The BBC's online, on-demand TV iPlayer was released for public download on Friday following its launch a month ago.
The beta version of the service is available for Windows XP users, less than three months after the service received the green light from the corporation's independent governing body, the BBC Trust.
The BBC is requesting feedback from early iPlayer users to iron out any issues before a bigger marketing push is made in the autumn.
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The BBC is struggling to implement its DRM strategy. It is increasingly hard to see why it's bothering at all…
The fact the iPlayer is only available for Windows XP has caused some controversy, with non-Windows users feeling they have been excluded.
The Open Source Consortium met with the BBC Trust recently to discuss concerns about the iPlayer's lack of compatibility with other platforms.
In addition, an e-petition posted on the 10 Downing Street website, asking the prime minister to instruct the BBC to make the iPlayer cross-platform, has clocked up almost 12,500 signatures so far.
The beta version of the service can be downloaded by going to the iPlayer website.
Talkback
Try to sign up and you get:
"Thank you for applying to join the BBC iPlayer Beta. If we're able to invite you to join the Beta we'll email you with your log in details and installation instructions shortly."
Its been like this for days.
Not exactly a beta test.
Don't even get an automated e-mail confirming your request to participate has been received. Would that have been so difficult? A much hyped service that even the BBC failed to represent clearly in their own reporting. I get the feeling they're trying to build excitement and expectation. Why even perform a 'public' beta test? Didn't they have enough time to perform stress testing using a number of sample user profiles? Bah humbug. Guess I'll just carry on using my USB TV tuner and PC as PVR, get all channels and use digiGuide for listings for all freeview channels - I can keep the recordings as long as I like... perhaps it's time for me to build that mythTV box after all.
Going to Google News this morning gives you 50+ articles about how iPlayer has been launched problem free (Telegraph) and cautiously welcome (BBC News).
This is in stark contrast to protests over the past month and the widespread belief that iPlayer is anti-competitive and breeches EU law.
Conspiracy theories have one overwhelming flaw - most people couldn't manage their way out of a paper bag let alone pursue world domination.
But with Mark Thompson now at the top of the BBC (famed for barely been able to control himself when he sat next to Bill Gates in Davos and a Blairite political appointee), Erik Huggers (former Director at Microsoft) now running the BBC's online media division and the new Prime Minister being behind Bill's honorary knighthood you've got to wonder.
Wow - it used to be that we could tell who was on Microsoft's PR payroll by the numerical usernames - how on earth are we going to do it now...
Either that, or Microsoft (TM) PR aren't paying enough, or the chips have short circuited!
Either way - welcome to reality guys!
It's amazing that Microsoft, oops sorry, the BBC think that a bit of puff-PR is going to disguise the *stink* emanating from the iPlayer and the Microsoft, oops sorry, BBC management team behind it.
The BBC's iPlayer message boards are stonewalling when it comes to DRM, saying "It's the Lawyers! The Lawyers made us do it!". Convincing them of the utter futility of DRM is going to have to be the OSC's job. In the meantime, I think Freeview and a Linux-supporting DVB-T device will replicate as much of the iPlayer's functionality as I am interested in.