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Full Version: [REQUEST] BBC iPlayer (Video) Plugin or Script?
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Johnsto, I could if you'd see fit code a scraper in php (and host it) that outputs the same format of results as the standard iPlayer RSS feeds. I think it would work faster than a Xbox Screen scrape? Let me know, I can get it done within a day if you'd think it would work ok.
Ah, no need, just found search terms can be searched for like this:

http://feeds.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search/?q=spooks

Will add support as soon as I can.
Ok, search support now in the 12th November build:
http://xbmc-iplayer.googlecode.com/files...121016.zip

Needs an icon and things, and I've not tested it too thoroughly, but give it a go! Smile
New XBMC is out for Xbox but still the plugin hangs the console at the end of a a program.
mrtickle Wrote:Cool. What are the chances of it being included in the main branch for xbox I wonder? Nod

Just to clarify: when you say you've removed a 500MB buffer, does that still leave the 20 second buffer you also mention? I'm desperate for more/bigger buffering. Sad

Frosty's new patch which fixes the hang came to late for the stable build, unfortunately. I guess we will have to wait a while for it to hit the SVN, the devs must be having a well earned holiday to celebrate the stable release!
Rocky5 Wrote:New XBMC is out for Xbox but still the plugin hangs the console at the end of a a program.

I get the same thing - is this a known issue (70-something pages is a lot to skim, I might have missed it), or should we post debug info?
NEUR0M4NCER Wrote:I get the same thing - is this a known issue (70-something pages is a lot to skim, I might have missed it), or should we post debug info?

Read ashlartowers's post immediately above your reply.
frosty's patch was committed to SVN by elupus a few moments ago. Hopefully this will make the list of enhancements to be ported back to the XBOX! Smile
Once the Radio streams are working for all (last time I tried it, it completely failed on a Mac, I will get round to trying the latest version tonight to see if it has changed), perhaps the next step for Johnsto to consider implementing is support for the live streams (as opposed to catchup streams).

This is based on the BBC just announcing that BBC1 and BBC2 will now be available 'live' as streams along with the other already available BBC channels and Radio channels. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7737341.stm

The live streams will include all programmes including films, the catchup streams only include those programmes for which the BBC has specific rights.

Would it be possible to include any of the other UK terrestrial 'live' feeds, e.g. C4 and Five?
jelockwood Wrote:perhaps the next step for Johnsto to consider implementing is support for the live streams (as opposed to catchup streams).

There's already support in the library (and has been for a few weeks, it's dead simple looking up the streams as the PIDs are just 'bbcone', 'bbcthree' etc.), but I've yet to get the streams working on XBMC. Might have another look at it tonight actually to see what the state of affairs is now.

jelockwood Wrote:Would it be possible to include any of the other UK terrestrial 'live' feeds, e.g. C4 and Five?

I'd rather keep it just iPlayer-specific for now, but it's entirely possible the plugin could be adapted to support other content sources. The supporting library will remain iPlayer-only.

Anyone can use the library to create their own combined UK TV plugin.
Remember BBC 1 & 2 are not available as live streams yet:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7737341.stm
I'm having issues with the Main A-Z (doesn't go anywhere) and also A-Z on some other channels (BBC3: "H" returns nothing, don't know if this is accurate or not?).

Also, search works great!

Now, it would be great if I could save a search for, say, "Heroes" and save it for later - to for results at any time. It would be even better if I could limit the search text to the programme title, description or both.

Any chance?
ashlartowers Wrote:Frosty's new patch which fixes the hang came to late for the stable build, unfortunately. I guess we will have to wait a while for it to hit the SVN, the devs must be having a well earned holiday to celebrate the stable release!

I'm glad the patch is now in, and we can move on to hoping it gets ported to the xbox build.

But I still don't have an answer to my question :confused2: - "does that still leave the 20 second buffer"? I'd be absolutely delighted to get through a stream and have the xbox lock up and die horribly at the end. This is because as it is, it freezes and has to wait for new data every 10-15 seconds, making programmes unwatchable. I have 5.5Mb/s ADSL so plenty of bandwidth.

For me, I want more buffers, very big buffers, the bigger the better optionally configurable - and niceties like crashing at the end are way, way down the list of priorities!
matt! Wrote:I'm having issues with the Main A-Z (doesn't go anywhere) and also A-Z on some other channels (BBC3: "H" returns nothing, don't know if this is accurate or not?).

Some channels don't have programmes beginning with certain letters, although best way to check is load up the iPlayer website and look for yourself.

matt! Wrote:Now, it would be great if I could save a search for, say, "Heroes" and save it for later - to for results at any time. It would be even better if I could limit the search text to the programme title, description or both.

Saved/favourite searches is definitely something I'd like to do, as well as searching on title or summary.

Just as an update, having a few issues with the current script (getting "TypeError: argument 1 must be unicode or str" for the most innocent of print statements "print 'bbc_three'" but I digress), but did manage to discover that live streaming is currently not possible.

I'm not sure exactly what the issue is (it's something for frosty or an RTMP dev), but it's not something that the plugin can fix.
Quote:But I still don't have an answer to my question - "does that still leave the 20 second buffer"? I'd be absolutely delighted to get through a stream and have the xbox lock up and die horribly at the end. This is because as it is, it freezes and has to wait for new data every 10-15 seconds, making programmes unwatchable. I have 5.5Mb/s ADSL so plenty of bandwidth.

The XBMC DVDPlayer has fixed video and audio queue (buffer) sizes of 5120Kb and 1800Kb respectively. The RTMP code additionally used to have a 500Kb buffer which I felt wasn't helping things, but was complicating the code, so I removed it as part of http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/5246

That patch includes a change to declare to the flash server that we have a 20sec buffer available (this number isn't exactly right, but it's more helpful than the previous value 0.3sec). This causes the server to send data to fill this buffer as quickly as possible, before returning to it's normal behaviour of streaming at the source rate. The effect of this is to cause streams to begin playback quicker.

This is unlikely to help your problems. If your connection can't keep an average data rate of 500Kbit/s from the specific flash server you're using to your xbox, it's going to keep rebuffering. Larger buffers can only help if the rate is >500Kbit/s on average, but very uneven.

I suggest you check your xbox's network connection for problems ... maybe start a new thread if you're looking for ideas on this.