Anyone with a 2013 model Panasonic TV recently unable to play any video on the iPlayer app? It either plays one second of video and quits the app or never starts the video.

I noticed that all of 2013 is missing (deleted?) from the BBC iPlayer supported models list

It used to work absolutely fine.

TV: TX-L42E6
Software: 3.734
iPlayer version: 4.5.63.1
Device: PANASONIC TV 2013 MT5590

I have reported this to Panasonic, but it would be interesting if anyone else has the same issue.

I can confirm that a 2011 model (E3) with the same iPlayer version is working fine.

I'm no expert like some on this forum, but, coincidentally I recently posted on here about a problem with my Panasonic L39E6B which 'glitches' when playing Netflix.

As it happens it had always worked fine on iplayer but a couple of months ago iplayer started playing up, it would play a second or two then switch back to regular TV which sounds similar to your problem.

In order to get it working I did a factory restore on the TV. A pain, because you have to go through all the initial setup routine, but iplayer has worked OK since then.

There may be other less drastic solutions but that worked for me.

Cheers ffawkes

Netflix is working perfectly, but I had considered the Factory Restore only as an absolute last resort. I have this television calibrated, so it’s a lot of work to go through it all again.

I’m expecting Panasonic to advise me to do this at some point though .

I also noticed that Netflix and iPlayer apps must be ‘baked’ into the Viera software as they cannot be removed and re-installed.

This link may go some way to answering the question about I player.

http://eng.faq.panasonic.com/app/ans...376.1478436272

If it turns out that this is the case, I'm never buying another Panasonic TV again. They're clearly using inferior components if they can't support iPlayer three years after a product is released.

The BBC rationalised all their online delivery systems and many manufacturers had the same problem, including most of the main internet radio brands. Some have fixed more recent models with firmware upgrades but often the older hardware itself prevents this.

No 'inferior' components involved at all - it's simply that the BBC have closed the service that the TV used - and it's obviously not just Panasonic (or indeed just iPlayer) that's involved.

People seem to think that 'iPlayer' is 'iPlayer' - and this is completely untrue. There are many different variants of iPlayer, many of which the BBC introduced to encourage manufacturers to add it to their products. The BBC have now decided to end such services, so the products no longer work as there's nothing for them to access.

The exact same applies to most apps on TV's and other products, they don't use the normal services you would access via a PC - and the suppliers are continually shutting them down. YouTube is another that's stopping working on many products.

Iplayer was just over 1200 different services .......to meet each manufacturers needs
So the BBC is trying to get value for money by reducing the number and moving to a more standards based ( html5 , dash etc ) and hbbtv where more/most players now work...


It seems v silly that the BBC has three "DVB " versions of its output ....
Serving say 95+++%
and 1200 versions for the 5 -% over IP to about 3000 different types.of appliance .

As others have pointed out, not entirely Panasonic's fault and by no means the only manufacturer to have experienced problems as a result of changing standards.

Given that set only had a limited range of catch up services anyway - perhaps the way forward is a Now TV box? I've put one in my children's playroom hooked up to a non-smart TV and it's fine. You have to create an account, but only pay if you use the paid for services. Which means for free services you can get BBC, ITV, Ch4 and Demand 5.

They only cost £ 15 so are a cheap, easy solution.

http://www.nowtv.com/box?referrer=no...FUa4GwodF_oJXg

Was it that many? - as far as I was aware the BBC released a number of iPlayer services, and then passed the details to manufacturers to make sets to use it.

More otherway round ...... the BBC had a quite a few standard profiles but most manufacturers wanted "different " usually the wrapper and weird coder rates.

The public figure is from this blog
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/...b-a7d5b8803771

And the move to html5 here http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/...a-e38c71900c4c

Thanks very much for that, good to know.

Note to OP - having said earlier I had fixed the problem on my panasonic, I just tried it having not used iplayer for a few weeks. I now get a message saying the service is temporarily unavailable due to essential maintenance by panasonic 7 nov - 8 nov.

My first ever Sony bluray player stopped supporting iplayer years ago, its disappointing but apps evolve and outgrow the software just like smart phones, its another thing about modern tech that is needed to be taken into account when buying stuff...

Just wondering, OP, if you have tried it again and if it is still not working? As I mentioned above, Panasonic were doing some work on the service and my 2013 set now works on the iplayer.

My 3 year old Sony bluray player (which was brand new at time of purchase - I specifically waited for the updated model to be released) no longer runs BBC iplayer (beeb even removed the icon from the app list). The YouTube app also no longer works, the icon now has a message next to it saying it's no longer supported.

My freesat HD Pvr (humax) no longer runs iplayer as of September this year. There was a warning message pasted onto the loading screen about it months before it happened, to be fair that is a 2010 machine.

Even my PC is not immune to this tampering....the YouTube web site no longer offers me 1080 resolution - now the highest is 720p. Apparently I have to upgrade to Windows 10 with the new Edge browser to get back the higher resolution options. I have been using PC/Mac for many years and this the lamest excuse I have ever seen!

This is why you should spend as little as you can get away with on 'smart' features that continually evolve.

Many people seem to be caught up on getting smart TVs and spending often quite a lot more money to get the required functionality, when much cheaper add-on boxes are available.

Chromecast, NowTV/Roku, Amazon Fire, Kodi, a second-hand YouView box, the choices are massive, and all represent a cheaper, better-supported and often more reliable choice than the smart functions on expensive TVs.

And when they stop being supported (as they all will, just like the TVs), you move on to the next 30 quid wonderbox, which will be fully compatible with your old telly as long as HDMI doesn't go the way of the dodo (and even then there will be adaptors available).

Some of these problems may also be product licence related, this article from The Guardian relates to Samsung TVs.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...-licence-issue.