Warning: BBC iplayer.

I downloaded the BBC iplayer today so that I could watch the Brian Blessed edition of Have I Got News For You.

 

Once it finally installed (two attempts) I managed to get it running after several tries and downloaded the episode with no problem.

 

Then I notice that my firewall is blocking all kinds of events!

 

I do a bit of research and discover kservice.exe taking up a lot of processing time. It turns out to be a bit of P2P software called Kontiki that's also installed as part of iplayer. I don't recall reading that it would be installed but maybe it was in the small print.

 

Anyways, I don't like P2P stuff so deleted iplayer (with some hassle) but then saw that Kontiki was still there and there appeared to be no means of uninstalling it. Nothing in add/remove, no uninstall option anywhere.

 

A quick Google turned up kclean.exe which sort of worked. It got rid of most of Kontiki but not all.

 

Just to be doubly sure I did a system restore to yesterday and all is well.

 

"but what of the download, Martin? Did you lose that?"

 

Nope. Dumped it onto a USB stick and can now watch it in WMV format without iplayer.

I didn't realise there was a download iPlayer, I just watched it in Safari, no problems at all aside from the split sides I now have having watched mr Blessed in full stride

 

Good heads up though thanks.

 

Mike

I've never DL'd it myself, and I'm rather glad I didn't (Considering I like to be aware of my bandwith for my non-DRM 'activities')

 

I found this after a bit of googling after reading your post : http://strix.org.uk/posts/The-BBC-iPlayer

 

Scroll down to the 'Kicking the Tires' section... That should explain everything...

bbc iplayer uses p2p technology thats why it was installed and it does say about it. Anyway this is worth a read

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7336940.stm

The original idea behind iPlayer was P2P based so that it reduced traffic out of the ISP networks. Since most people use the online player this function doesnt come into play which is why the ISPs are up in arms at the impact its had on their networks.

 

The solution before this was distributed nodes with high bandwidth (multiple GB circuits) in key locations around europe and america, the idea was great but the timing was wrong, broadband will still very new and sadly no one had the ability to watch the streams at a decent rate.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7336940.stm

 

I remember reading that, made me think, if they're getting the ISP's to pay, then it'll get back to the license holder in bigger ISP costs, the way they're doing it now could have the same impact (For those not on unlimited...)...

 

Couldn't they just limit their online presence to UK people only? I'm sure that'd drop their bandwith by a long way? What benefit do they get from broadcasting to the whole world, when the people who pay for it are in the UK? (Sorry to our friends abroad, but I think it's a valid point)...

I also watched the blessed Blessed using Safari, and after it loaded in the browser, it was fine.

 

Extremely funny is was too

Couldn't they just limit their online presence to UK people only?

I thought it already was. When I tried to access iPlayer from Australia I got an error message saying that it could only be accessed from UK. The excuse given was that it was restricted due to BBC licensing agreements worldwide.

here u go lads!

 

Have I Got News For You - UNCUT - Brian Blessed

 

Part1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-nbKHO64To

 

Part2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWQFI0UlqOg

 

Part3:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4a0sS3ARV8

I really like the idea of the BBC's iPlayer, although I only watch the streamed version as I knew about the P2P stuff.

 

If you want full versions of UK television programs, you can also use http://www.uknova.com. The episode of 'Have I Got News for You' from last night was uploaded by 10:30pm.

 

Steve