[mythtv] BBC iPlayer Plugin release / MythStreams

[Jerome Hettich]

Richard Ablewhite wrote:
> Just a quick note to say ive finished the first version of a plugin
> for the BBC iPlayer. It uses the streams provided for the iPhone that
> the beeb let loose last Fri. The plugin is based heavily on the Movie
> Times plugin but will develop in time.
>
> Content is downloaded and transcoded in mencoder to an mpeg2 and then
> that file played in myth. This is wasteful but I had problems getting
> the streaming file to play directly in myth (and strangely enough
> ffplayer/ffmpeg). Will look into it eventually.
>
>   
This looks interesting and will certainly be giving this a try thank you 
very much for sharing.

I had written a quick perl script which will download the mp4 stream the 
BBC have recently made available over http on their iPlayer site. As 
well as saving the file it also parses the meta info for the programme 
from the BBC iPlayer site and can (if you tell it to) insert a record 
into the database for mythvideo with the meta data and cover image etc.

"Making the unmissiable, unmissable" if you are prepared to watch 
480x272 videos :)

Available at:
http://www.hettich.org.uk/jerome/MythTV/bbc_iplayer
see --help for details

Haven't tested it much yet but I have downloaded a couple of programmes 
I forgot to set recording schedules for with it succesfully. Will only 
work in the UK though as I believe as BBC restrict access to the UK.

You say on your plugin you have to use a useragent containing IPhone but 
I seemed to find no user agent spoofing was required - just following 
the BBCs 302 redirect with the cookie they provide.

Jerome