The Return of BBC iPlayer

I blogged earlier on about the problems with BBC's iPlayer software. Apart from trying to sound cool by sticking an i at the start of the softwares name, the main problem with the player was that it was only available for Windows users thanks to their use of Microsofts own DRM solution.

After a farcical display by the BBC in which they claimed that there were hardly any Linux users using their site, then that there were lots of Linux users, Auntie Beeb announced that there would be a flash based player coming out that Linux and Mac users would be able to use to view their programs. Hooray!

Get used to this error - you'll be seeing a lot of it

So now we can all view the BBC's catch up service right? Well, not quite. Yes, you can watch it, but whether you'll actually get to the end of the program in a single viewing is anyones guess.

I've tried this from a couple of locations, using Konqueror, Firefox, and finally IE on Windows from a different location and still get the same errors. This is a shame because if the damn thing was reliable it would be a really good service. As it stands at the moment it's a poor apology for their earlier lack of support.