Topic: Download BBC iPlayer videos

[Terry de Niro]

Are there any programmes you can use to download BBC iPlayer videos and the likes permanently
 to your hard drive?
I know there are numerous ones that do youtube and the likes.

Ta in advance.   

[SP]

Get_iplayer used to be the dogs, but I suspect it is no longer updated.

[SP]

https://github.com/get-iplayer/get_iplayer_win32/releases/tag/2.97.0

[Terry de Niro]

https://github.com/get-iplayer/get_iplayer_win32/releases/tag/2.97.0

Good man...   

[Paisley79]

Is there an equivalent program for Sky Go and/or 4OD?

[killer-heels]

So...how does this work? Any manuals that explains how to work this?

[Gili Gulu]

So...how does this work? Any manuals that explains how to work this?

https://squarepenguin.co.uk/guides/

[Red Raw]

So...how does this work? Any manuals that explains how to work this?

Various features that used to work natively (like search) have been eroded as iplayer itself has changed but the core functionality is still excellent.  You need to be able to use the command line interface, but for simple downloads there are probably only two commands you will ever need.

I tend to find the program on iplayer first and extract the PID number from the url e.g. from MOTD:
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08c7vmx/the-fa-cup-201617-third-round-replay-highlights

Armed with the PID, launch get iplayer which opens a command window. My 'go to' command would then be:

Code: [Select]

get_iplayer --pid=b08c7vmx --modes=best
This downloads the program at the highest quality available (generally 720p).  Sometimes our internet is so poor that we cannot stream HD content directly so the option to download is really useful.

The other command that might be useful is to change the default directory where stuff gets saved.  For Windows this would look something like:

Code: [Select]

--prefs-add --output "C:\Users\Red_Raw\Videos\BBC iPlayer"
Just plonk your own preferred path into double quotes.

[BER]

Various features that used to work natively (like search) have been eroded as iplayer itself has changed but the core functionality is still excellent.  You need to be able to use the command line interface, but for simple downloads there are probably only two commands you will ever need.

I tend to find the program on iplayer first and extract the PID number from the url e.g. from MOTD:
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08c7vmx/the-fa-cup-201617-third-round-replay-highlights

Armed with the PID, launch get iplayer which opens a command window. My 'go to' command would then be:

Code: [Select]

get_iplayer --pid=b08c7vmx --modes=best
This downloads the program at the highest quality available (generally 720p).  Sometimes our internet is so poor that we cannot stream HD content directly so the option to download is really useful.

The other command that might be useful is to change the default directory where stuff gets saved.  For Windows this would look something like:

Code: [Select]

--prefs-add --output "C:\Users\Red_Raw\Videos\BBC iPlayer"
Just plonk your own preferred path into double quotes.

thanks for this. very handy to have.

[Red Raw]

thanks for this. very handy to have.

The program eventually got broke by the changes BBC made to iplayer itself.  This seemed to be about the same time as they introduced the forced sign-in.

Another effect was that iplayer stopped working altogether on my Samsung telly which was a right pain.

Thankfully the excellent open source community have managed to work around the BBC changes and have restored get_iplayer to its former glory. If you haven't already, you therefore need to download the latest version from the Git Hub link above.

There is now a warning about having a TV license and I find that the program detects my VPN and won't download even if I am connected to a UK based server.

Other than that there don't seem to be any fundamental changes to the way it works, although I notice that the highest quality version is selected by default now so the 'modes' command should not be necessary.

Another handy feature is the option  to give a comma separated list of two or more pid codes to download several programs one after another - great if your internet is shite as you can leave it chuntering away if you are out/asleep.

[Paisley79]

Is there a similar programme for Netflix / Amazon? Or Channel 4?