IMPORTANT NOTE AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS ARTICLE - PLEASE READ AS BIG CHANGES SINCE THIS ARTICLE WAS POSTED.
About a week ago now around the 17th May 2015, the iPlayer add-on for BBC on demand streaming stopped working for many of us and I have with a little research discovered now why that is so and how to apply a fix that will work well provided you have a reasonably good internet connection service. Worth a try anyway. You may not be affected by this, so if you are still working as normal then no need to follow the instructions below. It all depends on how your iPlayer add-on was set up before we shipped it to you.
The iPlayer uses one of three server providers Akamai, Limelight or Live 3 and by default the settings use Any of them as the add-on feels is most appropriate. However I have now discovered by investigation that the Akamai server is clearly down either permanently or temporarily, and that by forcing the add-on somehow to use one of the other two servers the iPlayer will then work okay. The downside is that Akamai it seems is the only one of these three servers that provides lower bandwidth streaming, which we try to use for more reliable viewing where a less than ideal internet service demands. Of course it still gives a more than adequate video quality, albeit at a lower res than full bandwidth streaming. Many of the boxes we ship with this iPlayer add-on set to force use a 1500 kB bandwidth rather than the full available 2800kB, and which I have discovered in effect forces it to use the Akamai server as that is the only one of the three servers that provides this and other selectable lower bandwidths.
So to get around this problem for now, and certainly until Akamai comes back on-line (hopefully), we need to prevent the add-on from using the Akamai server and instead use one of the other two servers. So please read on and follow the instructions below to achieve this needed option.
1. Go to the iPlayer Add-on Settings screen (use you menu button on the add-on itself and NOT the short cut icon) and then select the Streams tab at the top. Please do NOT alter any other settings other than those changes set out below.
2. First, and maybe the only setting you may need to check and change, is the second option "Video Stream To Use (On Demand)". If this is already set to Auto then it is unlikely that you would be having the problem,.so leave it as is and you will need to carry on to step 4 below if you still cannot run the TV program content. It is far more likely that this is set to 1500 kB (set up by us for more reliable slightly lower bandwidth streaming), so you then need to change this to Auto (or you can try 2800 kB which Akamai does not provide such a high res service so will no longer be used). That should be all you need to do. So just then save this change and quit the settings screen by clicking on the OK button at the bottom of the settings screen window.
3. Test out your iPlayer a few times to check it is now working trying various on-demand program content . If it now works well again then you are done, though you may of course now experience more stuttering or pauses because we are now using the higher bandwidth streaming with the higher quality 720 res video. Nothing more we can do about that stuttering problem if you are now getting that, well not until Akamai comes back on-line, or of course if you can improve your international internet connection with your ISP. But at least you now have it working even if with some pauses or occasional stuttering.
4. If Step 3 shows it is still not working for you, or maybe only working occasionally when you try to play program content, then your next option is to force the add-on to exclusively use only either the Limelight or Level3 server. You will need to try both servers to see which one of them works best for you. You can do so by going back to the Add-on Settings screen and the Streams tab as in 1 above and changing the next to last option "Stream Source Preference" from the default Any to either Limelight or Level3. Then once again save your setting changes and quit the settings screen by clicking on the OK button at the bottom of the settings screen window.
5. Test again and now I am sure you will find it will be working again, albeit maybe with the pauses and stuttering of course as mentioned in Step 3 above. If it is still not working then you most likely have some other connection problem that you will need to investigate and.or take up with your ISP.
6. PLEASE NOTE that setting the "Video Stream to Use (On Demand)" option to anything other than 2800kb or Auto whilst you are forcing it to use either the Limelight or Level3 servers will not work at all, as those server only appear to serve the higher quality 2800 kB streams.
Hope that helps. But don't forget that you can change the above settings back to what they were before when and if you discover that the Akamai server is back on-line again; unless of course you are happy with the new settings and are not suffering from unacceptable levels of stuttering and/or pauses as may now well be the case if your internet connection is marginal as many seem to be.
IMPORTANT UPDATE NOTE- MUST READ 06/06/2015 You may well by now have noticed that the iPlayer is no longer working again despite the above temporary fix. The add-on appears to be broken and no longer working for now and we can only hope it returns. You can though as a stop gap measure use the BBC iPlayer add-on form Mikey1234 that we temporarily used some while ago in similar circumstances. Some of you may still have that add-on installed but if not then you can easily install it from the Get More list of add-ons in your Videos|Addons section. Once installed you MUST go to the Add-on Settings screen (select and highlight the add-on and use you menu button on the remote to get there in the usual way) and the only option available is Use Proxy which please click on to enable this option and the right hand blue indicator will light up. Finally hit the OK option at the bottom of the setting screen to save this change.
This BBC iPlayer uses a public free proxy server so may not be as reliable as the usual add-on we have been using and of course our own very reliable iplayerproxy4u proxy server, but for now it does seem to be working, though with only ONE of the 3 servers it uses. So once installed you can find the BBC program you want to watch on-demand and when you select it you will get a choice of servers and resolutions to choose from. You should note that the ONLY option on that server list that works is LEVEL3 at 3200 kbps. So select that option and enjoy BBC on-demand subject to the free proxy server not being over subscribed and your internet connection being able to support the high 3200kbps streaming,. It is working well here for me right now as I have been watching EastEnders editions for this past week and in good quality with little or no buffering too, even though it is at 3200kbps.
Obviously I cannot tell you how long this will continue working or when and whether the usual add-on we have been using will return fully working. So for now DO leave the old original iPlayer installed in the hope it does automatically update and come good again. But I hope this article gives some help to you all.
Ray