910573 - Firefox will not trigger TV programme downloads from UK BBC iPlayer website to the iPlayer application.

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Core Graveyard :: Plug-ins, defect, P5)

Description

[jmward]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.2; WOW64; rv:23.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/23.0 (Beta/Release)
Build ID: 20130814063812

Steps to reproduce:

Firefox 23.0.1 will not trigger the BBC iPlayer desktop application to download programmes from www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/tv.  (You may need to use a UK VPN to see this as the BBC will not serve programmes out of the UK).  The browser/webpage just offers to install the iPlayer and then won't actually do that.  Firefox used to trigger the process correctly, but has stopped doing so within the last year.  Unfortunately I do not recall the Firefox version change when this happened.

I am running the latest software on my Windows 8 64-bit system:  Air 3.8.0.870, Flash 11.8.800.94, and the long-current version of BBC iPlayer, 3.2.15, which I have installed separately.  I have tested with Firefox in "safe mode" and with a fresh installation with no add-ons installed.

Note that this problem is with download of programmes for subsequent viewing, and not with playing streaming programs directly in the browser.  The problem has been reported several times in the Mozilla forums, and is similar to unresolved bugs 424330 and 539053 reported a couple of years ago.

To reproduce this problem, all you need to do is go to the BBC website given above, and select a programme for download.  The website should offer to install the BBC iPlayer desktop application for you, and once installation is complete, programme download via the desktop application should begin, indicated by a brief popup above the taskbar, and by a progress bar within the application itself.




Actual results:

If the desktop iPlayer is not installed, the webpage will offer to install it, but the installation will hang.  If you select another programme and try again, the same will happen.

If the iPlayer has already been installed by other means and is already running, nothing will happen.  There will be no indication of a download taking place.



Expected results:

If the iPlayer desktop application is not installed, the webpage/browser should download and install it, invite you to do a basic configuration, and then begin download of the selected programme, indicated by a brief popup, and by a progress bar in the iPlayer desktop application.

If it is already installed and running, you should see the popup indicating commencement of download, and be able to track download by a progress bar in the application itself.

Internet Explorer 11, Google Chrome, and Opera will all trigger download correctly.

Comment 1

[Loic]

This kind of bugs horrible to fix: website not entirely public, georestriction, closed source third-party plugins, etc.
Don't be surprised if the bug is not tested properly or fixed.

You should contact the BBC support to fix that, or they should contact Mozilla and post themself on BMO, not their users.

Comment 2

[jmward]

The website is public, the "georestriction" is to the whole of the UK, and the plugin involved is Adobe Flash, which I believe is pretty well-known.

It is not up to BBC Support to fix this, since it is not a problem with their website or application.  Both work fine in conjunction with all the other browsers that I have tried.  There is therefore no reason why the BBC should contact Mozilla, since they probably couldn't care less whether Firefox works on their site or not, as long as most browsers do.  It is therefore up to the users to report the problem as what it is, a bug in Firefox.  And that they periodically continue to do.

It cannot be that difficult to fix.  Doing a debug trace through the page Javascript for a browser that works, and then for Firefox, should show where the trigger point is reasonably easily, I would have thought.  And it used to work.  But OK, this is not my area of development, so I guess it's your call.

Comment 3

[Majken Connor [:Kensie]]

I can confirm, on Windows 7.

Comment 4

[whiteandred]

I can report similar problem with iplayer download and whilst searching for solution came across this report pointing the finger at a firefox problem - which I had discounted because... I can download iplayer programme using old XP PC but not using new windows 8 laptop. Frustrating since alternative is trying to watch using normal iplayer which cuts out or buffer circles far too often - doesn't seem to want to buffer in advance - pause - actually stops everything. Grrr.

Comment 5

[whiteandred]

Wrote too soon...
A few search results later is a page on windows-secrets that blames new version of adobe air.
Then, another page on catchupsupport blaming Chrome browser...

Comment 6

[Hallvord R. M. Steen [:hallvors]]

I'm asked if I have installed the iplayer application already, and given a choice between "install" (taking me to http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/install) and "download" which let's me choose SD or HD and giving me a link like this (for the particular program I was trying to download):

bbc-ipd:download/b07grng5/b07grng1/hd/standard/Q2l0eSBpbiB0aGUgU2t5IC0gMi4gQWlyYm9ybmU=/b07g70j1/Q2l0eSBpbiB0aGUgU2t5

Firefox naturally doesn't understand the bbc-ipd protocol. I will check if installing the BBC iplayer application will configure Firefox (or Windows?) to handle this.

Comment 7

[Hallvord R. M. Steen [:hallvors]]

Yes, seems it works perfectly now.