Signed programmes not downloading

[Rob Dixon]

On 23/02/2012 11:41, dinkypumpkin wrote:
> On 23/02/2012 08:53, Rob Dixon wrote:
>> I have noticed recently that signed television programmes are breaking
>> get_iplayer. An interim fix that seems to work (there may be a better
>> indicator than the one I have chosen) is to add the line
>>
>> $url .= '/sign' if $prog->{channel} and $prog->{channel} eq 'Signed';
>>
>> after line 4939 in the 2.80 release of get_iplayer.pl which reads
>>
>> $url .= '/ad' if defined $opt->{versionlist} && $opt->{versionlist} ne
>> 'default';
>
> I've just downloaded several signed programmes without a hitch, so
> please expand on "breaking get_iplayer". Does it actually fall over, or
> do you just not get the programme you expected? If it falls over, does
> it print an error message? More helpful would be to show us your command
> line and the output (from release version) when run with --verbose.
> Ordinarily, the choice of playlist URL with non-default versions
> wouldn't make a difference. If the change you described actually has an
> effect, it suggests there may be something unusual with BBC metadata for
> your programmes, but we don't know what those programmes are.

If I use, for instance

   get_iplayer --pid b01b45zh -g

to retrieve the Horizon programme "2011-2012: 7. Playing God", it
correctly shows me the info line and then says

   WARNING: No programmes are available for this pid

This is because it is pulling the XML metadata from

   http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/playlist/b01b45zh

which has a <noItems reason=""/> element instead of from

   http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/playlist/b01b45zh/sign

which is valid for signed programmes.

Rob