Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Download vs. Streaming

If you are downloading iPlayer programs (as opposed to "streaming" them) - turn off your proxy (or VPN) connection after the download has started. [or toggle your Internet connection to - "Direct Connection"]

This way the peer-to-peer nature of the Kontiki download software will not know where you are getting the authorization from. When you download the program is more than likely NOT coming from the BBC server (hence it is not blocked outside the UK) - it is coming from other computers on the Kontiki network that have downloaded the material.

See the message in the Download manager that tells you the speed and the number of sources to see what I mean.

If you do this you will minimise the chances of the BBC working out where the requests for its programming is coming from as well an lightening the load of the proxy or VPN server. In fact it is probably a good idea to download ALL the programming that you want to watch in this way.

If you are outside the UK the connection for the download is likely to be slow as you are connecting to other computers in the UK (or at least slower that if you were located in the UK). It is also likely that the speed of the download is pretty much the same as it would be if you have the connection via a proxy or a VPN - but it could be faster!

Monday, January 19, 2009

iPlayer Torrent

The post was made as I saw a comparison of the BBC iPlayer as a "Torrent"

It is (partially) and it is not.

The BBC iPlayer has two distinct modes of operation. One is simple streaming and the other is similar to a "Torrent" - the Download Manager.

The Download Manager - does just that, download programs from iPlayer to your PC - it does this using a similar manner to a Torrent website. It is similar due to the fact that the program material once downloaded to your PC is available to others connected to the iPlayer Download Manager (Kontiki) it is then available to other iPlayer Download Manager users to download from your computer. In other words the Download Manager is a "pear-to-pear" system similar to a "Torrent" in that it uploads material from your computer to the Internet so that others can download it.
UNLIKE a "Torrent" there is no upload/download requirements for iPlayer. If you choose not to install the Download Manager to your PC, then there is NO similarity to a "Torrent"

If you elect not to download the Download Manager and install it you can still use the BBC iPlayer software (on the BBC iPlayer website - without having to download ANY software) to stream video TV programming from the BBC.

However, iPlayer programming is ONLY available within the UK - unless you take other measures.

Links to other posts on this blog related to iPlayer: