MacDailyNews - Where Mac news comes first

Aug 13, 08 - 03:13 pm Comment from: GizmoDan

Once they tried it, they were sold!

Someone should tell the talking heads and TheStreet.com to do the same thing. Are they pushing a standard or looking to have a larger audience?

Aug 13, 08 - 03:22 pm Comment from: theloniousMac

Wow.

That's an ice cold fresh surprise.

Almost hard to believe.

BBC? I'm surprised they didn't choose some proprietarily encrypted version of WMV that legally can't be decrypted unless it's done under Windows VISTA, each year on Bill Gate's birthday.

Aug 13, 08 - 03:24 pm Comment from: theloniousMac

@Jersey_Trader

"Are they pushing a standard or looking to have a larger audience?"

Ohhhh that's good.
That's really good.
I'm so ripping that off. I'm so gonna pretend to clients that I thought it up.

Aug 13, 08 - 03:46 pm Comment from: nekogami13

The BBC an advocate of open industry standards?
This is the same BBC that does hour long specials on windows and streams using Real audio or wmv?

The BBC needs to do a special on cognitive dissonance.

Aug 13, 08 - 03:46 pm Comment from: Jubei

"and now for something completely different"

Now, see??

Was that *really* so hard?

Aug 13, 08 - 03:52 pm Comment from: MrScrith

Found out that the NBC Olympics coverage is partially locked to Vista:

http://www.nbcolympics.com/onthego/

If you look at the different video options (full-length events and Lenovo performance of the day specifically) both are Vista only!

I wonder what (lack of) demand they will notice with that restriction. I guess that comes with using MS as your provider.

Aug 13, 08 - 04:04 pm Comment from: Predrag

NBC chose theri bedfellow MS years ago. Now, they are looking as the fastest growing platform is passing them by. Eyeballs (and click-trhoughs) could be coming if NBC decided to cut their losses with MS and do what BBC finally decided was the best -- adopt standard formats, instead of proprietary.

It is just that simple, and NBC will eventually figure it out (or die trying).

Aug 13, 08 - 04:20 pm Comment from: MCCFR

All of those posting the standard crap about the BBC should note that the BBC Motion Gallery was one of the first supporters of QuickTime's H.264 codec.

"These technologies have matured enough to make them viable alternatives to other solutions"? Those technologies were always superior to the ones the BBC was using for it's net offerings.

Well, OK, we'll let you save a little face if you promise to be sensible from now on.

Aug 13, 08 - 04:34 pm Comment from: Spark

I took one look at the NBC site for Olympic coverage and fled in horror. They obviously don't want my viewership.

Meanwhile the CBC (in Canada) continues to tie us into wmv (!!) for it's live Olympic streaming; the experience is so bad (with poor audio syncing for example) in Flip4Mac, you basically have to run virtual Windows....BAHHHH

now all they gotta do is make an iPhone version and allow subscriptions from overseas users and they have a world beater.

Aug 13, 08 - 05:43 pm Comment from: MacMarc

I HATE the hidden links on this page underneath the content.

Sometimes, I like to highlight the text so I can keep track of where I am after scrolling down the page. That's when some stupid page launches.

VERY FRUSTRATING.

@ MacMarc

I am totally with you on this. I used to read MDN a lot. Now, not so much because of those hidden links.

Aug 13, 08 - 05:58 pm Comment from: TowerTone

I wonder if they use stuff like this

http://www.scopus.net/pdf/products3/UE-9410-9420.pdf

Anybody else use their equipment?

If I read one more whining Canadian post I think I'm going to puke.

Not ONLY is it locked into WMV, but they have commercials during live events... and load up the CMs and admit doing so... so that they can offer uninterrupted service later.

You did that deliberately.
Blaughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Thanks.
I feel better now.

BBC has been using Flash video/audio rather than streaming Real/Windows Media for some time; mostly legacy stuff in those formats and they are being updated.

BBC iPlayer on iPhone really is very impressive -- full screen video with no adverts with great bit-rates and seven day coverage of broadcast television programmes, and similar catch-up service with radio.

Shame it's geo-IP locked, so you can't use it in USA.

Any similar services from US broadcasters? Or other countries?

About f*cking time.

Aug 13, 08 - 08:20 pm Comment from: Cubert

If the standards organization that made the AAC format would just rename it MP4, the general public would catch on over night and MP3 and WMA would disappear rapidly.

First YouTube shifts to H.264, now the BBC!!
Remind people that H.264 standard was adopted from Apple's work.
Cool!!

Aug 13, 08 - 09:03 pm Comment from: MacSmiley

Good move by the Beeb. Unfortunately, video is not available to US residents. Shucks! I was in the mood for a good Doctor Who episode.

@ Cubert
Yeah, let's face it, who the hell wants to use that stupid Apple 'Aspecially Codec, eh?

Aug 13, 08 - 11:11 pm Comment from: jcw3rd

Pithhelmet eliminates those pesky hidden links.

You ought to refer to the ORIGINAL article and credit Jonny with a 'via'.

This IS the blog:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/08/open_industry_standards_for_au.html

Isse you lionk to the blog in the second line MDN!

Apologies, mea culpa. Ignore the post above everyone.

Good move, better quality... and many others will step in!

Apple TV (and FrontRow) update along the lines of YouTube for UK users please.

Aug 14, 08 - 04:57 pm Comment from: derekcurrie

MDN sez:
"The Beeb's iPlayer can be found here."

Yeah, but you have to have an IP address in the UK to be able to use it for video.

So for those of us in the rest of the world: big yawn.
Now back to the Beeb torrents...

Actually, Auntie Beeb sez they are not 'yet' able to stream their TV stuff elsewhere in the world due to copyright constraints. At least they freely stream their radio programming. I regularly use their Dashboard widgets.

Aug 14, 08 - 04:59 pm Comment from: derekcurrie

Concept: Does anyone know of a proxy IP one could use to fool the Beeb into thinking you're actually in the UK? At least knowing if it is possible would be of interest.

;-D