DRM problem? BBC iPlayer WMV files

[peted]

Hi

I've been attempting to play downloaded content from BBC iPlayer via VLC ('cos it plays better into my big screen setup than other players).

These are WMV files.

VLC plays 'banner' files fine, these are short intro files before the main content - BBC logo etc, and are not protected.

Main content file opens but the video is completely garbled (very psychedelic). The sub titles work.

Win Media Player plays the same file fine, but starts off notifying me it's acquiring a license. The exact nature of the protection I'm not sure, but the iPlayer files are definitely time limited. Could they also be encrypted?

I can't see any option to handle a license file in VLC - Win Media Player created a couple of DRM files drmv1lic.bak and drmv2lic.bak after it played the main content OK. I assume VLC needs these to play this content?

Anyone encountered this issue please ... can provide debug traces etc. if need be...

Cheers

VLC 0.8.6f, Win XP SP2

[VLC_help]

There are tools that can remove those WMV DRM stuff (for example FairUse4WM) but VLC itself can't do that.

[peted]

Thanks VLC_Help

Am I to conclude from this that VLC cannot play such files (=any= protected files?) unless the DRM is stripped?
I looked at the stuff you referred to - it's not a 5 min job - involves quite a bit of farting about - nor did i come across a clean set of instructions.

Not having the time to play with this, I'm just gonna have to grin and bear it with media player for the time being unless anyone else has any other offerings.

Does anyone know more specifically what protection is applied to these BBC iPlayer files? Video output from VLC suggests encryption not just time limiting unless it's just in a format VLC can't handle.

Can anyone point me to a resource where I can find out more about this stuff ?

Many thanks to all involved with this project

Pete

[VLC_help]

All DRM stuff in WMV and WMA files comes from Microsoft. And VLC doesn't support those certificates because VLC doesn't use DirectShow for video playback (and I don't think Microsoft is going to allow playback otherwise). So only option for VLC playback is ATM to remove that DRM stuff. But it might be illegal in some places so think before act

[Michael Graubart]

I, too, have been trying to play video files downloaded by the BBC IPlayer Desktop in VLC. My reason is that my Mac is a PPC one (G4,OS X 10.4.11)) and playback of the downloaded videos is hopeless: jerky, with sound not synchronized with picture. I am not that interested in removing the DRM stuff altogether, but would like to have the slightly extended permissible time for replaying that is afforded by the iPlayer Desktop.

The curious thing is that if I open a downloaded iPlayer video in VLC (I now have the latest one, 0.9.9a), the progress bar shows that it is playing, but nothing can be heard or seen. Can anyone please offer an explanation, and any suggestions for making the video visible and audible?

[VLC_help]

I you don't remove DRM, you cannot play it with VLC. The whole file isn't DRM protected, usually only audio and video tracks. So timecodes and subtitles might show up.