Downloading BBC shows for your iPhone from outside the UK

I’ve already written a couple of posts about how to access the BBC iPlayer from outside the UK by using Firefox and my now-preferred browser, Chrome.

Now, to help the days in the office pass by quicker, I wanted a way to download programs onto my iPhone so I could watch them during the day and while I’m out in the field / on holiday etc.

Well, I found just the ticket. By using tactics already described in the posts above, coupled with a couple of new techniques, it is easily possible. Here’s how:

1. Follow the first four steps in this article to get Vidalia installed on your machine. (P.S. I have since switched to a Mac since writing that article, so if you have a Mac, you can find your config file under <> – Library – Vidalia – torrc). To check that Tor is working correctly, go to any BBC iPlayer show and see if you can watch it.
2. Now download Get iPlayer Automator from Tom Tech. (Please note that this program is only available for the Mac – there are alternatives for PCs)
3. After you have installed this program, launch it and head straight into the preferences.
4. Under proxy, ensure you select “Provided” and enter 127.0.0.1:9050 into the box shown. Feel free to set the remainder of the preferences to suit your setup. I personally find it very handy to automatically add shows into iTunes and add Series-Link Programmes to Queue to startup (see below for explaination).
5. Now just enter the name of the show that you want to download in the search box and the program will show you all the available shows for download (note that occasionally, high-cost shows including American series such as Heroes, or films are not available for the iPhone because of licensing costs).
6. Now just select the show you want to download, add it to the queue and then hit start to start downloading the files. The files will be downloaded to wherever you specify in the preferences.
7. Now a feature that I really love about this awesome piece of freeware is the Series-Link feature. If you want the program to automatically download all available episodes of a certain show as and when they become available, hit the PVR (Personal Video Recorder) button across the top of the screen to enter the PVR Manager. In this window, you simply search for the series you want to record and then select auto-record to add it to the list of shows you want to download automatically. Now every time you launch the app, it will search for new episodes of these shows (provided that option is selected in the preferences).

The last thing you need to do is to be sure to donate to Tom for the excellent work he has done on this software, only to provide it to all for free.

If you have any questions about these methods, are having trouble setting it up, or want to share your own tips, please leave a comment, or get in touch with me.