iplayer outside uk

toasterman

Or other of those such.. 40d, etc.

Basically a mate of mine has moved to Germany for a few months (maybe more) and wants to watch Top Gear.
He told me he couldn't get the iplayer to work because it recognises he's not in the UK.

I've got the capability to record stuff digitally and send to him, but thats a lot of work on my part. I don't suppose anyone knows an easy way for him to access this? He's still paying for a TV license in this country, so I don't see he's breaking any rules really.
Failing that, he'll have to bit torrent it every week, but seems mad when theres a more-legal way of doing it.

markchadwick

The first thing that comes to mind is for him to set up a UK proxy as his preferred gateway when accessing the BBC website/iplayer. This way, his web traffic can be routed through a UK-based server and any sites he accesses will think he is in the UK and hopefully allow him access to the BBC. If the iplayer is a separate application then it may have settings to allow for a proxy.

I'm not sure where he can get the URL for a UK proxy (maybe a search online would result in some free options) and/or whether the connection will be quick enough as he's accessing the BBC site via another computer/server.

Incidentally, I assume your friend is using firefox and if so they have a nice little extension called something like "torbutton". With a simple click on the browser, you can simply choose firefox to route web traffic through that proxy. May take a little playing to get it set up, but if it works, it could be a simple solution to his problem.

Mark

isofa

You'll find lots of public proxy servers listed here: http://www.publicproxyservers.com

They change constantly.

NB - one thing I'd recommend is not sending any personal, banking or login data via your browser when connected via a third party proxy server - you never know who's running the server which your data will travel through. But it'll be fine for streaming video etc for the iPlayer.

OK_Sauce

How about a satellite set up like this one from maplin?

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=217921&C=Maplin&U=SearchTop&T=satellite&doy=29m11

OR

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=48737&C=Maplin&U=SearchTop&T=satellite&doy=29m11

Depending on the footprint of the Astra satellite - a bit of Googling required, BBC is free to air over satellite.

toasterman

Satellite solution might be alright as a future idea, but he hasn't got a guarantee of how long he's staying there at the moment, nor has he got any money as he's only just relocated.

He's not using Firefox, but it doesn't matter, because the iPlayer is Win Xp and Internet Explorer-only at the moment anyway.
I'll pass on the list of proxies to him though and suggest that.

Thanks for your help.

compfused

Don't fiddle with proxies there is a free solution available at Hacked Cable TV Dot Com (I aint allowed post links here) that come with free UK proxy for u never have to find one, all works out of the box in all common browsers. Gives U all BBC and ITV Channels abroad

macman

Possession of a UK TV licence is not relevant. The BC is not licensed to broadcast these programs outside the UK, and in the case of Top Gear it will certainly have licensed the territorial rights to a German TV company anyway. This precludes them for then broadcasting their own version in that territory.
It's a rights issue, not a TV licensing one.

Knarf44

TOP GEAR both the current series just ended and past series can also be watched here for FREE. Just type Top Gear into the search box