Okay, after a bit of work I think this is (just about) ready for prime time!
the iPlayer add-on is great, but choosing videos to play isn't the best UI. So i've been working on a way to leverage the BBC iPlayer website.
What I've come up with is a Firefox / Firefox Mobile addon that will allow you to select an iPlayer show and play it on your XBMC.
Installation Instructions
Okay, first off, this requires some changes to the xbmc iplayer plugin, as the current version doesn't support the JSON api.
I've put a modified version up on github:
https://github.com/AWilco/iplayerv2
You'll have to git clone, or download the files manually to your .xbmc/addons/plugin.video.iplayer/ folder
Once you've done this, you need the firefox plugin. This is available at
http://goo.gl/Zsa22
This plugin will work for Firefox or Firefox mobile.
Once you have installed the add-on you will need to go to the options page to set up some options.
These are:
Hostname: the IP/name of your xbmc server
Port: the port XBMC's network settings uses
Username/Password: the login details needed to authenticate with your XBMC server.
Once you have done this you can go to the iPlayer website, and when you choose a video you will see a "Play on XBMC" option. Click this and the show should start playing on your XBMC!
Notes
This is an initial alpha release. I've tested it with TV shows on the iPlayer website. Radio shows will NOT work (even though the button appears), and Live TV will NOT work (there is no button). I'll definitely look to work on this.
For those running Android, this will work (I have an android phone). When you visit the iPlayer website, the add-on spoofs the user-agent to make you look like an iPhone, allowing you to browse the site. You can't watch videos on the phone though.
Exobuzz: (I take it you're the dev of the iPlayerV2 plugin). You may have missed my post earlier in this thread, and not got to my issue. This is a further development of what I was doing there.
I've converted the add_programme function to return playable items. This causes XBMC to ask the plugin to resolve the plugin URL into a URL it can handle. You'll see that I've created a resolve_url function that takes over ?pid=xyz... calls and returns the URL of the file to XBMC. This I think is the "proper" way to do it, as it allows other methods of choosing a iPlayer video to work. I think this will also fix the bug some people have where their video only plays for a few seconds (I used to have that problem until I developed this).
I'd like to get this into the main iPlayerv2 plugin. I've also converted the radio and live tv functions to work in the same way. The source is available in the github link given above.
Also, the source of the firefox plugin is available at:
https://github.com/AWilco/xbmciplayersender
If anyone does try this, please post any issues on this google code page:
http://code.google.com/p/songbird-telescope/
Which has turned into my catch-all development tracker for the moment.
Finally: I hope to write up a better guide, with pictures and stuff, over the next few days.
Enjoy! (at your own risk).