[Ed999]

While I'm on here today, I'll just mention a couple of new points that have come up in the past month. These concern the BBC iPlayer.


First, and most important, the BBC website has abandoned support for the http format. Most software programs, however, have been built on the assumption that http:// is a valid url format.

Those programs are now broken. So are scripts based on them.

From 1st May forward, the BBC website will only recognise a request for a url if the request is made using the https:// format. Whereas, up until last month, the website would serve a stream if the request was made in either http or https format, from now on it will only serve a stream if the secure https stream is requested.

If you access their site, and are refused, this is the first thing to check.


Secondly, but probably equally important, from 1st May the BBC servers will only serve a stream if the request is made using the correct security certificate. Previously, their servers did not ask for this.

Again, many software programs, and scripts based on them, will be broken as a result of this change.

In the case of YouTube-dl.exe the solution is to add to the command line the option --no-check-certificate because without that the server will simply send a refusal instead of the requested stream.

Again, if you access their site, and are refused, this is the second thing to check.

So far my researches have not extended beyond avoiding the check, I can't yet comment on the specifics of the particular security certificate, or how to comply rather than simply side-step.