I was advised that i would be a beta tester and i received an email on Friday advising of the website for testers. I emailed them and asked when the USB was sent as you need this to update the software and was advised that i had to call 0845 293 8233 to arrange for one to be sent out.

I thought they were automatically being sent out. I should get it in the next couple of days.

I had thought that too at first, and I also decided to phone up. I think the first stage of the test was to put the call centre through their paces by getting people to phone up for the USB dongle.
Mine arrived today, and having put the update on am finally able to use the iplayer.

I do have one question for any other testers reading this.
Im on a 6Mbps connection and while the picture is nice anc clear quality the sound I'm getting is terrible. It's gurgling so much that I cant stand to listen to more than a minute or so at a time. Is anyone else finding that? I always thought Cilla Black to be a poor singer, but hearing her singing the beatles songs with that terrible gurgling was more than even I could stand.

Suprised if its by IP address, most brodband providers don't give a fixed IP, each time the router logs in you can get a different address, we need to know what is on the USB stick.

Try the other programmes, I found the one you mention had terrible stuttering sound as well, When Diets Go Wrong seems pretty good and so does Jingles

Can you confirm what it is that gives you access to iplayer ? Is it :
- a different firmware
- something else other than the firmware on the USB stick
- some secret code you enter
- some website or call centre that you use to turn access on

If you don't feel you can pass on access please at least enlighten us on how its done.

Exactly the same here. Freesat say it will improve as the trial progresses.

Yes, it's a secret code.

OH NO!

RUN AND HIDE!

HERE COME ALL THE REQUESTS FOR THE SECRET CODE!

A secret code you enter or one lotated on the USB stick

The usb stick has firmware version HPRSFCI1.00.11 on it, which gives you access to the iplayer interface via red button on BBC One. However to be able to use it you then need to enter a secret code issued to beta testers at the same time as we were issued with the usb stick. Also there is a website for the testers to refer to with install instructions and guidelines, for which we have all been issued a unique username and password.


I did try the Jingles clip and it was very clear. I also tried the "History of Christianity" which just gave a black screen and no video clip at all. "Clifford's Puppy Days" also has a clear picture but gurgling sound, as does "Tommy Zoom"

For those who have not yet got access to the iplayer feature, dont worry you're not missing out on much at the moment as there's only a half dozen clips on the site, purely for testing purposes.

For all those who are wondering whats on the iplayer trial at the moment, theres only a limited number of clips for Beta testers to view and experiment with. Here they are listed below as found on the page tonight, together with my notes on the quality I'm getting over a 6mbps Broadband line as viewed on a 22" lcd tv and Humax Foxsat-HDR

A History of Christianity
Ordinary version - Black screen, clip did not play at all
Higher Quality - as above, clip did not play at all.

Clifford's Puppy Days
Ordinary version - OK picture but gurgling on sound sound.
Higher Quality version - OK picture but gurgling sound.

Tommy Zoom
Ordinary version - OK-ish picture but gurgling sound.
Higher Quality version - OK-ish picture, very gurgled sound

The Large Family
Ordinary version - excellent picture, clear sound.
Higher Quality version - excellent picture, clear sound

Jingles
Ordinary version - excellent picture, clear sound
Higher Quality version - excellent picture, clear sound

When Diets Go Wrong
Ordinary Version - good picture, clear sound
Higher Quality version - good picture, clear sound

Eastenders Revealed
Ordinary version - passable picture, very gurgled sound
Higher Quality version - passable picture, very gurgled sound

... Sings the Beatles
Ordinary version - OK picture, continual gurgling of sound
Higher Quality version - OK picture, continual gurgling of sound

Frankenstein's Cat
Ordinary version - Clear picture, continual gurgling of sound
Higher Quality version - Clear picture, continual gurgling of sound

MI High
Ordinary version - slightly fuzzy picture, and gurgled sound
Higher Quality version - fuzzy picture, and gurgled sound

There are loads of typos in the programme descriptions.

BETA TESTERS: Please feel free to copy, paste and modify so we can see how your findings compare with my own.

How well is it going to work on a line with an IP profile of 1250kbps?

I get excellent sound when I listen to the 256Kbps iRadio AVRO channels.

How does PC iplayer work for you ? Did you already try the existing iplayer speed tester page http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/diagnostics ?

My modem rates the connection as Data Rate Down/Up 4000/448(Kbps), however on download tests you normally don't see more than half of that 4M - and indeed when I just tried the iplayer diagnostics it rated my connection at 1380 i.e. 1.3M of usage bandwidth. At that I cannot get HD (3.5M required) or the best SD stream (1.5 M required).

If your BT line rating is 1.2M then I'd be suprised if regular PC iplayer worked well, on Freesat I would expect it to be somewhat worse an experience.

Thanks for the link. I tested mine and found a big difference between wireless (my first test) and connected.

The wireless results were:
Download Speed: 5365 kbps
Streaming speed (1): 3152 kbps
Streaming Speed (2): 3869 kbps
Streaming Speed (3): 2353 kbps

So this passed the tests for streaming TV at all their SD versions:500, 800, 1500 kbps rates, but aparantly not the HD version at 3500 kbps.

Connected to router:
Download Speed: 6921 kbps
Streaming Speed (1): 5307 kbps
Streaming Speed (2): 5096 kbps
Streaming Spreed (3): 4765 kbps

I have a buffalo 4 port wireless bridge which turns a box with an ethernet port into wireless. The aim is to keep all the PVR, Xbox and Slingbox connected and wirefree.

It looks as though I may have to use a wired connection to the PVR for HD iplayer even though I have a 10Mb broadband product from Virgin.

I would think that your line is being throttled or suffering from congestion as you don't appear to get the full benefit of your 4Mbps connection.

In my case the BBC diagnostics give:

Download Speed: 993 kbps
Streaming Speed (1): 914 kbps
Streaming Speed (2): 1050 kbps
Streaming Speed (3): 332 kbps

which they say is good for "TV 500 kbps". In practice I can watch programmes in a moderate sized window if I want to.

They say that "Instead of playing a programme within the BBC iPlayer web site try downloading the programme using BBC iPlayer Desktop". I wonder if the equivalent will be possible using a Freesat PVR!

No.

Humax rep has stated that this is something that may be a part of the interactive (MHEG) spec in the future but the iplayer that we may be getting around Xmas will not allow download. The irony of this, given that Freesat target market is principally those who live in the middle of nowhere, has been pointed out a number of times.

I'm hoping for ADSL 2+ in my local exchange, websites say Jan 2010 - maybe I'll get iplayer in HD after all.

my natural charm, wit and personality give me access naturally Chef, and a USB key that Freesat kindly sent me!

you've indicated a number of options above and 2 of them are correct, we've all got the same firmware that much i can say whether we're beta or not, but I can't say more than that I'm afraid

it's pleasing to see it's not me, it's the iPlayer encoding (i guess) that's having the problem

@Widget76 I agree with all the findings you've posted above - I also had my son playing a mini clip game at the same time and there was no problem with the playback.

It's reassuring we're getting the same findings as well. Worthing adding that we're using a modified web page whist testing I guess so there is a short delay moving around the menu as well. I can't see how this will be improved unless it's pre-fetched on entering the iPlayer. Overall potential is there but I do know the infrastructure is under considerable strain at the moment, the iPlayer team are working on a lot of encoding for a lot of platforms.......

Well, according to that site, the ideal to get streaming HD-TV would be 3500kbps, and it rates my connection as 4939kbps so I should easily be able to stream the data with no problem.

My results came out at:-
Download speed 5284 kbps
Stream 1 - 4611 kbps
Stream 2 - 5341 kbps
Stream 3 - 4865 kbps
My Speed - 4939 kbps

@ drevil666 , Good to see that I'm not the only one getting those results then.

@ Swedish Cook, if you scan further up you will see I have already detailed exactly what was required to get access to the iplayer trial version, including software version number.

Can't someone post an encoded message with the code in it?

My rgyb buttons are getting worn out.

I'll tell you for nothing you're wasting your time if you think it involves the RGBY buttons, because it doesnt.

Do you think the reason that there is only a limited amount of programmes available means that they've put up different files with different encoding parameters to see which versions the "testers" like best? There would be no other sensible reason for limiting the particular programmes that beta testers could access, assuming that they aren't having to adopt a completely different encoding regime for Freesat boxes.

Matt