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get_iplayer - the iPlayer scraping app.


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get_iplayer grabs both television and radio programmes from the BBC iPlayer so you can keep them offline and without time limit. Essentially the small app just uses a little Perl to copy the process the embedded players uses, and then just saves the files locally.

https://github.com/get-iplayer/get_iplayer/wiki/installation

https://github.com/get-iplayer/get_iplayer/wiki/documentation

It works on *nix, mac and win - and considering it's Perl I can't see any issue regarding it working on Android or iOS too although I have not seen ports of it.

How does it work? Either through a rather clunky PVR web based front end or, my preferred option, through the command line.

Let's say for example you really liked the recent Blue Planet and want to watch it at your leisure. Fine, no problem, you can play it direct through the embedded player or download it and access it later (again using the embedded player) - however there is a time limit on this (normally 30 days or so).

The link for the first episode is this...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p04thmv7/blue-planet-ii-series-1-1-one-ocean

The programme ID is p04thmv7. Once you have installed get_iplayer you simply use that ID to request the file, something like this...

DKoEFNk.jpg

 

Small legal caveat:

As you pay your licence fee it is entirely legal to download stuff like this. Technically you are doing exactly the same thing as the iPlayer does.
You do need to have a TV licence, as you are meant to for watching any iPlayer stuff.

Like the iPlayer you are not able to download from outside the UK (this is an IP restriction based on the BBC servers and cannot be got around by this program alone).

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5 hours ago, Kennboy1978 said:

Used this for a few years on both Linux and Windows. Just downloaded Two Doors Down to send to my step daughter in NZ.

I tend to use it to grab radio series', for example the Gaiman/Pratchett "Good Omens". I've read the book and even have the unabridged audio book, but the Radio 4 Extra version is a 6 part dramatisation starring the excellent Mark Heap and Peter Serafinowicz. You can't find that to buy even if you wanted to, so scraping the iPlayer is the only way to grab it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04knt4h

Interestingly the tv version is due soon.. http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2017/good-omens-first-look

 

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