4OD on Safari

[wd89]

This is for UK residents! I'm trying to watch "The Cleveland Show" on Channel 4's catch-up service 4OD but the website crashes my computer.

For the first time in 6 years using a Mac, I had to hold down the off button as nothing worked. Before doing this my whole screen started flickering and the fan went crazy. I tried the website again after rebooting and the same thing happened.

My question: When opening this webpage on a Mac in Safari on your computer does the same happen to you or is this a problem with my MacBook Pro (mid-2009)? Thanks!

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-cleveland-show/4od

Edit: When I clicked that link above to test it, the page opened in a new window and was ok but when i closed the window and went back to the window which was previously opened the screen started to flicker when scrolling. After relaunching Safari my computer is ok. Something weird is definitely occurring here.

 

[highburyheroes]

Sorry buddy, works perfectly fine for me. I'v closed the window and then reopened it through my history and it's working fine.

Try reinstalling flash maybe? or downloading new update.

 

[Magrão]

I've had this problem too on the 4OD site. Once before, a few weeks ago and last night. I too had to resort to holding down the power button. Last time, it was even occurring using Chrome. Haven't tried your link or 4OD again yet, but will update if it happens again...

 

[Magrão]

Yup, my whole system froze when I opened 4OD. Rebooted and tried your link and the same happened again Might try Chrome now...

 

[Kyffin]

Same here too, with 4oD being worse than iPlayer and itvPlayer for crashes

Shame as they've some excellent stuff and in seasons

 

[BigMac andFries]

couldn't get anything to play within Safari but firefox worked fine for me

 

[wd89]

Thanks guys - and sorry to all that clicked the link/visited the site for me and had to reboot

I got a standard reply from Channel 4 support requesting me to reinstall flash and to only run Safari when visiting the website. They even told me to try a wired internet connection for improved speed. I've since responded with a harsher tone requesting that they fix the website and not get me to do all the work of making sure I close iTunes, etc when I want to watch their shows!!! I have no problems with the BBC, ITV, Channel 5 and YouTube sites!

I'll post the reply here if its better than the first response...

 

[datmr]

Tell BBC News, various tech blogs and get it on youtube, and try to video some of your mates trying it too. They'll fix it real fast before everyone tries it and they start breaking Macs. Coz that would not be good for them. Computers aren't meant to be powered off like that and it can damage the file system on the disk.

No, I'm not crazy

 

[wd89]

Firstly, let me say I am extremely sorry that you've not been able to use the service, but unfortunately it seems that there are a small group of users whose systems, for some reason, haven't responded to the normal fixes or suggested updates. Our service uses different software and operating systems to that of the BBC iPlayer and while there are millions of people who use our service with no problems at all, some viewers like yourself have difficulty viewing programmes.

We've found that current issues fall into two main groups;

- Problems with the users' computer or conflicting software issues
- Problems caused by the network or the internet service

Although these problems are not common they are quite difficult to resolve. So, with that in mind we have developed a special video player which will log the individual steps as the player attempts to play video and provide details of the player status, browser and operating system and the bandwidth available to your computer only. We are hoping that this information will help us diagnose the problem, although it is possible that the solution may be out of our hands.

Please can you click on the link below

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-it-crowd/4od/debug/2919506

This will start up the 'Debug' player and attempt to play the 4oD video.

After it has attempted to play, please can you click on the 'Copy to Clipboard' button, then paste the log information into an email and send to 4oDdebug@channel4.co.uk

Thank you and we very much appreciate you taking time to provide these details. We cannot guarantee someone will be back in touch with you regarding these issues, we are working on a fix currently and need to gather as much info as possible but, as stated above, this may be an issue out of our control.

In the meantime you may want to try accessing 4oD through our channel on Youtube. You can find it at:

www.youtube.com/4od

We apologise we cannot help you further at this time.

Unfortunately, the Cleveland Show isn't available on their YouTube channel

I'm just going to give up trying to watch Channel 4 online. Maybe they should try a HTML5 player or whatever the non-flash standard will be. At least then people could watch the shows on their iPads etc.