As many on here know, I always have to have an IT project on the go. My latest one was a simple one; to rebuild my now surplus Lenovo T61 laptop with Ubuntu 12.04 Desktop and then install and configure the XBMC media centre. I was staggered how professional the Ubuntu installation process was and likewise how easy it was to get XBMC installed and working.

This set me thinking... "I have a Microsoft XP 2005 Media Centere Edition IR remote control and receiver gathering dust, so I wonder if I can get them to work with XBMC on Ubuntu?"

Well blow me down if within half an hour I hadn't succeeded with the basics thanks to some excellent pointers from cyberspace and some rudimentary knowledge of Linux, and half an hour after that if I hadn't got all the buttons properly mapped. Result!

Ten minutes later I'd sussed how to start XBMC automatically as part of latop boot, so this set me thinking again... "I wonder if I can get BBC iPlayer to work inside XBMC, thus allowing everything I want to be operable by the remote control just the same as it is in the living room with my Boxee Box?"

Here is where my luck ran out and I found that last year the BBC intentionally crippled iPlayer to make it hard to use with open source devices known to be using content in manners not intended. If I read the posts correctly, the BBC admit that the perfectly legit XBMC media center became an innocent victim of the measures they took.

I've tried to follow the limited workarounds that I've found on the web, but failed, so wondered if there might be some experience lurking amongst fellow PPRuNers that might help me?


Many thanks as always,
TLXV