Someone gave me a hot tip today for a semi reliable way of finding the download URL for BBC high quality wmv programs (thanks Marcus). I say semi-reliable, because the BBC seem to sometimes change the file name from what I calculate it to be. When it does work though, it means you only have to download a program once rather than having to stream it every time you want to watch it. Those of you without kids will quite amazingly not understand why you may need to play the same program five times a day .

If the download fails, at the moment it just hangs on zero percent, and blocks other downloads for five minutes while it waits to see if anything happens (I only allow one download at once). If that happens and it gets too annoying, exit out of media center and open it up again to download another program before the five minutes is up.

If you do have a downloaded program, I don't auto play the steamed version, so you can choose to watch the downloaded version instead. Either press Watch to watch the downloaded version or Play to play the steam. The downloaded programs are subject to the usual BBC DRM rules, and won't play after 30 days. I remove them from your downloaded list at that time. The programs are saved in to Public Videos with a fairly sensible name, so you can watch them from there too.

Download version 2.6.0 now to try this new feature out.