Another download issue.

[Vangelis forthnet]

 On Mon Oct 6 21:08:05 BST 2014, Chris Dunne wrote:

> I'm tring to download
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04jmx7l/marvellous
>
> However get_iplayer fails to find 'marvellous'
> 'INFO: 0 Matching Programmes'

Hi, Chris :-)

 This TV programme was first broadcast on 21:00 BST Sep 25th, 2014,
i.e. more than 7 days ago, so its metadata is no longer present in the feeds
used by get_iplayer to populate the TV cache. This is a known issue
with TV & radio programmes with extended (> 1wk) online availability.
Furthermore,

 On  Tue Oct 7 00:12:10 BST 2014, dinkypumpkin wrote:

> If you search for "Marvellous" on the iPlayer site,
> it will tell you that the programme is no longer available
> (it is available via the programme website)

 On Mon Oct 6 21:08:05 BST 2014, Chris Dunne wrote:

> I've also tried:
> (snip)
> get_iplayer --pid=b04jmx7l

 The PID method should've worked for this type of programme;
the fact it's not means that something more sinister is happening:

 On  Tue Oct 7 00:12:10 BST 2014, dinkypumpkin wrote:

>The metadata used by get_iplayer also says the programme is
> unavailable, so there is no way for get_iplayer to discover the
> streaming feeds to download.

 Indeed, when one uses the default "playlist URL" to reveal
the "version PID" of this show (the same procedure is done
automatically by get_iplayer):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/playlist/b04jmx7l/
one gets:
<noItems reason="postAvailability"/>
no vPID = no stream data to be used.

This is quite odd, because the video DOES PLAY in the browser,
so the flash plugin must have a way to obtain the "version PID"
(aka "mediator identifier") and hence access the rtmp streams.
I have tried to examine the web traffic of my browser to possibly
discover the alternate "playlist URL" used to get the "version PID";
my attempts were unfruitful to that regard, as nothing would stand out
as a playlist :-( - instead many complex .js files. But through URL
sniffing I was able to pinpoint the vPID used, which is:

vPID=b04jmwzz

So, by using the "mediaselector URL", one can manually
access the details of the available RTMP streams:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/4/mtis/stream/b04jmwzz
(this only works for UK IPs).

If Chris Dunne (or whoever) wants desperately to have this on disk,
he can manually constract rtmpdump commands from the data given.
(I have attached template commands for both ak & ll CDNs;
you'd have to get yourself fresh token strings (authString=),
since they have an average lifespan of just over 1hr).

> The metadata may be broken, or this may be
> a change in the way programmes are archived.
> Perhaps it's a casualty of the switchover to 28-day availability

I honestly hope this is just a fluke, else this spells
very bad news for get_iplayer...

Most kind regards,
V. 
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