Channel 4's On Demand player SUCKS!

[spotify95]

I think that the Channel 4 player is the worst catch up service I have ever come across in my life!

I don't know what dimwit thought it was a good idea to implement it how they have done - someone needs to sort it out!

The low down: With Channel 4's player, you have to meet multiple criteria to even use the service:

1) You have to have a Channel 4 account. Why?! No other catch up service makes you create an online account just to catch up on a program that I missed!
No account, no service...

2) You cannot use any browser that has an adblock element - for example, AdBlock Plus is not allowed, nor are web browsers based around privacy (for example, Epic Browser, as it has Adblock built in).

3) This is the most ridiculous one out of the lot. You cannot use Incognito mode to watch Channel 4 catch up programs! The block incognito browsers and make you open a "normal" tab - which in my case, would result in the linked programs showing up on every device that I am logged into, on my Google Account! I've had to set up a special profile for any miscellaneous stuff like Channel 4's on demand player. NO OTHER CATCH UP PLAYER MAKES YOU DO THIS. BBC IPLAYER, ITV HUB ETC ARE FINE WITH INCOGNITO BROWSERS.

4) When you view the program, you have to sit through all the ads that you would normally have to view on TV. WHY?! BBC programs have no ads and on ITV Hub, it skips past the adverts (certainly on an ABP-enabled browser). Seriously C4, what the actual fuck?!

I think I might be using different means of catching up on C4 programs now - as an aside, I wonder if I can watch the F1, ad free, on the Sky catch up player? Or do I have to be a paying Sky customer?

[pinkteddyx64]

Throw bricks at their headquarters.

[Zak]

I think that the Channel 4 player is the worst catch up service I have ever come across in my life!

I don't know what dimwit thought it was a good idea to implement it how they have done - someone needs to sort it out!

The low down: With Channel 4's player, you have to meet multiple criteria to even use the service:

1) You have to have a Channel 4 account. Why?! No other catch up service makes you create an online account just to catch up on a program that I missed!
No account, no service...

2) You cannot use any browser that has an adblock element - for example, AdBlock Plus is not allowed, nor are web browsers based around privacy (for example, Epic Browser, as it has Adblock built in).

3) This is the most ridiculous one out of the lot. You cannot use Incognito mode to watch Channel 4 catch up programs! The block incognito browsers and make you open a "normal" tab - which in my case, would result in the linked programs showing up on every device that I am logged into, on my Google Account! I've had to set up a special profile for any miscellaneous stuff like Channel 4's on demand player. NO OTHER CATCH UP PLAYER MAKES YOU DO THIS. BBC IPLAYER, ITV HUB ETC ARE FINE WITH INCOGNITO BROWSERS.

4) When you view the program, you have to sit through all the ads that you would normally have to view on TV. WHY?! BBC programs have no ads and on ITV Hub, it skips past the adverts (certainly on an ABP-enabled browser). Seriously C4, what the actual fuck?!

I think I might be using different means of catching up on C4 programs now - as an aside, I wonder if I can watch the F1, ad free, on the Sky catch up player? Or do I have to be a paying Sky customer?

Yeah I found it wouldn't work with adblocker ages ago and when it's turned off one has to wait several minutes of ads before the programme you want to watch strarts

[spotify95]

I think that the Channel 4 player is the worst catch up service I have ever come across in my life!

I don't know what dimwit thought it was a good idea to implement it how they have done - someone needs to sort it out!

The low down: With Channel 4's player, you have to meet multiple criteria to even use the service:

1) You have to have a Channel 4 account. Why?! No other catch up service makes you create an online account just to catch up on a program that I missed!
No account, no service...

2) You cannot use any browser that has an adblock element - for example, AdBlock Plus is not allowed, nor are web browsers based around privacy (for example, Epic Browser, as it has Adblock built in).

3) This is the most ridiculous one out of the lot. You cannot use Incognito mode to watch Channel 4 catch up programs! The block incognito browsers and make you open a "normal" tab - which in my case, would result in the linked programs showing up on every device that I am logged into, on my Google Account! I've had to set up a special profile for any miscellaneous stuff like Channel 4's on demand player. NO OTHER CATCH UP PLAYER MAKES YOU DO THIS. BBC IPLAYER, ITV HUB ETC ARE FINE WITH INCOGNITO BROWSERS.

4) When you view the program, you have to sit through all the ads that you would normally have to view on TV. WHY?! BBC programs have no ads and on ITV Hub, it skips past the adverts (certainly on an ABP-enabled browser). Seriously C4, what the actual fuck?!

I think I might be using different means of catching up on C4 programs now - as an aside, I wonder if I can watch the F1, ad free, on the Sky catch up player? Or do I have to be a paying Sky customer?

Yeah I found it wouldn't work with adblocker ages ago and when it's turned off one has to wait several minutes of ads before the programme you want to watch strarts

I don't think I'm going to be using Channel 4's On Demand player again. Firstly, I don't like any site that actively boots you off if you are using an adblocker, and there is no way I am disabling ABP. (ITV's Hub lets you use ABP, and as such, doesn't show any ads at all!). Secondly, you're right, I found it very irritating when the ads came on. I had to sit through a good 10 minutes of ads to get to what I wanted to watch (fortunately, I muted the Channel 4 player and did something else, so I didn't have to watch the ads!). And thirdly, I will NOT use any sites that forces me to use a normal browser window. If I want to use incognito, so that the result doesn't get saved to all computer browsers that I use (Google Chromium's sign in results in all history etc being transferred between all computers that are signed into that Google Account), then I'm going to use incognito. And Channel 4 isn't going to stop me.

[spotify95]

Well Channel 4 still haven't fixed their on demand catch up player... and I needed to watch a re-run of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone last weekend!

Result? Watched it via TiVO (thanks to Virgin Media).

There are some good things about Virgin Media's services!