What you need: Get_iplayer Time required: 30 minutes plus download time
The BBC is shutting down its iPlayer download service for PCs. You’ll still be able to transfer content to a phone or tablet to watch at your leisure, but if you’re using a desktop PC, laptop or Mac, you’ll only be able to stream live content. Fortunately, there is a workaround. The free Get_iplayer program lets you download BBC TV and radio programmes – though not podcasts or Red Button content – so you can enjoy it offline. Although Get_iplayer is not a BBC-owned service, you will still need a TV licence to watch or listen to your downloads.
1 STEP To download Get_iplayer, visit www.snipca. com/49454 and click the ‘get_iplayer-3.35.0-windows-x64-setup.exe’ file. The program should work on Windows XP or later, although the developers don’t support anything earlier than Windows 10. When the file has finished downloading, launch it, and when the User Account Control pops up, click Yes to confirm that you want to run it. Click through the setup instructions, leaving the default options as they are. When you reach the final screen, leave Launch Web PVR Manager 1 ticked and click Finish 2 .
2 STEP You’ll be redirected to to a web page in your browser at http://localhost:1935. In the background, Get_iplayer will now download an index of TV and radio programmes available on iPlayer, which will appear on the page. Use the search box at the top 1 and click Search 2 to find specific programmes. You don’t need to type a complete programme name to find it. So, searching for question would find First Minister’s Questions, Question Time, and Prime Minister’s Questions and more.
3 STEP When you’ve found a programme you want to download, click the Record link to the left of its thumbnail image. The browser will load a text-based page and start downloading the programme. A line of hashes (#) will indicate progress 1 . When it’s finished, it will convert the file and save it to your computer. To find it, open a File Explorer window and click the arrow to the right of the computer in the address bar 2 . Select iPlayer Recordings 3 , then double-click the video to open it in your default media player.
4 STEP All of the results of our search in Step 2 pointed to TV programmes. If you’re looking for radio programmes such as Gardeners’ Question Time or Any Questions repeat the search but this time tick the box beside BBC Radio 1 and (optionally) untick the box beside BBC TV 2 . The two programmes we’ve mentioned are weekly series so to quickl
