New on Programmes: Comments, Better Navigation
The all-new 4oD Catch-Up area was just one element to a large release of functionality that went live this morning. Here’s a summary of some of the other changes that have been rolled out.
Talk about our programmes
You can now have your say about our programmes. Simply use the comment form displayed on all feature pages and video clip pages. For some programmes you’ll find the ability to comment in other areas of the show site too. At the moment all comments are moderated before being shown on the site, so there may be a short delay before your opinion gets added to the site. Look out later in the year for the ability to reply to one another’s comments too.
Improved navigation around feature and episode pages
We’ve divided our ‘News and Articles’ areas on each programme section into separate landing areas for each type of feature (e.g. ‘Character Profiles‘) which should help users get to the content they care about quicker. Same goes for the episode pages, which now have a list of when the programme is due to air, on what channel, with a link to the Listings Guide for that day.
All the shows on More4
We’ve added a dedicated listing page for More4 programmes. As on other programmes-by-category pages, you can snack on the latest video from More4 programmes, and explore what’s coming up in the schedule, and find out what’s available in the 4oD Catch Up window.
Comments
April 4, 2009
Any chance on talking about the jerky playback?
April 4, 2009
Hi Brandon. Yes, we’re looking into the causes and the circumstances that people are reporting and are trying to find a fix for it. Rest assured it’s not a common occurance, and the more details that people can provide us about their situation and experiences via our Contact form, the better. Thanks.
April 4, 2009
at the moment, shows aren’t updated to the site the next day unlike the old site
is it going to be like that soon or is channel 4.com not doing that anymore?
April 5, 2009
since the change a few days ago I still cannot access any videos after the advertisement start sequences and just get an error : ‘An error has occurred trying to play the chosen item’. I’ve since upgraded from Adobe Flash v9 to Adobe Flash v10 thinking that this might fix the issue – but I still get the same error. I’ve also filled in a form online at channel4 and received a ticket number and a promise to get a reply back to me within 7 days regarding the error – but I think I may miss an episode of Smallville by the time I get a response.
I also see from your blog and the reader comments that its not just me suffering this issue. Does anyone know what the problem might be yet (I cant see anything on the faq’s anywhere …) Anyway – please get the site working soon – I’d hate to go back to using my video recorder again !
April 5, 2009
Do you reply through the contact form, I have submitted several issues yet have heard nothing back
April 6, 2009
@Kayan sorry you think that certain shows aren’t being updated. Can you let us know which ones you feel are outdated? It shouldn’t be long before we can fix an issue like that – it’s probably something to do with the lengthy migration process.
@matt_c Can you please let us know where your ISP is based? Are you living in the ROI or outside the UK? Also, are you able to use the 4oD application still?
April 6, 2009
Hi,
I cant play anything on 4od catch up? Its not even giving me the option to play, its just telling me what is on
i live in the uk and have vista on my PC, i down loaded flashplayer and every thing.. whats happening?? I not been able to use 4 od for months either?
April 6, 2009
I’m having problems with jerky playback with the program stopping and loading without any progress, my computer is as up to date as it can be and never normally has a problem with this.
Also the april episodes of “The sex education show vs pornography” aren’t there but the march ones are. will they be put on?
April 6, 2009
It used to be that I was excluded because I use a Mac, but you saw that that was a problem and made the service Mac-friendly. Unfortunately, you decided to break my access in a new way, so now I’m excluded because I’m in Ireland.
Great…thanks for that.
April 6, 2009
Hi I’m in the uk (harrow), and the isp I’m using is BE (part of o2/telefonica I think), anyway I dont have any issues using the same setup to watch streamed programmes from bbc, itv, and channel5 via their websites.
I’m running firefox 3.0.8 with adobe flash 10 on a windows xp sp3 netbook to watch the above.
I also tried using internet explorer rather than firefox on my machine but still have the same connection issues/ error messages – but only with c4 not with the other websites and streaming etc.
I removed the 4od application (kontiki?) as well as the bbc iplayer applications from my machine a long time ago as the cpu usage on the netbook started going through the roof.
Matt_C.
April 6, 2009
@jenn All 4 Sex Education shows are displaying in the Catch-Up area.
April 7, 2009
Please please help Andy. SO many people have put on here that a message comes up (after the adverts have played fine) saying ” An error has occoured trying to play the chosen item” but nothing seems to be written about it in your blogs anywhere.
I have tried loads of the free programmes and it displays this message for all of them.
I have windows XP and i’ve upgraded media player, flash player – even took my Norton antivirus off my computer and still it won’t play!!
I’ve read the frequently asked questions and done all it recomended – but still nothing works!
It used to play fine and now its changed to Channel 4oD it won’t.
I’m desperate to watch all my programmes that i love before they run out of days and with no TV (as we have no ariel -but i do have a TV licence!!) I really need 4oD – I have no other complaints and the site looks – ace! – I just wish i would watch it!
I have sent a complaint / help message – via the help section – but no reply as of yet.
Please help us acess 4oD for all those people – who want to watch your programmes and can’t.
Thank you Rach
April 7, 2009
Hi again everyone. We’re working on an urgent patch to help users with the problems listed above, and I’ll be posting here on the results in a day or so. Although we understand it’s little consolation to those of you afflicted with the issue right now, it is a very small proportion of users and we hope you can bear with us until it’s resolved. Pls look out over the next day or so for improvements to the service.
Thanks, A
April 8, 2009
Can you please ditch the hideous “search online for More4″ captions on the promos – it just looks so unprofessional, and there’s nothing wrong with “channel4.com/more4″.
Also, a shame you’ve opted for Flash and once again the vast majority of Windows Users have to suffer to please a minority of non-windows users. Yes, of course the service should be available to macs, but shouldn’t the emphasis be on getting Apple and Microsoft to makes Windows Media compatible. Considering all the broadcasters having to switch to flash, you’d think it would be in Microsofts interests.
April 8, 2009
@brekkie You’ve hit the nail on the head: Flash is compatible across many platforms; WM is not. Thus our decision to be more inclusive and opt for the Flash player. The ‘vast majority of Windows users’ don’t suffer because we’ve switched to Flash – they can watch it just the same as other users.
April 8, 2009
I don’t really see what your issue with flash is brekkie, it’s installed on much larger range of computers and works better than any other mutli platform solution, hence why more and more broadcasters are switching to it.
The only broadcaster playing foul and excluding linux users are ITV
April 8, 2009
Hi i’m having the same problem as matt, it plays the adverts then ‘An error has occurred trying to play the chosen item’ appears on the screen…. can you help??
April 9, 2009
I’ve personally always found the quality with Windows Media better than Flash – and more reliable too. It’s quite some time now since channel4.com changed their general video output to Flash, but unfortunately for me even for relatively short 2-3 minute clips (Hollyoaks Backstage for example) it can be very much a stop-start experience – yet I’ve been able to watch full programmes in WMV format, both on 4oD and via channel4.com, with no significant problems. (I’ve not needed to watch anything since the change to flash, so can’t comment on that).
I just think the iPlayer has been so over rated. 4oD did it first, and for me anyway did it better – so I hope although the change to flash online was inevitable, that 4oD sticks with WMV for the time being.
P.S. Any plans at all to put content online after their “first look” showing on E4 – Shameless for example. At the moment should any one watching at E4 pace miss an episode they have to wait until the C4 airing before it’s available on-demand.
April 9, 2009
@brekkie that’s a good question (in your postscript). I’m not sure whether it is how you describe (after the C4 showing, it goes into the 4oD service) in all cases. I will look into getting a better answer for you.
Thanks for the feedback on the playout etc.
April 9, 2009
Thanks.
Re: vids- to be honest it’s probably more an issue with Brightcove than Flash. Although I’ve had some issues with flash videos elsewhere, I’ve noticed here and on other sites that use Brightcove it’s more problematic. Admittedly I don’t have the fastest broadband in the world (around 1mb), but I think many other broadband users are in the same position too.
April 10, 2009
Please please help Andy. SO many people have put on here that a message comes up (after the adverts have played fine) saying ” An error has occoured trying to play the chosen item” but nothing seems to be written about it in your blogs anywhere.
I have tried loads of the free programmes and it displays this message for all of them.
I have windows XP and i’ve upgraded media player, flash player – even took my Norton antivirus off my computer and still it won’t play!!
I’ve read the frequently asked questions and done all it recomended – but still nothing works!
It used to play fine and now its changed to Channel 4oD it won’t.
I’m desperate to watch all my programmes that i love before they run out of days and with no TV (as we have no ariel -but i do have a TV licence!!) I really need 4oD – I have no other complaints and the site looks – ace! – I just wish i would watch it!
I have sent a complaint / help message – via the help section – but no reply as of yet.
Please help us acess 4oD for all those people – who want to watch your programmes and can’t.
I have exactly the same issues as everyone else, please fix it so I can watch despirate Housewives as I was away and missed the last 3 episodes!!!
Nicky
April 10, 2009
Hi,
I have been trying to watch missed episodes of programmes on 4OD with no success whatsoever. I have re-installed the latest version of Flash player but like so many others the error message “an error has occured whilst trying to play the chosen item” comes up over and over again. After a week or so of trying, I am giving up. This particular problem appears to have received very little attention in the blogs I have read and no advice has thus far been offered. I am not in ROI but living in London. Whilst I appreciate that this issue may be recieving some attention, it would be helpful to know that it is in fact being considered and perhaps provided with some information which might assist.
Philippa
April 12, 2009
As per everyone elses comments above, please could you advise on the status of the error which we all seem to be receiving – “an error has occurred trying to play the chosen item” an explanation as to what the error means would be great. It has been over a week now and still no answer as to what the issue is, a few of the programs will soon be deleted which I need to watch.
Thanks a lot,
Tony
April 12, 2009
If you download the 4oD application (assuming you’re in the UK and on Windows) the streamed programmes still use Windows Media Player, so you should be able to watch that way.
In hindsight it seems a bit foolish the flash site wasn’t released in Beta format before it completely replaced the WMV based catch-up service.
April 15, 2009
It would still appear that C4 have done absolutely nothing to correct this issue – same error still showing, still no explanation
April 15, 2009
@Tony our internal monitor is showing that your IP is addressable at dynamic.snap.net.nz which is a New Zealand-based ISP. Not sure if that’s the reason that you’re receiving an error, but it may be a place to investigate? Sorry you’re having trouble accessing the content; however, the latest post on this blog is a response to the issues people have raised regarding the error message you are receiving. Typically, this is a result of a call to the servers by a geo-blocked address.
April 15, 2009
Back to the website, and although the new standardised layout is good at what it does, especially for those shows who usually wouldn’t have a major web presence, I do think some sites are poorer for not having their own dedicated design, especially Shipwrecked and Shameless, who had pretty damn good websites before hand.
Will other shows, such as Hollyoaks and Big Brother, be keeping their own sites, or is the plan to standardise everything?
April 15, 2009
I am having the same problem too – “An error has occurred trying to play the chosen item” after the adverts have played. Occassionally I get it to work (after about 100 attempts) and obviously this is really frustrating and it is a BIG problem lots of users are having.
I am with the student ISP Keycom (I dont know where this is based I presume the UK)
Please help
April 15, 2009
@Brekkie. No. We’re not planning to standardise everything. Some programmes such as the ones you mentioned (Big Brother and Hollyoaks) will continue to receive special treatment. We call these kinds of sites “cross-platform commissions”.
The good news about the standard programme templates is that we can cover nearly every programme that airs whereas before we covered only about 20% of the schedule.
I do take your point about Shipwrecked and Shameless. These shows do push the standard template to the limit. But I’m glad to say they are still proving extremely popular with viewers.
Thanks for your feedback.
April 15, 2009
Cheers for the response.
April 16, 2009
Disappointed first time user, have just wasted about 90mins trying to ‘Catch-up’.
Have finally got here & found my error is a known issue.
It plays the adverts, then “an error has occured whilst trying to play the chosen item”
Are you still working on a patch to fix this?
I’m UK (Berks) using Vodafone Wireless Broadband 3G, Vista, latest Flash & IE.
Really disappointing this beta version doesn’t have a clearer “known issues” area.
April 16, 2009
Please please please can you tell me why I’m still getting “an error has occured trying to play” message after the adverts. I looked on FAQ’s, emailed for help and nothing is working. I could watch everything before and now I can’t see anything. HELP!!!
April 17, 2009
I think everyone wants to know what is going on with this terrible, faulty website. The problem is obviously with channel4 with the error message we are all getting and noone seems to be doing anything about it – HELLO?
This is REALLY ANNOYING and please get ur technicians out to fix this problem with the Ondemand website.
Thank you
April 19, 2009
Same problem for me! Message ” An error has occurred trying to play this item” Well I do not know what to do!!! I can see BBC iplayer without any problem but there is no way I can make the catch up working?
Do you have any suggestion?
Thanks!
April 19, 2009
@Martin, @Manu and others. Please be assured that we are trying to determine the reason that a small minority of users are still experiencing the problem you mention.
April 20, 2009
@Hannah yes, we can tell you why you cannot see 4oD content. Your IP address (83.110.203.197) is registered in the United Arab Emirates. You have to be in the UK to watch 4oD content.
April 23, 2009
[...] given the fact “commenting” functionality is now available on all our programme pages we have decided to close the forums down on 30th [...]
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