Why is ITV's iPlayer so crap?

[parish]

One other point was that Jobs said that Flash for video was unnecessary because H.264 could be used instead. Quite true, and yet we still see Quicktime movies online. Funny that, Apple criticizing a rival format.

As well as 48 other codecs, within a proprietary wrapper. And you have to purchase a Pro license to download videos.

The ISO used QuickTime as the basis for the MPEG-4 spec - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mov_file - so QT (.mov) and MPEG-4 (.mp4, .m4v) are, essentially the same. This also causes some confusion depending on what plug-in your browser uses, or what video player you use as many/most decide the file type purely based on the extension. So, it will say a file with a .MOV extension is a QuickTime file, but change the extension to .MP4 and it'll say it is an MPEG-4. Others refuse to play - unsupported format - if it's the wrong extension, but change it and the same file will play.

Of course, it's not just video files that have this problem, it's a nasty trait in Windows (and, to a lesser extent Mac) programs that only consider the file extension, they don't actually try to open the file to see what it is. Change a ZIP file to .FOO and try and open in in WinZip and it'll say "Not an archive".

So why is ITV Player not working on iOS if it works on Android?

It might do, but if you go to itv.com and choose the player it just invites you to d/l the app.

 

[Brian]

So why is ITV Player not working on iOS if it works on Android?

But itv player is working on iOS, I am watching something now on my iPad mini.

 

[Deleted member 473]

But itv player is working on iOS, I am watching something now on my iPad mini.

But parish said it wasn't. I don't use iOS, I just took it at face value!

Thanks for the glimpse of reality!

 

[parish]

I only tried it on my iPhone. Maybe it works on the larger screen of the iPad. Anyway, as with anything, if there's a dedicated app then it makes sense to use it.

 

[Deleted member 473]

The ISO used QuickTime as the basis for the MPEG-4 spec - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mov_file - so QT (.mov) and MPEG-4 (.mp4, .m4v) are, essentially the same.

There is a difference between a free codec and a free codec wrapped in a proprietary wrapper (quicktime or flash).

But the codec H.264 isn't even free, is it?

https://www.fsf.org/licensing/h264-patent-license