I’d read some reports that BBC had released the beta of their iPlayer for the iPhone and iPod Touch so I thought I’d try it out.
The Pros
1. If you go to the iPlayer website via the iPhone or iPod Touch it looks the same as on the computer.
2. If you select “Add to Home Screen” on your iPhone or iPod Touch, a nice iPlayer icon gets installed. I’ve put mine next to the YouTube one.
3. The picture quality is pretty good – probably slightly better than the best YouTube videos. However, I did notice some compression artifacts.
The Cons
1. While programs such as Top Gear were available, others such as Click and Ashes to Ashes were not. That is probably because the iPlayer is still in beta and therefore not everything has been converted to an iPhone/iPod Touch compatible version.
2. It is Wi-Fi only, so you cannot access the content while on the move over the Edge network. Hopefully, Apple will release a 3.5G iPhone in the summer and that problem will go away. In the meantime, I’ve read that people will be able to access the iPlayer content via the UK’s Cloud network, so people will have access to the content in pubs, airports, restaurants, hotels, etc.
3. It is only available for people with UK IP addresses. However, seeing as it is people in the UK who are effectively paying for the iPlayer’s development (through paying the annual TV licence fee) and the BBC makes money by selling its content to other countries, I can appreciate why this is the case.
Overall, I am happy with the iPlayer’s development to date. Mac users just need the BBC to resolve the issue of not giving them the ability to download the iPlayer content (Mac users can only watch it via a stream). Once that is resolved, I will be extremely satisfied with the BBC iPlayer.
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