BBC iPlayer - running in Palemoon

[Mike Walsh]

Evening, all.

I've had a nice surprise today. Many of you are probably aware of this, but I was only informed by my sister this afternoon, so....

I've had a NetFlix a/c for 2-3 years. NetFlix, of course, requires the Widevine modules, needs either FF-Quantum or one of the Chromium 'clones', and requires a paid subscription to access content. The BBC's iPlayer - for accessing 'on-demand' TV - only wants a free registration, along with confirmation that you have a TV licence; doesn't need WideVine, and will play in any browser that supports HTML5.

(I always thought iPlayer was subscription-only as well, but, not so....)

The upshot of all this is that it will happily run in Palemoon, which I'm quite chuffed about. And the astonishing thing is, it will even - mostly! - play on ye anciente P4 Dell lappie. It's a bit hesitant, and stops for several seconds every wee while to let the buffering play 'catch-up'.....but it does play.

NetFlix, on the other hand, is a complete 'no-go' on the Dell. Oh, Iron 69 will run in DPup 'Stretch (dual-booting with Slacko 560), but it takes the hardware all its time simply to do that, never mind try to access NetFlix, and then run all the decoding crap through WideVine. Kills it stone dead.....and that's with the player settings dialled down as basic as they'll go.

Which means that anywhere that current-ish Palemoon will run, there will iPlayer run as well. Even Racy, and darry19662018's 'upgraded' Pup 4.3.1.....called, appropriately, the 'Phoenix'. Nice one.


Mike.

[tallboy]

I always thought iPlayer was subscription-only as well, but, not so....

Well, if it requires a U.K. TV licence, it is subscription-only for the rest of us non-brits, and not exactly 'free'.

[musher0]

Hi, Mike_Walsh.

The way this is coming through is:
"A resident of the UK has to have a license to watch TV."
Wha.... ????

I'm seeing things, right?
Or MI5 has tampered with your original message?

Please explain more?

BFN.

[darry19662018]

Hi Musher,

Nz used to have the same thing - basically a fee you pay each year if you owned a tv. Ours was called a Broadcasting fee that sounded confusing - because it made it sound like we all owned our own broadcasting services.

I can remember as a kid a truck with a radar going around checking if people had tv's and weren't paying the broadcasting fee.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/arti ... tid=142389[/list]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Televisio ... ew_Zealand

England's history of this fee:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Televisio ... ed_Kingdom

[musher0]

What was the purpose of this?

What bureaucrats can invent to annoy their population never ceases to amaze me.

Thanks darry.

[Mike Walsh]

Hi, musher0.

Yep; it's quite true. As far back as ever I can remember, Brits have had to pay an annual fee for the right to receive broadcast services.

Right from the word go, the British Broadcasting Corporation, who originally started up to broadcast radio services, took over the role of 'state' television station operator.....and at the earliest opportunity, they, together with the government of the day, got it enshrined into law that this service, provided for the public, would be funded by the public. No ifs or buts. You have to remember, this was the pre-war, pre-socialist era; capitalism ruled in those days. Darry's remark about the radar vans, going round to check if a property was receiving a broadcast, then cross-checking it against the national records, is absolutely correct.

In the early days, if you didn't have a TV, but only a radio, you had to pay a licence fee for the right to listen to the radio..... Eventually, when televisions became common-place, and the usage of radios was taken for granted, the TV licence swallowed up the radio one. One licence covered reception of all broadcast services.

At one time, it was considered a social disgrace if you defaulted on your TV licence..!!

The thing that annoys most Brits nowadays is that with the plethora of stations freely available to watch, even if you don't ever watch the BBC, you still have to pay 'their' licence.....because the way the licence terms are written, it applies to the hardware - the owning, and operating of, the 'equipment' - not the services themselves.

No UK government is ever going to backtrack on that one, because otherwise they themselves would have to start funding everything.....and the provision of media services is just one way of keeping your populace quiet, content, and 'under control', isn't it? As the article Darry linked to says, because the licence is classified in law as a tax, non-payment is therefore considered to be a criminal offence.....so you can end up with a criminal record..! In addition to which, during the days of the Empire, and latterly, the Commonwealth, every member state followed the same practices as the 'mother' country.

I've heard of cases where the occupiers of a specific property are real 'hermits', and don't own any electronic equipment at all, yet get regularly harrassed by the 'authorities' because they simply cannot believe that in this day & age, people exist who don't make use of the available services. Such individuals have been subject to visitations by official 'inspection teams', accompanied by the police to oversee things, and having their properties turned upside-down in futile attempts to 'uncover' concealed broadcast reception equipment.

I kid you not, mate. Even in 2019, this has happened.....

(*shrug*)

Unbelievable, yes.....but true.

-------------------------

@ tallboy:-

I never thought about folks in other countries being able to watch the iPlayer. Presumably, you're right; if you check the item which pops up before you watch anything to say that no, you don't have a UK TV licence, I would hazard a guess that it then directs you to a sign-up-for-a-subscription page, yes?

Ah, c'est la vie, mate.


Mike.

[rockedge]

Germany has television and radio license fees every year