BBC iPlayer Desktop - Auntie, Why Do You Tease Me So?

WHEN the BBC first launched its iPlayer software - on Microsoft platforms only - I was among those who welcomed it, but felt the exclusion of Linux and Mac users needed addressing urgently.

'It's coming', said the BBC, 'just be patient'.

Hmm, not my strongest point, patience - especially when I'm paying the same licence fee as the guy next door who's able to watch programmes via iPlayer on his Microsoft-based PC.

OK, I (and my fellow Linux and Mac fans) was able to view BBC TV and radio programmes through the Adobe Flash-based online iPlayer - but it's not the same as having them on your HDD for viewing when you want.

Well, it has been a long time coming but this week the BBC unveiled its iPlayer Desktop, a Linux and Mac version of the desktop library software which Windows users have been enjoying for months.

It's beta software and is only available if you register as a BBC iPlayer Labs tester, which I immediately did.

Before I could download and install iPlayer Desktop onto my Ubuntu 8.10-based #!CrunchBang Linux desktop, I was told I required the latest version of the Adobe Flash Player - I had adobe-flashplugin 10.0.12.36-1hardy1 from the Ubuntu repository installed.

So I followed the link to the Adobe website and downloaded the .deb version for Ubuntu Linux systems (the other major Linux package formats are also available), then installed it with a [sudo dpkg --install filename] command.Dpkg reported it had replaced the old version with version 10.0.15.3-1hardy1, so I was good to go, and back I went to the iPlayer website where the option to install iPlayer Desktop was now available to me.

From here on in things went well - check out the screenshots for what to expect. You get the option to have an iPlayer icon dropped onto your desktop which, given that my #!CrunchBang Linux is running the Openbox window manager, I thought might be useful. There's also a brief Adobe Air licence agreement to deal with.A quick reboot later (just in case), I launched the iPlayer Desktop and selected the option to 'Click Here To Start Downloading From BBC iPlayer' - and was taken to the iPlayer home page. Here, I selected an edition of Panorama (not many programmes seemed to have the 'Download' option) and... nothing happened.

No download, no error messages, nothing. Hmm, beta software - you gotta love it, eh? So I found another programme and tried again - same result.

I looked again at the iPlayer Desktop application and noticed in the top right corner a red light and the word 'Offline', but couldn't find any option to make it go 'online'. Nor am I able to save any of the Settings (there aren't that many anyway).

I've rebooted several times and tried on all the programmes which have the download option, and so far none has worked, which is hugely disappointing - even for beta software.

Being a good beta tester, I dutifully filed my bug report and, while doing so, noticed a large number of messages posted on the BBC messageboard from people running Ubuntu systems and reporting exactly the same problems as me.

Please, oh please, Auntie Beeb - fix this quickly. I've waited long enough and, although I've moaned a bit, I've actually been a good boy.

Oh, and in case anyone thinks these problems might have something to do with Adobe's Flash Player, here's a post-install screenshot of an iPlayer programme playing fine through the Firefox plugin..

UPDATE
I tried the same iPlayer Desktop install procedure on PC/OS 2009 (with the XFCE desktop environment) which is based on Ubuntu 8.10 and therefore should, according to the BBC, work fine. It didn't - I got exactly the same result.

However, following the very helpful comment from Juergen (read it below), I also tried on an old machine with Linux Mint 5, running the GNOME desktop environment, and this time the installation worked fine!

Here's a screenshot to prove it:I ought to feel pleased - I've got iPlayer working on Linux after months and months of waiting, so why don't I?

Well, because #!CrunchBang Linux is currently the distribution I use and enjoy the most - and it runs the Openbox window manager, which I also love because of its speed and configuration options - but as Juergen points out, iPlayer Desktop will only work with GNOME and KDE!

Aargh!