www.beebotron.timeforabrew.com
What is this?
This site provides rtsp RealAudio .ra and .rm streaming links for BBC Listen Again programs that the Beeb hides. It will let you listen to BBC broadcasts on smartphones, Pocket PCs, PDAs, and other mobile devices that the Beeb continue to refuse to support. The last update to this site was 11 August 2008 for Radio Times - Radio Highlights – but please check the Message Board – that’s where the latest info will be.
What’s here?
BBC Listen Again - What Was On
BBC Listen Again - Selected Synopses
What do I need to use the links?
What's the reason for this site?
Other resources for Internet radio
and finally the Beeboblog site history... Updated 20 July 2008
Please read the message board for the latest info! It’s a pretty simple message board where I can keep you updated easily, and you can leave comments, information, links or anything else (but keep it clean ‘n’ legal please!).
The link is here: Message Board.
This is the slimmed-down version of this page, and is intended for use on mobile devices. It’s really the most useful page once you’ve been through this lot.
The link is here: Beebotron Lite.
BBC Listen Again Links
BBC Listen Again - What Was On
This link gives you the listings for the last seven days or so. The ‘or so’ is because it covers today and goes backwards for seven days – totalling eight days of listings. You can only listen to something which has been broadcast over the last seven days, so you won’t be able to Listen Again to something from today’s listing which hasn’t yet been broadcast. Neither will you be able to Listen Again to something from the oldest listing that’s over seven days old – you get the idea...
The link is here: What Was On
Compendia is where I intend to put programmes which are grouped together, but with rather more information than just the title and the clickable link.
It’s starting with Radio Highlights – programmes taken from recommendations from the Radio Times. It gives you the listings for the last seven days or so. The ‘or so’ is defined in the What Was On section (the previous paragraph). There’s one difference – if the link is grayed out then it’s definitely not available. If it’s clickable it’s usually playable, but on the odd occasion when it doesn’t work it’s likely to be the Beeb’s site which has a problem!
Compendia Links:
Radio Times - Radio Highlights
BBC Listen Again - Selected Synopses
This page gives you some of the synopses for the programmes – typically those where the links show something MON TUE WED THU FRI, and you don’t know what’s in the link unless you follow it. It’s built on entirely different technology from the rest of the site, and is independent from it. It uses BBC Backstage API feeds, and adheres to their terms and conditions. That’s why you won’t be able to follow a link from that page, so you will have to bounce backwards and forwards between the Listen Again links and the Synopses page if you want to use this feature! The BBC Backstage features I am using are still prototype (i.e. can be a bit ropey) .
The link is here: Synopses
What do I need to use the links?
Smartphone: You will need Real Player. Follow the instructions (please read the whole page, rather than just the first post) here: http://www.modaco.com/Howto-Install-RealPlayer-t223297.html. This is known to work on a Motorola Q Smartphone (to quote Craig, who did it, it’s “Not the most straightforward of installations but after creating the file association for .ra files and doing a soft reset it all works”.).
Pocket PC: You will need Real Player. There isn’t an installer for WM5 yet, so the easiest thing to do is get the .CAB file, drag it to your device and doubleclick it there to install it. You can get the .CAB file here: http://www.winmobiletech.com/sekalaiset/realplayer.cab, or just google for ‘real player cab for wm5’.
If you’re on a PC you’ll need Real Player installed. Go get it here: http://uk.real.com/player/win/ but make sure you download the free version. If you’re not in the UK then go to http://real.com and then hit the RealPlayer link - it should recognise where you are and give you the appropriate site.
What’s the reason for this site?
I have the utmost admiration and respect for bbc.co.uk – it’s a world class site and deservedly is held in high esteem. But (and there’s always a but) it uses Real (amongst other players) and Real isn’t too bright on a Pocket PC (not only does it not work very well, but Real can’t even be bothered to provide an installer for WM5!).
If you don’t believe me just try to get something playing on your Pocket PC from the BBC Radio site. It doesn’t work.
Here’s the Beeb’s half-hearted website for mobile devices: http://www.bbc.co.uk/mobile.
The following mobile devices are known to work with this site and the Beebotron Lite site.
Dell Axim X30 (one report works, one doesn’t!)
Dell Axim X51v
HTC Universal (works with Opera)
IMate Jas Jar
Motorola Q (Smartphone)
Nokia E61
Nokia N80
O2 XDA Exec (works with Opera)
Qtek 9000
XDA2 (WM 2003)
Comments, criticisms or requests?
Please email me at:
kronalias AT gmail DOT com (I’m trying to avoid spam, and I’m sure you know what to do to get the proper address)
I’d be delighted to hear from you, whether it’s a brickbat or a bouquet!
Other resources for accessing radio on the Internet
There are more radio stations than you can shake a stick at here: http://www.radiofeeds.co.uk/pda/rp.asp
Thank you very much Rick, of http://www.timeforabrew.com, for hosting this site!
The inspiration came from Dave’s site, http://dave.org.uk/streams/ - Nice one Dave!
The site went non-beta on 1 January 2007, so I’m looking forward to seeing if it’s useful to people!
06 Jan 07 The server I was using was pretty slow so I’ve changed to AwardSpace. If you’re reading this then you’re on the new server!
07 Jan 07 Well, that was an iffy website launch! Some of the links are not working – at the moment (1045) the Radio 2 and the World Service links are out. I’ll find out why and let you know. In the meantime, if you find any other bits aren’t working could you email me please? Thanks.
Update at 1345: Found the problems - Radio 2 and the World Service are now back up, so all the links should now be working.
Update at 1600: Added the BBC Live Radio links
Update at 1900: There’s an interesting (if you’re into that sort of thing) techie hiccup about to happen, thanks to some feedback from Iain, who had a new PPC for Christmas… Here’s the problem. If you look at (typically) some of my Radio 3 links – the one Iain cited was Jazz Legends – put your cursor over the link and right click and look at Properties you’ll see something like blahblahblahjazzleg.ra?start=89. The ?start=89 bit means that when Real starts playing this it should kick off from 89 seconds into the stream. If you click on this link on a PC (with the current version of Real) this will start as expected. If you copy the link into Real in your Pocket PC it’ll start – but from the start of the clip, i.e. 89 seconds earlier than it should (and typically you get the last bit of the previous programme). If you click on, or copy the link into Pocket Internet Explorer (PIE) on a Pocket PC then PIE will moan about trusted certificates etc (completely wrongly, nice one M$) and won’t let you go any further. If you take the link and strip off the ?start=89 bit then it will work in PIE, which will be happy and will pass the url to Real for it to play – albeit 89 seconds earlier than it should. The upshot of all this stuff is that, as this site is really meant for Pocket PC people to be able to access the Beeb, I’m going to strip off the ?start=89 type stuff.
The upside is that I *will* get it working for Pocket PCs (but I’ll need a day or two).
The downside is that if you’re using this from a PC then some of the programmes may start a little bit before they start.
08 Jan 07 I’m sorry, but I haven’t yet cured the ?start=whatever problem – there was a slightly more pressing need. My cronjobs were starting to interfere with each other because of reentrancy – in other words, one would start before the previous one had finished during busy server times. It’s a bit like you (It’s a bit like (It’s a bit like (It’s a bit like you (It’s a bit like you start a job) start a job) start a job) you start a job) you start a job. You get the general drift.
Hopefully with a judicious bit (Hopefully with a judicious bit of (Hopefully with a judicious bit of file locking this is now cured!) file locking this is now cured) of file locking this is now cured!. I’ll get the ?start=whatever thingy sorted over the next day or so.
09 Jan 07 The aforementioned ?start=whatever problem is now fixed. This makes this site less usable if you are using this site on a PC, but then again the site isn’t meant for PCs. Now the rest of us who use handhelds can use all the links, even if it means that we occasionally have to listen to a little bit of the preceding programme to start with.
I’ve also removed the part of this site which told you how to download rtsp streams. I’m not out to antagonise the Beeb – I just want to be able to play Listen Again programmes on my Axim!
On that topic, this page was starting to look a bit awkward on my Pocket PC, so I’ve created Beebotron Lite. Not pretty, but much more effective for my use! Hope you find it useful.
12 Jan 07 I’ve done a few updates on the site to cure some software bugs
features. This has caused the updates to slow down a bit, but don’t panic –
it’ll all come back into sync automatically in a day or so. Hopefully.
On the topic of bugs
features, there’s one on the top line of every radio listing – it’s the time of
update. The update time posted is actually the time of the previous update –
and it’s difficult to change because of the way I’ve done things, so I hope
you’ll forgive me if I let this go for a while.
I’ve also started including some video links in Beebotron Lite. They are really the ones I liked, and it’s easier for me to access these from my site than the Beeb’s (come to that, I don’t think you can get to the News In 2 Minutes video from Auntie’s site on a PDA – I stand to be corrected on this!).
I went into a flat spin earlier today – Beebotron went down! My initial thought was that I’d been shut down – no such worries, it was just my website provider having problems. But it made me think…. I’ve had some feedback about my site and the upshot is that one of the following will happen:
(1) This site may not attract many visitors and it won’t worry the BBC so they’ll turn a blind eye to me.
(2) This site may not attract many visitors and the BBC will try to shut me down anyway.
(3) This site may attract zillions of visitors which will cause real problems for the BBC and they’ll ask me to shut down.
My hope is that (1) will happen. That means that I can continue to provide a service to the people who want to use their gadgets in a similar manner to me (in my case I want to stream BBC Listen Again from my wifi PDA – it happens to be a Dell Axim X51v by the way – to a decent speaker system).
If (2) happens I’ll let you know what’s going on.
If ((3) happen then I will close my links immediately and voluntarily.
Which brings me to the next point, WITH APOLOGIES FOR SHOUTING BUT WOULD REGULAR USERS PLEASE READ THIS. If I have to move my site to a new web host then you can find out where that is by searching in http://aximsite.com/ - just do a search in there for Beebotron. Plug: That’s a really good site for info and help for Pocket PCs, and not just for Dell Axims! ( By the way, I have no affiliation to this site, so that’s a totally independent recommendation. ) Alternatively you could google for ‘beebotron site:aximsite.com’ (without the ‘s) and you should find where I’ve gone. Would regular users please take a note of this, as you won’t be able to read this bit if the site is down!
12 Jan 07 A couple of minor updates – the date-time stamp on the first line of the listings should now be ok, and there shouldn’t be as many out of date links.
I’ve also included a compatibility list – which totals the grand sum of one entry, which is my own. I’m interested in finding out which mobile devices work with the site and, perhaps more importantly, which ones don’t. If you could spare the time and have a different mobile device from those listed could you email me and let me know what you’re using, and whether or not the site works please?
A response already – thanks Johnny!
18 Jan 07 I’ve been tweaking a bit, and the links *should* all update within every 24 hours. Hopefully. Perhaps.
I’ve also a page which provides a synopsis for each of some selected programmes – they are the ones I was interested in, but if you have any which you want included then let me know and I’ll try to put them in. As I said in that section, the BBC Backstage feed that I’m using is a bit ropey – let me know what you think of it!
28 Jan 07 I’ve been tweaking a bit more, and now everything seems to be running smoothly. Having said that, the page giving the Synopses updates every hour, and the Listen Again links update over 24 hours. So there may be a slight discrepancy…
I’ve had most of my feedback on various boards, but I’ve also had some really nice emails coming in (Johnny in Oz is now a regular). Thanks also to Steve for the nice words and the Nokia N61 update.
18 Feb 07 I’ve had fun for the last couple of weeks –
The PC I use for Beebotron went down, so I took the ‘opportunity’ to try Linux (again). I *really* want to move to Linux, but I had too many
problems with wifi (again) so I’ve rebuilt it with M$ (again). One day…
Apols to all who received emails from me today – I had a shedload when I fired up the rebuilt PC, so the replies were a bit shorter than they would normally have been.
The site is cleaned up a little, and I’ve introduced the What Was On (WWO) listing pages. These were ready a week or so ago, but my crash stopped me from updating the website. It’s a great pity that the Beeb don’t provide Listen Again for everything – like Radio 4 Pick of the Week. As in you’ll find this on the WWO listings, but it’s not available in Listen Again.
I’ve had a request (from Jim) for a Radio Ulster link, which is a reasonable request. The easiest way for me to do this is to replace one of the existing links. But which one?
Your emails count – just tell me ( kronalias [AT] gmail [DOT] com ) which is your *least* favourite station over the next week or so. I get first vote, and I want to keep Radio 2, 3, 4, and the World Service. In addition to these stations I’ve had emails from people using BBC 7 and Radio 1. So the candidate to ditch is either: 1Xtra, 6 Music, Asian Network or Five Live
25 Feb 07 Asian Network received the least support, so I’m changing it to Radio Ulster. It’ll take a week or so for all the listings to update.
The Selected Synopses page hasn’t updated for a while – it’s not my software, it’s the Beeb not updating their API (if and when they repair things then the page will update automatically.
23 Apr 07 A plea for support. CHANGED. Please see the 10 May update below!
10 May 07 ‘A plea for support’ – A result!
You may have noticed that the site hasn’t been updating as it used to, or as it should do. This was because my web space providers started to limit what could be done with scripts. The upshot was that I couldn’t run things automatically unless I started paying, so I put out a plea for support, and I’ve had a goodly number of responses, for which I am extremely grateful. Of these, Rick and Ian both offered to host the site. Thank you both! Rick was first, and I’m working with him right now. For the moment the site will remain ‘as is’ (ie updating spasmodically) until we’re happy to go public. Please bear with us! We have already carried out preliiminary testing and things are looking good. In the meantime I’ll continue to update the site manually when I’m at home.
18 May 07 The new site location!
If you’re reading this then you’ve found the new site, hosted by Rick of http://www.timeforabrew.com. Thank you very much, Rick!
21 Oct 07 RELOADED.
Over the last month or so the Beeb have been changing their websites (internally), and this broke my links to them – in particular the Listen Again Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri type entries (thank you Neil for noticing the problems starting). I’ve rewritten the parser for their site and, although you won’t see any real difference to this site, the links should all be working again. If you find anything which isn’t working would you pleae email me?
19 Jan 08 Yet another rewrite
I’ve added a couple more requested stations (Radio Wales and Radio Scotland), and included a message board. I’ve also simplified the internal workings of the site – which you shouldn’t (?) notice…
20 Jul 08 Yet another rewrite to cope with the Beeb’s iPlayer
The Beebotron’s been rewritten and now copes with the iPlayer. Sort of. Keep an eye on the Message Board – that’s quicker for me to put stuff onto than this site!
11 Aug 08 Compendia added
This should really be called Compendium, as there’s only one page so far – the Radio Times Radio Highlights. These highlights are scraped from the Radio Times site, and then links scraped from the iPlayer feed are added. On this note (the iPlayer) any pages you see which have Beebotron at the top are from the ‘old’ Beeb feeds, and may well fade away. Any pages which have iBeebotron at the top are taken from Auntie’s iPlayer or its feeds. If these links go down please contact me – it’s probably because the Beeb have changed their iPlayer site and I need to tweak the Beebotron to cope with the change.
Thanks for visiting from Kronalias!
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