Channel 4 on Demand Review

Mention Channel 4 to anyone that grew up in the 80s or 90s and the first two words you’re likely to hear are “Brookside” or “Hollyoaks”. But the truth is, the stalwart UK channel historically thought of as the nation’s 3rd behind the BBC and ITV is so much more than soap operas with catchy tunes and enthralling plot-lines.

Since its first broadcast in 1982, Channel 4 has slowly but surely come to the fore as the UK’s terrestrial channel with an edge and has time and time again surprised us with its genuinely broad variety of shows. From sitcoms bereft of canned laughter to documentaries on the day’s burning issues, there’s very little that the channel hasn’t had a stab at. Quite impressive given that the channel lacks the financial clout or renown of the BBC or to a lesser extent ITV.

But times have changed and now Channel 4 along with its online player 4oD (Four on Demand) is enjoying its most successful period in its 30+ years.

The 4oD Player

4oD offers one of the largest back catalogues of any on-demand service anywhere in the world. This is no mean feat, but as with the channel itself, the player is commercially funded so expect those irritating ads throughout your viewing. To be fair though, with such an extensive back catalogue and a 30 day catch up period, sitting through a few ads should be a price you’re willing to pay. One of the major drawbacks however is not the ads themselves, but the obvious problems with their ad server. It seems that your main feature streams in quite decent quality somewhere between SD and HD, while the ads come in like a 1990s home video streamed through a sieve. It’s only the ads who cares, right? Well when it takes 5 minutes to watch a 30 sec ad you’ll get why it’s so annoying. Other services like BBC iPlayer take their content off the player after 30 days, but this is generally not the case with 4oD. You may need a VPN to access 4oD if you are not located in England or Northern Ireland.

If you are totally opposed to ads in your shows you can check ‘AdBlock’ for Google Chrome, which will remove them for you.

Available on various platforms 4oD is slowly taking over the world of on-demand video

4oD in the Browser

4oD is without doubt an unbelievably smooth and seamless viewing experience when streamed through their website. Sadly though, watching your desktop or laptop isn’t always what you had in mind when settling in to watch your favourite show. That aside, once you’ve signed in to your account you have immediate access to that wonderful back catalogue of shows we mentioned earlier.

Pros

• Complete range of content
• Superb quality video for newer content
• Live streams
• Great user interface

Cons

• Not great for lounging on the sofa
• Video quality average in comparison to Samsung TV
• Log in account fails to offer cross platform features

iOS & 4oD together

With the inability to view 4oD through the safari browser, it was necessary to design a native IOS app for the player and as far a design and workability goes this app is top of the line. Sleek and easy to use, the app has one of the best features an on-demand video app can offer- offline downloads, meaning that you can watch your content anytime, anyplace, anywhere! The IOS viewing experience is let down by just the one flaw, but what a flaw. No AirPlay. Yes, you read that right, the only on-demand streaming app in the known world that doesn’t offer AirPlay. For some inexcusable reason 4oD have decided that you must be content with watching your favourite shows on the rather small (albeit high quality) screens of mobile devices. Why on earth would you want to stream it to your 40inch TV?

Pros

• Fantastic and very easy to use UI
• Offline downloads
• Good video quality for small screens

Cons

• No AirPlay
• No live streams
• No access to account features, history, playlists, etc.

Watch 4oD on a Samsung TV

The 4oD widget has been available on Samsung’s smart TV platform since March 2013 meaning that at last 4oD is available on a large screen TV. Missing the back catalogue, the widget is the perfect catch up app for your weekly shows that you’re just too busy to watch. Video quality is excellent and should be, considering that the widget is native to a large screen TV, a platform where 4oD is not easily accessible.
Overall it’s a great catch up experience but with no back catalogue, that’s all it is.

Pros

• 4oD on a TV!
• Great video quality
• UI is easy to use

Cons

• No live streams
• No favourites or recently watched lists
• Missing cross platform support

NowTV/Roku on 4oD

4oD brings their on-demand service to the affordable NowTV and Roku devices. Thankfully there is no need to invest in a new (and expensive) Samsung Smart TV when you can use the 4oD service on the NowTV platform. This is a catch up service just like it is on the Samsung platform, but that’s where the similarity ends, with NowTV having markedly lower quality video. It’s not the worst quality video and certainly watchable, but I suppose that’s what you get with a budget device and service.

Pros

• UI great as usual
• Good video quality

Cons

• Once again, no favourites or recently watched lists
• Video quality poor in comparison to Samsung
• No live streams

4oD & Xbox One

One of the first catch-up apps available on launch day, 4oD is a surprisingly good feel on the Xbox One. The sideways scrolling interface that only the Xbox boasts works rather well but is unfortunately let down by the use of dates rather than seasons and episodes! Why? Do they really think we can remember the first air date of a show? Not a big deal overall, especially when you remember that this is an Xbox and that means – voice control! A bit gimmicky yes, but it’s quite fun to play around with. Add to that the other methods of control – motion, smart glass, controller, and programmable remote, and you’ve got yourself a nice little toy to play around with. But the big deal breaker, you need to pay Microsoft’s gold pass membership to access a free service – this in my opinion is a major fail.

Pros

• Fast and responsive
• Great controls to play around with
• Decent video quality

Cons

• Gold Pass membership for a free service?
• Episodes listings are confusing
• No live streams

4oD has been touted as THE on-demand service to beat all others. And with its seemingly never ending back catalogue and excellent video quality across all platforms it’s easy to see why. But it’s dropping of the ball with regards AirPlay has taken the shine off what would otherwise be the perfect on-demand viewing experience.

Get a VPN to access 4oD