On Monday, Playstation users in the UK got a new toy to play with, well to be more exact. An updated toy. Gone is the browser link to BBC iPlayer and hello shiney new dedicated iPlayer App. Though given the new flaws introduced, I’d rather play with the box. The app has been built from scratch, and has been designed to make it easier for the mainstream audience to use. They might want to sack the designer.
BBC iPlayer Homepage
When you first start up the App, it looks rather impressive, but then you sit there staring at the screen wondering how the hell to use it and resort to pressing random buttons and hoping it will help. As it turns out, it functions like a clunky XMB system, scrolling left and right to chose an option, then pressing the UP button to select it (what’s wrong with the X button anyway, has it gone on strike?).
Searching is now slightly more annoying, as you have to scroll through letter by letter rather than the previous system of simply clicking the letters you wanted. To add insult to injury, the keyboard follows an ABCD format rather than the more standard QWERTY format used everywhere else on the PS3. It also no longer seems possible to enter search terms using a USB keyboard or the mini keyboard Dualshock add-on.
If you just want to browse through programs, you still can. If you look at channels you will see that the BBC HD channel has finally been added, bringing HD back to the TV where it belongs. There is also a new Favourites category that will store all your favourite TV programs – handy if you want to be able to bookmark certain content that you watch regularly.
BBC iPlayer Picture Quality
Once you do finally manage to find and start up a program, you’ll find some of the good things about this app, the streaming seems to be a lot smoother, with less random pauses and screen tearing. One thing missing is the program running time counter that used to be in the bottom left hand corner, some didn’t like it, but I found it rather useful and wish it was still there. Checking the timer now involves having large black screens covering the top and bottom of the program which is very annoying for other people watching.
This version does not seem to resume programs part way through if you quit. Which was a very handy feature for those interruptions that inevitably happen. Trying to select a starting point is now very difficult, as you can only really select set points on the timeline, several minutes apart. Starting a video at any point other than those start points, for me, seemed to kill off the new smooth playback and cause lots of pauses and freezes at random points. Several times I ended up just quitting and never watching the end of a programme as it was too annoying to either put up with the jumpiness or watch the beginning over again.
When your program is over, you face another trauma. I spent 5 minutes pressing every button on the controller (several times) trying to find a way back to the home page, so I was able to select a program other then favourites or ‘more like this’. Eventually I was able to find a back button, hidden down at the bottom of the page by the program control system. Somehow, that may be something that needs to be fixed.
BBC iPlayer New Subtitles
One major flaw in this version, is one that wont really affect many people, but will make things a lot more annoying for me. I was born hard of hearing, and because of this, when watching any type of TV content, I am reliant on the subtitles for effective lip reading. Which gives me an opportunity to rant.
On the old version, if there were no subtitles available, there was no subtitle button, meaning I could load up a program, check if the button was there, and click away if there were none. Nice design saving me some time and bandwidth. Now the button is there permanently, telling me the subtitles are on, even when no subtitles are available. They turned it into an on-off switch and lost that vital function.
When subtitles are working correctly, there is now a large high contrast black border. That makes it harder for people with good vision to refocus your eyes when moving from the subtitles to the main video. Subtitles are also now much higher up the screen, often covering the mouths of characters, meaning I’m unable to lip-read as well. Which is the main reason for me to use subtitles. Somehow they tried to get the deaf, the blind and the dyslexic happy with the same kind of subtitle and managed to piss them all off.
The subtitle rant is a personal thing. But it shows that overall, the new app a step in the right direction. But I don’t think it was ready for release just now. It needs flaws ironing out.
Unfortunately, this is all we have now, and if you want to carry on watching iPlayer on the PS3, you’ll need to install the new 3MB app. The app does have a lot of potential though, and I’m looking forward to seeing these flaws fixed, and seeing just how amazing catch up TV really can be.
