I want to download BBC radio programmes

[Nuttybear]

I want to download BBC radio programmes and listenen to them on something portable. What do I need? What is the best thing to buy to play it back. Thank you in advance for helping out an old lady

It depends when you want to listen to them. If it's just in your house, you can download them using the BBC's own tool here and simply listen to them on your computer. This would mean you didn't have to buy anything else.

However, if you want to be able to listen to the programmes when you're out and about, eg on a train, you should get an ipod made by Apple and download the programmes on to it so you can carry it around very easily.

So, stage 1 is to decide exactly when you would be listening, and only then to decide whether you need to buy a new device. If there's a John Lewis or Richer Sounds store near you, they would be able to give you advice if you do decide to buy something new.

I want to carry it around with me. So I need an ipod. Would a Nano do the trick as I've got enough nectar points to get one from Argos? & thanks for the reply.

A nano would be fine. Radio downloads take up far less space than video downloads, so even the smallest Nano would do the job.

Cheers

Hold on.....

You can't actually "download" BBC Radio programs, that's not what iPlayer does. iPlayer "streams" the radio or tv program to you, it needs to be connected to the internet to work.

So using iPlayer you cannot download radio shows to listen to on an iPod.

The BBC do offer some content that you can download, for example the podcasts here: www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio1/

Those you can then put onto an iPod, but they're not complete radio shows.

However there are bits of software that will help you convert from iPlayer to an MP3 that you can then drop onto an iPod. But that's a bit like recording radio shows onto a tape, your computer will have to be on and it will record the show in "real time" so an hours radio show will take an hour to record.

If that's what you're after then let people know what Operating System you use and suggestions will be made and help given.

But please don't rush out and buy an iPod thinking you can just do a few clicks and fill it with hours of radio shows.

And you don't need an iPod, either. There are plenty of other players (mp3 players), which play various formats, and some offer FM radio, or the ability to record. I'm not sure iPods can do any of those extra things, so do think twice about getting one. I have the impression you are paying for the name and not a lot of functionality (as far as I am concerned).

For the record, I recently bought an mp4 player (!!!! - so exciting), which allows me to download TV programmes from the BBC iplayer, look at photos, and store little films from my digital camera. A little film we had taken of a digger working soothed my DS recently when he was having his hair cut. And having In the Night Garden stored on the player was fantastic on holiday abroad (far from his beloved CBeebies). It was a Creative Zen X-Fi (DON'T buy the X-FI2, as it is incompatible with the i-player).

This may be all a bit much for you (and, indeed, the software it came with has driven me up the wall), but I just want to stress the point that iPods are not the only players out there.

Come back with more questions if you need to!

BadgersPaws A really conprehensive answer. Phew! I'm glad I didn't have time to go out and get the ipod today. I wouldn't know what 'Operating System' I use!!!!????
pluperfec Not sure if I have the time to figure out how to record and actually go through the process. The idea was to quickly & simply record something at night. Then while doing boring things around the house or jogging I can listen to these fab programmes or if they are naff in bits like sketch shows fast foward. My bum & house,work life etc could cope with any more time on the computer. Oh! The simple days of just pressing record on my Ghettoblaster then popping the tape into my Walkman. Hey! If you are in the industry maybe you can suggest this!
I'm going to look up MP4 because I really don't know what they are

If you don't know what mp4s are, you probably don't need one! I hope that isn't patronising; I just mean that I am a bit of a geek and love these things, whereas not everyone can be bothered to work out how they work, nor do they want these functions!

Having said all that, I am a mobile phone Luddite, and actively avoid phones with cameras!

There are good arguments for choosing the minimum technology in your life!

I've had an MP3 player (with 1 GB storage, FM radio and which displays photos etc) which cost a tenner about 18 months ago. Saw a newer version the other day on some website which has 4 GB of storage.

For recording bits off the BBC I've used two methods at least... one was to have the output from my DAB radio plugged into the PC and the other method was using either live streaming, or 'Listen Again' (forerunner to iPlayer).

Some Windows software called Total Recorder is what I bought a while back. The basic version doesn't have all the features I wanted (but for just recording audio and saving it as an MP3 it should be fine).

Total Recorder has facility to handle a schedule (so I could get it to record the audio from the DAB radio at fixed times, such as saving the Five Live "Up All Night" shows from 01:00 to 05:00 each night without me needing to remember anything - just put the DAB set on Five Live).

I checked the website www.highcriteria.com/ and see the prices are about $18 for most basic and $36 for a more flexible version that can handle much more. The Professional Edition can be used with an iPod if you go down that route rather than some cheaper MP3 player.

Regarding Operating System - do you have a Mac or a Windows PC ? If the latter, is it very old, or under 5 years old ?

If it is new it may have Windows 7 on it. If it is under 6 years old it may have Windows Vista on it. Older than that, it might have Windows XP on it. If much older it could have Windows 98 or Windows 95 (but those are less likely).

The term "MP4 Player" is terribly confusing and just a marketing work. The iPod plays MP4 files, it's what the iTunes store sells, but it's not what people would usually call an "MP4 Player".

They're usually a portable video player, so an iPod Touch might be called one, and the name is to try and give the impression that they're the "sequel" to MP3 players.

Even with one of those though where it does work with iPlayer you will still need an internet connection to listen to the shows. So in the house would be fine if you've got wireless, or on the move might work if you get a gadget such as an iPhone that has a mobile data capability.

To listen to stuff on the move and without any internet connection you're going to need to convert the "stream" of data into a file on your computer that you can then copy onto your gadget. And that's the sort of software that NetworkGuy posted about.

You generally don't need anything "special" to work with an iPod if you're wanting to listen to music or radio, iPod's play a wide variety of audio files.

So for example that www.highcriteria.com software would work just fine with an iPod and the standard edition.

I am located in the USA and I can not view many of the programs on the BBC, but I really like what few programs clips I am able to find on youtube. I also write educational songs for children. You can download a free sample of the song "Love My Cat" from the recently released Learning Buffet project at www.yesnack.com
Check it out and spread the word :-)