Well there are a few things that annoy me. One of them is the BBC failing to negotiate a suitable deal with Microsoft to offer iPlayer(UK) services to Xbox360 users (When PS3 users have this feature freely). Well the BBC are not entirely to blame. Since the reason they are not integrating their iPlayer services into Xbox Live is because apparently Microsoft want the BBC to only provide iPlayer services to "Gold Users". I didn't mind that until recently. Usually at least BBC would offer a DRM WMV file you could download (Which is Microsoft DRM Technology and thus compatible with the Xbox360). But this option has magically vanished overnight? Thanks BBC.. What's even more frustrating is that they offer unencrypted mp4 files for iPhone users. What the...? So BBC will drop their DRM for Apple, I wonder what else they would drop for Apple?
Since BBC are now only offering some encrypted DRM mp4 files which are only available directly from their horrible desktop client. (Which seems like spyware that collects information about what programs you watch by the way, but that's a story better left for another day). I feel it my ethical responsability to not only inform the British public of this outrage but demonstrate how (for experimental purposes) you can download iplayer content without DRM and then watch it on any device of your choice.
You can probably guess where this is going.
offer unencrypted mp4 files for iPhone users
BBC have made one major mistake. Anyone with technical knowledge of web browsers and http requests would try changing their user-agent string on their browser to what ever the iPhone uses these days - To make their browser appear to be an iPhone. BBC called this "hacking" (which is an amusement in itself).. And eventually "patched this loophole". Well don't give up there, there's more than 1 way to make your computer appear to be an iPhone. I thought about making this software but it appears someone has already done a very good job at that already.
There is one piece of software called "
iDownload". I did not develop this software. This information is already made available on any respectable search engine. This software appears to emulate an iPhone and allow you to grab unencrypted DRM-Free MP4 files (Apple Quicktime playable). Then it's simply a matter of converting your mp4 file to an AVI. There's plenty of software out there to do that though.