James Woodall

Using BBC iPlayer with Vista

2007-08-13T13:41:00Z

It took a while for me to get round to this but following on from the success of my 4OD and Vista tutorial (see here) I decided to look at getting the BBC iPlayer to work.

It frustrates me greatly that the BBC did not think about making this software Vista compliant. Microsoft issued Beta 1 of Windows Vista back in 2005, the software was released to business in November 2006 so they've had plenty of time to look at Vista compatibility.

Anyway, getting this to work on Vista isn't too tricky. Having read an article from El Reg (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/31/iplayer_launch_frustration/) it simply states that changing the User String for IE7 will do the trick. The BBC simply block all IE7 + Vista installations so faking IE7 to work like IE6 will succeed. I found a lovely utility from Microsoft to make this slightly easier. Here are my instructions:

Obtain your BBC iPlayer login details from http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer
Download the Microsoft User Agent String Utility and install (link below)
Launch IE7 from the new "User Agent String Utility" from the start menu (IE7 will impersonate IE6)
Navigate to the iPlayer pages to download the shows

Thankfully, the IE6 impersonation isn't permanent and is only active from the start menu shortcut. Whenever you want to download a BBC show you must use the impersonated IE7 but for other web pages, launching IE7 normally will remain unaffected.

Happy Hacking!

-james

Microsoft User Agent Utility: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=9517db9c-3c0d-47fe-bd04-fad82a9aac9f&displaylang=en

BBC iPlayer and Vista

2007-07-27T08:41:00Z

Update: I have added my Vista workaround here: http://vistasquad.co.uk/blogs/james/archive/2007/08/13/using-bbc-iplayer-with-vista.aspx

The BBC's iPlayer launched to BETA this morning. It does not have Vista support which is really annoying.

As a software developer, I am aware that software that followed the XP guidelines should work on Vista. Therefore, what is the BBC doing paying for software that is sub-standard?

Vista has been released since November 2006 (to developers and businesses) so the iPlayer developers have had plenty of time to get a Vista build up and running!

I presume that due to the wide audience who are drawn to the iPlayer there will be a few Vista hacks appearing.

Happy hunting!

[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6916164.stm]

4 On Demand

2007-06-15T11:18:00Z

Overview: This post demonstrates how to install 4OD (Channel 4 On Demand) on Windows Vista.

I was really excited about the prospect of being able to use 4OD to download and watch Channel 4 programming on my PC. Unfortunately I hit a snag, 4OD is only available for XP!

Now, being an early adopter I am using Windows Vista. Unfortunately the website to 4OD wouldn't even let me download the software so I did a quick scour and found the URL for the download. After some tweaking I was able to get 4OD to install on my Vista PC and after a bit more tweaking I can now download TV episodes.

Here follows the instructions required to install and use 4OD on Windows Vista (please note that this is completely unsupported so chances are that any mistakes etc.. are your own fault!). I am unsure as to whether or not it is legal to post my altered msi package so I will list the things you need to do in order to make it work. The 'hack' does not alter the 4OD software at all, it merely changes the installation package to surpress any conditions (i.e. Windows XP only).

Ok, disclaimers out the way. You will need:

A Windows Vista PC (with administrator access if UAC is turned on)
The Orca Windows Installer database analyser (available with the Windows SDK)
The Orca installation can be found within the SDK's install directory (search for orca.msi)

Update: For those who don't want to manually edit the installer a modified Vista-compatible installer (thanks to themoose) has been posted here http://rapidshare.com/files/36699462/Channel_4_on_Demand.msi

To download the 4OD installer you must goto: http://www.channel4.com/4od/installer/channel4_on_demand.exe

Save the file to your desktop
Run the file (it will fail but consequently will also extract the msi to a hidden location)
Search your root drive (usually c:) for demand.msi (you will need to do an advanced search and specify the "Include non-indexed, hidden, and system files" option
I found my copy in "C:\Windows\Downloaded Installations" (under a dir with a GUID)
Once found, copy "Channel4 on Demand.msi" to your desktop
Open the msi in Orca (right-click on the msi and select "Edit with Orca")
In the "Launch Condition" table, drop the last row (right click on the row and selct "drop row")
This prevents it from being installed on anything but XP
In the "Signature" table, remove the "MaxVersion" value (delete the value) for the "DotNETVer" key
This ensures that .NET 2 or later will suceed
Save the installer in Orca and close
Execute the installer from the desktop and run through the install
It might moan about Flash9 or Windows Media Player but it will still succeed
Run the software once (in administrator mode - right-click on the short cut and select "Run as Administrator")
The first time the software runs it does not behave itself
Restart your computer and try again. It should work perfectly.

Google Docs Test

2007-05-10T02:43:00Z

Having recently discovered Google Docs I have found a great feature to allow it to publish Blog Entries (similar to Word 2007). The Community Server blogging tool is pretty good so I won't be changing anytime soon but this is quite cool all the same.

Sign up for Google Docs (http://docs.google.com) to being sharing/editing documents and spreadsheets from the comfort of your platform independant browser!

Welcome!

2007-04-04T08:44:00Z

Hi everybody!

Welcome to my first blog post.

I'm James Woodall and currently I work for i-mate (http://www.imate.com) and am on the team that creates the Momento Digital Photo Frame. I am very interested in Windows Vista and its technologies. Specifically i am interested in Windows SideShow and have recently been the dev lead on the first Windows SideShow debugger which is available at: http://www.clubimate.com/t-WINGADRV.aspx.

If anybody has any suggestions as to any topics or walkthroughs they would like me to discuss (primarily in the areas of media sharing or Windows SideShow) then feel free to suggest!

Cheers,

-james