The Curse of iPlayer on Slow Connections
iPlayer is brilliant. The flash widget works so much better than the other BBC windows media or realplayer streams – especially on linux.
My internet connection, whilst not being unbearably slow (anymore), grinds to a halt in the evenings or at weekends. The problem is this is usually when I want to watch a programme. If I want to watch a video at these times on YouTube I simply open a new tab with the video in, pause it and leave it until it has finished buffering the majority of the video. But iPlayer refuses to do this. Pausing it loads the next thirty seconds or so but then it just stops buffering meaning my YouTube technique won’t work. Furthermore, if I just want to go back to a bit I’ve already downloaded iPlayer insists on downloading it all again.
Of course Windows users can just download the programme and watch it later. There are workarounds involving get_iplayer and VLC, but personally I’d prefer for the BBC to improve what is currently a great service with a few faults.
Please BBC, make iPlayer usable for those of us with slower internet at certain times. Or shall I just blame Tiscali? Or BT?
