UK Surface Go Owners - BBC iPlayer!

[JonCambridge]

Hi UK Surface Go Owners. I have a 8gb Go I use for travelling, in particular for flying. The idea being I can download some TV or movies from BBC iPlayer or Netflix and watch on the plane.

However, I seem to have an issue with the BBC iPlayer downloads app. It runs fine when connected to the internet, downloads fine, plays fine etc (well, apart from the general ropeyness of the app).

However, when I am not connected to the internet the app won't even open. No error messages, no interface, just plain refuses to open. Reconnect to WiFi and it works fine.

Obviously the point of the downloads app is to allow offline viewing, so this is a major pain.

BBC tech support have been useless and have just said it's not compatible with Surface Go tablets. Given its a Windows 10 app that just sounds like a fob off.

Has anyone else had this issue? Or is the app working fine for everyone else?

All help appreciated!
Jon

 

[TechFreak1]

Hi UK Surface Go Owners. I have a 8gb Go I use for travelling, in particular for flying. The idea being I can download some TV or movies from BBC iPlayer or Netflix and watch on the plane.

However, I seem to have an issue with the BBC iPlayer downloads app. It runs fine when connected to the internet, downloads fine, plays fine etc (well, apart from the general ropeyness of the app).

However, when I am not connected to the internet the app won't even open. No error messages, no interface, just plain refuses to open. Reconnect to WiFi and it works fine.

Obviously the point of the downloads app is to allow offline viewing, so this is a major pain.

BBC tech support have been useless and have just said it's not compatible with Surface Go tablets. Given its a Windows 10 app that just sounds like a fob off.

Has anyone else had this issue? Or is the app working fine for everyone else?

All help appreciated!
Jon

Interesting, have you tried this - opening the app whilst connected to the internet and then disconnecting from the internet?

To see if the applications plays videos?

It sounds like poor authentication design - meaning no internet = no authenication = no app start up.

Clarification for anyone else, it's the Win32 Application from BBC's website and not the BBC Iplayer app that was in the Windows Store. Which actually still runs bar the annoying prompt that it's no longer available for Windows Phones.

 

[JonCambridge]

Thanks for helping! If you open the app whilst connected to the internet and then disconnect, it will not start playing any previously downloaded files. If you reconnect, and then start playing the download it will work, and if you then disconnect it will continue playing. It is as if it just authenticate upon starting and upon commencing playing a movie. But bearing in mind it's an offline player that's really pointless. Interestingly it works fine on a standard HP laptop (elitebook). My logical fairly tech savvy head can't think of a reason this would be the case.

 

[TechFreak1]

Thanks for helping! If you open the app whilst connected to the internet and then disconnect, it will not start playing any previously downloaded files. If you reconnect, and then start playing the download it will work, and if you then disconnect it will continue playing. It is as if it just authenticate upon starting and upon commencing playing a movie. But bearing in mind it's an offline player that's really pointless. Interestingly it works fine on a standard HP laptop (elitebook). My logical fairly tech savvy head can't think of a reason this would be the case.

Interesting, do you have a LTE enabled or WiFi Only Surface Go?

 

[JonCambridge]

WiFi only.

 

[TechFreak1]

WiFi only.

Well, that's an odd one and the same version runs fine one the HP laptop?

 

[JonCambridge]

Yep - works fine on the hp Elitebook. I've fully uninstalled and reinstalled and still no joy. It's very strange indeed.

 

[JonCambridge]

If there are any other UK Surface Go users who can test it would help me understand whether it's just isolated to my Go, if that is the case I'll clean install and try again!