Methods for unrestricted BBC iPlayer programme downloading, so-far

This article outlines current methods for creating unrestricted copies of BBC iPlayer programs.

Here I aim to outline current solutions, allowing the relatively uninformed user get a grasp of the current situation and determine their best option


This area is subject to frequent cat-and-mouse games between the BBC and developers so these methods cannot be guaranteed to work in the future.
In order to follow the latest developments and methods for downloading unrestricted versions of BBC iPlayer programs visit the Beebhack Wiki.

http://beebhack.wikia.com/wiki/Beebhack

There are currently no methods for downloading videos played using the BBC iPlayer style player and hosted on Non-BBC iPlayer pages.

Outline of Techniques
There are currently two methods of obtaining unrestricted copies of programs from the BBC iPlayer,

• Method A; Using the 'BBC iPlayer Download Manager' to download the program from the BBC iPlayer site, and then using DRM removal tools on the downloaded files to create an unrestricted '.wmv' file.


• Method B; Using any of various scripts and programs to trick the BBC iPlayer website into believing the user is accessing the site with an Apple 'iPhone' or 'iPod Touch'. The BBC iPlayer site then passes the user a '.mov' file.

Comparison of techniques

	Resulting File Quality	Availablilty on iPlayer programs	Advantages	Disadvantages	OS
Method A	(High) 672×544 1300kbps to 2700kbps .wmv WMV3	Available on all programs with download option.	Available on the majority of programs. Good quality result.	OS specific (Windows)	Windows, possibly XP only. Requires Windows Media Player
Method B	(High) 480×272 1536 kbps .mov mp4a	Available on most programs, although usually not immediately after release	Fast, some versions are easy to use	Many updates due to alterations by BBC, so there can be periods without a working version	OS non-specific

Further Information on techniques

Method A - There is not currently a neat all-in-one user interface (GUI) available to do this simply. Though the following process is reliable and although contains many steps should require little expertise.
See http://clickdotshout.blogspot.com/...ded-bbc-iplayer.html for tutorial.

Method B - This method involves the BBC iPlayer website believing that the users computer is either an Apple iPhone or iPod Touch. The iPlayer site then sends a .mov file of the program to the user.
Visit Paul Battley's site and the Beebhack Wiki for the latest updates on this method.

http://po-ru.com		http://beebhack.wikia.com/wiki/Beebhack

DRM Removal from downloaded BBC iPlayer Programs

Method for removing DRM from programs downloaded using the BBC iPlayer Download Manager,

Requires Windows Media Player, and possibly may only work with Windows XP

Before DRM is removed, playback of downloaded episode is only available through certain media players supporting DRM. In the case of the BBC iPlayer the DRM limits the number of playbacks and the life-span of the file.

DRM protected BBC iPlayer wmv file played through Portable VLC ^[1]

Once DRM protection is removed, the .wmv file plays with out any restrictions, acting as any other .wmv file. The file no longer expires and is not restricted to media players supporting DRM.


BBC iPlayer wmv file with DRM removed played through Portable VLC ^[1]

To download the BBC iPlayer .wmv file for a program, visit the BBC iPlayer page, find your program and find the program's download link.

From iPlayer program page

If not already installed you may be prompted to install the 'BBC iPlayer Download Manager'. The download manager should then launch and then display the status of the show as it downloads.

BBC iPlayer Download Manager^[2]
Whilst the show downloads, open the settings of the download manager
BBC iPlayer Download Manager ^[2]

Navigate your way to the downloaded program storage location,

Download Manager Settings Tab
And open the folder path given, the default location for the programs is

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\My Videos\My Deliveries\iplayer_live
Find the video files, they will be wmv files similar to
Download the DRM removal tools ^[3], this is a zip file of 'DRMDbg', 'FreeMe2' and 'FreeMe2 Helper'. Decompress the contents of the zip file into an new folder.



Contents of 'DRM Removal.zip' ^[3]
Run 'drmdbg.exe', this will create the file 'drmdbg.ini' and the folder DRM2

Contents of DRM Removal
Copy the DRM protected .wmv video file from the download manager folder into to the 'DRM Removal' folder.

Contents of DRM Removal
Run 'drmdbg.exe', which will launch the following window and 'Windows Media Player'

drmdbg before Multi Scan
Clicking Multi Scan will then start the video playing in Windows Media Player. Allow the video to play until text similar to the following appears in the bottom text box of 'drmdbg',


Copy the portion between <SID> and </SID> tags.
Go back to the DRM Removal folder and drag and drop the DRM protected video file onto 'fmhelper2.exe'.
Press enter after prompted for IBX key. when prompted for the SID Key use right click to paste the key.

fm2helper
Press enter, the progress bar should then complete.
fm2helper
The DRM free version will then appear in the 'DRM Removal' folder, with the prefix 'Freed-'

^[1]Portable VLC http://portableapps.com/apps/music_video/vlc_portable
^[2]BBC iPlayer Download Manager http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/BBC-iPlayer_Setup.exe
^[3]DRM Removal tools http://www.filedropper.com/drmremoval

Wikpedia Watchlist RSS Feed Tutorial

Step-by-step guide to getting an RSS feed for your Wikipedia watchlist.
A version of this page is also available on my Wikipedia User Page

Most of the solutions for producing an RSS feed for your Wikipedia watchlist involve ruby and python scripts which either require allowing another server to use your password or hosting the script on your own server. So I present to you a 'simple' solution for producing an RSS feed from your watchlist using public watchlists.

This may be a bit tedious for users with large watchlists Explanation

Using a public watchlist removes the requirement of authentication (login) to view a watchlist allowing an RSS feed to be used.

Public watchlists are designed to be used for large projects spanning many pages, to allow users to follow updates on pages within the scope of that project.

But a user may set-up a public watchlist containing their own select pages to be followed, and an RSS feed to be taken from this.

Setting up an item list

Create a User sub-page (How to create a subpage)

Using the {{tl|pwli|}} tags create a list of items for your watchlist in you user pages.

• Use {{pwli|Page Name}} to add a page to the watchlist
• Use {{plimg|Image Name}} to add an image to the watchlist

This creates a public watchlist.

Example
In order to watch the pages

• RSS
• Lanfranc Cigala

• Hamilton (town), New York
• Image of a zonky

A user page was created at User:Lastsal/Watchlist RSS/Example

And the following text used to create the list part of the watchlist,

{{pwli|RSS}}
{{pwli|Lanfranc Cigala}}
{{pwli|Hamilton (town), New York}}


We now have a have a list of pages to watch and can link to them as a watchlist.

Creating a public watchlist

These items must now be linked to order to set them up as a public watchlist. On any User page add the following text,

{{public watchlist|Watchlist Location}}

Example


The code
{{public watchlist|User:Lastsal/Watchlist RSS/Example}}

creates the template box below on the page,



Finding your public watchlist RSS feed

Open the link from the template box labelled 'Check the watchlist' which will take you to a page named 'Changes Related to...', which should look very similar to a normal User watchlist,

Example

User:Lastsal/Watchlist RSS/Example
Your browser may pick up the RSS feed for this page automatically, Firefox shows the RSS icon at the end of the address bar, and click on it to get your feed.

For the direct link to the feed from the page locate the 'toolbox' at the lower left-hand side of the page, and choose either the RSS option



Et voila, there you have your own simple watchlist RSS feed,

The RSS feed

The RSS feed produced tends to look very pretty and be quite useful, follow the link for a screenshot of a how a public watchlist item in Google's RSS reader Google Reader and in Newsgator,

Feed item in Google Reader



Feed item in Newsgator



It is also possible to receive your watchlist as emails, there are quite a few services which 'convert' RSS feeds into emails. But I recommend RSSFWD since it also allows you to combine all the updates into daily emails and also recieve them all in one Gmail conversation.

Issues

By the nature of the solution your watchlist is not longer private, though if hidden away on a new unlinked user page it is unlikely to be found.

Users with extensive watchlists will require some effort to transfer their current watchlist items to a new public watchlists.

Wishlist

• Option of RSS feeds for User watchlists, and the choice to remove the authentication from the feeds.
• A tool to transfer a user's current watchlist to a public watchlist.
• A tool to have an 'add to public watchlist' button, to save manual updating of additions.

Note

After getting hooked on Wikipedia I needed an RSS feed for my watchlist in order to condense my online time using an RSS reader.

Like many others I did a Google search and came upon the few scripts which will log-on for you and create an RSS feed. So I spent a couple days of searching and head scratching for the simpler solution.

After I came up with this idea I did some searching to see if anybody had thought of this before. A quick Google search came up with this Signpost report which alluded to this method,

Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-12-10/Technology report

and this post which thought of this solution before it became available.

http://lists.wikia.com/pipermail/wikia-l/2007-November/002177.html

Thanks

As far as I can see most of the work to set up the Public Watchlists was done by Wikipedia user Antaeus Feldspar .

Review of Imageshack's http torrent download service

A review, tutorial and pondering of Imageshack's beta Torrent Service, allowing http downloads of torrents from ImageShack's servers.

I have previously had little use of torrents. Having only ever used Bitlet to download torrents through a web-applet. Imageshack have come up with what I see as a very simple and well thought out tool for torrents.

- http://tor.imageshack.us/tor/
Imageshack's torrent service allows you to download a torrent onto the Imageshack servers and then download the file from Imageshack's servers as a normal HTTP file. This service has many advantages and merits to making torrents easier to download and use. At the moment you must first sign up for a free account in order to use this feature.

One of the great advantages of this service is that the user can have Imageshack start downloading a torrent, then the user can leave the page, disconnect from the internet or turn off their computer. Once the torrent has downloaded to Imageshack's servers the user can download at nice fast speeds, not reliant on torrent peers.

This ability to have the servers do work for you and then you come back later to pick up the results is very useful and hopefully more free services will take previously computer-based tasks and do them on their servers for the user, allowing the user to collect the results from any computer with an internet connection.

Features

• Free
• Ability to select individual files from a torrent to download
• 5GB online storage, and 10GB bandwidth
• Bandwidth resets monthly

The free account gives you 5GB of storage space and 10GB of bandwidth, with the option to purchase up to 100GB of disk space and 200GB of bandwidth. Though, only bandwidth is cumulative, with the ability to free up disk space by removing files which you have finished with. Usefully bandwidth is also reset every month.

The top of the page gives you a quick recap of your current usage of your monthly usage limits



Whilst giving deserved praise TorrentFreak were also curious as to Imageshack's motives in offering such a controversial service. Jack Levin, the founder of Imageshack, replied;

“We think its going to be a great service for users, especially in the light of ISPs ratelimiting torrent traffic.There is a lot of free and legal torrents out there, that people should have easy access to too. We have the capacity to do it, and the world needs it.”
"We will not look at what you download and simply provide you, an account, with bandwidth and space. What you do with it is up to you. The DMCA applies, so, if we get reports from copyright owners to take down content, we will comply.”
Jack Levin in TorrentFreak's article on Imageshacks torrent service

Using Imageshack's torrent service to download a torrent

1. Use a torrent search engine to find the torrent which you wish to download, and locate the '.torrent' link

2. Go to http://tor.imageshack.us/tor/ (free account required.) Paste the URL of the torrent file (or upload) and press 'GO'



If all is correct, a new torrent will appear at the bottom of the page



Open the 'START' link and the page should eventually refresh and the torrent's status changes.



The status link, also gives you a quick round up of all the details for the torrents progress



Once Imageshack have successfully downloaded the torrent to their server you will be able to download the file as per any normal directly hosted file.

3.



Opening the 'DOWNLOAD' link will allow you to either download a handy '.zip' file of all the files inside the torrent,



Or there is the useful option of selecting individual files from the torrent to download.

Advantages

• Free
• No need to have your computer on
• Simple clean interface
• Allows you to seed
• Ability to download individual files from inside the torrent.

Disadvantages

• Other than the wishlist features I can think of no disadvatages.

Wishlist

• Email notification of download completion
• RSS feed for account, notifying when downloads are complete and seed reaches certain values
• Seed value shown on front-page, saves clicking through 'STATUS'
• Auto delete option once torrent seed has reached a set value,/li>

Verdict

The ability to download torrents from any computer with an internet connection and only as a normal http file makes using torrrents very flexible and simple. This service has been created very well, with lots of useful features working well together. The clean interface, simple and reliable features with a useful front page will prove a big bonus for users.

Though only as long as these advantages remain so and the service does not become confusing and cluttered with irrelevant features.
Hopefully this is the start of internet servers allowing users to perform previously lengthy computer-based tasks.
Imageshack have suceeded in creating a very worthy tool, which is likely to be reflected for Imageshack in a large user base.