[Wolves] BBC IPlayer

[Alan Pope]

On Thu, Dec 13, 2007 at 09:23:51PM +0000, Stuart Langridge wrote:
> > Sorry, not the download. Although it is promised that will be available
> > soon.
> 
> Tragically, there seems to be no API for it, which means that I can't
> just get a simple list of available programmes without
> screen-scraping. Unless I've missed something?
> 

Assuming you wanted to grab the data and store it somehow for archival 
purposes..

Having a bit of a poke about...

If you go to a programme web page the flash plugin goes off to get an XML 
file using a URL such as:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/3/stream/check/iplayer?pid=b0072svq

(the pid you can get from the source of the page containing the flash 
plugin)

The XML file you get looks like this:-

<stream version="0.1">
<server>cp41752.edgefcs.net</server>
<identifier>secure/b00072svq-streaming65484154</identifier>
<subtitleUrl/>
<token>
daEdibId9aWd0bNdgcBcKdzcQbsbhb3cAb4-bhyBr.-cCp-JopGBnEqHCwHtyJ
</token>
</stream>

So it looks like the flash doofer then scuttles off to some web farm machine 
"cp41752..." with a path and some pre-negotiated token, and that server 
delivers the content.

Unfortunately it's not as simple as wgetting that :)

alan at eee:~$ telnet cp41752.edgefcs.net
Trying 62.41.56.174...
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused
alan at eee:~$ telnet cp41752.edgefcs.net 80
Trying 62.41.56.174...
Connected to a122.vi5g1.akafms.net.
Escape character is '^]'.
GET http://cp41752.edgefcs.net/secure/b00072svq-streaming65484154
Connection closed by foreign host.

I guess you would need ot watch the stream with tcpdump/ethereal/wireshark 
to see what's really happening. Unfortunately, a few glasses of wine under, 
right now that's beyond me. :)

Cheers,
Al.