4oD

4oD - Whats your 4 addiction?


4 On Demand from Channel 4, provides access to a large back catalogue of television programmes and films that are currently or have been previously shown on the channel.

Unlike other video on demand services, 4oD is geared to watching the thousands of hours of archived TV material from Channel 4, as well as programmes that have been more recently transmitted from the last 30 days.

To access the archived programmes, including C4 films, you need to download the 4oD application. Installation is simple and there is a easy to follow guide on the Channel 4 website.

How 4oD Compares


At this point its worth mentioning that access to most of this vast archive of programmes is free, however some shows are available to rent from 99p and films can be downloaded from 1.99.

Once the application is downloaded, the installer takes you through its initial setup. The Initial download is only about 3.6MB in size. The first time the app runs it will require an update to the DRM software on your machine, which also only takes a few minutes and runs automatically.

Website:
8.1/10
Speed:
6.9/10
Ease of Use:
9.0/10
Overall:
8.0/10
When everything is setup and running, you need to make a new account and activate it via an email. When this process is complete you can finally start downloading files. There is a well laid out category selections that let you quickly identify the genres you are interested in.

Overall the app runs quite well, but seemed a little sluggish due to the large web content that it needs to download as you navigate for all the images for the shows. Broadband is a must, the faster the better!

In conclusion, 4oD is a good offering from Channel 4, however being a downloaded applications sets its slightly lower than some of the other online only services, however being able to download films to rent for 30 days ( albiet with DRM ) is a bonus.