Is it just me or is the new iPlayer a complete shambolic mess?
The old one wasn’t perfect by anymeans, clunky but usable, but the new one is abysmal, confusing and hard to navigate and find anything…browsing wasn’t a delight before, now it’s just a lucky dip or a grind through the hidden listings…almost as if they didn’t want you to find things to watch.
Pretty certain it won’t grow on me.
Hope they have some money left in the kitty for a revamp of the revamp.
I’m fuming! They can’t even provide a decent service for those of us who refuse to pay for a TV licence!
be very carefull with that i player if you dont have a tv license and watching live channels and that window pops up saying have you got a tv licence or play,dont press you dont have a tv licence because the bbc can get your ip number and address and use it as evidence in court against you in front of a magistrate to prove your watching the tv without a licence,and yes,the new i player and the that website looks as it was designed by some 10 year old kid messing about with his computer,its totally crap.
They can not trace you, an IP address trace is a trace of a TCP/IP address, not a person.
They can only get most reputable ISPs to reveal this private and confidential information expressly with an order from The Courts. Almost no UK ISP will divulge this without a Court Order because they would then be in serious breach of The Data Protection Act with severe financial penalties.
If it originates from a uni campus, for instance, they normally have one external IP address via a proxy – who are they going to find on the other end of the internal network addresses?
There will be millions of IP addresses recorded when iPlayer is accessed, the BBC’s TV licencing body will not have the resources nor willingly expend the capital to get lucky. It’s easier and more cost effective to post a few letters to unlicensed addresses every month and stick a fake empty “TV detector van” outside campus every September.
It’s quite absurd that everyone in the UK can watch live TV without a licence quite freely and without fear of prosecution, but have been bullied and shielded from the truth. We are all programmed to be subservient.
The licence fee/tax is an anachronism, fortunately it’s now end of days for this silly 20th century tax model.
Welcome to the Age of Information where a licence fee is as relevant as a 16″ black and white CRT valve driven TV.
Top left is the search box – not hard to find anything really.
BBC iPlayer was most popular brand in the UK of 2013 and research suggests most users prefer the new site.
“Top left is the search box – not hard to find anything really.”
Well I typed in ‘English’ and got one hit – ‘English local elections. Searching for ‘England’ produces ‘cricket’ and ‘rugby’ and that’s it. Now if you try Wales or Scotland there are dozens from ‘Welsh Towns’ to ‘Scottish Islands’. In fact anything and everything from BBC Wales and BBC Scotland.
‘England’ and ‘English’ must be avoided at all costs.
No, you just need to learn to use a search engine. Its a programme search.
A valuable contribution from the latest to emerge from the H-block.
Alan offered an opinion, and asked for more, so another one is entirely fair. Though ‘research suggests’ is always persuasive these days, especially if the BBC has been anywhere near it.
At least here you’ve stayed polite, though I note elsewhere the mask is already slipping, and also a new tag-team for the weekend have got a room.
Yeah, I had a look on the iPlayer blog for the research that Dan Taylor published on the subject, although I can’t find it again.
Of course, you only ever seem to disagree with research if its conclusion is one you disagree with. A co-incidence I’m sure.
Nice of you to chose me as the subject of your ‘politeness’ comments. Never one to be consistent are you?
you only ever seem to disagree with research if its conclusion is one you disagree with.
So you agree with research that has conclusions that don’t fit your own personal philosophy, politics and/or world view?
How can you hold a view if the evidence suggests you are wrong to do so?
I keep an open mind, and am willing to concede that my view may not be the majority if the research suggests otherwise.
That is a world away from dismissing any research/poll that doesn’t fit my own personal philosophy.
Authors here, and those who comment always think a BBC survey has been fixed to bring about the result the BBC wants . And it it brings a result they concur with, then its ingnored. I don’t think that’s a co-incidence.
Always great to see a mind so open at work.
‘had a look on the iPlayer blog for the research that Dan Taylor published on the subject, although I can’t find it again’
One is sure it will eventually be a thing less hard to find. Really. Or, maybe, it won’t.
‘you only ever seem to disagree with research if its conclusion is one you disagree with.’
No coincidence really. Agreeing with things one disagrees with would seem a bit perverse. Just because someone slaps the word ‘research’ on something doesn’t mean I automatically trust the methodology, data, or conclusions.
‘Nice of you to chose me as the subject of your ‘politeness’ comments
You are welcome. Stay that way and there may even be a gold star in it for you. However, there have been worrying signs old, bad habits are already creeping in.
‘Never one to be consistent are you?’
And here was me thinking I was the soul of consistency.
But I have to say, trying out bouquet in complement to brickbat to inspire more productive comments from certain quarters is looking to be disappointing as a strategy.
Seems the levels of masochism with some run so deep it is seen as equally frustrating.
Coincidentally.
Some years ago I bought an internet radio. It was good to use at the bedside to call up decent comedy on Radio 7. Occasionally things would go wrong but you could always wind the programme forward to just before the glitch.
Then it got improved.
Now with iPlayer I am lucky if a programme will run for more than two minutes before it glitches and jumps back to the beginning again and again…
Last year I bought a DVD player that ‘does’ iPlayer. Now that has been ‘improved’ listen again Radio isn’t available anymore.
Amazingly radios made in the 1930’s still work with Radio 4 Long Wave but for how much longer?
The new layout of iPlayer is a mess, for radio as well as TV. it was far easier to use the old version.
But the BBC has a record wasting millions on endless messed-up IT projects.
I bet they try another re-vamp of iPlayer withing a year or so.
Probably the only good thing about the BBC!
So not only are there programmes terrible and biased and not worth the money, but now they make it really hard for me to watch them.
Unfortunately the is another one of the unwritten laws of computing which says; all programs are improved to the point of being unusable. It is the computing equivalent to the Peter principle whereby people are all promoted to their own level of incompetence.
I found it. I’d only done a quick scan earlier, but here it is.
You see. No conspiracy after all:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/posts/new-iPlayer-preview-feedback-and-live-launch
Is it just me or has the Mobile Version of this Website become unusable? Load times for popular posts such as The Election have become so long I’ve stopped looking.
Is this the new Open Tread as the last one is now way down the page?
Well anyway, if this is Off Topic my most humble apologies.
The blatant biased hypocrisy continues….
On BBC One this morning Nicky Campbell asks: “Can you be a Christian and vote for UKIP”?
This very week Ed Millionaire in his party’s political broadcast highlighted the problems of immigration and promised to do something about it. The man cannot even eat a sandwich without making a fool of himself, his own people think he is weird, and yet we are asked to believe him. However I digress, would The BBC ask the question: “Can you be a Christian and vote for Labour”? Nooooooooo of course not!
And the other chap David CanImakealotofmoneylikeTonywhenIlosethenextelection? Doesn’t he promise to kerb immigration now and again whenever he feels like telling a few porkies? So, would the BBC ask: “Can you be a Christian and vote Conservative”? Well they might, but they haven’t yet.
As for the Libs, the question: “Can you be a Christian and vote for a Liberal”? doesn’t apply now. Cleggy and his lovely boys have left the building.
Anyway, is the BBC biased?
Or is it biased?
P.s. The iPlayer thingy. Why ask the question if I have a licence before you can access it? Whether you do or don’t if you answer Yes and you do not have one, what can they do? Their activists/militants cannot find you anyway. It’s just to annoy and rub your nose in their arrogance. You may disagree Hendy dear but “I think I have got my comment about right”.
Is this the new Open Tread as the last one is now way down the page?
No, both Alan and DV have posted a new thread this morning so I suspect one of them inadvertently unstuck the sticky threads (Open thread that stays at top)
Not sure how “Alan has trouble finding his way round a website” is evidence of BBC bias? Or is he using this site to try and promote his own prejudices again?
As someone who uses all the major channels’ VOD offerings to some degree, the BBC’s is by far the best. It has the greatest number of challenges to deal with – with so many channels and programmes contained within it, presenting a coherent and useable user interface is always going to be a challenge, but this current iteration does really well.
Gotta say…
It seems very easy to navigate to me…and you all know how much I hate to agree with Scotty.