iPlayer HD now available
Missed the Dr. Who holiday special? It, and other BBC programmes will be available as previously rumoured in high definition via BBC's iPlayer, now featuring new adaptive bitrate technology plus a new BBC iPlayer Desktop and a cross platform download manager for access under Windows, OS X and Linux. The only bad news? All that HD doesn't seem to extend to set-top boxes or the PS3 just yet, you'll have to try it out for yourself under boxee to find out if that works.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
riverside_guy @ Apr 16th 2009 11:13AM
Not for Macs...
Joe @ Apr 16th 2009 12:03PM
You can only watch it in the UK.
Mark M @ Apr 17th 2009 1:58AM
ummm... WTF??!!?? The "only bad news" is that the boneheads at the BBC haven't figured out a system for residents outside the UK to pay a fee to watch the broadcasts; there is a ton of stuff that I'd like to check out. Not to mention Channel 4's "4oD Catch-Up" service...
Adam @ Apr 17th 2009 8:36AM
I'm Sorry, but our Licence Fee of £145 a year just to own a TV pays for this stuff, not i;m sure that if everyone in America was asked to pay $200 a year just for the privelege of owning a TV there would be uproar. And anyway, what about us? We're not able to watch ABC, NBC, or FOX streaming online, shows like Lost, Better Off Ted and others which the big corporations want to keep for themselves are now allowed to be broadcast online over here.
Now lets see.... The Pirate Bay trail may be over, but it's still there...
Rhys @ Apr 17th 2009 8:47AM
As soon as we can have Hulu...
Also, Channel 4 =/= BBC...
Glennisbest @ Apr 17th 2009 11:00AM
Not available to me yet. A day later and I'm still waiting. Anyone got iPlayer HD yet?
According to Cnet the HD category appeared momentarily yesterday without any content available to play or download from it and then disappeared again without any word from the BBC. Maybe they thought it was a bad idea after all. Maybe the ISP's have had a word with the BBC over data usage.
Maybe ISP's will have to take the cap off their 'fair usage' policies and be more transparent about how they advertise their 'unlimited*' broadband packages. Cause people like me will be hooking up the computer and the flatscreen to watch BBC HD iPlayer and that's going to use a lot of gigabytes.
joeryannixon @ Apr 20th 2009 12:21PM
The HD category is now up - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/tv/bbc_hd
Also, it works on Macs, both for streaming and downloads, and has done for a while now (although not in HD)