Notices

I couldn't find a mention of this in these forums, so I thought I should let people know that you can now run get_iplayer natively on N900.

get_iplayer is a Perl script which allows you to download programs from the BBC iPlayer website (only in the UK). It has always been possible to run it in Easy Debian, but some of the required components were missing from the N900 side and therefore getting it to run natively used to be a bit fiddly. However, now these components are available in extras-devel, so get_iplayer can now be installed without any problems.

You need to install these packages from
extras-testing and extras-devel (at your own risk!):

• libwww-perl
• rtmpdump

To do that, open the terminal and run for each of these. It is possible that you need some more packages which I just happened to have installed already.

You are now ready to download and install get_iplayer itself. Download the latest tarball from ftp://ftp.infradead.org/pub/get_iplayer/ and save it to some convenient location. Then unpack it in the terminal window with the command
and make the script executable with
Now you can run get_iplayer with
For usage, look at the README.txt file or use get_iplayer --help.

The formats that seem to be working best are iphone and flashlow. By default, get_iplayer wants to convert the video to mp4, which takes time and needs ffmpeg, but that is not really necessary since the Media Player plays the original files just as well. Therefore, use the --raw option to leave the video in the original format. For example, to download The Importance of Being Earnest, go to your /home/user/MyDocs/.videos folder and run
When you open Media Player now, you should see the film in the Video category.

The script is now available as get-iplayer in extras-devel, so it can be installed from the Application Manager. There is no GUI or even a shortcut icon, so you need to run it from the command line in the terminal window, e.g.,

Works with the radio streams?

I was able to download the get_iplayer, but when i tried to run it i got this error message.
$ cd MyDocs/.videos
~/MyDocs/.videos $ get_iplayer --raw --modes=flashlow -g Earnest
get_iplayer v2.78, Copyright (C) 2008-2010 Phil Lewis
This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details use --warranty.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain
conditions; use --conditions for details.

WARNING: Running the updater again to obtain plugins.
ERROR: /usr/bin/get_iplayer is not writable - aborting update (maybe a package manager was used to install get_iplayer?)

can u help to reslove this. thanks
oniel

Hi

I have a problem, when I start x-terminal, I see the following error :

-sh: cannot create /home/user/.profile: Permission denied
-sh: iplayer not found
alias iplayer=iplayer-dl-d/home/user/MyDocs/.videos

How do I remove this?

Thanks a lot in advance

Run it as root.

Version 2.80 was released recently. It is not in the repositories. However, I have found that manually installing the script is more effective and makes it easier to use and less likely to accidentally fill up /root with a programme.

These instructions are based on the OP and contain minimal commands in the console (X Terminal). There are a few 1 line instructions but no dialogue is required (i.e. no long commands/scripts or answering questions). I've tried to steer away from using the console as much as possible to ensure even the wary user can access higher quality iplayer content than can be streamed.
Although get_iplayer is normally operated from the console, if you don't want to use the terminal to "get_iplayer", there is a simple user interface - just search these fora once you've got this running below.

The following assumes these are installed: filebox and fapman (Faster Application Manager); root access shouldn't be required but filebox might use rootsh for some procedures so if these don't work without rootsh, then install it as well.

1. Install the required libraries with fapman by pressing the C button (categories) at the bottom and selecting "All (Advanced)". Select
   • libwww-perl (get_iplayer is written in perl),
   • rtmpdump (instructions for getting the streams),
   • ffmpeg (converts items to mp4 or aac format),
   • KMPlayer (plays items that stock player won't)
2. Go to ftp://ftp.infradead.org/pub/get_iplayer/ and download the most recent version. It should be a tar.gz file.
3. Open filebox and double tap on the item and the contents will be listed.
4. Extract the file to /home/user; the files are all in a sub-folder.
5. The folder "get_iplayer-x.xx" should now exist in /home/user, where x.xx is the current version number. I would suggest renaming the folder simply get_iplayer. If you want to tidy up, stick the tar.gz file into this folder.
6. In filebox, navigate to /bin.
7. Press top right (tools) button > Press "Create new symlink" button.
8. Using the symlink navigator, point the symlink to the file
   /home/user/get_iplayer/get_iplayer. This makes an execuable command from any directory simply by typing "get_iplayer" in the console, without the need to precede it with ./ or "perl ".
9. Test this by typing "get_iplayer -h" in the console. get_iplayer's help-text will be displayed.
10. Now, the last job is to define the default folders for each of radio and tv. This can only be done in the console but it's quite clear what's happening and there are no code-words to remember. Enter the following commands on separate lines:

There is also get_iplayer --outputlocalfiles <dir> . Help says "Output directory for localfiles recordings". Not quite sure what it's for though because haven't used it. Perhaps the meta data?

Side note
Browser detection is bad web development but some sites use it instead feature detection, including iplayer and ovi. If you need to look something up on the iplayer website, you'll need to use "Hide User Agent" just type a space ' ' for the user agent. To use Ovi or anything else that needs to know you're actually using your N900 to view the site, set the user agent to
Firefox/3.5 Maemo Browser 1.7.4.8 RX-51 N900

Edit: Dec 2011:
400kbps stream (--mode=flashlow) has been stopped by the BBC. This means that the 500kbps stream (--mode=flashstd) is the only one that can be played on the N900; then only when O/C'd to 850+ and using (K)MPlayer or (apparently) VLC.

...happy viewing!