couldn't sign up. A smidge frustrating!

But I suspect you are right. I do think it would be better if I had the iPlayer app, but can't get that until I am back in the uk as for some reason the VPN doesn't go as far as dealing with that!! LOL

It wasn't too bad yesterday, so will cross fingers