Fast fordwarding iplayer / netplayer etc ?

mjw123 · 12-11-2009, 13:09

Guys,

I use iPlayer / Netplayer a lot on Virgin but it kills me there appears to be no quick advance option ie 60secs. If you want the last 20mins of program it is a nightmare waiting for the slow fast forward to advance.

Has anyone found a way around this problem ?

Even a 'goto' option where you could say start playing at say 50mins would be a great help.

Peter_ · 12-11-2009, 13:12

I know what you mean and it is so annoying, but the is no way around it that I am aware of and I rather doubt the will be.

mjw123 · 13-11-2009, 10:36

bad, bad software design....

Peter_ · 13-11-2009, 10:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by mjw123

bad, bad software design....

If you go online and use the iPlayer you can slide ahead using the left mouse but that is the way it is designed for TV use.

Stuart · 13-11-2009, 12:04

I seem to remember a while back asking about this, and someone (spiderplant, I think, but I can't remember who) said that different speeds of ff and rew was something they were looking at but didn't know when they would be implementing.

Apparently the problem is that although it *appears* to be a simple thing to add, it's actually quite a major rewrite of the on demand code.

Horace · 13-11-2009, 13:55

It's because it isnt actually fast-forwarding in the real sense of the word. It's switching to an alternative stream that runs in parallel or so I've read. Therefore to have mutiple speeds you'd need multiple streams to switch to. I suppose we're lucky to have any kind of fast forward.

VMboy · 15-11-2009, 23:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Horace

I suppose we're lucky to have any kind of fast forward.

Very true.

Graham M · 16-11-2009, 07:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Horace

It's because it isnt actually fast-forwarding in the real sense of the word. It's switching to an alternative stream that runs in parallel or so I've read. Therefore to have mutiple speeds you'd need multiple streams to switch to. I suppose we're lucky to have any kind of fast forward.

How would that work?

TheDon · 16-11-2009, 10:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Graham M

How would that work?

Fast forwarding is extremely resource intensive, so instead of fast forwarding the video there is another copy of the same video on the server that is simply a sped up version (containing only every 4th frame) that will give the illusion of you fast forwarding.

It's not that a version runs in parallel, but it's there for when you want to fast forward. When you hit fast forward the stream switches to that video from the timestamp you're on, and when you stop fast forwarding switches back to the normal video at the point you are now.

It's a pretty common solution to remote fast forwarding as the cost implications of doing it properly are far higher as the overall capacity of the same server would greatly reduce when you factor in the fast forwarding overheads. Doing it this way adds an insignificant overhead (changing video within a stream is a trivial command).

jamiefrost · 16-11-2009, 11:09

Agree with the above true fast forwarding is resource intensive, but I think people are after the abilty to jump to a particular point in time.

I don't think this is the same thing as fast forwarding or as resource intensive

JJ

admars · 16-11-2009, 18:53

what I do is record off iplayer onto my dvd/hdd recorder as I would any other cable channel, then I can ffwd etc as normal. It's not ideal but I find better than watching on iplayer.