[Nottingham] BBC iPlayer - browser whitelist?

David Aldred david at familyaldred.org.uk
Fri Nov 7 18:04:06 UTC 2008


Has anyone heard anything about the BBC having a browser whitelist?

The problem: On my main system (Sidux, Iceweasel 3.0.3, about:plugins reports 
libflashplayer.so, Shockwave Flash 9.0 r124), if I go to the iPlayer site and 
click on any programme, I get a black (well, very dark grey) screen with the 
iPlayer logo and navigations tabs across the top, the programme name some way 
down and links to other programmes and general footer stuff at the bottom.  
It worked fine a few weeks ago - I don't use it all that often so can't be 
sure exactly when. 

On the Aspire One (Firefox 2.0.0.14, same libflashplayer identified) I get the 
expected programme available to play.

Investigating further, if I use the User Agent Switcher to say I'm using IE7  
or Opera, it works.

So it looks as though the BBC won't serve iPlayer stuff to Iceweasel - can 
anyone confirm/deny this before I email them to ask what's going on? 

(I actually usually use get_iplayer rather than viewing stuff direct, as more 
often than not someone else in the house wants to watch it at a different 
time and I like to preserve bandwith!   However it'd nice to have the option 
without having to fiddle with user agents!

-- 
David Aldred



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