Downloading Podcast?

[Budge]

I have found a short (video) clip p0081fsp (I don't understand why the
'p' when it is video. Video podcast!!!)

My problem is I can play it on my workstation but cannot download using
get_iplayer --pid p0081fsp

What am I doing wrong and how can I get it please?
Budge

[Alan Milewczyk]

Post by Budge
I have found a short (video) clip p0081fsp (I don't understand why the
'p' when it is video.   Video podcast!!!)
My problem is I can play it on my workstation but cannot download
using get_iplayer --pid p0081fsp
What am I doing wrong and how can I get it please?
Budge

AFAIAA, you can no longer download podcasts using GIP.  That facility
was removed a while back.

A



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[RS]

Post by Alan Milewczyk

Post by Budge
I have found a short (video) clip p0081fsp (I don't understand why the
'p' when it is video.   Video podcast!!!)
My problem is I can play it on my workstation but cannot download
using get_iplayer --pid p0081fsp
What am I doing wrong and how can I get it please?
Budge

AFAIAA, you can no longer download podcasts using GIP.  That facility
was removed a while back.

That is my recollection too, although I think the ability to download
clips was removed more recently than that to download podcasts.

You can try VLC. Otherwise there is a list of podcatchers at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_podcatchers

Best wishes
Richard

[Budge]

Post by RS

Post by Alan Milewczyk

Post by Budge
I have found a short (video) clip p0081fsp (I don't understand why
the 'p' when it is video.   Video podcast!!!)
My problem is I can play it on my workstation but cannot download
using get_iplayer --pid p0081fsp
What am I doing wrong and how can I get it please?
Budge

AFAIAA, you can no longer download podcasts using GIP.  That facility
was removed a while back.

That is my recollection too, although I think the ability to download
clips was removed more recently than that to download podcasts.
You can try VLC.  Otherwise there is a list of podcatchers at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_podcatchers

Hi Alan and Richard,
Thanks for the suggestions. I recall the ending of ability to download
podcasts but rather hoped the issue was temporary.

Why cannot GiP get a podcast for which I have the pid and can play on my
pc? What were the technical reasons why not? Can you point me to the
explanation please?
Budge

[Alan Milewczyk]

Post by Budge

Post by RS

Post by Alan Milewczyk

Post by Budge
I have found a short (video) clip p0081fsp (I don't understand why
the 'p' when it is video. Video podcast!!!)
My problem is I can play it on my workstation but cannot download
using get_iplayer --pid p0081fsp
What am I doing wrong and how can I get it please?
Budge

AFAIAA, you can no longer download podcasts using GIP.  That
facility was removed a while back.

That is my recollection too, although I think the ability to download
clips was removed more recently than that to download podcasts.
You can try VLC.  Otherwise there is a list of podcatchers at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_podcatchers

Hi Alan and Richard,
Thanks for the suggestions.  I recall the ending of ability to
download podcasts but rather hoped the issue was temporary.
Why cannot GiP get a podcast for which I have the pid and can play on
my pc?  What were the technical reasons why not?  Can you point me to
the explanation please?
Budge

IIRC that Dinky felt other programs were available that could do that -
what prompted him/her to take that decision I really wouldn't know. If
you frequent the support forum, you'll see that Dinky doesn't take
kindly to being questioned/judged about decisions taken!
https://github.com/get-iplayer/get_iplayer/wiki/release283to299 -
get_iplayer 2.98 Release Notes, see the "Removed" section.

HTH

Alan

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[iz]

Why cannot GiP get a podcast for which I have the pid and can play on my pc?

Your clip is only available in Flash format, which GiP doesn't support. This is unrelated to podcasts. Your clip was a promo item, not a podcast episode. GiP can download the actual podcast episodes.

[RS]

From: iz
Sent: Tuesday, January 2, 2018 4:26 PM

Post by iz

Why cannot GiP get a podcast for which I have the pid and can play on my pc?

Your clip is only available in Flash format, which GiP doesn't support.
This is unrelated to podcasts. Your clip was a promo item, not a podcast
episode. GiP can download the actual >podcast episodes.

You can download it with get_iplayer v2.99 and --tvmode=flashvhigh provided
you kept a copy of rtmpdump.exe when the installer removed it.

You can also get .mp3 podcasts and .pdf transcripts of all four of the
Astronomer Royal's 2010 Reith lectures at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sk5nc

Earlier I suggested using VLC to convert it, but I have since found that
does not work.

I had a surprising amount of difficulty playing the clip in Firefox. I
started with Ubuntu and Firefox Quantum 57.0.1 and did not manage to run it.
I then booted into Windows 10 and Firefox 57.0.2. It only played after I
had re-installed Flash. When I got home I tried it on my main machine with
Windows 10. Before I did I had allowed Firefox 57.0.2 to be updated to
57.0.3. This time re-installing Flash was not enough. I tried the steps on
Adobe's website, to no avail. There was just a a message telling me I
needed Flash, but no pop-up by which I could allow it to be run. I did a
fair amount of searching and reading before I found from

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Plugins/Flash_Activation:_Browser_Comparison

that there was an icon in the location bar I could click. (I did not get
the in-page UI.)

Adobe's and Mozilla's plans are set out here.

https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2017/07/25/firefox-roadmap-flash-end-life/

I shall have to think about reverting to the Firefox v52 Extended Support
Release.

The Times has recently started including video clips. So far I have been
unable to play them. I don't know if they are using Flash. I do not know
enough to be able to tell from a web page whether it is using HTML5 or
Flash.

As for b and p PIDs, I remember having a discussion with Vangelis when I
suggested there was a distinction. I was wrong. I have not managed to
derive any reliable rule for distinguishing them. Sorry if I have caused
any confusion.

Best wishes
Richard

[Jeremy Nicoll - ml gip]

Post by RS
The Times has recently started including video clips. So far I have
been unable to play them. I don't know if they are using Flash. I do
not know enough to be able to tell from a web page whether it is using
HTML5 or Flash.

If you right-click over a video you can tell from what's offered whether
it is Flash; Flash videos have the word "Flash" mentioned in their menu
(or did last time I did this) and IIRC offer one the chance to run the
Flash Settings dialogue.

What's harder (impossible?) to see is whether the server might have
offered you a Flash video in other circumstances but has chosen to send
you an HTML5 one because it thinks that suits your browser/platform
better.

[RS]

From: Jeremy Nicoll - ml gip
Sent: Tuesday, January 2, 2018 11:05 PM

Post by Jeremy Nicoll - ml gip

Post by RS
The Times has recently started including video clips. So far I have
been unable to play them. I don't know if they are using Flash. I do
not know enough to be able to tell from a web page whether it is using
HTML5 or Flash.

If you right-click over a video you can tell from what's offered whether
it is Flash; Flash videos have the word "Flash" mentioned in their menu
(or did last time I did this) and IIRC offer one the chance to run the
Flash Settings dialogue.

Now you mention it, I do remember that. I think the one with the Flash
settings dialogue preceded the one which gave information about the clip
like bit rate. If I right click on Alastair's clip I get

2.16.27.1838333.u.x
1500kbps | RTMP (limelight) | p0081fsr
Error: 1058

If I right click on a video clip in The Times I just get the same drop down
list as from any other web page.

Since I made my comment I have found a page which says that a HTML5 page
will begin

<!DOCTYPE html>

instead of a DOCTYPE which refers to a DTD. According to that test both
Alastair's clip and the clips in The Times are HTML5.

Post by Jeremy Nicoll - ml gip
What's harder (impossible?) to see is whether the server might have
offered you a Flash video in other circumstances but has chosen to send
you an HTML5 one because it thinks that suits your browser/platform
better.

That is where my knowledge breaks down. I have no idea what the code to
decide whether to offer Flash or HTML5 looks like.

Best wishes
Richard

[RS]

From: Rochford, Steve
Sent: Thursday, January 4, 2018 3:43 PM

Post by RS

Post by Jeremy Nicoll - ml gip
What's harder (impossible?) to see is whether the server might have
offered you a Flash video in other circumstances but has chosen to send
you an HTML5 one because it thinks that suits your browser/platform
better.

That is where my knowledge breaks down. I have no idea what the code to
decide whether to offer Flash or HTML5 looks like.

From my limited experience, the webserver is going to look at the user
agent string. If you send a string which identifies your browser as one
which can render HTML5 then that's >what you'll get including in-line
video; if your browser is identified as an older browser which can't cope
with HTML5 then you'll get (eg) Flash video.

My user agent string seems to be

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:57.0) Gecko/20100101
Firefox/57.0

It is not obvious from that string that the browser supports HTML5, so there
must be some sort of lookup table. I have now found what HTML5 video should
look like.

<video width="320" height="240" controls>
<source src="movie.mp4" type="video/mp4">
<source src="movie.ogg" type="video/ogg">
Your browser does not support the video tag.
</video>

The text is only displayed if the browser does not support the <video ...>
element.
https://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_video.asp

As of yesterday, video clips in The Times now play in Firefox. It would
have been interesting to compare the working version with the old. I have
searched the page for <video and <source, but they are probably behind the
paywall.

As for Alastair's clip, the consensus seems to be that it is returning Flash
because Flash is the only type the clip supports. Is it correct for the
page to begin with a
<!DOCTYPE html>
tag if it does not support HTML5 video?

On a slightly different note, to avoid confusion to anyone reading the
archive I ought to qualify the suggestions I made earlier in the thread.

1. I suggested using the Convert/Save function of VLC. At that time I had
not tried it. When I did I could not get it to work. It seems VLC needs
additional help to play RTMP streaming.

https://msankhala.wordpress.com/2014/10/01/save-flash-player-video-rtmp-streaming-with-vlc-player/

I have not tried what is suggested in that blog because it seems a lot of
work and

2. I successfully downloaded Alastair's clip by restoring rtmpdump.exe to
the utils directory and running get_iplayer v2.99 with --tvmode flashvhigh.

Bet wishes
Richard

[Budge]

Hi Richard,

Post by RS
From: iz
Sent: Tuesday, January 2, 2018 4:26 PM

Post by iz

Why cannot GiP get a podcast for which I have the pid and can play on my pc?

Your clip is only available in Flash format, which GiP doesn't
support. This is unrelated to podcasts. Your clip was a promo item,
not a podcast episode. GiP can download the actual >podcast episodes.

You can download it with get_iplayer v2.99 and --tvmode=flashvhigh
provided you kept a copy of rtmpdump.exe when the installer removed it.
You can also get .mp3 podcasts and .pdf transcripts of all four of the
Astronomer Royal's 2010 Reith lectures at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sk5nc
Earlier I suggested using VLC to convert it, but I have since found that
does not work.
I had a surprising amount of difficulty playing the clip in Firefox.  I
started with Ubuntu and Firefox Quantum 57.0.1 and did not manage to run
it. I then booted into Windows 10 and Firefox 57.0.2.  It only played
after I had re-installed Flash.  When I got home I tried it on my main
machine with Windows 10.  Before I did I had allowed Firefox 57.0.2 to
be updated to 57.0.3.  This time re-installing Flash was not enough.  I
tried the steps on Adobe's website, to no avail.  There was just a a
message telling me I needed Flash, but no pop-up by which I could allow
it to be run.  I did a fair amount of searching and reading before I
found from
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Plugins/Flash_Activation:_Browser_Comparison
that there was an icon in the location bar I could click.  (I did not
get the in-page UI.)
Adobe's and Mozilla's plans are set out here.
https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2017/07/25/firefox-roadmap-flash-end-life/
I shall have to think about reverting to the Firefox v52 Extended
Support Release.
The Times has recently started including video clips.  So far I have
been unable to play them.  I don't know if they are using Flash.  I do
not know enough to be able to tell from a web page whether it is using
HTML5 or Flash.
As for b and p PIDs, I remember having a discussion with Vangelis when I
suggested there was a distinction.  I was wrong.  I have not managed to
derive any reliable rule for distinguishing them.  Sorry if I have
caused any confusion.

Many thanks for the info. So it was not my error for a change!

I only wanted the clip to complete the "set" as I am a bit of a fan of
Martin Rees. I shall not invest more time on this as I have just ordered
several of his books and I have the four lectures anyhow.

A discussion on Firefox could take us OT but I have been greatly annoyed
by the recent significant changes to Firefox (FF) which have broken
almost all the add-ons I use. More significantly one of my sons-in-law
is in IT and his firm use FF on critical work related tasks. They are
switching to Chrome and his colleagues are doing likewise for their
private systems also.

Thanks again for the help and advice.
Budge

[Colin Law]

...
A discussion on Firefox could take us OT but I have been greatly annoyed by
the recent significant changes to Firefox (FF) which have broken almost all
the add-ons I use. More significantly one of my sons-in-law is in IT and
his firm use FF on critical work related tasks. They are switching to
Chrome and his colleagues are doing likewise for their private systems also.

You might like to try Waterfox, a fork of Firefox, which is committed
to keeping compatibility with the addons. Working well for me. When
you install it gives the option of copying the Firefox settings,
addons, bookmarks etc across to itself so you hardly notice the
change. Installing it does not mess up the Firefox install so you
don't need to burn bridges to try it.

Colin

[David Cantrell]

Post by RS
That is my recollection too, although I think the ability to download
clips was removed more recently than that to download podcasts.

IIRC clips can still be downloaded, just not clips of podcasts.

As far as iPlayer is (well, was when I worked on it, IIRC, BBQ, LOLCATS)
concerned, a clip is just an episode with the 'is_clip' attribute set.