In my own experience, there have never been many particularly gripping video podcasts available from iTunes. So what if there was a way of being able to watch prime time television on the go? (like video podcasts on iPods). My aim is to discover how accessible BBC iPlayer content is to mobile devices.
The BBC iPlayer (Beta) states that I will be able download and catch up on the last 7 days of BBC Television on my computer. I thought I would see how flexible and portable the downloaded content is.
I thought I would see if I can download and watch a BBC television programme (from the last seven days) on a mobile device. (In this case an HTC P4550 'Kaiser' mobile pocket PC device.)
The BBC iPlayer still bears the "Beta" stamp (a get out jail card if any major problems are found) but the final stages of testing are underway and I don't think it will be too long before the first full version is released along with a marketing campaign across all forms of media imaginable!
I visited http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayerbeta/ to get started. Here I was required to register for the BBC iPlayer Beta program and wait for my login details to be sent to me.
After five minutes I found myself becoming drawn in by the attractive, simplistic interface presented to me in screen shots of the iPlayer application.
While I waited for my login details to arrive I began to read the "Guide to Joining the iPlayer Beta".
Having read this, I learnt that as soon as I logged in, I would be able to access the BBC iPlayer library and choose the programme I wish to download and watch.
This programme would then be downloaded to the BBC iPlayer Library - this is the BBC's equivalent of iTunes. A software application that organises and stores downloaded content on your PC.
Several days later I received my login details for the BBC iPlayer Beta program.
So I returned to the BBC iPLayer website and logged in....I arrived at the home page and I was immediately disturbed. Dance X and Dance Xtra were two of the six programmes listed on the welcome page, that's more my wife's thing - not mine. I continued to the Categories page to begin my quest to find something actually worth watching!
Programmes can be found on the BBC iPlayer library by browsing by day (each of the last seven), by category (sport, news etc), by channel (BBC1, BBC2, BBC3 and BBC4), a full A-Z listing and a search facility is available too.
I found some popular BBC programmes like Little Britain, Doctor Who, Heroes and Hyperdrive and began downloading them. (as shown below).
In under 20 minutes all my programmes had downloaded.
I inspected the iPlayer downloads folder and saw 4 new "wmv" files (Windows Media Video). This lead me to believe that it would, in fact, be possible to play them on a mobile device running windows mobile.
The files were as shown below...
Now I just had to get the content off my PC and onto my mobile device (HTC P4550 - which runs on Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional) (full list of features available at http://www.devicewire.co.uk/HTC-P4550)
To get the wmv files from my PC to my mobile device I installed Microsoft Active Sync 4.5 (available here http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/activesync/default.mspx)
Next I connected my HTC P4550 to my PC via a USB cable, opened Microsoft Active Sync and entered the synchronisation options menu.
I had a choice of what to synchronise. For the purpose of transferring wmv files I could select either "Files" or "Media".
The "Media" option would be desired only if you intend on integrating iPlayer content with your existing Windows Media Player library.
For simplicity, I only selected "Files". This option creates a folder on the PCs desktop, in which I copied the files I wanted to copy to the mobile device.
I copied one of the wmv files downloaded from BBC iPlayer and put it into the synchronisation folder and ActiveSync began copying the file to the mobile device (HTC P4550).
That's It! - It worked! - Now, any file I download from the BBC iPlayer library can be watched on my mobile device using Windows Media Player.(you must have the iPlayer license on your mobile device).
Here's a picture of the HTC P4550 playing Little Britain, downloaded from the BBC iPlayer library.
To summarise, there is an increasing number of methods in which to download media. Whether it be BBC's iPlayer, 4OD (Channel 4's On Demand service) or iTunes.
I have recently discovered that the BBC plan to make this process much simpler by releasing a mobile edition of the iPlayer application. This would enable customers (TV licence payers) to download directly to mobile devices.
There are even rumours that the BBC may be ready to introduce the iPlayer as an application for Apple's iPhone in the not too distant future... The following sources are just a few of many that support this: