BBC iPlayer HD problem

[Martin Brown]

I distinctly recall that BBC iPlayer used to allow live "watch in HD" as an option for BBC1 in the recent past but it seems to have vanished with this new "improved" login with your ID crap. Where has it gone?

What settings must I change to enable full live HD streaming again?

Or it is that the rubbish programmes on at 0820 don't support HD?

Was hoping to watch the match on a big screen this afternoon via projector streaming it from the net. No good at all if not full HD.

I was hoping to test that the system was working now and it isn't :(

Poldark of the BBC1 page seems to offer me HD playback by default but I don't fancy being lynched this afternoon if I can only get an SD feed for the live match on BBC1 iPlayer!

Thanks for any enlightenment...

[dennis]

Do you mean ordinary HD or the experimental UHD that they have been trying? There isn't much point in using the UHD feed on most projectors as they struggle with HD. Does your projector support UHD, if not then please leave the UHD to someone that can use it as they have limited the number of slots available. The UHD is only available on the world cup AFAIK.

[dennis]

BTW the England match isn't on BBC IIRC.

[ARW]

FFS.

Can you get anything correct?

[dennis]

Obviously not with football. But I don't watch it. The wife does and its bloody annoying having her talk about it all the time.

[ARW]

Should have asked her what channel it was on.

[Martin Brown]

You really are the resident clueless f****it aren't you.

And no I mean the standard HD live feed which used to be offered on the iPlayer streaming channel (and looks like it is again from 1905 today).

It used to be the case that selecting a channel available in HD offered you the option to view in HD if the intenet speed was OK. I do still get that option on watch again for Poldark as an example but I do not get anything other than poxy SD when I choose BBC1 or BBC2 live stream.

Now all I get when I follow their FAQ link for HD is a 404 error:

Or no results at all. Does dim Dennis work for the BBC I wonder?

I can still watch Poldark in full HD on demand without problems so this isn't my hardware or the internet link that is causing the problem.

Snag is we want to watch it on an HD projector if possible. Bigger screen is no earthly good if it is an SD picture.

[RJH]

On my web browser (Firefox on a Mac), some programmes have a 'switch' shown beneath the picture if it's available. Similar on the Samsung and LG TV apps.

UHD on the TV is pretty good. I'm not sure if my TV is big enough to appreciate the extra resolution (UHD 43" TV - up close there's maybe more detail over HD, I'm not sure), but the colours through the iPlayer at least look far richer when watching live.

[Andrew]

Number 5 ? (Chanel)

[ARW]

How does the village cope when he is on holiday?

[Andy Burns]

Make sure you're trying to watch a national version of BBC1, rather than a regional one ... then you should get 1280x720 rather than 960x540

[Martin Brown]

It seems to be that they have deliberately degraded the BBC1 live streaming internet feed to 1M7 as opposed to ~3M on BBC2, News and watch on demand Poldark. It makes any kind of fast sports action look rubbish. Native image resolution 960x540 interpolated up doesn't help either.

The BBC1 feed identifies as "1700kbps | dash (II_dash_live_https)" whereas those for BBC channels at decent bandwidth identify as "2908kbps | dash (akmai_dash_live_https)". It takes about 10s to move the the higher speed when first selected. BBC1 never speeds up :(

At this rate we will give up and watch it in true HD on my 47" at home but it is a tremendous disappointment to find that BBC1 HD streaming no longer works reliably when it was once perfectly good. Fine time for them to c*ck it up. What is the point of a non-native HD resolution?

What sort of moron puts sports action onto a low bandwidth stream?

[Lee]

The BBC have changed the encoding method for "efficiency" so effectively you cannot choose any more, it will deliver what it sees is appropriate according to your connection speed.

Now using "Dash" encoding:

[Lee]

Yes, does seem arbitrary, Wimbledon is currently at 5166kbps here for instance.

At a guess, cost saving?

[Martin Brown]

How do you force iPlayer to access the national channel? The BBC HD FAQ is f*cking useless and fails 404.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I am watching it now in what claims to be HD

bbc1_hd|960x450

???

[Dave Plowman (News)]

The sounds is usually louder too. Not sure that makes either correct. ;-)

[Martin Brown]

So it isn't just me that is having problems getting real HD out of the BBC iPlayer site. I think Feedback's is due a rocket over this...

I wouldn't have minded so much if it could manage a 3Mbps stream but

1.7M looks like cartoon Mickey Mouse animation. The tennis on BBC2 was just about acceptable at between 3M & 5M depending on the content.

Their stream for BBC1 was utter crap. I watched it on the sofa in proper satellite HD after going to a fair amount of trouble to setup a full HD capable internet projector off a PC which looked pathetic by comparison.

[Andy Burns]

"change location" close to the bottom of the page

[F]

World Cup and Wimbledon. And it's superb!