Problems with --exclude-supplier=akamai and HD downloads

[Nick Payne]

On 15/09/2015 09:12, tellyaddict wrote:
>> For many months I have used --exclude-supplier=akamai on my GiP command
>> line as it results in a 10- or 12-fold increase in download speed
>> compared to the throughput I get without that option - with the option,
>> an hour long problem @1280x720 will download in around 5-6 minutes,
>> without it the download takes about an hour. The command line I have
>> been using is
>>
>> get_iplayer --pid=xxxxxxxx --exclude-supplier=akamai
>>
>> I returned from a weeks holiday yesterday and attempted to download a
>> couple of BBC Proms programs using my normal command line, but found
>> that 1280x720 resolution was not found and the download started at
>> 832x468 resolution. Killed the download, removed the
>> --exclude-supplier=akamai option, and the download started at 1280x720,
>> but I was back to the much slower download speed.
>>
>> Any suggestions on how I can still get HD downloads at the faster rate?
>> Running GiP 2.94 on Windows 8.1.
> Have a read of https://squarepenguin.co.uk/forums/thread-520.html. This is a known issue as something has changed at the BBC. I agree that Akamai is slower than Level3, but it is not that slow. From the akamai server an hour long programme takes about 10 minutes.

Ok, thanks. Looks like there's no remedy at the moment until Level3 fix 
whatever their problem is. And for me, Akamai is dead slow and always 
has been. I just downloaded Beck, and it took ~3-1/2 hours for the 
1.42Gb 1280x720 HD file to complete downloading. Normally, downloads off 
Level3 run at my full connection speed of around ~15Mbit, and a download 
of that size would take 12-15 minutes.