maemo.org - Talk - iPlayer working on the N900

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iPlayer working on the N900

I'll put this caveat right at the beginning so as not to waste anyone's time: This has NOT been through any QA process, and so carries at least the same potential problems as installing stuff from extras-devel.

In order to get this running you need rootsh installed, which comes with caveats of its own. See this page for details: http://wiki.maemo.org/Root_access.

I've updated this first post to contain the current easiest method of getting this working - original post is below.

If you don't understand any of the steps below I suggest you stop and ask (/read on into the thread) rather than just doing them. A small level of knowledge of the terminal is required, but there is lots of discussion of each of the steps later in the thread if you are a beginner.

First, make sure that extras-devel is disabled. There's an un-optified version of Ruby in there that will break things. It reports as being a later version, so i you enable extras-devel in the future it will report an udate for Ruby - don't install this!

Thanks to Kaspernj (click "Thanks!" on his post below!) installing is now as simple as adding his repository:

Name: kaspernj.org
Webaddress: http://maemorepo.kaspernj.org
Distribution: fremantle
Components: main

If you've used application manager to add the repository make sure you close it. Then open a terminal and type the following:

Code:

sudo gainroot

then:

Code:

apt-get update

then:

Code:

apt-get install iplayer-dl

Typing yes at any prompts. Wait for it to finish and then type:

Code:

exit

To make life easier you can also type this command:

echo 'alias iplayer="iplayer-dl -d /home/user/MyDocs/.videos"' >> /home/user/.profile

Then type:

Code:

source /home/user/.profile

This helps ensure that the videos you download are stored in "MyDocs" and are easily accessible from the Media Player.

You can now download from iPlayer by opening a terminal and typing:

Code:

iplayer URL

Where "URL" is the web address of the programme you want.

Some important caveats:

Don't accidentally use "iplayer-dl URL" (as opposed to "iplayer URL" above) unless you know what you're doing - this will quickly fill up your 2GB of "application space" and cause considerable heartache!
Please note that this has NOT been through any QA process, and so carries at least the same potential problems as installing stuff from extras-devel. However, everything is optified, and no one seems to have had any serious problems to date.
Remember you're not streaming, you're downloading, so there's a bit of a wait before you can start watching. The beeb's servers are pretty quick though, so it'll probably only be a short while.
Be careful because an hour long show will be in the region of 200MB - too much of that on roaming data and your phone company will probably be giving you a ring! Many phone companies have blocked iPlayer traffic anyway, in which case you will only be able to download when connected to wifi.
The BBC probably don't want you getting iPlayer content this way as it in theory enables you to keep content longer than they allow. So delete stuff as soon as you've watched it, and don't go too crazy with the downloads!
As with any large download and video watching, this has the potential to drain your battery relatively quickly.

Finally, (from the iplayer-dl developer's site):

Quote:

It won’t download every programme that’s on the iPlayer website, because they’re not always available. Sometimes, this is by design (as in the case of films and expensive US series like Heroes); sometimes it’s due to omission or transient problems. In addition, it can’t currently download the embedded videos that are not part of the main iPlayer offering.

And that's it! For a bit more info read the original post below and the rest of the thread.

Cheers,
Jan

--- Original post ---

Hi everyone. After searching the forums, it seems no one has a trivial method for watching iPlayer from the N900. So I thought that as I have one that's slightly more trivial that the current suggestions it would only be fair to share!

It's important to note that the BBC probably don't want you getting iPlayer content this way as it in theory enables you to keep content longer than they allow. So delete stuff as soon as you've watched it. That being said, on with the instructions!

First you need to install Ruby on your device. This is the tricky bit, but it's been made easier by the sterling work of kaspernj, as detailed in this post. You'll need to add his repository, mentioned in the first post of the thread linked above (it's fine to do this from the app manager). Make sure you thank him!

Please note that this has NOT been through any QA process, and so carries at least the same caveats as installing from extras-devel (actually maybe more, if kaspernj decided to be evil!). But in its favour it's all working like a charm for me, and it's been optified - still, here be dragons.

That being said, when you add the repository from app manager it should update automatically, so to install Ruby it's as easy as the following in a terminal:

Code:

sudo gainroot

apt-get install ruby

apt-get install ruby-rake

I'm not sure whether ruby-rake is actually required, but it's pretty small. You could try without and report success or failure if you want.

Next, travel to http://po-ru.com/projects/iplayer-downloader/, read up on the background, and tip your proverbial hat to the developer. You can follow his instructions to get the source from github (here), or for the moment at least you can just do the following in a terminal:

Code:

wget http://po-ru.com/files/iplayer-dl-latest.tar.gz

Extract, follow the instructions in README, and you're good to go!

i.e.:

Code:

tar zxvf iplayer-dl-latest.tar.gz

cd iplayer-dl-0.1.18

ruby setup.rb config

sudo gainroot

ruby setup.rb install

Note that the the number on the end of "iplayer-dl-0.1.18" may be slightly different if you're following these instructions in the future.

In order to make life easier, link the created binary to /usr/bin:

Code:

sudo gainroot

ln -s /home/user/iplayer-dl-0.1.18/bin/iplayer-dl /usr/bin/iplayer-dl

And you're done! Just open a terminal, and type something along the lines of:

Code:

iplayer-dl -d /home/user/MyDocs/.videos iplayer_URL

And the show that's at "iplayer_URL" will be saved to "/home/user/MyDocs/.videos" (which is the standard place to put videos on the N900).

The quality is great on the few things I've downloaded so far.

Remember you're not streaming, you're downloading, so there's a bit of a wait before you can start watching. The beeb's servers are pretty quick though, so it'll probably only be a short while.

This is obviously a useful feature if you're on the move, though be careful because an hour long show will be in the region of 200MB - too much of that on roaming data and your phone company will probably be giving you a ring!

Please note (from the developer's site):

Quote:

But it's still good for an episode of HIGNFY every now and again...

Cheers,
Jan

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

Great find btw. I was wondering when someone would work out how to use this masterpiece!

When I type
wget http://po-ru.com/files/iplayer-dl-latest.tar.gz

I get /bin/sh: wget: not found

How do I overcome this?

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by gavcuk (Post 474807)

Good point! wget is available from the fremantle tools repository. See this link for details on installation.

That's really only there as a convenience. As an alternative, you could just point your browser to that URL and it should prompt you to save the file to you device. If you do this then I think life will possibly be easier if you copy the downloaded tar.gz file to /home/user before proceeding, i.e., save to "Your Nokia N900" and then do the following in xterm:

Code:

cp /home/user/MyDocs/iplayer-dl-latest.tar.gz /home/user

If you want to do some tidying up you can delete both copies of the tar.gz file after extracting.

Cheers,
Jan

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

P.S. I keep forgetting that most people have a very small /home partition (and therefore not much space in /home/user) and a very large /home/user/MyDocs partition.

Therefore it's really worth emphasising that when using iplayer-dl you specify a path within MyDocs to save the file (as in the first post).

If you don't you'll fill up /home/user awfully quickly and terrible things might start happening! (Not quite as terrible as filling up /, but still...)

Cheers,
Jan

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

still get that /bin/sh: wget: not found message even after installing wget

I also entered the address into the browser and saved the iplayer-dl-latest file to my device (root of eMMC) but if I then try to use

tar zxvf iplayer-dl-latest.tar.gz

I get tar: can't open 'iplayer-dl-latest.tar.gz': No such file or directory.

Any further advice you can offer?

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

ok I'm making progress now thanks to

cp /home/user/MyDocs/iplayer-dl-latest.tar.gz /home/user

Great help my friend!

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

Working like a dream now!

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

Great, glad you got it working!

Just thinking about how easy it will be to fill up your application space with videos has got me worried, so here's a possible solution.

You can copy and paste the following in a terminal (make sure it matches exactly):

Code:

echo "alias iplayer='iplayer-dl -d /home/user/MyDocs/.videos'" >> /home/user/.profile

This means that whenever you type "iplayer" in the terminal it has the same effect as typing "iplayer-dl -d /home/user/MyDocs/.videos", so typing:

Code:

iplayer URL

Will download the show at URL to your videos directory. Note that this won't take effect until you exit and restart the terminal.

Let me know how it goes.

Cheers,
Jan

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

I am very happy, that you could use my packages. Didnt see that many replies in my Ruby-thread. If you need me to package any other Ruby-extensions - please let me know.

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

Since this iPlayer is so popular, I have made a package for it, so you dont have to download, untar and all that stuff yourself.

Simply add my repository and type:
apt-get install iplayer-dl

...unfortunately I cant test this package, since the BBC content is only available to the UK - and I am from Denmark. Can some of you please report back, if the package works as expected?

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaspernj (Post 475868)

Hi kasper, pls send me a pm regarding access to iplayer. For some reason I can't send you one.

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by majarambuz (Post 475920)

Hi kasper, pls send me a pm regarding access to iplayer. For some reason I can't send you one.

Please contact me on my email: kaspernj@gmail.com

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

cant connect to repo??? says i need to install dependencies but unable to ??

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big Phat Jan (Post 475190)

Code:

echo "alias iplayer='iplayer-dl -d /home/user/MyDocs/.videos'" >> /home/user/.profile

This means that whenever you type "iplayer" in the terminal it has the same effect as typing "iplayer-dl -d /home/user/MyDocs/.videos", so typing:

Code:

iplayer URL

Will download the show at URL to your videos directory. Note that this won't take effect until you exit and restart the terminal.

Let me know how it goes.

Cheers,
Jan

Brilliant! Works like a dream. I had made a note with the original string of code which I would copy and paste each time but no need for that now!

Thanks again to Jan and Kaspernj.

Gavin

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaspernj (Post 475868)

Fantastic - just installed using your repository/application working v well thanks v much! :)

If only this had a GUI or actually maybe a microb plugin would be even better.. hmm

----

Having downloaded the video fine it seems to have downloaded the older version of the video file - its quite interesting actually, its not the same version as on the main bbc iplayer site - where does it come from? The version it downloaded had a bit of bbc news 24 tacked on before the programme whilst the iplayer website didnt. (Im not criticising, Im just interested)

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

cant seem to get installed?? can you help please..installed repo from other post but cant download missing dependancies?

thanks

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by dread123 (Post 478122)

cant seem to get installed?? can you help please..installed repo from other post but cant download missing dependancies?

thanks

I couldnt download using the app manager but could via terminal. Also make sure you use "sudo gainroot" before typing the apt-get ...command.

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

can you pls list the full commands needed to be run in xterminal in order to work? will i need to install Ruby also? thanks

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

open terminal

Code:

sudo gainroot

Code:

apt-get install iplayer-dl

once installed (I copied and pasted this command in):

Code:

echo "alias iplayer='iplayer-dl -d /home/user/MyDocs/.videos'" >> /home/user/.profile

close terminal for the last code to activate. Then you can use the programme - ie type in:

Code:

iplayer URL

("URL" being the TV programme URL)

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaspernj (Post 475868)

...unfortunately I cant test this package, since the BBC content is only available to the UK - and I am from Denmark. Can some of you please report back, if the package works as expected?

you can access iplayer via vpn. I use AdTelly

http://www.adtelly.tv/

and it works fine in Europe...

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisp7 (Post 478092)

Having downloaded the video fine it seems to have downloaded the older version of the video file - its quite interesting actually, its not the same version as on the main bbc iplayer site - where does it come from? The version it downloaded had a bit of bbc news 24 tacked on before the programme whilst the iplayer website didnt. (Im not criticising, Im just interested)

It's downloading the iPod/iPhone versions which is why it is DRM-free as those devices can't play the regular protected files. The versions played on your computer will be different (as you've found) and you can get much better quality.

I'm guessing the reason part of News 24 appeared is that they have an automated system converting programmes to mp4, which probably goes by timings, so may well pick up a little extra.

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

has anyone tried using the bbc website for iplayer??? i just get freezing all the time during playback.infact this is the same for many websites ie footytube.com.has anyone else found this?

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

this sounds sick- nice work :)

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

how do you remove an alias if you change your mind?

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by asidana (Post 478781)

how do you remove an alias if you change your mind?

You need to edit the file /home/user/.profile and remove the line with the alias on it. Apart from vi I don't know which text editors are on the device by default I'm afraid. Perhaps someone can make a suggestion?

You can check the contents of .profile by doing the following:

Code:

cd /home/user

cat .profile

The first line (cd) is probably not needed as you start off in /home/user when you start a new terminal.

If this file only has the alias you don't want in it then you could just remove the file if you want an easy way to remove the alias, i.e.

Code:

cd /home/user

rm .profile

but long term you'll be better served by finding a text editor you're happy using from the command line.

Cheers,
Jan

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

BIg Phat Jan/Kaspernj do you have any plans to get a GUI/micro b extension going for this app? If not this would be an ideal candidate to put in brainstorm.. I could do it if you dont want to. You've done the hard bit, a front end GUI would make this that more attractive for the end user and a bit of a killer app for the N900..

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisp7 (Post 482345)

a front end GUI would make this that more attractive for the end user and a bit of a killer app for the N900..

Agreed....would be fab.

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisp7 (Post 482345)

Agree, that would make it excellent, though I'm not sure it should go through the official repositories. Perhaps Qole or someone else can help?

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

Thanks to all for this. Installed from the repo with no issues. Added the alias and just downloaded my first file which popped into my video clips directory. Excellent work guys!

+1 for the extension to automate the download.

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisp7 (Post 482345)

Hi Chris,

It might be fun, but I don't think I have the time to do justice to this at the moment - so as far as I'm concerned go for it!

Cheers,
Jan

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

it's just coming up with iplayer not found for me. I have installed it following the instructions here. Any ideas?

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by cardiff-blues (Post 484896)

it's just coming up with iplayer not found for me. I have installed it following the instructions here. Any ideas?

Have you done this step:

Code:

echo "alias iplayer='iplayer-dl -d /home/user/MyDocs/.videos'" >> /home/user/.profile

If not, do it, and then restart your terminal.

If so, just restart your terminal.

If that doesn't help do this command:

Code:

cat /home/user/.profile

and post the output here.

Cheers,
Jan

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

Yes I did that step but I will try it again....and post back

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

~ $ cat /home/user/.profile
alias iplayer='iplayer-dl -d /home/user/MyDocs/.videos'
alias iplayer='iplayer-dl -d /home/user/MyDocs/.videos'
alias iplayer='iplayer-dl -d /home/user/MyDocs/.videos'
~ $

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

I think I'm almost there now. I missed one of the steps. It's now downloading something.

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

Hey......this works brill...
Many thanks.

The content that downloads. Is that restricted to being played within 30 days or so before it expires?

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrisp7 (Post 482345)

First of all, I do not live in England - so I wouldnt have any use of such an application. Secondly I dont have so much time because of the programming I get paid for doing :-)

But go ahead - when you have made something that works, please throw me an email. Then I will package it and put it in my own or the extras repository (which I just got approved for).

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

Holy wowness!
I'm not the greatest at all this linux'y stuff - but 25 mins later i'm done and downloadind Qi XL :) - wohoooooo!

A huuuge thank you to everyone on here :)

Would be useful for the original poster to collate everything into one simple walk through :) - saves people hunting - especially if this posts hits many threads! :)

Well done everyone :) and yay!

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

Is the content downloaded this way, time limited or anything?

Re: iPlayer working on the N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by cardiff-blues (Post 485362)

Is the content downloaded this way, time limited or anything?

its just a normal drm free file - so no limits etc etc