320kbps radio audio available via MPEG-DASH

[James Scholes]

Hi all,

I've been investigating the BBC's offerings that they're making
available via MPEG-DASH today, specifically for radio content.  It
appears that audio is available in 320kbps AAC for most radio programs
(possibly all but I wouldn't want to claim such).  The files aren't
DRM-protected, can be grabbed over HTTP, and joined together using ffmpeg.

Example from Radio 4 Extra, using a script I whipped up:

C:\Users\jscholes\dev>python radiodownload.py b0081rx2
INFO: Downloading PID: b0081rx2
INFO: Program title: Agatha Christie - The Sittaford Mystery, The Message
INFO: Trying 1 program version(s).
INFO: Using version: Original version (b0081rw9)
INFO: Found 1 selection(s) in mediaset
INFO: Using first available media selection
INFO: AAC at 320kbps (stream-uk-audio_streaming_concrete_combined/audio/mp4)
INFO: 2 connections available for this selection
INFO: Using first available connection
INFO: Connection with priority 1, URL:
http://aod-dash-uk-live.edgesuite.net/usp/auth/vod/piff_abr_full_audio/ebaf54-b0081rw9/vf_b0081rw9_3b18b1b1-b5d1-48f3-b620-efb65f6ae058.ism/pc_hd_abr_v1_uk_dash_master.mpd?__gda__=1451545239_645f0c2e24c2fd8036cfa9da1c6884a4

This quality would be a considerable improvement over the current
maximum of 128kbps available with RTMP streams used by get_iplayer
(Radio 3 aside).  However I'm a newcomer to all of this so I wondered if
there were any technical reasons this shouldn't or couldn't be
implemented into GiP in the future?  I download a lot of radio programs
so I would possibly be interested in implementing it myself.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
-- 
James Scholes
http://twitter.com/JamesScholes