October 06, 2014

BBC iPlayer now has shows for 30 days rather than just seven

This from Auntie herself:
Shows will now be available to watch on the BBC iPlayer for 30 days rather than seven, after the service was extended by the corporation. The move was announced in April but has now been put into effect. It has been introduced in time for the autumn schedule, which is traditionally one of the most popular times of the year for TV viewing.
Which is very good news if, like me, you go looking for something only to find it's disappearing before you have time to watch it. However if you find the iPlayer service bordering on unusable via Virgin Media (I find it good in SD but the HD playback is very unreliable) then it may prove even more frustrating.
I now use my Smart TV's iPlayer by default rather than the TiVo's. Ditto Netflix. I sometimes wonder if my TiVo is now an extravagance rather than a necessity...

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Seconded - the overall responsiveness of the iPlayer and Netflix apps is embarrassing.

Likewise HD via the iPlayer app is impossible, so normally stream HD over wifi from my iPad 2

Playback from the Netflix app (when i starts) is good but often see a 5-10 second lag when pressing a control action.

Luckily Netflix on the AppleTV is fine.

I had a conversation whilst in the States a few weeks ago with an American about TV and he used Netflix on an a vanilla Tivo box and stated no such problem, so is this knobbling by the Virgin firmware?

DatingKit.io said...

Also agreed. Tried to watch Eastenders in SD on iPlayer and after 5 mins it did its regular poor buffering that made it unwatchable.
Gave up, loaded up the Xbox 360 iPlayer, skipped to the place I stopped watching and carried on with the show without any problem whatsoever!

tassiekev said...

Currently watching Now TV, iPlayer, Amazon Prime and Netflix on LG645 Bluray player (hasn't had a Bluray in it yet!!). Rock solid PQ and when used with Unblock US, gives access to all Netflix regions. Seriously considering ditching the Tivo but keeping BB.

Waiting for the 23rd of this month as Fire TV should be delivered which will probably sound the death knell for Tivo completely. Yesterday it (Tivo), recorded three copies of SkySports Sunday Supplement, other recordings get missed completely and PQ is not a patch on Sky HD - the old V+ box was miles better.

Unfortunately, I've still got 10 months to go :(. Rant over, time for a coldie!

Unknown said...

Tivo iPlayer is terrible yet no issues from any other household player of it. Netflix is better and certainly easier to use for my 5 year old but being unable to change the DNS setting (and it being connected to my amp via optical and not HDMI, ARC too unreliable) write it off for me. Hopefully the new look is more than skin deep and addresses some of these issues.

topoff said...

The You Tube Tivo app is the same...buffers all the time, making it unwatchable! Although on my PS3 it works fine - I just don't understand why this happens?

James said...

In fairness, iPlayer SD is fine for me *most* of the time - HD is usually ok during off-peak times and ok for short times during the evenings.

But I agree, it seems to be capacity issues on a part of the VM-broadband network that is obviously TiVo-specific.

Unknown said...

If you have anything other than tivo you can kiss your HD iPlayer goodbye, apparantly BBC are doing away with it in favor of the extra space for 30 days of content >.< https://virginmedia.response.lithium.com/portal/conversation/2986531

Unknown said...

a quick update on the HD only tivo stuff ... it was announced but only on the forums http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/TV/HD-catch-up/td-p/2438139