Embedded video on BBC News
March 13, 2008
It’s been a long time coming but it looks like BBC News Online has finally launched embedded videos. By embedded videos I’m actually talking about inline flash movies as part of a page.
Sphere: Related ContentAppleTV tips for Podcasters
February 20, 2008
I, and I’m sure everybody else with a Apple podcaster account have just received a series of Tips on making my Video Podcast more usable on the new Apple TV.
Sphere: Related ContentiPlayer Downloads on a Mac?
January 17, 2008
BBC New Media head, Ashley Highfield, has hinted in a blog post that we may soon see iPlayer downloads made available on the AppleTV using their new rental model.
The post was a follow up to one he made asking users for tips on how to get content from his PC to the television - so he could watch downloads on the big screen. The follow up post was a response to comments on the original - but also included a small throwaway line in the middle.
He was talking about the AppleTV and its improvements and how this could be the idea solution for getting downloaded video content on to a TV without having to mess about with wires and software.
He then went on to say that “This, coupled with Apple’s (long anticipated) move to a rental model, means that we can look to getting BBC iPlayer onto this platform too, as we should be able to use the rental functionality to allow our programmes to be downloaded, free, but retained for a time window, and then erased, as our rightsholders currently insist.”
Exciting stuff and as the rental model also works on Desktop and laptop machines - it could be a way for the BBC to offer iPlayer downloads for the Mac as well as Windows - I wonder whether this would be through a BBC iPlayer section of iTunes or whether the Beeb would be able to get permission to use Fairplay Rental on iPlayer files.
Sphere: Related ContentTorchwood embed
January 16, 2008
I wrote a post a few days ago looking at a few of the BBC sites that are switching to Flash Video and allow embed - all I could find at that time was music related embed.
Torchwood has flash video but didn’t allow you to embed the clips on another site. Well now they do. Once you accept the terms and conditions it lets you embed video from the vast majority of clips - the exception seems to be the ones where there are other copyright issues.
Although embedding isn’t as clever as the way it works with You Tube - it takes you to another page with a textarea box and a load of code - including div tags and all - not nearly as easy to use but a great leap forward for the BBC.
The clip above is a general Torchwood trailer and this one is a preview of the series ahead.
NOTE: I had to remove the second < /div > tag to get the embed to work without messing up my blog page.
All the clips on bbc.co.uk/torchwood have social links (del.icio.us, digg etal), e-mail links and a link to watch the Real/Windows Media version of the same clip.
I imagine the site will also include the iPlayer stream of each episode as it airs as well - the Doctor Who version did so I don’t see why this shouldn’t.
The embed code they give you is still a little ropey - the video could be a little smaller, or at the very least the border around the edge could be a little bit smaller.
As for the first episode - Kiss, Kiss Bang Bang - it was top SciFi - it was an example of taking humour, dark elements and an improving show concept, mixing it all together and coming up with something pretty special.
I really enjoyed it and thought it was a LOT better than series one (I have all of series one on DVD and enjoyed it a lot) and is set to continue to improve throughout the next twelve episodes.
There’s some really good stuff on TV right now.
Sphere: Related ContentThe missing link
January 16, 2008
I’ve written quite a lot recently about the iPlayer and the other related catch-up services offered by ITV, Channel 4 and to a MUCH lesser extend five and SKY.
These are all great concepts, giving me the chance to watch almost any show broadcast on that channel for up to a week after broadcast - I’ve used the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 offerings quite a lot - mainly when I forget to Sky+ something or when my wife already has two shows lined up for that time.
But these solutions are never really going to hit mainstream - ok so they’re getting really good numbers - more than a million viewers since Christmas watching around 3.5 million shows - but that doesn’t mean it will hit mainstream.
I’ve spoken to a number of people who have said they’ll never use the iPlayer because they don’t want to sit in front of a small screen watching TV when they’ve got a big screen in their living room for doing that on.
I know a number of people that HAVE already used the service - mainly people bored in an office needing a lunchtime fix - after all it is pretty easy to use - select a show and press play! But I think there are more people out there that would like to use a catch-up service but can’t get their head around it.
These people might have WiFi at home (after all most ISPs offer it as a default set-up option now) but don’t have the computer skills to get the streaming services working OR don’t want to watch on a small screen.
Enter the set-top-box idea.
Basically for the iPlayer and all related products to reach mass appeal it needs to be as easy to use as Freeview or Sky+ - it really needs to be on a set-top-box that plugs into the scart socket of the TV and just works when you turn it on.
But I don’t think for a second the BBC, ITV or any broadcaster should think about building their own box - but if BBC, ITV and Channel 4 released an SDK or similar for their catch-up services to hardware manufacturers it would mean we could start to see boxes with iPlayer streaming built in.
On such box is the newly revamped Apple TV - it would fit the bill (even if it is a bit costly) as it already plays streamed video from You Tube, lets you download directly from the iTunes store and has podcast download support.
An iPlayer menu on the Apple TV could give you access to the iPlayer streaming service, could eventually include the iPlayer download service (maybe with Fairplay DRM) and give you access to all the BBC audio podcasts (and video podcasts when they re-launch them).
To me this would be the real missing link - it would mean I could comfortably sit on the sofa and watch anything from the iPlayer without having to get up to my computer and click on a new video everytime one finishes (I already have video from my computer displayed on the TV but it isn’t ideal).
It’s also probably the only thing that would cause me to spend £200 on the device. But it doesn’t have to be limited to the Apple TV - there’s no reason why the XBox 360 shouldn’t support iPlayer streaming or any other third party device that might come out in future.
In fact there’s no reason why a Freeview box manufacturer couldn’t add WiFi and build in an on-demand menu.
Sphere: Related ContentEmbed from the BBC
January 10, 2008
The BBC is starting to adopt Flash as their video platform of choice across a number of sites and this is gradually going to increase over the next few months.
Here is a Reverend and the Makers interview from Later with Jools Holland.
Then there’s a music based clip which is pretty cool. Rio Kiley performing Moneymaker.
I can’t find any other embed examples at the moment - there are other services using flash like Nature of Britain and Torchwood and even the iPlayer but they don’t include an embed link.
UPDATE: Here is one from the Electric Proms of Bloc Party.
It isn’t just the BBC though - Channel 4 and E4 have started offering flash clips of shows (not full shows yet though) and with the clips embed links OF EVERYTHING on E4 - although nothing seems to be embeddable on Channel 4.
With the BBC - it’s only a matter of time before everything is flash (at least all video) and you get a link asking if you want to watch in Real or Windows Media as an alternative. Then the audio will follow suit - some audio files are already flash (Glastonbury interviews) - the Radio Player will go the same way soon-ish.
Sphere: Related ContentiPlayer streaming
December 13, 2007
My blog seems to have been turned into an iPlayer love in lately - or at the very least a BBC screenshot fest. Well I might as well keep it up for a little bit longer.
Yesterday I brought you a screenshot of the iPlayer Radio - the integration of iPlayer with the old BBC Radio Player. Today, the first screenshot I have for you is the Radio button on the iPlayer website itself.
If you look closely at the screenshot above you’ll see that, instead of the usual small picture and download link you get with the iPlayer (well not in Firefox) you’ve got a big picture that fills the box and a Play button.
That’s because this is the Firefox friendly, streaming version of iPlayer - it’s basically using Flash and it’s not bad quality. Here’s another screenshot for you.
You can see above that you get a large flash video window, the network graphic (in this case BBC Two) and a brief bio about that episode and its duration. As this is in Firefox it tells me the download isn’t available. In IE it would give you a big download button.
You don’t need to install anything other than flash to watch shows on the iPlayer - this is how it should have been from the start. It’s now 100 times better than 4OD and ITV.com - I can just use it straight out of the bag.
The streaming is impressive, the flash video is pretty good quality and a good size as well (much larger than You Tube). You get the channel ident first and then the show itself starts. It takes a while to load properly but it must be a fairly large encode.
You can even share iPlayer videos - you can’t embed them but you can post the video to Dig, Facebook et al and you get a link to e-mail it to people or post it on your blog.
This is something the BBC seem to have been doing a lot on music based website lately - for example the Later with Jools Holland site lets you embed and share the link on social sites.
All in all this is a pretty good achievement - it’s what the Beeb should have done from the get go - I think the flash streaming is good enough that they could even just drop the download version. After all - why wait two hours to download something you could watch right now and will be there to watch anytime for up to a week.
The only reason I can see for downloading a show is if I know I won’t get to watch it for two or three weeks - the downloads will be alive for 30 days as long as you don’t start watching them.
It’s stream all the way for me - that’s why until now I prefered the 4OD and ITV.com - they basically let me press play and watch the shows straight away - even if Channel 4 do make me install their crappy software to do it. And the downside to ITV.com is that its Windows Media and requires me to install a codec or something first.
The iPlayer is now a thing of wonder - I go to bbc.co.uk/iplayer, find the show I missed, press play and watch it - that is how it should work, that’s the BBC working well. That’s brilliant simplicity.
UPDATE
Here is another screenshot of iPlayer working at full screen - just for fun.
