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UK people with US iPads... ABC Player?

Peter Harrison

Peter Harrison

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 24, 2009
608
0
UK
This is for all you lucky UK people who already have an iPad despite us having no release date, no pricing, no preordering etc.

Have any of you downloaded the ABC Player (from the US Store, obviously) and tried running it while here in the UK? Results?
 
Peter Harrison said:
This is for all you lucky UK people who already have an iPad despite us having no release date, no pricing, no preordering etc.

Have any of you downloaded the ABC Player (from the US Store, obviously) and tried running it while here in the UK? Results?
Click to expand...

Doesn't work unfortunately - they obviously have some form of IP location checker in place too.
 
I don't have my iPad yet, but this certainly won't work. It's not tied to the country (as ABC have no way of differentiating between different countries iPad models. It'll be tied to IP address like their website.
 
I've not downloaded it as there's not really any shows I'm really interested in, however I can assume they would do the same as Netflix and restrict access by IP. I got round this by using VPN to a US server, works, just occasionally has to pause to buffer. I see no reason why ABC would be any different. If you desperately need to know the let me know and I'll install and try for you seeing as its free :)
 
ABC doesn't work, and another downside of having a US iPad is that BBC iPlayer doesn't work either. At least not via Safari. On iPhone it launches from its own app icon. Hopefully when our UK app store goes live the BBC iPlayer will be available from there.
 
You just have to set up a server in the states, and connect with vpn. Should work then ;) I am in Costa Rica, and that is how I do it for my Computers for netflix, hulu, etc. So I will test in a week when my iPad gets here and let you guys know.

Can't wait :D
 
McMack said:
another downside of having a US iPad is that BBC iPlayer doesn't work either. At least not via Safari. On iPhone it launches from its own app icon.
Click to expand...

That's not good news. BBC iPlayer not playing would be a major negative for me, and possibly even a dealbreaker, as I use it a lot on the go.

As far as the iPhone app icon goes, it's not really an app, it is only an icon which shortcuts to the BBC iPlayer homepage via safari, so if iPlayer works on the iPhone (which it does really well), then why doesn't it work on the iPad?

What does it do if you try to access iPlayer?

I take it you are located in the UK, and have a viable WiFi connection?

I really can't see any reason why an iPad simply being from the US, rather than the UK, would have any bearing on it being able to access/play BBC iPlayer.
 
this is an immense pity, the one draw of the ipad for me is watching us tv shows. looks like i have to go through the long and lengthy way of downloading tv series and then converting for use in ipad. which is really sad.

if anyone ever figures a way to circumvent the ip thing on the ipad, please teach me.
 
BBC iPlayer doesn't work on the iPad as yet as the BBC are currently being investigated because a number of news agencies complained about them releasing apps on iTunes because they don't think it's fair to have them provide free news and tv when they are going to be charging for it......never mind the fact that we pay our licence fee :rolleyes:

Which is why when the iPad launches here in the UK there will be no BBC News App like they have in the US currently. Apparently they get around the US version because it is provided by BBC Worldwide which is a profit making organisation not funded by the licence payer.

It all sucks and I would encourage people to contact the BBC to offer support and try to persuade them to release the apps anyway.
 
MacRy said:
BBC iPlayer doesn't work on the iPad as yet as the BBC are currently being investigated because a number of news agencies complained about them releasing apps on iTunes because they don't think it's fair to have them provide free news and tv when they are going to be charging for it......never mind the fact that we pay our licence fee :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Thing is, BBC iPlayer isn't an app, it's merely a site which you can access vi IE, Safari, Firefox, Opera etc

Nothing really to do with iPhones or iPads. Admittedly, there are specific addons for the PS3 and Wii that give you BBC iPlayer access, but again, I could use BBC iPlayer on my PS3 long before the firmware update that put the BBC iPlayer icon on the XMB by simply going to the iPlayer website via the PS3 browser.

I still don't quite understand why BBC iPlayer doesn't work on a US iPad :confused:
 
KevinM2 said:
What does it do if you try to access iPlayer?

I take it you are located in the UK, and have a viable WiFi connection?

I really can't see any reason why an iPad simply being from the US, rather than the UK, would have any bearing on it being able to access/play BBC iPlayer.
Click to expand...

In Safari it just says that Flash needs to be installed. I am indeed in the UK and have a great wifi connection. Incidentally, I haven't noticed any of the widely-reported wifi troubles on this iPad so far. And I'm on the opposite side of the house from my router at the moment, in a location my old Windows devices often struggled to connect from (but my Apple ones never have).
 
McMack said:
In Safari it just says that Flash needs to be installed. I am indeed in the UK and have a great wifi connection. Incidentally, I haven't noticed any of the widely-reported wifi troubles on this iPad so far. And I'm on the opposite side of the house from my router at the moment, in a location my old Windows devices often struggled to connect from (but my Apple ones never have).
Click to expand...

That message in itself is odd, as the iPhone doesn't have/support flash, and it plays OK.

Have you tried going directly to the mobile iPlayer site and seeing what happens there?

www.bbc.co.uk/mobile/iplayer/
 
I assume,as I don't yet have an ipad when trying to access the BBC iplayer via safari on the ipad it trys to access the main iplayer web site as opposed to the iPhone optimised mobile version?
Once the ipad is released in the uk hopefully the BBC will update it's servers to correctly identify the ipad when it trys to access the the iplayer site and point it towards the mobile version or even better a new ipad optimised one.
The beeb seems to respond quite quickly regarding new devices trying to access the iplayer(iPhone)-so let's hope we don't have to wait to long. :)
 
McMack said:
Just tried the mobile site and it says, and I quote, "Sorry, your phone does not support BBC iPlayer".

I found this discussion on the BBC forums - http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbiplayer/NF7331806?thread=7366175
Click to expand...

Thanks for that link. I am very disapointed by that. And to be honest, it has put a different spin on my wanting to get an iPad now.

I know it is only one aspect of using it, and the rest of the iPad looks very nice, but I mistakenly thought that as it worked with an iPhone, it would work with an iPad.

Very disapointing, and another kick in the teeth to the pro flash brigade.

I am going to have to think long and hard about my purchase now. Was all set to pick one up from the US next Monday.
 
KevinM2 said:
Thanks for that link. I am very disapointed by that. And to be honest, it has put a different spin on my wanting to get an iPad now.

I know it is only one aspect of using it, and the rest of the iPad looks very nice, but I mistakenly thought that as it worked with an iPhone, it would work with an iPad.

Very disapointing, and another kick in the teeth to the pro flash brigade.

I am going to have to think long and hard about my purchase now. Was all set to pick one up from the US next Monday.
Click to expand...

It's one of the minus points I've found today, no question, but as a previous poster suggested, I think Apple/the BBC will enable the iPlayer in the iPad at some point after its UK release. There's no UK app store available at the moment, and likewise there's no reason why BBC iPlayer should work in the UK - the only territory where it's supposed to work.

The big worry, of course, is: assuming there is an iPad iPlayer after the official UK launch (and surely there will be), will the site 'know' that my iPad is a US iPad, and refuse to play?
 
I never seem to have a lot of luck with the iphone iplayer site - it always just says 'sorry this item is not currently available'. Maybe I like to watch the wrong shows.

Maybe it will improve tho.

lol.
 
I wouldn't let the iPlayer issue put you off of getting an iPad as I reckon the Beeb are just going through the motions in pandering to these news agencies and the like and will release apps in due course. They have already made an iPlayer app and were on course to release in until this enquiry kicked off and put it on hold. I still believe it will happen along with the news and sport apps they have also developed (streaming footie for the World Cup). If thus doesn't happen in the short term I'm sure they will sort out the iPlayer issue on Safari on the iPad.
 
McMack said:
The big worry, of course, is: assuming there is an iPad iPlayer after the official UK launch (and surely there will be), will the site 'know' that my iPad is a US iPad, and refuse to play?
Click to expand...

As far as I can tell, and I have been mistaken (at least) once today, the US and UK iPads (WiFi) are identical, and the only way BBC iPlayer (and ABC player) know if you are in the UK or US is by your ip address, so there should be no reason whatsoever why, if the BBC do offer support for iPlayer in the UK for iPads, that a US iPad won't allow iPlayer access from the UK via a UK WiFi connection.
 
McMack said:
The big worry, of course, is: assuming there is an iPad iPlayer after the official UK launch (and surely there will be), will the site 'know' that my iPad is a US iPad, and refuse to play?
Click to expand...

That won't be an issue at all. It will work on your ip address nitthe hardware configuration. Don't worry.
 
British server

Tech-Boy said:
You just have to set up a server in the states, and connect with vpn. Should work then ;) I am in Costa Rica, and that is how I do it for my Computers for netflix, hulu, etc. So I will test in a week when my iPad gets here and let you guys know.

Can't wait :D
Click to expand...

Is it expensive to do this? I live in states but my wife is British so she would like to get iplayer. I would assume I could VPN into a British server
 
khanriazaoif said:
Is it expensive to do this? I live in states but my wife is British so she would like to get iplayer. I would assume I could VPN into a British server
Click to expand...

No it is not too bad. You can rent your own server in the U.S, that is permanently connected to a very high speed connection for about $30 a month. It needs to be a linux server, that you can set up ssh into, and use it to tunnel your computer and devices through.

There are also free vpn's, the most popular being hot spot shield. But that is slow and unreliable. ;)
 
I use www.ukivpn.com for outbound VPN from the US and haven't had any issues with them. If you want unlimited inbound US use it's $88/YEAR. I watched the Olympics off CTV in Canada and I regularly watch some UK and Canadian TV shows. I don't have any issues with streaming.

You can use it easily on PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad.
 
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