Download Monkey

Who's it from?

The ITV media player from ITV - our second oldest traditional TV network. It's designed by Schematic.

Where can I find it?

www.itv.com/CatchUp

What does it offer?

ITV programming from the last 30 days. Loads of soaps and light entertainment, a few dramas, and more importantly, sporting events. ITV without much of the quality US drama.

So?

Good lord, this site looks terrible. I know looks are only skin deep and you could argue that it's not hugely important, but a light green and white colour scheme is fine for toilets and bins, not a cutting edge web service. Ugh. Also, what is going on with the massive gap on the left hand side and bottom of the screen? That's about one quarter of the available space being used for absolutely nothing. Even the main navigation area features a huge blank area. Having a sparse and simple interface is fine, but bunching your navigation area into a corner is frankly stupid and amateur.

The screenshots from the shows that act as the navigation are hideous (and I'm not talking about Johnny Vegas exposed flesh in Benidorm - which is what greeted me...) but they appear to be small pixelated screenshots seemingly chosen at random. Who knew Heartbeat was about hunting?

((((A screenshot would be good here. And just in general.)))))

OK - so enough bitching about aesthetics. Let's try and watch something shall we? So lets click on Programme. That's a good place to start. Big menu - oh, it's vanished. And again. What? So when my cursor leaves this menu it vanishes in a split second, forcing me to reload it in its stylish but frankly annoying way. And clicking on it doesn't take me to my video, I now have to click on Go. Not the slickest system in the world.

Before playing the video I must install Microsoft Silverlight - something I've never heard of - and then restart my browser. The tedious process begins again. I may be some time...

Speed and Quality

Back again. After flailing about with the interface and cursing bad design I've finally got a video to work. And disappointment strikes. Again. The video is a masterclass in poor resolution. On the small screen it's a little better than YouTube, but blown up to full screen size it's blocky and blurred.

There is a mercifully short preroll advert - possibly the only positive aspect so far, although this is not the norm. Adverts can last for an excruciatingly long time. There does not appear to be the facility to fast forward or rewind the videos, only the option to skip between parts one and two. I can forgive this on the assumption that the mysterious Silverlight system is still being beta tested, as it tells me before every video. But why would a major broadcaster use a system that has not yet been fully trialled? Don't they know that most ordinary people will give these services one or maybe two trys before deciding that they're rubbish and never coming back? What sort of a business model is that?

There is no facility to download any programmes. The only option is to watch the awful quality streaming video. Although if downloading was offered I would probably pull my hair out in frustration at how god-awful it would be, so for that I am thankful.

Are there any positives? Well, it exists, so that's a start. ITV should be doing this, but they should be doing it a lot better than this. The ability to watch programs from up to thirty days ago is also a step in the right direction. Offering streaming sport is also a great feature. But once again, the low-res picture quality may render it unwatchable.

Download Monkey's Conclusion

In conclusion? It sucks. Bigtime. ITV must try harder. Unless you've missed a simply must-see episode of Corrie, don't bother until it does.

ITV Catch up Review by VonTurbo

April 2008