BBC Media Player for Android Devices

The “fast-changing environment” of mobile development has been well proved by the retreat of Adobe Flash from Android Mobile and the governing of HTML5, and BBC iPlayer’s permission for downloading as well.

Yet,Flash is still the best choice of media format to use, when taken so many factors into consideration: supports JellyBean and as well as earlier Android OS version like Gingerbread and FroYo; goes well with both websites and Android applications.

Thus, the BBC is launching a new media player for its iPlayer streaming app on Android powered devices: phones and tablets. In fact, BBC has supported iPlayer on Android since 2010 till its decision of removing the flash player plugin for Android.

The new media player is named BBC Media Player, which is already available on Google Play. BBC Media Player applies Adobe Flash’s “cousin” Adobe Air for streaming radio and video playback on Android devices.

“We want people to have the best experience possible when they're watching BBC TV programmes or listening to BBC radio programmes. This means, amongst other things, making them available on as many devices as is practical,” said Chris Yanda, executive product manager at BBC Future Media.

Facing the challenges of making services available across Android platforms as well as IOS, many broadcasters are trying to make that possible. BSkyB launched its Sky Go app for Android in January 2012 (8 months after its IOS version.)

Though many give priority to IOS platform, Android OS is quite a promising market as UK smartphone sales share in the 12 weeks to 10 June shows that: Android took 57.2% while iPhone accounted for a much less amount of 25.6.

"No technology is perfect. We've seen some of the challenges that other Adobe Air based apps have had in the marketplace and so we have worked hard, both internally and with our technology partners to build the best application we can," Yanda said. 

Free VLC Player: Why do We Choose VLC?

Viewing movies on computers for enjoyment sometimes can be annoying when your video player software doesn’t go well with the video files. The ideal video player we’re dreaming of is like this: compatible with all OS and formats, user-friendly interface, safe and free will be even better.

The free and open-source VLC media player which can also be a streaming server becomes many people’s best choice for watching videos online over the past years. Why do we choose VLC player?

Multi-platforms supported
As a cross-platform media player, VLC runs well in many operation systems: Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, Android, BSD, Solaris, iOS, Syllable, BeOS, MorphOS, QNX and eComStation

Any media file formats supported
Comparing with other video player, VLC stands out in this point when it supports almost every commonly-used media formats. Meanwhile, playback for some obscure or rarely-used formats can also be done.

Optional interfaces
VLC has a remote control interface and an ncurses interface. It allows custom selection of skins as it supports Winamp 2 and XMMS skins.

Transcoding
With a built-in transcoding tool, the media you throw into it can be output in form of another format.

Interesting video effects
It will be full of fun to add effects to the videos you are watching according to your own preference, just like an editing tool. Additionally, watermark such as text or image can be inserted into the video. Another interesting feature should be the puzzle game mode you can get with VLC.

Open-source and free, as such a powerful media player would be; VLC undoubtedly will be favored by many. In fact, VLC is not just for PC use, but also for portable devices playback as the Android VLC version is released on July 2nd this year for your Android Smartphone. VLC was available for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch from the Apple AppStore, but was pulled due to a licensing conflict between the GPL and the iTunes Store agreement.

iPlayer-BBC iPlayer Offline Playback: Making the Unmissable, Unmissable on iPhone!

From “Catch up on the last 7 days of BBC TV & Radio” to "Making the unmissable, unmissable", then all the way to “recommendations feature” and “social makeover”, the internet television, radio service and software application, iPlayer (BBC iPlayer), provides users some more astonishing service: offline/downloaded viewing this time.

The BBC has launched a new download feature which allows people to save programs from iPlayer on to their portable devices-cell phone, tablet for later viewing without the limitations of network/internet connection. This would be great for people who have no time for the shows or spend time somewhere there’s no Wi-Fi or spotty signal. Or bring it to your holiday travelling to have fun. As Daniel Danker, the BBC's general manager of on-demand programmes, put it: "This fundamentally changes one of the most annoying restrictions about viewing programmes. It means audiences are liberated from the constraints [of online-only viewing] and it fundamentally changes what it means to go on holiday."

Back to its earliest period, due to copyright reasons, iPlayer only allowed videos/programs available for a week time (with some exceptions). Then specific applications for mobile platforms launched in February 2011, mainly for iOS and Android devices.

Now, the BBC is about to release such an app for storing downloaded content from iPlayer for offline viewing-which makes it really means it-making unmissable, unmissable. The specifications is that: users can download the videos before its 7-day duration online, store it for 30 days, and you have to finish it in also 7 days once you start viewing.

Such feature in now available on iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch for the moment, later this year will Android devices be available then.

Comments:some people announced that actually this download feature for mobile is not BBC's first time: about 3 or 4 years earlier some had downloaded from iPlayer with their mobiles such as Nokia 5800 or Nokia N95. Just the first time for iPhone? So what do you say?