BBC iPlayer

[Den]

Hi all,

I'm in the UK and trying to download the BBC iPlayer, I like to listen to radio while working, but having no luck. Even listen live from the web page produces the appropriate BBC panel but no sound. I'm using LXDE 12 and Firefox as my browser. I've searched the forum and general web search but cannot find an answer. In desperation I installed Radio Tray but alas that didn't work either.

Now I know Get-iPlayer works as I can use it, so my audio set up is ok, but that only downloads old programmes and not live ones.

What am I missing here, any help will be much appreciated.

Thanks

Den,

[DrHu]

BBC iPlayer watch TV shows. Downloaded BBC iPlayer programmes are covered by Microsoft's DRM system. BBC iPlayer desktop downloads playback can only last for 7 days and can't play on non-supported players like iPhone, iPad, iPod

The problem is the time to play current programs, that site indicated 7days
--I don't link it as it is about changing DRM status for the player..

Directly to the question, apart from these forums there must be plenty of Linux forums in the UK talking about BBC's Iplayer and any Linux issues..
--I know there are many because in North America, we might also want to watch some BBC TV programs, and their provided player is UK specific (geo-location)

• Like most anything else there are ways around that user problem
  --the vendor is naturally satisfied that their protocol for use is aok..

Linux alsa or sound issues..
http://forums.linuxmint.com/search.php? ... ayer+sound

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 48&start=0
--there are some plugins for firefox etc, that need to run to activate the media player, however you should also take a look at alsamix on a terminal and check the settings shown, make sure that you don't have anything you need (such as master volume) [x]Muted [/list]
http://gnuwhatimsaying.com/alsamixer-co ... for-linux/

[Den]

Hi all,

I take it then that no one has a straight forward fix to my none playing BBC iPlayer problen?

Regards

Den

[seppalta]

I do not live in UK or listen to BBC. However, I went to http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/#timeline, clicked on play current, and it played without problems. I was using Chromium-browser. There must be thousands of online radio stations playing all kinds of music genre. The best procedure is to go to a station's website and try to get VLC player to play the stream. Then save it with VLC and you have it for future playing.

[caribriz]

I'm using Firefox on LM12 LXDE on a usb stick full install.
I'm not in the UK either, but I could listen to the BBC Radio on the internet: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/
I clicked on "listen live" on the above page and the iplayer console popped up
and played the current radio program (Radio 1).

It's not what you want, but can you see if you can at least listen to the radio through VLC:
Menu > Sound and video > VLC
Media > Open network stream

Copy/paste

Code: Select all

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/listen/live/r1.asx

into box
press Play ..... wait a few seconds ....

Here are some of other BBC radio station urls needed to play in VLC
(From here: http://blog.scoopz.com/2011/05/05/liste ... using-vlc/):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/listen/live/r1.asx (Radio 1)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/listen/live/r2.asx (Radio 2)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/listen/live/r3.asx (Radio 3)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/listen/live/r4.asx (Radio 4)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/listen/live/r5.asx (Radio 5)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/listen/live/r6.asx (Radio 6)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/listen/live/ran.asx (Radio Asian)

If you can't hear the radio this way, maybe you have other problems???

Just a thought, are you using Firefox addon Noscript? If so, try letting Noscript "allow" the BBC page as well.

caribriz

[Den]

My thanks to caribriz for attempting to sort out my lack of radio via iPlayer but alas it did not work. I tried VLC as suggested using the URLs given but no joy. Although I use VLC for my video and music with no problem.

As an alternative I downloaded and tried RADIOTRAY but again no luck, as caribriz suggested this is something deeper than a simple set up problem. When trying to run RADIOTRAY from a terminal I get the following

$ radiotray
Loading configuration...
/home/denis/.local/share/radiotray/bookmarks.xml
/home/denis/.local/share/radiotray/config.xml
/usr/share/radiotray/config.xml
PLS playlist decoder
M3U playlist decoder
ASX-familiy playlist decoder
XSPF playlist decoder
ASF playlist decoder
RAM playlist decoder
Using url timeout = 100
Could not bind to Gnome for Media Keys
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VLC

When I try VLC by entering URL I get an error reported with the message

Your input can't be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/listen/live/r1.asx'. Check the log for details.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/listen/live/r1.asx'. Check the log for details.

This problem is something fundamental to streaming as all my other audio functions ok.

Any help with this would be much appreciated.

Den

[caribriz]

Sorry it didn't work for you ...

I tried it again, this time using VLC in Mint 9 - again, it worked for me - I could listen to those stations I linked to.

Not that I can help you in this regard, but could it be a Firewall or Router problem?
Do you need to open a port in order to allow it through?

Or is your workplace blocking streaming radio?
eg. from this site: http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=5&sid=2511904

Code: Select all

 Your Workplace is Blocking Us:
If you are at work, the best place to ask for assistance is your local IT staff. They will be able to help you if a simple configuration change is needed to fix the problem.

If your system is behind a firewall (typical at an office network), please contact your network administrator to open up your firewall to allow your system to access this stream via port 80 or verify that they allow streaming media to be played over the network. They will also be the best authority to inform you if it is a firewall setting, media blocking technology, or company policy to prevent audio streaming.

caribriz

[MenthaSuaveolens]

My thanks to caribriz for attempting to sort out my lack of radio via iPlayer but alas it did not work. I tried VLC as suggested using the URLs given but no joy. Although I use VLC for my video and music with no problem.

Your input can't be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/listen/live/r1.asx'. Check the log for details.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/listen/live/r1.asx'. Check the log for details.

This problem is something fundamental to streaming as all my other audio functions ok.

Any help with this would be much appreciated.

Den

Den, can you please post the contents of the log? Is probably in a hidden directory (.local I do expect). I have LDXE-Mint12 installed and don't have any problems of the problems you mentionned.

[Den]

Hi,

Thanks for your interest MenthaSuaveolens but I cannot find the log file in .local, there is a Radiotraylog and a syslog in VAR but that is enormous, can you be a bit more specific.

A bit more useful information is if I dual boot my PC with windows7 (ugh) I can play internet radio via iPlayer and via VLC. So this is something very specific to LXDE Mint.

Thanks again for your interest hope you can help.

Regards

Den

[MenthaSuaveolens]

Den,

if vlc is opened (with the error-message, of course) then goto Extra - Messages (or Ctrl-M as a short-cut). Else try to find the file vlc-log.txt in your filesystem
(open catfish, enter your search-specs, ...)

Good luck.

[Den]

MenthaSuaveolens,

Hope this is what you require. Attempted to stream a BBC radio programme in VLC and obtained the following error messages.

VLC is unable to open the MRL 'http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/listen/live/r2.asx'. Check the log for details.

Via VLCs Tools > Messages > Messages Tab I got

access_http error: cannot connect to http://www.bbc.co.uk:80
access_mms error: cannot connect to http://www.bbc.co.uk:80
main error: open of `http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/listen/live/r2.asx' failed: (null)

Does this help at all?

Regards

Den

[MenthaSuaveolens]

Hi Den,

It looks as if VLC can't get access to the internet. If you paste the url http://www.bbc.co.uk:80 in the url-line of your browser, you probably will be forwarded to the bbc-website. If not, then you have a major networking-problem. Else, there might be something wrong with your proxy-configuration. The network-proxy
configuration can be found in the system-settings : Networking. On my computer there is no proxy installed (which is to my opinion rather odd, but I'm not a networking-specialist. The firefox-preferences for internet-access can be found in Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Network -> Connection settings

Maybe another method to figure out what could be going wrong, is booting from the live-cd. If you select try linux mint, you can check whether the problem is already there with no system installed at all. Anyhow, you'll need the help of someone who's more mature in networking-problems. (maybe changing the method to "automatic" and using the url-name "proxy" can help).

Good luck!

[Den]

Hello MenthaSuaveolens and all,

Following the comments on networks and proxy I took my laptop to my friends and logged onto his wifi. Everything worked fine there, iPlayer, VLC etc, I could stream all the live radio programmes. The problem is therefore my router set up. But why does it allow MS Windows to work and not Linux Mint LXDE. Does anyone have any idea where to go from here.

Remember everything else about my internet connection works fine only live radio streaming is a problem.

Regards

Den

[caribriz]

VLC is unable to open the MRL 'http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/listen/live/r2.asx'. Check the log for details.

Have a look here at this video:
http://vlchelper.com/vlc-is-unable-to-open-the-mrl/

This applies to Windows and AVG Internet Security, but the general principle still applies,
ie. check that your LXDE Firewall (ufw) and/or your router firewall is allowing VLC player access to the internet.

What router are you using?
Try searching "lxde + whatever-is-your-router-model" or "Lubuntu + radio streaming" - maybe someone has a setup you could follow ....

I just tried it again with a LM12 LXDE live usb (using a mobile broadband usb dongle) - I could hear the radio stations with both VLC and Exaile
as well as directly from the website.

caribriz

[Den]

Hello all,

Many thanks to all who have tried to help with this streaming problem. Following my trip to my friends and logging on to his wifi, where everything worked perfectly, I decided my problem lay with my router. Not knowing too much about configuring routers, other than setting up SSID and security, I decided to change router since I had another one on the shelf. The one I had been using was a Safecom, the one I replaced it with was a Netgear.

After basic setting up of the Netgear DGN1000 wifi modem/router I was able to stream radio over VCL, Radio Tray and iPlayer although one station did not play on iPlayer.

So there we have it my laptop running LXDE Mint streams radio.

I've no doubt that some one out there will know exactly why my Safecom router will not stream radio and if they do please comment and tell me.

Interesting problem if not somewhat frustrating.

Regards

Den