The Beebotron and Beebotron Lite - Geek Speak

Kronalias goes fruity (214 replies)

Kronalias — Thu, 23 May 2013 11:38:57 +0100

I need help and suggestions for this one ...

Long ago and far away there was a thread called 'Kronalias goes MythTV' or words to that effect. It was my introduction to all things Linuxy courtesy of Rick. The thread was quite popular and went on forever, but regrettably has been lost in the annals (hopefully I spelled that correctly?) of the Beebotron.

The only post on that I can vaguely remember from that thread is from Rick, and went along the lines: 'Blod, for what is about to happen I am truly sorry'. Never a truer word spoken.

Since then I've built loads of MythTV PCs, but it's now time for something different. That's the RASPBERRY PI and it's made right HERE in Wales,

I've just ordered these bits (I'm Welsh, so I have no excuse for not buying) from HERE.

RS Stock No. Qty Description Unit Price Goods Value
756-8308 1 Raspberry Pi Type B Single Board Computer 512MB £21.60 £21.60
Case-CLR 1 Raspberry Pi Type B Case - Clear £3.99 £3.99
2000114141 1 4GB Class 6 SDHC Flash memory card for Raspberry Pi £6.49 £6.49
Running Total £32.08
Tax £6.42
Standard Delivery (Despatch expected within 3 week(s)) £4.95
Order total £43.45

For £40 or so we could have a bundle of fun, if only I knew what to do with these bits! Right now I have no idea what I'm going to do.

Anybody like to suggest what I should make this into?

Pages are loading faster now (63 replies)

Matamore! — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 10:55:54 +0000

Has the Beebotron website software been updated recently? All pages are loading much faster on my computer now.

Sort of emergency, sorry (9 replies)

Matamore! — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 23:01:15 +0000

[Added later: panic over, to be replaced by a normal level of worry about Internet security, and Skype security in particular]

I had intended to install no more applications at all on Windows 98SE, and was well under way with preparations to install Linux, which I've been meaning to do for years,

But a huge family emergency - someone hundreds of miles away is suicidal, and needs to talk to me a LOT - and I'll be financially crippled by telephone bills if I don't install Skype.

So I carefully tried to install Skype on the old backup computer that I had only just managed to get working again in order to experiment with Linux.

That failed, because for some unknown reason Skype couldn't detect the microphone signal.

I was also subjected to a constant blizzard of hacking attempts, but I simply used the firewall to manually block all attempts to connect to the random port that Skype had opened, and the blizzard always ceased after a few dozen attempts.

Today, with misgivings, I tried to install the same version of Skype on my usual PC.

I intended to be even more careful this time.

But I was fooled by the fact that the alerts I got from the firewall were different: instead of saying that [some random IP address] was attempt to connect to [some fixed port number randomly assigned by Skype during installation], they said that Skype was trying to connect. I made the horrendous mistake of clicking "Permit" for just one of these attempts. I forget the address in question, but it had the word "sponsors" in it, and it was attached to some US university, and this, in conjunction with the fact that it seemed to be Skype itself, not some intruder, that was trying to make the connection, caused my misjudgement.

The result was more a flood than a blizzard, and it did not stop. My computer became tied up in a never-ending stream of attempts by Skype to connect to random IP addresses all over the place, I denied them all, then somehow (while, of course, the hacking attempts continued) I managed to kill the Skype process. This was hard (I forget the details, my memory and concentration are fogged by panic and distress), and it led to a Blue Screen of Death, but I somehow managed to reboot Windows.

Whatever I do, if I start Skype, I only get this same flood of hacking attempts. I cannot actually connect Skype to its server(s), which at least I was able to do on the other machine. (I was able to hear the family member, but they could not hear me, because of the microphone problem.)

I'm sorry this is so OT, but I don't use any other Internet forums, I don't know anyone with technical knowledge, and the family member is utterly desperate.

My question is:

Is it likely that some hacker somehow got in, and was able to alter the code of Skype, causing it to issue an unending stream of attempts to connect to machines all over the place, controlled by that hacker, or by other hackers? Or, if not that, then what is happening?

All I can think to do is try to uninstall Skype (and do a manual check to see if anything suspicious-looking remains on my hard disk after the uninstallation attempt), and try to do a fresh install. If that doesn't work, I may try to manually restore a copy of the Windows registry as it looked immediately before the installation. If that doesn't work, I fear I'm screwed. I also have a suicidal family member to deal with. Thank you, hackers, everywhere, you are lovely people.

(BTW, I do know that the word "hacker" has an honorific meaning, as well as at least two pejorative ones!)

Stop Press.
----------------

An idea occurred to me, and I brought up the firewall administration window on the other machine.

Indeed, it contains two very worrying-looking rules, viz.:

Skype UDP (Out) [Any port] [Any address][Any port]
Skype TCP (Out) [Any port] [Any address][Any port]

I manually suspended these two permissions for the time being, and ran Skype.

First there was an innocuous-looking request to send a UDP, er, packet (I don't know the lingo) to 127.0.0.1, or something like that.

Then, sure enough - as I had begun to suspect might happen - there came a flood of requests to send TCP packets to IP addresses all over the place.

WTF? Skype was doing this all along, on the other machine, because I was less careful then (not more careful, as I imagined), and gave it permission from the start?

If so, why does it need to do this? And isn't it horrendously insecure?

Because it's a human emergency, I'm going to try to give Skype the same permissions on my own machine, and see if it works - never mind what horrendous security vulnerabilities I may be opening up. Wish me luck!

Stop Press (2)
--------------------

Well, this machine is now doing whatever the other one was, and its microphone works, so the unhappy family member and I can now speak to each other to our heart's content, without worrying about the bills!

I'm not getting any general security warnings from the two most basic tests ("File Sharing" and "Common Ports" ) at https://www.grc.com/, but I'll have to learn a bit and do some more specific and thorough checks later. God knows what Skype is doing with all that information it's sending all over the place!

BBC launches iPlayer Radio in attempt to overhaul online offering (1 reply)

Forget_It — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 12:04:19 +0100

[www.bbc.co.uk]

BBC launches iPlayer Radio in attempt to overhaul online offering

hope this doesn't screw up things for us here.

Is there something like Radio Downloader suitable for iPad? (17 replies)

More Drama Queen — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 07:47:23 +0100

Just bought a new iPad and want to replicate the wonderful downloading of radio 4 extra that Radio Downloader provides. Was converted to RD by this phorum and totally rely on it, am in rubbish time zone for uk progs so do need download/listen again ability. Am complete techno dunderhead so need a not overly technical response. Would like a free app, obviously! Haven't even managed to get an app to stream radio 4 extra yet! Did search existing topics but couldn't find what I wanted. Please help as am addicted to iPad and don't want to go back to turgid old laptop!

Listen Again for smartphones ... (26 replies)

Truthyness — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 23:43:35 +0100

Anyone know anymore about this?

Q:
Why can’t I listen again to Radio 4 Extra programmes via Wii, iPad and Android devices?

A:
We are currently making changes to these devices and expect Radio 4 Extra listen again programmes to be accessible in August. You can still listen to live programming via the Radio 7 website.

Psst! And why do they refer~~ring~~ to something called Radio 7? There doesn't seem to be any date on the web page either so one might be forgiven for wondering which millennium it was penned in and consequently whether the promise of enabling Listen Again via "smarts" in August was simply vain and issued from a bygone era!

CrunchBang Pipe Menu (1 reply)

Kronalias — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 14:30:06 +0000

Johnraff has made a nifty little openbox pipe menu script that gets its data from the Beebotron. Nice one!

It's HERE.

Geek Jokes (32 replies)

Janaru — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 21:41:59 +0100

Two antennas met on a roof, fell in love and got married. The ceremony wasn’t much, but the reception was excellent.

------------------

Two hydrogen atoms walk into a bar.
One says, “I think I’ve lost an electron.”
The other says, “Are you sure?”
The first replies, “Yes, I’m positive…”

------------------

A neutron walks into a bar and orders a drink. Upon being asked the price, the bartender responded, “For you? No charge.

------------------

If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the precipitate!

------------------

Why did the chicken cross the Möbius strip? To get to the same side.

------------------

A tachyon gets kicked out of a bar. The bartender says “we don’t serve your type!”. A tachyon walks into a bar.

BBC - Spoilsports! (20 replies)

Kronalias — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 10:31:18 +0000

The Beeb are considering encrypting HD content - looky HERE.

Oh dear 1.
I've only had my dvb-t2 Nanostick for a few weeks (isn't Frozen Planet just brilliant in HD?) , and I'd be extremely miffed to lose BBC HD!
Luckily, I don't think the Beeb are changing their streams so with a bit of luck this won't affect me.

My new toy - THIS - should arrive tomorrow. And I'd like it to be able to get HD.
Right now I think I'm OK with the kit as the Beeb aren't changing their streams so this won't affect me. At first glance it looks as if Auntie's trying to cripple the EPG data. If I've read it right then it's yet another BBC foot shot, as what it seems to do is cripple people who've bought off-the-shelf boxes that can't deal with any change in the electronic programme guide. Whereas it leaves those of us who roll our own completely free to do whatever is necessary to get around the problem. Which I bet won't be much - it might take as much as half an hour to sort it :>1

Auntie, it looks as if you're going to mess up royally. Yet again. When *will* you ever learn?

Oh dear 2.
No thanks, Auntie, I don't want a consultancy contract.

Is it down? (4 replies)

PAW — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 12:27:30 +0100

When you can't get to a site one of the questions you ask is whether it's down for everyone or just you.

There's a useful website, Is It Down?, which checks for you.

A question for all (20 replies)

ricklous — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:40:48 +0100

Hello everyone,

A technical question...if you don't understand it, don't worry, just means you're not responsible!

Is anyone here using Yahoo Pipes on the Beebotron?

Ta,
Rick

Tech-ish Blog Posts.... (42 replies)

Janaru — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 00:20:06 +0000

Thought I'd put the more tech and R&D based blog posts here in case anyone's interested...

From the BBC Internet blog...

BBC Blue Room at Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin

From BBC Research & Development blog...

Design development of a programme list prototype

Beebotron on a iphone (1 reply)

Peaknaze — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 20:32:35 +0100

I am finally considering consigning my Axim PDA to the museum and moving to an ipod.
Does anyone know whether the Beebotron links will work on this or will I have to use the Beep Iplayer.

I will certainly miss the beebotron if the links do not work:(

How to play Beebotron links on an Android mobile ? (8 replies)

halifax555 — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 18:29:06 +0000

When I click on the program links my Android phone needs to load a "player" I have tried many of the ones on the Android market but all have failed. Suggestions welcome.

RadioListings is currently up (tu) (8 replies)

PAW — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 00:06:20 +0100

Just had a call from the hosting company I use for RadioListings - in their terms and conditions is a rule saying all folders/directories can only hold 1024 files and I'm violating it.

That the site was breaking the rule from the first day it was launched * didn't matter.

So currently it's down and nothing other than the front page is accessable.

I'm trying to think of ways to divide the information into smaller groups -

the images folder needs to have a lot removed, so that's no problem;

the dates folder could be divided into years, so the path would be something like www.radiolistings.co.uk/dates/2011/06.html;

the cast pages could be given alphabetic folders, I don't think there's any letter that could hit the limit, and that path would be www.radiolistings.co.uk/candc/w/wells_paul.html;

but the programmes, that's the tricky one, a simple alphabetical division wouldn't work, and I don't really want to go the route of making it too many levels down.

Any ideas?

* though I don't know whether that's really true, as there's no way of knowing what the terms were when I originally signed up.

iPlayer dismisses radio show as 'b011ckxs' (6 replies)

Forget_It — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 08:40:16 +0100

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06/03/b011ckxs/

Episode 7 of the 74th series of Radio 4's The News Quiz:

[www.bbc.co.uk]b011ckxs/The_News_Quiz_Series_74_Episode_7/

BBC messing about with their streams. (6 replies)

anotherbob — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 14:53:39 +0100

I use Internet radios around the house (mostly using RECIVA). Last week the BBC programmes became available as AAC streams but only briefly. They've disappeared again, but since then the WMA streams have been having split-second breaks every few seconds (10 seconds, up to a minute). I've had to dig an old AM portable out of the shed to get Radio 5 Live.
I know it's not just me because the same thing has been raised in other forums. I can't find a BBC email address to complain to. Anyone here help?

BBC ID login not operational this morning? (12 replies)

Russ — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 22:19:07 +0100

I can't login to the BBC at the moment - seems like the login system has either been disabled or something's gone wrong. Anyone else having a problem?

Russ

A possible change to the RadioListings navigation menus (6 replies)

PAW — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:22:47 +0100

I've been playing about with drop-down menus for another project and I've put together an example of a RadioListings page that uses it.

Here's a test page, if you want to compare it the current page is here.

I must admit that I spent far longer on it than I expected, there's a bug in Internet Explorer which meant the drop-down list was disappearing behind the other objects, and when I found the work-around I'd hacked my original files so much that I had to go back to some original ones which look a bit basic.

Anyway, take a look and see whether it improves things.

Help! (3 replies)

IvorThirst — Thu, 05 May 2011 14:44:21 +0100

This week, the Nottingham transmitter has done away with analogue output. As I have digital Freeview, I wasn't to worried. However, I now find, after the obligatory retune, that I have lost the digital transmissions for ITV, Channel4 and Channel5, not to mention Dave and one or two others. Has anyone else had the same problems or any ideas on what to do?

The Grand Phorum Spring Clean ... (6 replies)

Kronalias — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 05:58:29 +0100

... will probably confuse, annoy and otherwise irritate people.

Anyway, I've had a stab at renaming and restructuring the Phorums to try to make it a bit easier to know where things are.
Or aren't.
Or should be.
World without end, amen.

If you don't like the revamp then please either:

(a) Shout here.

or

(b) Blame Jan and Tru. Don't blame Ivor, as he's still skiving.

MP3 editor? (23 replies)

PAW — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:51:32 +0000

Anyone know of a good mp3 editor, which cuts the files at the frames?

The old standard Manns MP3 Edit no longer runs on my desktop and I don't really waqnt to keep an old machine just for one task.

Last.fm without the Inactivity Bear (+ Stream to Internet Radio) (1 reply)

Kronalias — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 20:35:04 +0000

This post isn't quite right for the 'Downloading Programmes (Hypothetically)' phorum, but I guess it's close enough.

The downside of this is that it's Linux only. The upside is that it seems to work perfectly. I haven't got a clue as to whether it works outside the UK. Anyway, let's get on with it...

Last.fm is, without doubt, a brilliant composite of media playing and audio scrobbling. It works, and it works well. It's here ... Last.fm ... and you can get a free account by going to the site.

The downside, however, is that Last.fm has recently brought into play a nasty little Inactivity Bear popup.

Now Nasty Ol' Bear pops up if you're using Last.fm and haven't clicked anything in their site for a while. 'A while' means six hours if you're paying for the service, or 45 minutes if you're using it gratis. He says words to the effect:

"Hi! You seem to be sitting on Last.fm and not doing anything with the site other than listening to music!
So I'll put a stop to that until you click my annoying popup"

So I thought ... if I click something every 44 minutes then I'd avoid NOB. Yup, that works. But I got bored, just kinda sitting there watching the clock and waiting to click.

So I thought ... what about getting something to do the clicking for me?

Right now the script works for me, off a 1280 x 800 laptop. You'll need to change the script (the instructions are inside it) if your monitor is different. Which it will be. However, anybody who reads through the README and makes any sense of it will be able to hack the underlying precepts.

Good luck, comments welcomed, it's here: LINKY

K

Downloading BBC iPlayer using RTMPdump (30 replies)

Ed — Fri, 11 May 2012 21:12:07 +0100

How to use RTMPdump.exe with the BBC iPlayer for radio -

I use RTMPdump v2.1d (running Windows 98):
[rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu]

One general point, first. The -o (output) option is chosen by you, the user. You can call the output file whatever you like. If you leave it as the default that I've chosen, do re-name the file to something more useful as soon as you've finished downloading it! Otherwise, the next file you download will overwrite (delete) it!

The colours of the text are only to help you understand what I've done. Don't expect a batch file (a plain text Notepad file with the extension .bat instead of .txt) to contain anything except black-and-white text!

To use this type of Batch file, you may need extra initial DOS memory. So right-click on the .BAT file and select 'Create Shortcut'. Then right-click on the shortcut (a .PIF file), select 'Properties', and on the Memory tab in the 'Initial environment' box select at least 1024 KB of memory, or preferably select 4096; then click on 'Apply'. Then double-click that shortcut PIF in order to run the Batch file.

These are FLV files (an aac encoded audio file, wrapped in an MP4 audio container, all contained in an FLV wrapper). FLV files can be played using GOM Player: [www.filehippo.com]

A. For the highest quality MP4 Audio (MP4 or M4A) file

Use the following command line -

rtmpdump --protocol 0 --host bbcmedia.fcod.llnwd.net -a path?as=data&av=data&te=data&mp=data&et=data&fmta-token=data -y mp4:URL/filename.mp4 -o file_mp4.flv

The parts comprising the -a (or --app) element must be incorporated in it in the order shown above, as the sequence in which its parts are received by the RTMP server is critical.

The authentication strings (et= and fmta-token=) contain session information, so will change on each fresh connection made to the server (which in practice typically means they will expire if a new session is begun, not literally on every attempt to resume a connection), but the other elements will not usually vary from session to session.

In the examples, below, you need to alter the et= string and the fmta-token= string in every session. And you also need to alter the mp= and the identifier= strings, but only once for each radio programme (those latter two stay the same for that particular radio show all week).

B. For an MP3 file

Use this command line -

rtmpdump --protocol 0 --host bbcmedia.edgefcs.net -a ondemand?auth=data&aifp=data&slist=data -y mp3:URL/filename -o file_mp3.flv

As before, the parts comprising the -a (or --app) element must be incorporated in it in the order shown above, as the sequence in which its parts are received by the RTMP server is critical.

The authentication string (auth=) contains session information, so will change on each fresh connection made to the server (typically, if a new session is begun, e.g. the computer is restarted, not literally on every attempt to resume a connection). The other elements will not usually vary from session to session.

In the examples, below, you need to alter the auth= string in every session. And you also need to alter the slist= and the identifier= strings, but only once for each radio programme (those latter two stay the same for that particular radio show all week).

Note - The above describes the simplified form, whereby the stream is first saved to the user's hard disk, to be played back thereafter in a media player capable of playing an FLV encoded file (H.263 or H.264 encoding), such as GOM Player. If it's desired, instead, to play the stream directly from the RTMP server, I don't know how to do that.

The Radio iPlayer in practice

Here are two examples, from the BBC's Radio iPlayer. Both of these are for an on-demand ('Listen Again') file. These examples can't be used with a Live stream.

(NB: In principle these would be similar with a TV show, but in practice TV is rather more complicated because there can be up to six bitstreams to deal with at each step. Also, a 50 minute TV show will result in a download of up to 800MB as compared with 30MB for a 30 minute radio show.)

First, get the URL of the page that plays the radio show you want from this page -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules

Second, open the Playlist page (replace the 8 zero's with the 8 digit ID number from the URL of the page that plays the radio show in question):-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/playlist/00000000

Third, open the Media Selector page (replace the 8 zero's with the 8 digit Identifier from the Playlist page), as the Media Selector page contains all the information needed below:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/4/mtis/stream/00000000

To resume an interrupted download, add the option --resume to the command.

A. The highest quality on-demand stream: AAC in MP4A in FLV -

In the Media Selector page, find the section marked bitrate="128" and encoding="aac". All the details come from that section.

This is the contents of my .BAT batch file (you will change all the BLUE text) -

SET mp=bbc7/secure_auth/modem/RBN2_bbc7_-_wednesday_1300_b006v244_2010_08_25_13_00_33.mp4,bbc7/secure_auth/RBN2_bbc7_-_wednesday_1300_b006v244_2010_08_25_13_00_06.mp4

SET et=1282760597

SET fmta-token=7d9c1938f53e65d3a30a0d9e313a917d580ec0055ecfa5b9d45bb35dc1aa7593

SET identifier=mp4:bbc7/secure_auth/RBN2_bbc7_-_wednesday_1300_b006v244_2010_08_25_13_00_33.mp4

rtmpdump --protocol 0 --host bbcmedia.fcod.llnwd.net -a a1414/e3?as=adobe-hmac-sha256&av=1&te=connect&mp=%mp%&et=%et%&fmta-token=%fmta-token% -y %identifier% -o output_mp4a.flv

Note - Batch files are explained at http://www.computerhope.com/batch.htm

B. The MP3 on-demand stream: MP3 in FLV -

In the Media Selector page, find the section marked bitrate="128" and encoding="mp3". All the details come from that section.

This is the contents of my .BAT batch file (you will change all the BLUE text) -

set server=cp48188.edgefcs.net
set auth=daEdwabaccObnascHdZbCb4d7cxcRanc5bf-bmI9Jl-bWG-DnmDCpwoIBvGqzD
set aifp=v001
set slist=secure/bbc7/RBN2_bbc7_-_saturday_1000_b005yg5q_2010_09_11_12_36_00
set identifier=mp3:secure/bbc7/RBN2_bbc7_-_saturday_1000_b005yg5q_2010_09_11_12_36_00

rtmpdump --protocol 0 --host %server% -a ondemand?auth=%auth%&aifp=%aifp%&slist=%slist% -y %identifier% -o output_mp3.flv

C. The MP4 live stream: AAC in MP4 in FLV -

For the live stream, you only need the Media Selector page.

To open the Media Selector page you use a special name for the radio station, instead of using the 8-digit ID number (because, unlike the individual radio programmes, the station name always stays the same). The station names are:-

bbc_radio_one
bbc_radio_two
bbc_radio_three
bbc_radio_fourfm
bbc_radio_five_live
bbc_6music
bbc_7

This is the Media Selector page's URL address (you replace the BLUE text with the station name, then paste the result into the Address line of your browser) -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/4/mtis/stream/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When the Media Selector page opens, find the section marked bitrate="128" and encoding="aac". All the details come from that section.

This is the contents of my .BAT batch file (you will change all the BLUE text) -

set server=cp60691.live.edgefcs.net
set auth=daEdzb5dMd4bHdzdea4abdBcibXdbaQcud0-bmNFCF-bWG-GosGIqCoIEsHrwI
set slist=Radio_7_UK_Low@s7081;Radio_7_UK@s6464
set identifier=Radio_7_UK@s6464

rtmpdump --live --protocol 0 --host %server% -a live?auth=%auth%&aifp=v001&slist=%slist% --playpath %identifier%?auth=%auth%&aifp=v001&slist=%slist% -o live_mp4.flv

The above example is for Radio 7. For that station, the server is always cp60691.live.edgefcs.net and the identifier is always Radio_7_UK@s6464 so only the auth= and slist= items need to be changed. (If you want to record a different station, say Radio 4, then all four of the set instructions will be different.)

Interesting HDCP leak? (4 replies)

Kronalias — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 04:09:40 +0100

The master key for High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection seems to have been blown.

It was leaked on Twitter earlier today - here, and it's now completely unstoppable - here's the live Twitter feed: Realtime Feed.

I'm not absolutely convinced this is for real yet, but it's going to be interesting... If this is true, then all the content protection on BluRay etc is out of the window (just like CSS was hacked - info here - for DVDs...)

Cheers, K

The Beebotron get_iplayer Download Helper (4 replies)

Kronalias — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 14:29:11 +0100

The Beebotron get_iplayer Download Helper is no more.

Phil Lewis has killed his site off, for the time being at least. Please read this:
http://linuxcentre.net/get_iplayer-dropped-in-response-to-bbcs-lack-of-support-for-open-source

The Beebotron had a script (quite popular, actually!) that allowed people to use his site easily. Phil and I co-operated on this.

I respect Phil greatly, and I am sure that you will understand that if he's pulled his site then I should respect his ethos and pull the Beebotron sites that use his script. So they're now gone.

If Phil returns, then the scripts will return!

Cheers, K

Radio Downloader- a different way (13 replies)

n6tqs — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 05:42:09 +0100

This has been discussed a bi in UMRA, and it looks like the simplest possible way of getting programmes from the BBC.
It seems to work seamlessly, even here on the left coast of left-pondia.

[www.nerdoftheherd.com]

73, doug

A duffer's quick guide to get_iplayer (11 replies)

ralphss8 — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 18:14:47 +0100

The duffer, of course, is me, not you

With the demise of the RA links I came across this board and at the same time get_iplayer.
WTF!! where's the user friendly interface? Help!!
But I've had a quick look and at this stage I can already download my faves in mp3. So here's a very basic howto.

As you will notice it's all command driven. But the good news is that you can get it going with just a few of them and come back to learn more later.
First you need to know what's available. My example is for BBC7 as that's the one I use most but you'll get the idea.
I've assumed that you've installed it to the default c:\program files\get_iplayer

Create a batch file (in notepad?) which I've imaginatively called BBC7.bat

C:
cd "\Program Files\get_iplayer\"
get_iplayer --type=radio --channel="BBC 7" --long > "C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Desktop\BBC7.txt"

Of course you can just type the above into a command window if you don't want to create a batch file.
This will create a text file on your desktop giving you a list of programs available. Open it in Notepad and take a look. Not unlike Beebotron really is it? (:P)

Here's an example from the text file:

Matches:
10013: 4 at the Store: Series 2 - Episode 1, BBC 7, Comedy,Radio,Standup, 1 days 21 hours ago - With host Simon Bligh, Alan Carr, Richard Morton and Gina Yashere. From January 2002.

The important bit is the number 10013.

Now you're ready to download it.

Open a command window and type the following:

c:
cd "\program files\get_iplayer"
get_iplayer --get 10013

Now, as if by magic, your chosen program will appear in your assigned iPlayer download folder. Voila!

OK this is all pretty inelegant but it works. It shows the potential and encourages me to go back and try to do it more efficiently. As for the PVR, well I'll get to that later I expect.

Recording BBC Radio - Help please!! (34 replies)

Montyzuk — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 19:59:23 +0000

Good day.

I’m new here and must immediately apologise for the length of this post, but I’d be grateful if someone can help me with a problem, please.

I’ve been making timer-managed live recordings of BBC radio programs for many years for daily consumption and, having eventually made the transition from tape to digital (Real Player) via the internet, I was delighted to come across the Beebotron (All Hail, mighty Kron!), which I’ve found to be particularly useful, especially for accessing Listen Again files.

Alas, the BBC’s inexorable move away from Real files is now causing me a difficulty, which I would welcome some guidance in solving.

This is my current recording scheme…

• Using Replay AV8, I schedule a week’s worth of programmes to record in real time, using the live stream .asx URLs obtained via Beebotron3.

• I use filenames in this format… 1R4 1130, which translates as… Monday, Radio 4, 11.30am. The date of recording is automatically added by Replay AV8. This is so that I can create multiple playlists for my Microsoft Zune 80Gb mp3 player that can be sorted easily in chronological order. (This is necessary to limit play-length time so as not to drain the Zune’s battery too soon overnight. Also, Microsoft have prohibited drag&drop in Windows and the world’s best Zune-ites have been unable to crack the firmware!)

• The recorded files are then copied into a holding folder and their .asf extensions are batch-converted to .mp3 using Leeos freeware utility - http://www.leeos.com/rename_extensions.html (This works a treat, though if files are played in Media Player an incompatibility warning pops up, though this can be ignored.)

• The files are then copied to the Zune via Microsoft’s clunky but obligatory interface.

This system worked splendidly for .rm files (converted to .mp3 via Replay Converter), but the Zune software is now messing about with the filenames. Sometimes they transfer as I’ve devised them, sometimes the radio programme title appears in the “Song” list, and sometimes it’s just the station name, e.g “BBC Radio4 FM”. The last two don’t include date & time info, so I’m unable to sort the list to make chronological playlists. This is my problem.

I realise that this isn’t actually a Beebotron issue, but it is a Radio one and this is the only audio forum I know of that isn’t populated by mindless music-heads, most of whom seem unable to comprehend why someone would not want to plug in to a costly automated music drip-feed system, let alone listen to speech radio, so I hope you can help, please. (I would ask Zune, but they don’t support Zune players in the UK and the various Zune message boards show nothing close to practical use in this context.)

If there’s a better recording scheme out there, perhaps based upon the Beebotron, that’s maybe simpler to use and will still enable me to listen on my Zune in date order, that would be the ideal solution. Here’s hoping.

Oh, and best to presume I’m technically bereft ...’cos I am.

Thanks in anticipation…

Monty (UK)

Slow .wma downloads as of the last few days (9 replies)

n6tqs — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:02:01 +0000

I can't really complain, but as of a few days ago, the .wma servers seem to have changed (for me), and downloads are taking about half the real-time length of the program. I'm getting speeds of 12 kb/sec. The .ra servers seem to running full speed, though.

For a while there seemed to be 4 choices for the download, but now there's only two. I suspect we're being bandwidth- limited, maybe only to non-UK addresses.

Is anyone else seeing such behavior? Is there any way of determining if this is deliberate? Or some sort of failure? Or something else? I realize that I'm probably over the line on the "allowed" use of the LA website.