James Delahunty
13 Apr 2008 3:42
Following the announcement of iPlayer support in Nintendo's Wii video games home console, and the subsequent revelation that the lack of support for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (PS3) was due mainly to Microsoft and Sony, PS3 users have decided to go ahead and enjoy BBC's iPlayer anyway. A coder called "Ixalon" has created an unofficial site for the PS3 which spoofs the Wii's user agent and makes the Javascript and CSS of iPlayer's site "PS3-friendly".
So that means by pointing the PS3's browser toward the unofficial site, UK PS3 owners can enjoy content from BBC's iPlayer now. The iPlayer offers TV programming in the UK and is designed specifically for those who want a second look at an episode they watched on TV, of those who simply missed a certain episode while it aired.
The video content that is delivered to PS3 users through this method is the same Flash 7 video that the BBC provides for Wii users. The Flash 7 video has a higher bitrate than normal to attempt to match the iPlayer quality. While it was possible to view the iPlayer site from the PS3 console before, it wasn't as easy as just visiting a URL, which is...
URL: http://www.ps3iplayer.com/problem/browser.html
This is unlikely to cause any kind of stir, except maybe at Nintendo, which arguably only enjoyed a single day's exclusivity of iPlayer. "It only took a day to produce, so come on BBC - how about implementing this properly?," the developer, Ixalon, asks.