Television isn’t television anymore. The advent and onward march of digital technology and ever-busy lives have meant that we can catch our favourite shows that we used to watch on the box in the corner quite literally, anywhere. Ongoing developments mean that we’ll soon be able to watch television content on our mobiles, in addition to on our portable music and games players, or catching programmes online.
It’s television on the web that I tried for the first time this week. Having missed a few episodes of the US drama Brothers & Sisters, while we away in Cornwall, I decided to give the Channel 4 on-demand TV service 4oD a go. I need to catch up with three programmes in total (even though the season has now ended), but though that for now at least, I’d download one, to see what I thought of the service.
It came well recommended by other members of the family, who had used it to watch other Channel 4 content they had missed. (Just like The Archers, though, you would think it impossible to be able to miss an episode of your favourite shows completely now, what with +1 TV channels, online content, podcasts, and repeats.) And, do you know what? It’s really very good.
4oD’s media library lists all downloaded shows
As with most other services, software (effectively a library and player) have to be downloaded first, and then installed on your computer, and then a registering process has to be completed. Once that’s all done, though, you’re away. You can browse the relevant available content online, and although Channel 4 reportedly offers content available from the last 30 days to download free, be careful, as the show which I wanted to watch cost 99p, even though at the time it had not been broadcast outside of the previous 30 days.
Once you’ve picked your favourite show, all you have to do is download it, and complete a secure payment form (if applicable), which is similar to all other web payment forms. Most programmes are 99p, and in effect you rent them for a month. They can be watched any time in that month before the expiry date, though once you start to watch them; they expire within 48 hours, and disappear from your library.
One of the things I was most impressed with was the download speed. Brothers & Sisters is a 41-minute programme once all the commercials which appear on the television have been taken out, and it only took between 15 minutes and half-an-hour to be obtained from the server, and saved as a playable file on my 4oD library. I’d read many bad reports about BBC’s long-awaited but disappointing iPlayer, so I wasn’t expecting much.
So far, so good. And then you play the programme. The quality really is outstanding. Near-DVD quality pictures and sound, and so much better edited than the broadcast TV version, as there are no annoying sponsor idents and commercials. The 4oD player is similar in style to Microsoft’s Windows Media Player, so the picture can be made larger (larger still to fill the screen), and the show itself can be paused, and stopped if necessary, just as on many ‘live TV’ video and hard-disk recorders.
4oD’s viewing pane is similar to Windows Media Player
The bonus for Channel 4 is obviously that most of its audience own PCs, and so are familiar with the Windows Media Player application, making the use of a similar one child’s play.
I found the whole 4oD experience easy, enjoyable, and I definitely wouldn’t hesitate to use it again, or to add my voice to the other members of my family in singing its praises. The only downside I can see with the service at the moment, is that you have to be using, or sitting in front of your computer to watch its content (and of course, it is limited to Channel 4’s content). To be fair, though, that could also be said of 4oD’s many competitors. Maybe the technology and digital rights management issues have to still develop further.
All in all, though, 4oD is a fuss-free, quick, and (where applicable), a competitively-priced experience. It will certainly still further enhance my television-watching in the 21st century, and can be added to my recordable DVD player (which I use to record and then play the DVD content on a laptop on occasional train journeys to or from work), and live broadcasts as ways of viewing my favourite shows.
So, television isn’t just television anymore. At least, not as we used to know it.
Tags: 4oD, BBC iPlayer, Brothers & Sisters, Channel 4