Downloading BBC radio programs now Radio Downloader is gone?

[JimShortz]

To get full access to iplayer just use the Chrome and Firefox add-on Hola. There is no need to pay for a vpn...

Hola gives you access to lots of stuff, check it out... Not illegal as far as I can see.

[WorriedNoodle]

To get full access to iplayer just use the Chrome and Firefox add-on Hola. There is no need to pay for a vpn...

Hola gives you access to lots of stuff, check it out... Not illegal as far as I can see.

Maybe I am not understanding you or you me? But where on the iplayer web site is there an option to download the program to listen to at any period of time in future? The purpose of this thread subject?

[Digitalbanana]

Since Radio Downloader no longer supports BBC radio streaming downloads (and I have the original version that did BBC streaming download- but now no longer works with error message), can anyone say why get_iplayer still works OK. Did the BBC change something? Did get_iplayer get upgraded to handle the changes? My apologies for not understanding this?

** Second point, can anyone suggest the get_iplayer command line input to download a radio program to 128kbps mp3 standard? I haven't been able to find this in the user help, but been a bit busy and previously spoiled by the ease of use of Radio Downloader!

Many thanks for any tips here please.

[KittenKong]

RadioDownloader does still support BBC radio downloads, at least if you have a version older than the current one which has had the function disabled at the request of the BBC.

The only problem with RadioDownloader is that it no longer caches the programme feed correctly and so cannot reliably find the programmes that are targeted for download, hence the error. Get-iplayer doesnt have this problem, presumably because the technique it uses to cache the feed is more robust.

Not sure why you are using the command-line to control get-iplayer. The web interface is much easier and you will find the quality option you need on the "recording" tab.

The help file explains the various possibilities.

https://github.com/dinkypumpkin/get_iplayer/wiki/manpage#wiki-recording-options

mp3vbr being the setting you need, I think. Seems a shame to voluntarily reduce the quality from the broadcast AAC though.

[Digitalbanana]

RadioDownloader does still support BBC radio downloads, at least if you have a version older than the current one which has had the function disabled at the request of the BBC.

The only problem with RadioDownloader is that it no longer caches the programme feed correctly and so cannot reliably find the programmes that are targeted for download, hence the error. Get-iplayer doesnt have this problem, presumably because the technique it uses to cache the feed is more robust.

Not sure why you are using the command-line to control get-iplayer. The web interface is much easier and you will find the quality option you need on the "recording" tab.

The help file explains the various possibilities.

https://github.com/dinkypumpkin/get_iplayer/wiki/manpage#wiki-recording-options

mp3vbr being the setting you need, I think. Seems a shame to voluntarily reduce the quality from the broadcast AAC though.

Thanks for the get-iplayer recording options link. I will give that a try when I get time.

As for Radio Downloader, I have and was using ver 0.26.2.0, which did work until about 3 weeks ago and now when I try to download any program with it get message "There was an unknown error encountered fetching the list of available episodes" with an option to send error report to the software provider who no longer supports it. I presume therefore that since the same version of software worked previously on BBC downloads, it now doesn't because something has changed on the BBC site since nothing has changed on the software.

[KittenKong]

As I mentioned, the problem that RadioDownloader has is to do with the caching of the programme details (and if it is still installed and running it may be generating a very large http cache file indeed in your appdata/nerdoftheherd folder).

I suspect that the BBC did make some minor change to the way they output the data which upset RadioDownloader but which get-iplayer was not bothered about.

[Digitalbanana]

Thanks for the good feedback KK. I have since deleted Radio Downloader from my PC as its now pretty useless for my needs without the download option for non podcast stuff.

Unfortunately, I cannot say much different for get-iplayer so far but perhaps as I am a novice, need more guidance? The main problems I am currently having with get-iplayer include the following:

1. Whenever I download a BBC radio program using either the get-iplayer command line or web UI the message always displays program download complete, when it is far from the truth, and stops downloading at any time. Is there a way to continue the download from where it left off or keep it running should the internet link briefly break?

2. Most importantly, I have noticed when downloading the download speed seems to be nothing faster than the stream broadcast speed? So a 2 hour radio program might take two hours to download. With Radio Downloader it only took about 10 minutes - how did it do that I wonder? Am I missing a setting where I can speed things up with get-iplayer?

Without either of above working I will just have to go back to recording live through the sound card which is a pain.

[KittenKong]

I cant comment on the command-line of get-iplayer as I only use the web interface.

My downloads never fail, and they take about the same time as they did in RadioDownloader.

I did initially have a problem with get-iplayer trying to download programmes that were currently still being broadcast (ie were not yet available on the BBC listen-again website) and these would indeed download more slowly (real time) and would often fail.

The answer to this is to put a number of hours (I put 6) in the "PVR hold-off" section of the recording options. It solves the problem completely for me.

I should perhaps add that all my downloads are done exclusively from the PVR page from saved searches.

Edited July 20, 2013 by KittenKong

[Digitalbanana]

I am still struggling with get_iplayer, but I will persevere. I never give up!.

In mean time I have also found another ALTERNATIVE to the much missed Radio Downloader program for downloading that just works, is simple (even I could use it!) and it downloads anything off the BBC in a fraction the time it takes to stream the program. Works for TV as well. I don't know if it has PVR and series download capability however.

http://www.wftpd.com/ifetch.html

I used rtmpdump and ffmpeg to rapidly download the radio program and convert to 128kbits mp3. Took about 10 minutes for a 2 hour radio show.

[KittenKong]

I had a look at that but I really dont like how the setup programme downloads and installs the actual programme(s). This is insecure and it could be doing anything at all. Maybe I will try it in a sandbox.

According to the documentation it does indeed have "series link" functionality.

For get_iplayer, I think you would find it much simpler to use the web interface. Even I wouldnt bother with the command line version and I'm a professional coder. Get_iplayer does work perfectly for me, and is suitably rapid. The code is available to all and sundry for inspection and so it is unlikely to harbour anything nasty.

[rubberduck]

You can also request an invite for thebox.biz and download thousands of radioshows from there. screenshot: http://i2.minus.com/icMoNOOy9F7Es.png

[Digitalbanana]

I had a look at that but I really dont like how the setup programme downloads and installs the actual programme(s). This is insecure and it could be doing anything at all. Maybe I will try it in a sandbox.

According to the documentation it does indeed have "series link" functionality.

For get_iplayer, I think you would find it much simpler to use the web interface. Even I wouldnt bother with the command line version and I'm a professional coder. Get_iplayer does work perfectly for me, and is suitably rapid. The code is available to all and sundry for inspection and so it is unlikely to harbour anything nasty.

I would agree with your assessment of iFetch, and in the period where I just haven't got the time to learn get-iplayer, I have also been using Replay Media Catcher (ver 4 can be found on the web torrent sites) but ver 5 has to be paid for. With ver 4 that I have, the downloads can be effected much the ame way using RTMP and converting to mp3. This is another alternative to Radio Downloader, so at least there are alternatives.

[KittenKong]

It shouldnt take more than about 15 minutes to install get_iplayer and configure it. It isnt very hard.

[Digitalbanana]

Yes indeed. It seems all I needed to do was reinstall the get_iplayer as it just wasn't working properly. Now it is and very very fast indeed - just got a three hour radio show in 3 minutes. This is now my preferred choice by far for BBC stuff. All the rest is done with Replay Media Catcher.

[Digitalbanana]

Question on get-iplayer WEB PVR:

Can it output to mp3 if the downloaded content is only available as m4a? The cmd line get-iplayer version can do it with --aactomp3, but I cannot seem to fathom how its done on WEB version??

Even tho m4a is better(?) format, most of our players still only read mp3 - that's why I ask.

[KittenKong]

Looks like you just need to add --aactomp3 in the recording mode box. The transcoding is then done in the same way. The web GUI is only that: a GUI which sends the command lines for you. So there's no real difference.

http://squarepenguin.co.uk/wiki/modes/

Cant be sure though as I always want the highest possible quality and the least amount of transcoding, which means I keep the original AAC as extracted from the m4a file.