Fod
Armed with an interest in all things technical, and nothing else to do, last night I downloaded a couple of things from 4oD - the rather awkwardly-named on-demand service from Channel 4.
It's one of the easiest services to use, as all you have to do is download the 4oD (or "fod", as I'm going to call it) software onto your computer, then just browse through all the programmes on offer and download the ones you want. There are some free shows to tempt you in, but most content is priced: TV shows cost 99p and films cost £1.99 to rent for 48 hours.
I downloaded Trigger Happy TV and Withnail and I. Each download is pretty high-quality, so the estimated download times are usually twice the length of the programme itself. I left mine downloading overnight, so don't know exactly how long each took, but they appeared to be arriving fairly rapidly.
To watch each show, you simply open up the 4oD software and click the play button next to each download. From there, you can choose to watch in the player or in full-screen. Picture quality is good and on a par with what you get on TV.
The verdict? Well, Channel 4 have the "on-demand" rights to most of their programmes, so the choice is good. As time goes on, the number of programmes available will only increase. Pricing is a bit steep for the programmes, but I think that £2 for a film for 2 nights is a fair enough deal. The software is dead simple to use and everything is explained clearly: even an adult could use it. There are a few minor downsides, namely that it insists on using Internet Explorer and that it's only available to UK users (sorry Sidg), but overall it's a promising start.
All they need to do is think of a better name.
It's one of the easiest services to use, as all you have to do is download the 4oD (or "fod", as I'm going to call it) software onto your computer, then just browse through all the programmes on offer and download the ones you want. There are some free shows to tempt you in, but most content is priced: TV shows cost 99p and films cost £1.99 to rent for 48 hours.
I downloaded Trigger Happy TV and Withnail and I. Each download is pretty high-quality, so the estimated download times are usually twice the length of the programme itself. I left mine downloading overnight, so don't know exactly how long each took, but they appeared to be arriving fairly rapidly.
To watch each show, you simply open up the 4oD software and click the play button next to each download. From there, you can choose to watch in the player or in full-screen. Picture quality is good and on a par with what you get on TV.
The verdict? Well, Channel 4 have the "on-demand" rights to most of their programmes, so the choice is good. As time goes on, the number of programmes available will only increase. Pricing is a bit steep for the programmes, but I think that £2 for a film for 2 nights is a fair enough deal. The software is dead simple to use and everything is explained clearly: even an adult could use it. There are a few minor downsides, namely that it insists on using Internet Explorer and that it's only available to UK users (sorry Sidg), but overall it's a promising start.
All they need to do is think of a better name.
