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Re: BBC iplayer

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MarkMay 8, 2016

Update.

To test whether iPlayer reduces sound quality for overseas countries, I turned on my VPN ('Private Internet Access') and told it I was in London.

I downloaded this week's Desert Island Discs (Tom Hanks). Internet Download Manager (which I use to grab iPlayer files) reported that the audio source file was 96 Kbps.

The audio file came in an FLV container with an AAC LC-SBR stereo audio stream.

The FLV file size was 30.53 MB for 43 minutes of audio.

The reported sample rate of the audio stream was 48 Kbps (not 44.1 as I said before) at 16 bits per sample (DVD quality).

I ripped the audio from the FLV using Abyssmedia's 'FLV to MP3 converter' (but chose WAV instead of MP3 to prevent loss of quality due to compression).

The resultant uncompressed WAV file was 470.8 MB.

Saved as losslessly-compressed FLAC file, it was 271 MB.

Lossy-compressed MP3 was 58.86 MB.

As an experiment, I downloaded the same file again with the VPN turned off and the file's size and sample rate were exactly the same as when the VPN was turned on.

So it seems that the supposed country of download does not affect download quality. At least in this case. It would be interesting to hear from other countries.

Mark

P.S. When I saw that this week's DID was Tom Hanks I shuddered because DID often replays old episodes of people who have just died.

Sometimes I see a DID name like Victoria Wood and think, "Oh, goody. She has just done DID so she must still be doing well. I was wondering about her" ... and then I find she died yesterday.

Now before I download a DID broadcast, I google the obits to find out which case it is.

On 9 May 2016 at 11:54, Mark <mark@...> wrote:
In Australia I get 44.1 KHz sampling at 16 bit sample size (CD quality) - and this is without using an anonymous proxy to disguise my location.

Are then any Poms out there who can attest to the quality they get from iPlayer?

On 9 May 2016 at 11:38, James R Curry scratchy@... [just-a-minute] <just-a-minute@...> wrote:

I'm not sure if this is still the case or not, but in my experience the Radio iPlayer servers content at a lower bitrate if you're outside of the UK.

On Sun, May 8, 2016 at 8:28 PM, Mark sirnylon@... [just-a-minute] <just-a-minute@...> wrote:

Indeed, a VPN can bypass arbitrary regional limits (e.g. for iPlayer TV content), but surely iPlayer's radio content is available worldwide.

I'm sure other Muricans on this list have referred to getting iPlayer radio shows.

On 9 May 2016 at 04:05, golux@... [just-a-minute] <just-a-minute@...> wrote:

INFORMATION for our colonial cousins who may be languishing in the remoter corners of the Empire:

Listeners around the world can always gain access to the UK iPlayer content by presenting themselves as coming from a fake UK address, through a VPN or some kind of proxy. These services are available in various degrees of legality, both free and fee-paying: ask Google.

--

Audio instructions - http://b9fx.com/jamhelp.mp3

Mark

--
James R Curry
scratchy@...

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Audio instructions - http://b9fx.com/jamhelp.mp3

Mark

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Audio instructions - http://b9fx.com/jamhelp.mp3

Mark

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