Here's The Register on the subject, with an offensive title. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/12/iplayer_linux_stream_download_hack/
On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 3:38 PM, Andy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 11/03/2008, Ivan Pope <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Thanks. And if I might make so bold - why do they do this? > > Presumably it's because they want to send Flash to a PC, and MP4 only to > phones. > Unfortunately user agent sniffing isn't really designed to do what > they are trying to do. > They would generally have to have a list of all phones user agents and > whether they support Flash or MP4 and serve accordingly. > > There are better ways of doing this. > For instance the user agent (i.e your phone) can chose itself by being > given multiple options via a 300 response code. > > Or check what the browser/phone actually wants, i.e. check the Accept > header to see if it wants .flv or .mp4 > > Or use the fallback of HTML object tags. > Present a Flash object tag and inside it put the HTML for MP4. > If flash is not present the browser should fallback to what's inside > the tag (may fail if Flash is present but incompatible, or wrong > version). > > Of course most methods fail at some point so provide a link to the > user to override possible incorrect choices. User Agent sniffing is > certainly not a good solution if there is no user override for > correcting it's mistakes. It is certainly bad accessibility wise. > > > > What is it > > specific about the iPhone that this feed needs to be limited to iPhones? > > Nothing, it's just their way of separating "PC" and "phone", if it > isn't an iPhone they assume it's a PC. Similar to some sites that > assume if a web browser is not IE it's Firefox/Netscape. > > > > Or, to put it another way, if it wasn't sniffing my phone, could I watch > > this feed on my N95 (insert any other capable phone or phone app here) > > If your phone supports MP4 and HTTP then it should be fine. > > For now fake user agent. In the long run complain to the BBC or the > BBC Trust. (This is NOT platform agnostic as requested by the trust, > specifically scanning for a certain product and delivering them better > content is extremely risky). > > As I said it shouldn't take more than 10 minutes for the BBC to correct. > > If they are doing things server side then just alter there code to > server MP4 if user agent is iPhone, OR if a certain argument in the > URL is set. > > Something like: > <?php > $version = 'flash'; > if (isset($_GET['force'])) > $version = $_GET['force']; > else if (isIPhone()) > $version = 'mp4'; > else > $version = 'flash'; > > if ($version == 'flash') > // serve flash stuff here > else if ($version == 'mp4') > // server mp4 here > else > echo 'Unrecognised version!!!'; > ?> > > And then add links with force=flash and force=mp4 so the user can > correct mistaken user agent sniffing. Combining this with some of the > other above methods would be even better. But unless the BBC wants to > actually hire me I'm not going to do their jobs for them! > > Of course that code may not work, I haven't done PHP for over 3 years > but it is the basic idea. > > > > Andy > > -- > > > Computers are like air conditioners. Both stop working, if you open windows. > -- Adam Heath > - > Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please > visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. > Unofficial list archive: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
