iPlayer on Smart TV

[jean]

Does anyone else watch iPlayer on a Smart TV?

Does anyone else find that the APP sometimes disappears completely, to be replaced by something else you never even tried to download?

What do you do about it?

[Anastasius]

I don't, I'm afraid, Jean as I have a very jaundiced view of both the stability of these so-called 'smart' devices (as you have found out) and also their total lack of security. The product refresh cycle on most audio-visual equipment is of the order of months before they bring out a 'new' and 'better' (pause for hollow laugh) version. So the concept or ability to perform even rudimentary testing of the software is risible. Bugs will never get fixed. I am afraid that I am not optimistic of you finding a solution.

[Dave2002]

Anastasius

I can't really help Jean either, but I share your view of devices which auto download. Yesterday I tried to turn on our BT YouView box, having not used it for some while. It wouldn't start, and I discovered that it had completely updated itself (though fortunately keeping the saved material) and has a new interface. It took up to half an hour of fiddling around, checking the wiring etc. to figure out how to get it back on and configured and for the TV to recognise it again. I wasn't expecting that.

[Anastasius]

Anastasius

I can't really help Jean either, but I share your view of devices which auto download. Yesterday I tried to turn on our BT YouView box, having not used it for some while. It wouldn't start, and I discovered that it had completely updated itself (though fortunately keeping the saved material) and has a new interface. It took up to half an hour of fiddling around, checking the wiring etc. to figure out how to get it back on and configured and for the TV to recognise it again. I wasn't expecting that.

First thing I do with any device like that is find where the Auto-update is and deselect it!

[Dave2002]

First thing I do with any device like that is find where the Auto-update is and deselect it!

Not sure that I can do that with BT's boxes. Also it's not unknown for systems changes to occur which brick boxes completely. Sky seem to have made a habit of that. If there are system level changes and a box isn't updated it's possible (a) that it won't work, and (b) that it might not then be possible to update it!

[Petrushka]

My Samsung Smart TV is with-drawing the BBC I-Player service on Oct 17, this coming Tuesday. With the similar disappearance of youTube a while ago there seems little point in having a Smart TV at all. Even the Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall (the main reason why I got it in the first place) is bedevilled by technical problems so it's of no more use other than to watch the Saturday afternoon racing.

[ChrisBennell]

We don't have a Smart TV but do have these facilities via a Samsung BluRay player - we've had this for a year and it (so far) has worked flawlessly. It does update itself every so often, though, so it looks like I should keep an eye on it. iPlayer, All4, Youtube and Netflix are all available plus a host of others.

For iPlayer radio, and in particularly, catching up with Radio 3 broadcasts, I recently spent £20 on a Chromecast Audio device - this interfaces with my iPad, which has the BBC iplayer radio App - I have connected this to a spare input channel on the HiFi amp, and this works perfectly. I recently listened to the Rattle Stravinsky broadcasts through that, and was very happy! Only drawback, I suppose, is you have to first have the iPad (£400 in my case!)

[Cockney Sparrow]

My Samsung Smart TV is with-drawing the BBC I-Player service on Oct 17, this coming Tuesday. With the similar disappearance of youTube a while ago there seems little point in having a Smart TV at all. Even the Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall (the main reason why I got it in the first place) is bedevilled by technical problems so it's of no more use other than to watch the Saturday afternoon racing.

If you have a HDMI input on the TV, then you can get a Chromecast (not the Cr Audio) which will provide iPlayer. There are Apple equivalents. I don't think a £400 ipad is essential - you can interface with a Chromecast of either type from a smart mobile phone, an Android tablet (which would IIRC include a cheap Amazon tablet), a Chromebook (laptop style). Check first for what you have available - I think there is a good chance of any wi-fi enabled device being able to control the casting to the Chromecast.

I was using this set up as I'd kept a perfectly fine cathode ray TV going - it finally bit the dust in August. The replacement Sony Smart TV has iPlayer incorporated into it. (If you don't have an HDMI input, PM me as I have a converter to component video box I no longer need which might suit you. )