I can't say that I am surprised and that it is amazing that it has continued to work for as long as it has.
Maybe it will resolve the "Failed to download program schedule" Warning as it has in the past, but I am not holding my breath.
As iPlayer is the BBC's flagship streaming and downloading service it is not surprising that it has seen a lot of continuing development over the years that it has been in operation. The development on get_iplayer, however, stopped when Phil Lewis withdrew his support when he determined that it was a conflict of interest for him with his work with the BBC and the UK broadcast industry. As the original developer of get_iplayer, as he was instrumental in the development of the original iPlayer (I believe), he was privy to its internal workings. Without that "insider" knowledge of the process it was a potential that should a major change be made that the original programme would break irrevocably.
The iPlayer/get_iplayer process is multi-facetted in that it not only consists of the processing of the streamed data (this I believe has remained much the same) but the location of the resources used by the system. It is this location of the streaming resources that has caused get_iplayer to fail in the past. It was not the only reason over the years as there had been some changes regarding the encryption of the streams, but this was all covered under the RTMP/RTMPE schema that iPlayer has used all along. The current problems stem, probably, from the BBC developing its strategy to maximise its use of it server space and to provide new functionality to the iPlayer service itself. For example, there have been many changes that have been made to the availability of program material and the BBC's downloader has been completely revamped since I first looked at it. The changes, I believe, were made to enhance the regular users experience, not to stop the users of get_iplayer.
The result of this is that those that want to continue to download material to keep will now have to use Bittorrent. The irony here is that the UK has pretty much been successful in blocking access to sites such as thepiratebay, with most ISPs (such as BT) restricting access to this and other torrent tracking sites.
Maybe it will resolve the "Failed to download program schedule" Warning as it has in the past, but I am not holding my breath.
As iPlayer is the BBC's flagship streaming and downloading service it is not surprising that it has seen a lot of continuing development over the years that it has been in operation. The development on get_iplayer, however, stopped when Phil Lewis withdrew his support when he determined that it was a conflict of interest for him with his work with the BBC and the UK broadcast industry. As the original developer of get_iplayer, as he was instrumental in the development of the original iPlayer (I believe), he was privy to its internal workings. Without that "insider" knowledge of the process it was a potential that should a major change be made that the original programme would break irrevocably.
The iPlayer/get_iplayer process is multi-facetted in that it not only consists of the processing of the streamed data (this I believe has remained much the same) but the location of the resources used by the system. It is this location of the streaming resources that has caused get_iplayer to fail in the past. It was not the only reason over the years as there had been some changes regarding the encryption of the streams, but this was all covered under the RTMP/RTMPE schema that iPlayer has used all along. The current problems stem, probably, from the BBC developing its strategy to maximise its use of it server space and to provide new functionality to the iPlayer service itself. For example, there have been many changes that have been made to the availability of program material and the BBC's downloader has been completely revamped since I first looked at it. The changes, I believe, were made to enhance the regular users experience, not to stop the users of get_iplayer.
The result of this is that those that want to continue to download material to keep will now have to use Bittorrent. The irony here is that the UK has pretty much been successful in blocking access to sites such as thepiratebay, with most ISPs (such as BT) restricting access to this and other torrent tracking sites.
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