Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari

Subject: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 17 Aug 08 - 04:38 AM

Since the BBC "improved" the iPlayer I have only been able to get audio to work by pretending I'm on dial-up. Video works not at all. The BBC "help" department conceded there were "problems" with Safari and recommended that I installed Firefox. Not only does this not work but it seems to have started a conflicts war. Now Safari opens very reluctantly then crashes. I have downloaded the latest version of Safari but it won't install because OSX can't find the bill (whatever that means). Apple "help" are keeping out of it and have not replied. I've got into Mudcat today via Opera but cannot access my Safari bookmarks. And I can only get to my webmail in a limited sort of way via IE (oddly).

Any MacUsers know what to do next?

Subject: RE: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 17 Aug 08 - 06:55 AM

I've had no joy on my Safari either, but no crashes. A lot of the programmes I want to hear don't even offer the dial-up option, but just say "Audio streaming not available", with nary a button to click so they remain inaccessible. But if there's a dial-up button showing, that will usually work. Firefox 3 fares no better, but at least they don't fight.

Which OSX version are you using? I have the last of the Tigers (10.4.11 I think, too lazy to go check) so have no experience of Leopard. I use a MacBook, though I don't think that should make any difference. I also, for my sins, have the Real Player but that doesn't work either, though it has done so in the past, when it supposedly shouldn't have. Might this have something to do with that Quicktime flaw, supposedly patched? Floundering around in the dark, as you can no doubt tell!

There's a story on SlashDot about the BBC iPlayer (which I just mistyped as iPlager) though on a brief scan it doesn't seem to relate to this situation; but SD is a watchdog site, so perhaps something's up. Link here "BBC's Open Player Claims Not Followed Through" http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/08/14/2259214

I-plaguer indeed. If I come up with any brilliant solutions I'll post them, but I probably have more chance of winning the lottery. Andrez? Rowan? Ya out there?

Subject: RE: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: Rowan
Date: 17 Aug 08 - 07:55 PM

Greetings Bonnie,
The last time I tried BBC's iPlayer was a while ago and it was unsuccessful on Safari/MacOS 10.4.11; I posted a comment on a Mudcat thread to that effect.

When I tried it was on my work machine, a MacBrick set up to do both Mac and Windows with the Berlin Wall between them. Last week someone wanted to try Firefox and opened it while I had Safari running and, although I shut Firefox down OK and continued with my usual routines successfully, a restart has convinced the brick that Windoze is the only OS available and that isn't working either. Currently I'm connected via my MacBook (set up the same way but I'm leaving suss operations alone 'til I can get the Brick going.

Sorry I can't (yet) be of further help.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: Amos
Date: 17 Aug 08 - 08:06 PM

I think you are probably facing a preferences or permissions conflict.

If Firefox will upload all your own bookmarks, one path would be to do that and then uninstall Safari. They should not be conflicting if they are both current versions, though.

You should run a permissions cleanup such as DiskDoctor or DiskUtility.

I am not familiar with iPlayer so I can't be much more help than that.

A

Subject: RE: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: GUEST,Ross Campbell
Date: 18 Aug 08 - 12:22 AM

In "upgrading " their "service", my email provider (Excite) appears to have abandoned users of both Safari and Opera - the page after login just hangs and fails to load. Their recommended solution is to install Firefox - of course, you'll never find that advice unless you already have done that!

When I installed Firefox I was able to carry over all my Safari bookmarks, but I can't figure out if there is any way of keeping them in parallel (other than uninstalling and re-installing?).

I have been able to run both concurrently without any apparent conflicts. Haven't tried iPlayer yet. BBC stuff was running OK before the new version came along.

Ross

Subject: RE: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: GUEST,Ross Campbell
Date: 18 Aug 08 - 12:28 AM

Firefox has eaten my cookie (last post). Or Mudcat via Firefox can't find my name.
See what happens in Safari (this post).

Ross

Subject: RE: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 18 Aug 08 - 12:31 AM

See what I did wrong?

Ross

Subject: RE: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: Andrez
Date: 18 Aug 08 - 06:33 AM

If someone could flick me a link to the BBC iPlayer, I'd be happy to check it out but the last time I tried to look at something from the BBC in terms of Video (that wonderful series on the Music of Scotland: thank you Murray MacLeod), I got an error message telling me I wasnt in the right zone to be able to view the videos. Happy to try anyway.

My Mac set up is a stable 10.5.4, running both Firefox and Safari quite happily together.

Cheers,

Andrez

PS: For anyone wanting excellnt info on Mac OS plus a great users forum check out this link: http://www.macfixit.com/

Subject: RE: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 18 Aug 08 - 08:07 AM

Hi Guys, nice to see you again - thanks for the input -

The TV player won't work outside of the UK (where Diane lives; I'm in Ireland) but radio should, though it frequently doesn't.

Here's the Radio 4 Listen Again index, and the Audio Help page. Any of those Listen Again links should take you to the iPlayer. Sometimes it says Click Here For Dialup Connection, which you need to enable even if you're on broadband, before it plays. Other times it just says Audio Streaming Not Available (and means it).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/atoz/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/help/

There's another thread here ("Mike Harding Show - I've Lost It"), though it's not up to date so no new info:

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=112822#2391783

Subject: RE: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: GUEST,Newbie
Date: 18 Aug 08 - 09:48 AM

You know the funny/sad thing is my old Ibook running the last version of Tiger and my old Emac running the last version of Tiger can view Iplayer outside of the UK but now that I am on my new machine running leopard I can not.    Does anyone have a clue????   I want my, I want my BBC.


MG

Subject: RE: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 18 Aug 08 - 11:38 AM

Ooooh Guest Newbie (join up and) PM Bonnie (quietly, shhh don't tell the beeb) and give her the number of the last version of Tiger).

And Andrez, thanks for that forum information. I have just spent the past two hours laboriously reading my web email in html. This is the only way I can reach it without Safari and I have to open each one individually in order to delete. Maybe a Macfixit person will know how I can retrieve my Safari bookmarks and put them into Firefox.

Subject: RE: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 18 Aug 08 - 04:20 PM

Don't Firefox and Safari both have Import/Export functions that allow you to export bookmarks for backup purposes and import them from the backup when you need to?

IE is the only browser I've looked at much, but it exports bookmarks as a simple html page. You can open the exported page in your browser and click bookmarks directly from there, or import it back into the browser.

Since the bookmarks export is just a list of links, and it "belongs" to you, you should be able to edit it pretty much like a text document in any browser.

If Firefox and Safari both have similar export functions, you could export the two separate sets and copy/paste to merge them. That's not too handy for keeping them in synch, but might help in getting them "similar enough" to work with until you get the other difficulties resolved.

Note that I have no useful knowledge of either of your two browsers. I'm just guessing at what might work, so ignore if appropriate.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: Rowan
Date: 18 Aug 08 - 07:14 PM

The last version of "Tiger" is, I believe, numbered as OS 10.4.11, which is what's on my Macs. There are some local sysops who reckon 10.4.10 is "more stable" but I have no definitive info.

The place where I work has replaced all its photocopiers, printers and scanners with Ricoh MFDs (known locally as Multi Failure Devices) and, while Ricoh have suitable drivers for OS 10.4.x, they haven't yet provided them for OS 10.5 ("Leopard" for those who go in for such names. Those of my colleagues who've upgraded to 10.5 are now secreting the old reliable HP LaserJet printers away from the eyes of accounts managers until Ricoh comes good.

And JiK is right; you can export and import bookmarks and even do the old "Copy&Paste" routine.

But, as I commented on the other, older, thread (which I can't remember the name of) if the BBC can't be bothered to cater for particular people when spreading the BBC's views, they obviously don't need those peoples' support.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 19 Aug 08 - 02:57 AM

The reason why I can't access and export my Safari bookmarks is that it opens very slowly then crashes instantly. Not that I don't know how to do it. This began when I installed Firefox as recommended by the BBC iPlayer support. This won't open either. It doesn't crash, just sits there. I tried to download a new Safari but an Apple error message says it can't find the bill. I have no idea what this means and Apple support is no help.

I'm using Mac OS X 10.3.9.

Subject: RE: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: Andrez
Date: 19 Aug 08 - 07:53 AM

Hi, just had time to look at a few things. First, after almost giving up I finally found the "iPlayer" download. What happens is that on clicking that link you are directed to a download for the Real Player plugin. Two versions are on offer for Mac OS X a Beta version and an earlier one Plus an option for a plugin covering Mac OS versions from 8-10.2.

I am assuming that those looking at video (which I cant) are also being asked to download the Real Player plugin. If that is the case, read on.

Now I recall there being a lot of complaints about the Real software. I think it was an article on TechRepublic (thats just a link to the site not the article).

that listed this software as amongst the worst for the decade or something along those lines. I'd have to hunt for the actual quote (tonight isnt a good night to hunt through a Terabyte drive looking for one file).

So to check this out further I looked up the current version of Real Player for Mac OS X on a sister site to MacFixit: VersionTracker .

It seems that my hazy memory about something distateful about Real Player was right in so far as the comments by users at the bottom of the page.

Probably what's more useful than my tired ramblings are the user comments and some suggested fixes for getting Real Player to work. Some of them are a bit tecchy but in essence the issue with the plugin may be that it is a Beta version and not the final version. If they make sense, give them a try. I'll have a closer look myself tomorrow but on the basis of those comments, I'm not that keen to stuff up my main machine to test some flaky software.

The developers are probably lapping up all of the unhappy users experience and hopefully incorporating the fixes into the final version....oops...... did I hear someone whisper Microsoft :-) ?

So cheap shots aside, at this stage I am thinking that some folks would be better off waiting for a final version or if they have a spare Mac running an earlier version of Mac OS X (say 10.2) that they could try the older version of Real Player and test if there are any bugs in accessing the BBC content using that setup.

Oh BTW Dianne, have you tried deleting Firefox and then reinstalling it? When you launch Firefox for the first time it usually asks if you want to import any bookmarks from other browsers and also asks if you want to make FF your main browser. Thats one option. Firefox also has an import option under the File Menu. When I select that it gives me an immediate option to import bookmarks directly from Safari. I'm guessing that you probably know that though :-)

My version of Safari is: Version 3.1.2 (5525.20.1). I am using version 2.0.0.14 of Firefox. I haven't been too keen to leap up to Version 3 of FF just yet. I am running these browsers on 10.5.4.   What Browser versions are you using and what did BBC support recommend? It is also possible that the Real Player issues are being compounded by bugs in the most recent versions of Safari and Firefox as well so it would help to be clear about the versions being used by all.

Well anyway I'm off to bed. If any of this is of use to the thread great! If not well thats OK too.

Cheers,

Andrez

Subject: RE: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 19 Aug 08 - 08:58 AM

Firefox 3 is installed but won't launch, possibly because it wants OS X 4 or higher. Nor can it be deleted. It just springs back and sits there being malevolent. Safari 1.3.2 continues to crash immediately after launching. When I downloaded and tried to install 3.1.2 I got Apple error messages. I have all the latest media players and a Flash plug-in. It all used to work before the most recent meddlings with the i-Player.

Subject: RE: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: GUEST,Ray
Date: 19 Aug 08 - 10:36 AM

The BBC has consistently said that its iPlayer doesn't work with Macs. Personally, I have had no trouble with it. It currently runs on both my laptop and desktop using OSX 10.5.4 and 10.4.11 with either Safari 3.1.2 or Firefox 2.1.1.16
Ray

Subject: RE: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: Newbie
Date: 19 Aug 08 - 03:32 PM

Ray


Are you England??

I am in the states and CAN watch Iplayer with 10.4.11 on all my machines.

My macbook pro running Leopard, however, can not. I get the message that I am not in the country to watch it.

Then why can I with 10.4??

I am confused

MG the Newb

Subject: RE: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: GUEST,Ray
Date: 19 Aug 08 - 04:34 PM

Hi Newbie
Yes I'm in England. My desktop (running Leopard) is one of the Intel based iMacs and the laptop is a G4.
Ray

Subject: RE: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: Newbie
Date: 19 Aug 08 - 08:40 PM

Ray

Do you have any idea why i can watch iplayer with tiger outside of the UK and not with leopard?

Thanks for the response...

i am desperate for any insight

MG the Newb

Subject: RE: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 01:52 AM

Very nice to know that someone living outside the UK and not paying the licence fee can get to watch the iPlayer while (some) resident MacUsers are forking out £131.50 annually for sod all.

So does NO-ONE know how I can:

(1) revive Safari at least long enough to retrieve my bookmarks and (2) persuade Firefox to launch and actually reactivate the iPlayer

or

(3) get Opera or even the dreaded IE to display my webmail normally and not crash at the slightest attempt at housekeeping and (4) persuade at least one of these crappy, idle browsers to run all the nasty bits of software crawling all over my discs and let me watch the iPlayer, YouTube and MySpace.

Subject: RE: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: GUEST,Ray
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 04:30 AM

Hi again Newbie

I'm no computer expert and I've really no idea. My understanding is that the BBC don't want people outside the UK to be able to use the service. I would like to be able to record the BBC's output but we can't all have exactly what we want.

Ray

Subject: RE: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: Andrez
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 06:29 AM

A bit more potentially useful info re Firefox issues to consider folks:

Issues and fixes: Firefox 3 First Release June 17th

Issues and fixes: Firefox 3 June 18th

On this page there is a fix for lost Bookmarks issue that can be found at this page:

Lost Bookmarks in Firefox 3

Firefox 3 Fixes June 19th

As well here is a link to the Internet related issues Forum on MacFixit that addresses a lot of browser issues for Safari and Firefox.

MacFixit Internet related Issues Forum: Checkout the Browser threads.

You may need to login as guest from the Mac Fixit homepage if not already registered though.

Trawling through some of this info will either make you feel nauseaus, provide a work around or fix for your specific issues or confirm your suspicions that Firefox 3 is a dog at this stage and persuade you to uninstall and downgrade to a stable version 2 Firefox.

Anyone with difficluties unistalling Firefox or anything else for that matter should have a go downloading and using AppZapper

Use this and Firefox 3 will be no more!

(IMHO the user comments are of little value. It has been a faithful tool under several iterations of Mac OSX including the current version of Leopard)

All you need to do is open the application and then drag the file to be deleted onto the open window. The application finds all the other bits of the program and then offers to delete them all. If you want to keep a specific component you have that choice too.

I sincerely hope some of this Hope helps, oops am being dragged away by family......... aaaarrrrgggghhhhhhh!

Cheers,

Andrez

Subject: RE: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: Newbie
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 09:13 AM

Ray and others

I found a way to watch Iplayer via the leopard OS just as I use to with the Tiger OS, Proxy Ip.

I still don't know why Leopard won't work but with the proxy ip from the UK you can watch the great BBC once again.

MG the NEWB

Subject: RE: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: GUEST,Ray
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 01:54 PM

Newbie
I'm told that the BBC server decides if you are in the UK by looking at who your ISP is. If your Proxy IP is in the UK it should work.

The only issue I have with the BBc website is that it keeps changing my location from Derbyshire to bl**dy London. If I had to live in London I'd probably top myself!

Ray

Subject: RE: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 13 Sep 08 - 03:46 AM

Attention MacUsers!

After a month of video-streaming deprivation I have installed Camino, an open source browser which has beaten the nasty habits of the iPlayer and also has managed to restore YouTube without whingeing about Java Script and a perceived lack of the latest singing and dancing Flash Player.

Hurrah!

Subject: RE: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 13 Sep 08 - 06:54 AM

WOW Diane, thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou...

http://caminobrowser.org/

Subject: RE: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 13 Sep 08 - 09:14 PM

Not exactly "sod all" for the licence fee. A good set of live TV channels and radio as well, even if you've got hiccups with the iPlayer.

Pretty good value for money, it seems to me.

Subject: RE: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 14 Sep 08 - 08:00 AM

I've got "hiccups" with the iPlayer?

Absolutely not. It's the iPlayer that's incompatible with the browser Safari and sods things up. This is unfair on MacUsers. I sometimes wonder if Gates has secretly taken over the Beeb, a prospect almost as scary as a Murdoch coup. However, the Mac-only open-source browser Camino as described above overcomes this (for the time being).

Anyway, to pursue the off-topic comment about "a good set of live TV channels", what are these? The only live TV I ever watch with any interest is Newsnight and this constitutes a very small proportion of BBC2's output. As for radio, I'll say what I've said many times before: if other public service broadcasters in fellow EBU countries can manage to transmit a 24-hour output of trad music on a dedicated channel, why can't the BBC?

Subject: RE: Tech: The iPlayer has eaten Safari
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 14 Sep 08 - 08:12 AM

Damn! I have to agree with Diane Easby again.