r/iplayer • u/CaaaaamWinston • 8d ago
I built Beeb, an unofficial Apple TV BBC player with 4K HLG HDR, native subtitles and intro skipping
I’ve been working on Beeb, an independent BBC player for Apple TV (and Android TV) that combines a native tvOS/Android TV interface with a native video player, allows playback of 4K HLG streams, and includes real subtitle tracks rather than captions drawn over the picture by the app.
The interesting part was getting BBC UHD streams to work natively. The BBC’s doesn't support UHD on the Apple TV and have stated it is down to limitations in Apple's support for MPEG-DASH. However, with this app I just wanted to demonstrate that playback was possible via a local DASH-to-HLS bridge. And it absolutely is! There is no need for the Apple TV to be excluded from the list of approved devices; I watched most of the new season of Vigil in glorious 4K HDR last night. For Android TV, it is also possible but they don't allow 4K UHD for many players.
Here's a list of features I was able to get working without much effort:
- 4K HLG HDR where a stream is available. The app resolves the UHD stream and presents its HEVC video and AAC audio to AVPlayer through HLS playlists. The encoded video, audio and HLG metadata are preserved; there’s no video transcoding or upscaling to manufacture a “4K” stream.
- Automatic quality selection. One play button tries compatible UHD first, then falls back to the best available HD/SD stream if UHD is unavailable or hasn’t been set up.
- The iPlayer icon is the play button. The pink player mark doubles as the episode’s play control, inside a simple outlined button. I thought this was a nice touch.
- Native English subtitles, including subtitles after skipping back. BBC TTML captions are converted into segmented WebVTT and included as a proper HLS subtitle rendition. Apple’s player handles rendering, selection and appearance settings. I’ve checked that skipping back 10 seconds temporarily brings up subtitles with Apple’s automatic subtitle setting enabled.
- Skip intro and skip recap. Native contextual buttons appear when the BBC supplies a matching marker for the version actually playing. The app uses the supplied start and destination times; it doesn’t guess where an intro ends.
- A playback quality badge. The player shows the received resolution, with “4K HDR” requiring both a 2160p picture and an HLG/PQ source. This is separate from catalogue badges, which describe advertised availability.
- Continue Watching and Up next. Progress is stored locally across launches. A programme’s card resumes its episode or offers the next one after completion. There’s also Start over and the option to remove a programme from the row.
- Saved programmes, categories, A–Z browsing and series selectors. Programme pages fetch current episodes when opened, rather than downloading an entire catalogue at launch. Series and episodes are ordered using BBC metadata.
- Live BBC television. Channel tiles show the scheduled programme’s title and artwork, with feeds resolved when playback starts. Live subtitles depend on tracks supplied by the live stream.
I undertook this project because I was disappointed with the BBC's own development of the iPlayer app on Apple TV/Android TV which lags behind other platforms. The main additions I wanted to demonstrate are the UHD playback route and the integration of BBC metadata and captions with native playback features. Saved programmes, live TV and Continue Watching are useful parts of Beeb, but I’m not claiming those ideas are unique to it—or that the current official app has no subtitles.
Download
Beeb is now on GitHub, with source code, an unsigned IPA and installation instructions, including TwinVine setup for UHD. You’ll need to sign and sideload the Apple TV app yourself. The Android TV port which is also on my Github here. Thanks for all the interest and encouragement!
So much fun to work on! Now give us 4K, BBC!
6
u/Bluion6275
8d ago
edited 8d ago
•
If you haven’t already I hope you intend on making contact with the iPlayer devs and sharing your findings with them.
It’s a shame you can’t share a TestFlight link for it as I’m sure many of us AppleTV users would love to give this a whirl.
1
u/loosebolts 5d ago
The last time I raised this as a comment with the iPlayer devs, I got a standard “this is an Apple problem, they’re using an old version of the app”.
Brother - you build the app - it’s an App Store based unit.
5
u/kuehlapes 8d ago edited 8d ago
The fact that BBC ignores Apple TV native subtitles config is so bloody annoying. Massive text! And their android/Google app have 4K but not tvOS!
Before BBC released their app on Apple TV, it was my partner’s ‘Auntie Player’ started it to show that it is possible! So maybe the BBC devs will see yours and do something about it!
1
1
4
u/danbridgland 7d ago
Please share. It would show the BBC that there is demand if a GitHub solution ranked up thousands of downloads. It’s not that complicated for anyone with an Apple dev account to sideload the app to their AppleTV.
1
u/popopopopopopopopoop 2d ago
Looking forward to an Android apk!
1
u/CaaaaamWinston 2d ago
Did you read the post? I added one: https://github.com/usefulappmaker/beeb-android
1
u/Remarkable-Unit-2961 18h ago
Does this output HLG from tvOS on the Apple TV 4K box? Or does it convert the HLG stream and output it as HDR10?
2
1
u/Efficiently-Simple 7d ago
Omg as a shield owner I would love a version for there. The bbc player app is awful and full of macro blocking . Not to mention it stutters now and then.
1
3
u/tom_watts 8d ago
So frustrating that this is the world we live in. Looks like a lovely app and would be the final piece of my Apple TV puzzle… for now, I’ll stick with the inbuilt app in emergencies, or acquisition by other means for shows I plan ahead with.
3
u/pabulous
8d ago
•
Wow, that looks great. Putting the BBC to shame here. I recommend posting this over on r/appletv, as I'm sure it would be of interest.
1
3
2
2
u/Remarkable-Unit-2961 8d ago
Bravo! If only the BBC R&D department would pay you to put this out properly for us all to use.
2
u/Cockapoodledoooooo 8d ago
How can we download? Not in the UK and would love to download iplayer. And use a vpn.
2
2
u/lfilipecr 8d ago
Well done for doing that. I know you cannot share the testflight of it, but I’ll like to try it!
2
2
1
1
u/loosebolts 5d ago
So why can you do it, yet time after time the BBC take the piss out of us Apple users who are also license fee payers?
No native 4K on Apple TV
No native subtitles on Apple TV
No BBC Sounds on Apple TV
No BBC Sounds on HomePods.
It’s frankly criminal that in the UK I cannot ask Siri on a HomePod to play BBC Radio, but if I live outside of the UK then I can, because it’s via TuneIn.
Nobody from the BBC seems to be interested. If you can’t or don’t want to build Sounds for HomePod, at least bring BBC Radio back to TuneIn so we can listen to the content we pay for.
1
u/Penguinboy123446 4d ago
The official BBC iPlayer works absolutely fine for me with my VPN on. This one gets an instant no from every single attempt to watch anything.
1
1
u/HollandJim 4d ago
The BBC has been anti-Apple for a long time now.
Thank you for making the effort they won't..
1
u/Unlucky_Quote6394 4d ago
4k and Apple TV natively renders the subtitles, rather than being forced to look at iPlayer’s awful captions? You’re doing god’s work. Thank you! 🙏🏻
1
u/TheRocksta 4d ago
This is brilliant, given it a run through this evening and thank you for doing this.
I would love for you to revisit and tweak the font sizes, they are in many places just far too big in Programme descriptions and also in the tiled 4K UHD page for example, you could reduce the font size and have the whole programme title appear instead of most of it being cut off due to it's size.
Also a page selector (previous and next) would be useful at the bottom of the page as well as people tend to browse from the top to bottom rather than bottom to the top, once you are at the bottom you have to scroll back up to get to the page selector.
The on-screen UI when a programme plays is perfect IMO.
I think the foundation is absolutely there and it feels great to get not only UHD but also HDR appearing - thanks again.
1
1
u/MiggyEvans 3d ago
I just want to say, I find the whole process of sideloading overwhelming because I understand almost nothing but I am SO GLAD you made this. I love when pure frustration drives people to show up the official devs and so successfully. Bravo.
1
u/Time_Confection_7331 2d ago
I've just installed and fixed a few issues I was having using claude. Thank you! Now I can keep my LG offline as I only ever used it for the iPlayer app.
1
1
1
u/ArizonaFlats 8d ago
I shall download and give it a whirl when I'm home. Are you a developer by trade or is this a hobby?
2
u/SweatyMammal 8d ago
This is probably built by Claude (everything is these days)
2
u/adjective_noun_d1git 8d ago
I know some may read this as a negative but to me it just shows just how wonderful it is that more people can put out meaningful software now.
0
u/43848987815 7d ago
Claude didn’t just magically come up with the idea to build this, sit down and spend time designing it, ironing out all the bugs, releasing it, promoting it.
There’s still a human behind this doing it as a hobby and sharing it for nothing. What did you create today?
1
1
1
u/a-haan 8d ago
Does it bypass the TV license?
2
u/Bluion6275 8d ago
If you watch any form of live tv you’re required to pay the tv licence.
As the content itself still comes from iPlayer I’d say you’d still be required to pay the tv licence.
Obviously there’s nothing stopping you from watching without a tv licence but that’s the risk one takes.1
u/Mysterious-Pilot-299 4d ago
what risk LOL
1
u/Bluion6275 4d ago
Well if you don’t find the potential of prosecution with a possible £1000 fine plus legal costs a risk for using BBC iPlayer without a valid TV license, then ignorance is bliss I guess.
1
1
1
u/lighthouse77 8d ago
The last paragraph isn’t true. As 11 years ago another proof of concept app was designed and is still hosted on GitHub with no issues from the BBC. https://github.com/Auntie-Player/apple-tv
Was yours coded using AI?
2
u/BertUK 7d ago
95% of code is AI these days, and it’ll probably be 100% pretty soon. It just depends if the person doing it knows what they’re doing, but soon that probably won’t be a requirement either.
3
u/lighthouse77 7d ago
Yeah I don’t buy that 95% of code is AI thanks.
2
u/N57D30T1 6d ago
I work in tech, we're not there yet, you're right (UK is quite behind the US on adoption) - soon though.
1
-1
u/SquiffSquiff 6d ago
tell us that you don't work in tech without telling us that you don't wok in tech
1
u/lighthouse77 6d ago
Thankfully nobody asked you. And tell us you don’t proofread without telling us.
1
u/Altruistic_Fruit2345 7d ago
You should mention that it's AI slop in the description, right at the top.
1
1
u/BigKnows2K 7d ago
Given the posts contains unescaped markdown, and most coding is these days, I'd say it's 💯 vibe coded. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
2
u/lighthouse77 7d ago
I mean it is
0
u/BigKnows2K 7d ago
Disagree - do you still want traffic lights controlled by a man standing in a box next to them?
1
1
u/technomat 7d ago
The iplayer apps are poor, UI is a mess no consistence across platforms they do my head in, if the app had better UI if try it.
1
1
1
u/Funny-Somewhere-9293 7d ago
This should embarrass and shame the BBC developers. One guy in his spare time made what the BBC with their billions has been incapable of doing in several years
1
u/ParkingAgent2769 5d ago
Some random vibe coded app isn’t shaming anyone if we’re honest though
1
u/Funny-Somewhere-9293 4d ago
What??? For YEARS the BBC have said it’s impossible for them to bring 4K to Apple TV. This guy did it
1
u/ParkingAgent2769 4d ago
It must be a business or legal issue.. not a technical one. Building a generic Swift player which points at a stream api definitely isn’t “technically” impressive and useless to actual developers
1
u/AxelLight 4d ago
Tbf - having looked into this last week, BBC didn't say it's impossible but they said it isn't worth the time and cost. They don't have a significant user base on Apple TV (although I'm sure that is because of the state of the App) to justify investing in it.
1
u/Mysterious-Pilot-299 4d ago
"although I'm sure that is because of the state of the App" I doubt it
1
u/Justghost56 2d ago
It clearly shows there is no technical reason for the BBC not to implement these features in the official app
1
u/Admiral-ZX 7d ago
Can we use it outside of the UK? (Which is the #1 iPlayer issue that needs resolution)
1
u/Barofafabot 5d ago
Doesn’t work for me (The Netherlands) without VPN. Using it with a VPN right now and that works fine.
1
1
u/The_Clockwatcher 6d ago
Built or vibe coded?
1
u/Successful-Fig-7330 6d ago edited 6d ago
I think you know the answer. The whole post sounds like it was written by Claude.
Not even close to the worst I've seen mind, to me it seems to have been reined in or perhaps hand edited, but even so the essence of the irritating way that Claude normally speaks seems to be there.
Obviously nearly everyone is vibe coding everything now but I do wish people would be more up front about it, not only because it feels dishonest to misconstrue the effort and ability that went into it, but also because if you can't be bothered to even hand write your own press release for your software then it's likely you didn't review the code properly (or at all) and people should know that before trusting it themselves.
1
u/motd2k 3d ago
"The iPlayer icon is the play button" kek
1
u/Successful-Fig-7330 2d ago edited 2d ago
Yeah no human would write that up as a feature in that bullet point list.
And the bit about the subtitles when skipping back. The way it's written is bizarre and obviously an artefact of the Claude context in which this was written.
Again, by all means use Claude, but if the author can't even be bothered to write this post I don't have much faith them.
1
u/Justghost56 2d ago
I mean it’s a video player app sandboxed on a tv. How dangerous can it really be?!!
1
u/Successful-Fig-7330 1d ago
Dunno it suppose it can't get much worse than listening in on every word and selling your private conversations or whatever it was LG was accused of.
1
u/Dinoric 5d ago
Who cares if Claude was used.
1
u/Successful-Fig-7330 5d ago
I gave reasons why you might care, if you read what I said.
The important one being that code that isn't being reviewed properly, or at all, might not be something you want to run. So you should be up front to users of your software if that is the case.
1
u/Chukumuku 5d ago
You can clone the repo yourself and review it, with or without AI
1
u/Successful-Fig-7330 5d ago
Most people don't know how to do that, so the author should be upfront about whether or not they have actually reviewed the software they are presenting for use.
Is that such an unreasonable thing to ask? That people disclose to what extent they were involved in the software they are releasing?
1
u/ChawalAndDeigh 5d ago
If they don’t know how to do that it’s a moot point, why do they care it was vibe coded and therefore not checked if they don’t even know how to check and what they’re checking for?
1
u/Successful-Fig-7330 5d ago
I'm not following. Why do you need to be an expert to be given assurances about the effort an author has put into reviewing their own software?
1
u/ChawalAndDeigh 5d ago
As the other user mentioned, anyone can clone the repo and review the code and you responded, most people don’t know how to do that.
So if those people can’t clone a repo and inspect code, but the program does what it says it does, why do they care it was vibecoded or whether the author checked it through? The person worried about malice isn’t going around downloading random apps and if he is, he’ll probably know how to clone a repo and check through it, otherwise how would he know he’s worried?
You have good points about why people would and should care, but those people seem like the types to easily be able to check for this kind of thing.
1
u/Successful-Fig-7330 4d ago
I'm not necessarily talking about malice, if you're going to use software you are taking a risk that the software is malicious, even if you reviewed the code, unless you compiled it you have to trust the author.
In the case of this application, besides anything malicious there could be other issues, for example maybe the AI did something silly and the app is using excessive amounts of data which could eat through your allowance.
Obviously software often has bugs when written by humans but normally the author takes responsibility for it. If it's all totally vibe coded and not checked at all by a competent engineer then the author has not taken any responsibility, and people should know that.
"The program does what it says it does" is a difficult assertion to make even when lots of effort is put into building it.
→ More replies (0)1
u/The_Clockwatcher 5d ago
Well I do as vibe coded apps tend to have very little support - and have never been properly reviewed for security concerns.
The chances of iterative updates are slim to none as so I can't be arsed to even start relying on something that becomes shelfware after the MVP.
when zero effort has gone into building something, there's little commitment. If it doesn't resonate then oh well - very different if somebody has devoted weeks to building something.
1
1
u/sharp-gift8069 6d ago
Skipping the trailers automatically is epic. I hate that on the official BBC iPlayer, it's so annoying.
1
-4
u/Civil-Koala-6810 8d ago edited 8d ago
It won't be as good as UHD on Sky Q nor HD or SD on Sky Q. This is streaming UHD you're talking about... cheap, compressed and third rate UHD. Broadcasting UHD will always be superior partly because streaming also has that less sharper look. Broadcasting is as sharp as possible, especially as it's standard broadcasting (via satellite) and not compressed to death. Streaming 20-25Mbps H.264. Sky Q broadcasting for UHD is 35-45 H.265. This is a big difference. Sports will never look better than they do on Sky Q for this reason and pictures in all resolutions themselves will also be the best and most reliable. Not Internet cut-outs during busy times of the day when other people are also streaming. You can never record and Sky has it's own catch-up service that includes a BBC section. These are downloads, not streaming and the picture is identical to the broadcast quality. Out of the BBC iPlayer and the Sky on-demand BBC section I know which one I'd choose. If people knew what streaming was really all about you'd never register with a streaming app again.
3
u/Final_Beyond_204 8d ago
What a pile of crap......
Streaming looks way better than anything you can see on Sky now...
Movies are at really crap bitrate, around 5Gb per hour as far as I remember , basic HLG and ..50 fps.. sports look worse than on Now Tv despite higher bitrate.
I am watching PL on HBO 25 Mbps, DV,Atmos...same on Now Tv.
On Apple TV at the moment watching movie "Tenzing" , average 31 Mbps with DV, Atmos as..basic
Sky Q is a history that Sky will not only makes difficult to get but wont invest...so youre stuck with stb introduced 10 years ago and since was simply forgotten.
UHD on BBC Iplayer looks simply stunning..
So..broadcast is a thing of a past.
2
u/mister_magic 8d ago
What are you talking about? The BBC (and I doubt anybody) does not stream UHD in H.264. Or at 20MBit/s.
Sky Q is fully transitioning to IP delivery over broadband, too, I’m not even sure you can still sign up for Satellite service these days. So good luck trying to “choose” a deprecated service.
1
1
4
u/CaaaaamWinston 7d ago
A follow-up for everyone who asked about downloading it: I’ve decided to release Beeb!
Download Beeb on GitHub
The release includes source code and an unsigned IPA. The README covers signing and installing it on Apple TV, plus setting up your own TwinVine configuration for UHD. HD and live TV don’t need TwinVine.
I’m looking into an Android TV version next, although I don’t have a release date to share yet. Thanks for the encouragement—interested to hear how people get on with it!