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Can BBC iPlayer be scheduled

HPsauce
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Registered: ‎02-02-2008

Can BBC iPlayer be scheduled

OK, so I got sucked in by all the advertising and decided to look at the BBC iPlayer....
Decided to try and download a program that I missed, so started by installing the iPlayer - so far so good.
Got into the download manager and requested the program, and it just started downloading immediately. No options to do it at off-peak times!  Embarrassed I'm on BBYW2 so overnight downloads would be good.
Had a rummage in the help and FAQ's - nothing relevant. So, have I missed something or is that it, it just downloads when it wants and you can't control it?
Also, I paused the download, but something was still very active on my internet link. So I closed the download manager; activity continued though I had nothing apparently running... any ideas anyone?  Crazy
Finally I uninstalled the whole thing and it went quiet.
13 REPLIES 13
pierre_pierre
Grafter
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Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Can BBC iPlayer be scheduled

yes the bloody thing is P2P and keeps feeding over people over your broadband, even when you stop downloading  - its a complete and utter scam
cp:red Please do not try to avoid the word censor. link:rules mod:end
Mr_Stan
Newbie
Posts: 1
Registered: ‎15-04-2007

Re: Can BBC iPlayer be scheduled

Look in your Administrative Tools/Service application for a Service called KService. Stop it and change it to Manual and the uploads should cease. You must remember to start it before you use IPlayer.
I think the ISP's have having considerable problems with the load contributed by IPlayer which the BBC seems to be denying. However Ashley Highfield the person currently responsible of the BBCi player is leaving the BBC and in his leaving announcement the BBC has proudly stated that the very successful BBC iPlayer received 42 million programme requests in its first three months.
No wonder the ISP's are having problems!
itsme
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Re: Can BBC iPlayer be scheduled

Quote from: pierre_pierre
yes the bloody thing is P2P and keeps feeding over people over your broadband, even when you stop downloading  - its a complete and utter scam

Why is it a scam? The BBC has made it clear it's use P2P and the whole basis of P2P is that you feed other users. The same system used by Channel 4 so not all the increase in traffic is down to iPlayer.
cp:red Swear word in quoted text. mod:end
HPsauce
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Re: Can BBC iPlayer be scheduled

Quote from: itsme
The BBC has made it clear it's use P2P

Not that clear, to put it mildly.  Angry
Before I tried it I had a look round the descriptive material associated with installing it and nowhere, to my seasoned IT eye, was it obvious that it was going to start serving others from my PC.  Lips_are_sealed
pierre_pierre
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Re: Can BBC iPlayer be scheduled

and Kontike is not just p2p, it keeps the link open long after you have finished your down load, 24 hrs if possible
itsme
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Re: Can BBC iPlayer be scheduled

Quote from: HPsauce
[..... was it obvious that it was going to start serving others from my PC.  Lips_are_sealed

But that what P2P does Roll_eyes See this BBC link about P2P
HPsauce
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Re: Can BBC iPlayer be scheduled

I know what P2P does!
alanf
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Re: Can BBC iPlayer be scheduled

The Ts&Cs for the iPlayer state
"14. So that you can download BBC Content the BBC has provided you with the Download Manager. When you install the Download Manager you will also install peer-to-peer file sharing software from Verisign Inc. This software has a file share feature that enables other BBC iPlayer users to download BBC Content through your personal computer (using part of your upload bandwidth), via a secure link, to their personal computers." That seems clear enough.
I am sure that somewhere during the software installation one is asked to confirm that one agrees to these Ts&Cs.
Optionally file sharing can be turned off when you are not using the download manager.
http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/download_programmes/manage_p2p
itsme
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Re: Can BBC iPlayer be scheduled

Quote from: HPsauce
was it obvious that it was going to start serving others from my PC.  Lips_are_sealed

I beg to differ from your statement above.
HPsauce
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Re: Can BBC iPlayer be scheduled

Quote from: alanf
Optionally file sharing can be turned off when you are not using the download manager.
http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/download_programmes/manage_p2p

That's useful; I looked for something like that but didn't find it. thanks. Wink
As for being in T's & C's, I think P2P is sufficiently significant that it should be explicitly drawn to people's attention, not just buried away in stuff that most don't read let alone understand.  Angry
itsme
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Re: Can BBC iPlayer be scheduled

My rule of thumb over many years, if software has to be downloaded to be able to download files from the internet this must be P2P.  So in the past I have not done this and the Channel 4 and the iPlayer are the first P2P systems that I have used.
I have noticed the sharing normally happens when you have download the program and up to the time that you switch the PC off. I never noticed and significant BB traffic when I switch my PC on a few hours later. May have just been lucky with the 20 or so progams that I have downloaded in the last 6 months or so. I was on the iPlayer beta trial.
God
Grafter
Posts: 1,112
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Can BBC iPlayer be scheduled

I tend to start stuff off at midnight and then kill the service in the morning but I did find a way without staying up but it is painful....
*************************************
Select all the programs you want to download.
Pause all the downloads
Schedule you PC to start just after midnight
Schedule iplayer to start a while after midnight
Shutdown your PC...
When your PC restarts and iplayer starts all the paused downloads start again...
Either schedule a shutdown for before 8am or turn it off yourself.
*************************************
It would of course be better if the BBC put some decent controls on the software! I did email them suggesting it and got back a standard reply saying the suggestion was going to the dev team yada yada yada.
HPsauce
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Re: Can BBC iPlayer be scheduled

Well an interesting footnote to this.
Yesterday I installed iPlayer again and this time the installation dialogue was TOTALLY DIFFERENT.
There were reasonable warnings about peer-to-peer and what this meant, and the options to turn it off (to some extent) were accessible and obvious.
So, I guess they've heeded some complaints and revised it since my first installation.... Roll_eyes
BUT it doesn't turn off as advertised.  Angry
I set it to only share while the download manager was in use, but I found that when you turn it off the background Kservice was still running and happily sharing.  Embarrassed
Sneaky or just a bug?
Easy enough to stop or kill if you know how, but if you don't it's eating into your useage quota......