No more need for recorders! (BBC iPlayer)

Member Name: mousedadrummer

Product:	BBC iPlayer
Date:	03/08/09 (45 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Usefull, fast loading

Disadvantages: Can sometimes not load well at high traffic times

BBC iplayer is one of the best new services from the BBC in a long time. It is basically an on demand online media player, and lets you view previously broadcast BBC programs aswell as listening to previous radio programs. It has the full past 7 days of programs (apart from emissions such as films and news) aswell as having entire series of programs. This is very useful, I hardly bother to set my PVR to record programs anymore, because I know I can just log on to iplayer and watch them anytime I want.

The videos load extremly quickly (even on just an average internet connection), it usually starts playing as soon as you press play and the quality is fantastic. There are some programs that can be viewed in HD, which looks great on my laptop screen, but does require a faster internet connection and computer, as mine was very stuttery during playback. The website is very easy to use and show the most popular programs on the home page, aswell as the previous programs you have watched. If you watch half a program, then exit the site, it will remember how much you have watched and if you play the program again it will start from exactly the point you left it. You can download the programs to watch on your hard drive, but for this you need to download a special media player, and the programs are only available once downloaded for about 30 days. There is also an option to download a program to you portable media player on some programs, but it only works on certain devices such as archos players and unfortuatly not ipod touch or iphone.

You can also stream live programs, which is usefull if you are away from a tv. The quality is not a good, but still very much watchable. The stream starts playing straight away so there is no preloading or buffering and the stream is only 5 or so seconds behind what you would ne seeing on a tv.

Overall BBC iplayer is a fantastically useful tool and much better than on demand services from itv and channel four as it has no adverts and seems to be better quality.

Summary: A brilliant service from the BBC

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