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4od

gothergother Posts: 14,730
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in Online Entertainment Services #1
First time i used this last night and blimey it's awful, loads of adverts poor picture quality i was quite disappointed.
I don't mind a few adverts but they took the piss. The quality was not down to my connection as i have a wired 100mbs broadband service.
What are other peoples thoughts on 4OD?

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    -GONZO--GONZO- Posts: 9,624
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    #2
    The adverts are poor quality, but the program's themselves are actually very good quality and I'd say better than SD.
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    gothergother Posts: 14,730
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    #3
    -GONZO- wrote: »
    The adverts are poor quality, but the program's themselves are actually very good quality and I'd say better than SD.

    Could of just been strain on the network or something then, i'll give it another go tomorrow night :)
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    cuttysarkcuttysark Posts: 1,209
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    #4
    There are a helluva lot of folk watching the WC just now online so better to test it when there's not a match on.
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    ovbgovbg Posts: 1,451
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    #5
    4oD ads are definitely poor quality. The video quality of the actual programme is a different story however.

    The best I have tested was on the Samsung Smart TV, which streamed at around 2400kbps. This is pretty good, and in my opinion the video was better than SD, but not quite HD.

    On the Now TV box (and I presume Roku), I tested 1200kbps, so about half as good and slightly under SD.

    Which platform are you using?

    As for the amount of commercials, to be honest, they still play a lot less than what you will expect when watching on a real TV broadcast.

    And those commercials are how channel 4 makes their money. Remember, they don't get money from the license fee and are entirely funded by advertisements. Take the ads away, and you kill their revenue.

    4oD offers quite a lot for nothing. It even has box sets of entire television series, and that is pretty impressive. I can't think of any other free catch-up service in the world that also offers that, especially since they are major shows that normally sit behind a pay-wall (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime etc). That's what those ads pay for.
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    gothergother Posts: 14,730
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    #6
    ovbg wrote: »
    4oD ads are definitely poor quality. The video quality of the actual programme is a different story however.

    The best I have tested was on the Samsung Smart TV, which streamed at around 2400kbps. This is pretty good, and in my opinion the video was better than SD, but not quite HD.

    On the Now TV box (and I presume Roku), I tested 1200kbps, so about half as good and slightly under SD.

    Which platform are you using?

    As for the amount of commercials, to be honest, they still play a lot less than what you will expect when watching on a real TV broadcast.

    And those commercials are how channel 4 makes their money. Remember, they don't get money from the license fee and are entirely funded by advertisements. Take the ads away, and you kill their revenue.

    4oD offers quite a lot for nothing. It even has box sets of entire television series, and that is pretty impressive. I can't think of any other free catch-up service in the world that also offers that, especially since they are major shows that normally sit behind a pay-wall (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime etc). That's what those ads pay for.

    Very good point, i was using the xbox 360 at the time, tried it on nowtv box and pc and pc all with same results.
    It's probably like someone mentioned with the world cup being on loads will be using their net to watch that so most likely just the network struggling.
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    -GONZO--GONZO- Posts: 9,624
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    #7
    Don't seem to be having poor quality issues on HDR1000s, what program's are you trying to watch?
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    gothergother Posts: 14,730
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    #8
    -GONZO- wrote: »
    Don't seem to be having poor quality issues on HDR1000s, what program's are you trying to watch?

    8 out of 10 cats does countdown.
    Was ok tonight though when i tested it with deal or no deal.
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    Arwen_EvenstarArwen_Evenstar Posts: 801
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    #9
    I have no problems with watching ads on catch up services.
    However on 4od they are excessive. Often they will say 1 of 5, then proceed to screen 7, plus a program sponsorship message!
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    gomezzgomezz Posts: 44,700
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    #10
    On the rare occasion I use this I tab to the end of the programme which triggers playout of *all* the ads while I do something else for several minutes. Then tab back to the start and watch the whole thing with no further ads.
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    oilmanoilman Posts: 4,529
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    #11
    gomezz wrote: »
    On the rare occasion I use this I tab to the end of the programme which triggers playout of *all* the ads while I do something else for several minutes. Then tab back to the start and watch the whole thing with no further ads.

    I find 4od is temperamental when ads come on often hanging the session. If you try and start again and select resume, it often fails, and you have to start all over and then do the adds over again.

    I wonder if above approach would help as you will not keep cutting to adverts every 5 nanoseconds! Will certainly try this.
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