BBC iPlayer, first look
Thu, May 27, 2010 at 5:45 PM
There's no BBC iPlayer iPad app just yet, but UK iPad owners now have access to the 'big screen' version of the iPlayer website, this provides very high quality video streams at a decent bit rate. We haven't really got too much to say at this early stage other than to congratulate the BBC on providing a service to iPad owners from day one. We expect an iPad specific version of the iPlayer site to go live sometime this Summer.
International iPad owners looking to view the iPlayer video streams will need to get themselves a quality VPN connection, or move to the UK. ^_^
Reader Comments (3)
Video quality on ipad iplayer is absolutely amazing on the stuff I've tried so far.
It's excellent that the BBC have made this available from day 1.
Only negative point I can make is that there's no way of turning off the time / battery status bar at the top though - bit distracting.
Yes, congratulations are in order to the BBC on this occasion. I've had my iPad now since the US launch and the iPlayer is obviously important (though a decent SKY player would help too). With YouTube and probably more importantly, TED being available on both the iPhone and the iPAD, the new release of iPlayer BETA to handle the iPAD is the icing on the cake.
This morning I watched "Have I got News for You" on the iPAD and the quality was superb. Who needs FLASH!!! Now, we just need the BBC to make it's many news videos work on the iPad and we're all set.
Thinking about it, with Apple now being worth more than Microsoft, it would make a lot of sense to make Quicktime videos the standard rather than Flash - the quality is good, the player works on a range of portable devices AND Windows AND MAC.. it has a lot going for it and there is NO denying the quality.
I was thinking about the Sky Player too, surely it must be on the cards?
Regarding Flash. We haven't got too involved in the debate as yet, but it seems to us the primary use of Flash – delivering video content – is being handled much more elegantly by HMTL 5/H.264.