SBS On Demand

For all those making movies with subtitles - don’t forget that the viewer is not only trying to read the subtitle (in time - sometimes there’s no time in which to read it) but to take in the visual as well. The global filmmaker doesn’t seem to take that into account. If it’s an animated film, an audio translation option might be better for those who are not having trouble with hearing. That way the viewer can appreciate the colour, the designs, the images used in each scene of the movie. Either way - don’t rush the production. Allow time for the viewer to enjoy each shot, each scene, and the humour or whatever mood is being conveyed in the shoot Thanks

As most of the other reviews say- using the app on my phone is usually okay except for the obscene amount of ads. I understand it’s a “free app” and so you can expect some ads, but there are sooo many on this app that it almost makes streaming from it not worth it. The bigger issues that seem to have been reported many times but unfortunately have not been rectified are the lagging/ buffering/ glitching while playing on a tv or similar. I’ve been trying to catch up on World Cup matches and when I start the replay firstly it starts playing an ad with the broadcast over top and it won’t stop until I turn my tv off. Then once I do get it back on and into the replay and start watching the match, it lags/ buffers like you wouldn’t believe. The players look like claymation! So I have to pause it wait for it to load up and then play for about 10 mins before doing it again. Rather than taking 2 hours to watch a match, it’s taking more than 3!!! Very frustrating. I’ve also checked my internet and it’s perfectly fine so it’s definitely the app. As I said, it’s sad to see this same issue reported many times over the last few years and yet nothing seems to have been done about it? If you can find your program or movie somewhere else then I would suggest avoiding this app.

Running this app on my iPad is sort of ok (if I restart it often) but using the app on my Samsung tv or even just casting to it results in errors that make it unusable. The main error is that an ad break will start but the first ad just freezes in the screen and does not play or stop or anything. You need to quit the app/ stop casting to continue and then you need to go through the whole business all over again. Tedious. It is intermittent though - might successfully play an ad break before the error but it does error on the 2nd or 3rd ad break. Other teething issues are annoying, e.g. the app constantly does not remember the menu I am in, restarting all the time, even if I just briefly switch to another app or reply to a notification onscreen. This is also what happens when I click “App Support” in the App Store - it just takes me to the app opening menu which is not helpful for logging any kind of feedback. I have since abandoned the tedium of trying to watch anything on the SBS app.