YouTube-dl: BBC iPlayer available source quality & DOG

S

SunnysideUK

Member
Link to previous related on Freeview forum: Freeview forum posting

Having missed Frozen Planet II - Episode 3: Frozen Peaks, I used Qtube to download a source from BBC's iPlayer.
Using -F I ascertained that the best was 1280x720, while the two previously recorded Freeview broadcasts were better at full HD (1920x1080p).

Detail:
youtube-dl version: 2023.10.04
youtube-dl URL: youtube -F argument...

Source selected:
Video: mf_cloudfront-5510-1 mp4 1280x720 5510k , avc1.640020@5070k, 50.0fps, mp4a.40.2@128k (best) /downloaded @~13.7Mbps
Audio: mf_cloudfront-audio_eng_1=128000-1 m4a audio only [en] DASH audio 128k , m4a_dash container, mp4a.40.2 (48000Hz) /downloaded @~1.63Mbps

Download:
Video: Frozen_Planet_II_Series_1_Frozen_Peaks.fmf_cloudfront-5510-1.mp4 /2.15 GiB
Audio: Frozen_Planet_II_Series_1_Frozen_Peaks.fmf_cloudfront-audio_eng_1=128000-1.m4a /54.00 MiB
Frozen_Planet_II_Series_1_Frozen_Peaks.temp.mp4 /339.76 MiB

Merge: Frozen Planet II 3-6 Frozen Peaks (2022).mp4 (renamed) /2.09 GiB

Plays OK but video quality looks poorer and has a permanent small faded "BBC" DOG (Digital On-screen Graphics) at the TLC.
Freeview HD is clean: The previous Freeview files are 1920x1080p, 1.5 to 1.6GiB in size (after minor-crop & compressing) 57min, NO DOG.

Q. Is this normal for iPlayer to have poorer quality source than Freeview broadcasts and have DOG's?
 
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Not sure if your case is the same but I recently had an episode of "Gone Fishing" that had on-screen graphics I couldn't get rid of. Turns out some programmes don't have the option of turning it off. The iplayer web page for the episode said this:
This is an Audio Described version of this programme.
The non-Audio Described version isn't available. Find out why
Click to expand...
(The link explains further.)
 
Wildebeest said:
Turns out some programmes don't have the option of turning it off.
Click to expand...
I'm surprised any programmes have the option of turning it off! It's baked into the video.

SunnysideUK said:
Link to previous related on Freeview forum: Freeview forum posting...
Click to expand...
Look, beggars can't be choosers. If you don't like it, wait for it to be broadcast again (which it will be). You can set up a persistent search for the series or the episode using RS.
 
One way of "removing" the station ident is with an accidental combination of player and TV settings that causes the outer left and right of the video to be cropped.

Searching for the "best" version of content is a wild goose chase, best left (suitably enough) to viewers with actual eagle-eyes, or who are much too close to the screen. There is no incentive for a content provider to maintain consistent levels of quality, whether for OTA or streaming. There are (at least for the PSB channels) standards for content submitted by a production company to the broadcaster (eg, ITV want the credits arranged so as to be able to promote the next show), which presumably has a standard ingestion and playout workflow that generates the broadcast and streamed versions. If any of that goes slightly wrong (eg, E4 showing Modern Family S03E19 with the EPG data for S03E17) it may never be detected, or only by viewers like OP, and probably won't be corrected.

Anyone who experienced NTSC-converted content ("Never The Same Color") or, say, the clip of "Johnny" Mayall's Bluesbreakers watched on TV by Bob Dylan (Pennebaker "Don't Look Back" out-take) in the Clapton doc "Life in 12 Bars" will find almost any modern digitally encoded material good enough.

Having said that, iPlayer does have higher resolution content:
  • a small hack to the media links may generate a higher resolution, but no-one has ever shown convincing evidence that the result is "better than", or even not just an upscaled version of, the best advertised resolution;
  • using the STB's device certificate, UHD formats become available, but then can't be played on the STB.
 
SunnysideUK said:
DOG (Digital On-screen Graphics).
The free view broadcasts are clean, the downloaded iPlayer file has a small, faded “BBC“ logo top-left-corner.
Click to expand...
Work out how much time you have spent posting here and searching elsewhere to achieve your goal then allocate a reasonable hourly rate for that time and ask yourself would it have been a wiser use of your time to buy the DVD of the whole series for £12 (£8 pre owned) free delivery and get it in 4k. Even the Blu-ray is only £17.
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SunnysideUK said:
Q. Is this normal for iPlayer to have poorer quality source than Freeview broadcasts
Click to expand...
iPlayer always has poorer picture quality than Freeview HD. Also iPlayer sound is stereo only, Freeview HD usually has 5.1 sound if the programme was made with that. I don't watch BBC in SD so can't comment on Freeview SD.
 
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