Default TV mode option

[dinkypumpkin]

 From a recent thread here:

http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/get_iplayer/2013-January/003769.html

On 12/01/2013 11:16, Jon Davies wrote:
> since for reasons I never quite understood, probably lost in the mists
> of time, get_iplayer doesn't seem to download the best quality stream
> it can find by default...

If anyone has an argument one way or the other for changing this, please 
chime in.  The argument I can think of for the current default is that 
it prevents new users from eating bandwidth with hd/vhigh downloads they 
may not want.  To quantify: the size difference between high and hd for 
a one hour programme is nearly 900 MB, between high and vhigh is around 
300 MB.  My completely uneducated guess is that fewer people these days 
have bandwidth caps, but those numbers would make a real difference in 
download time if you have a slow broadband connection.

My own inclination is towards grubby compromise: add vhigh to the 
default TV modes but leave hd as optional.  That would sort of mimic the 
iPlayer site, where HD is not the default when you click to the player 
page from a programme listing.