OnDemandKorea: Korean Dramas

I’ve been using ODK for a few years now so that my elderly Korean aunt living in the USA can stay in touch with Korean culture. I am very grateful for this service but am not happy with aspects of the tablet app. There was a time when we got this through our Roku and there were no commercials interrupting the programs but then that changed. I have no issue with companies making money to keep their service/product running. You didn’t have to pay to access content, but the constantly repeating of the same 3 commercials just drove my aunt crazy so I upgraded. Then they locked certain content behind the pay wall, not a big deal as I already subscribed. Now they’ve added live streaming channels but the commercial breaks repeat the same 2-3 commercials over and over and over, the same issue that caused me to pay so that I could avoid that. Not cool. If you can’t get enough varied advertisers, then skip it and show a blank screen during these breaks. Live channels is a useless aspect as far as I’m concerned. Not sure when this started but the app version forces you to see google ads at the top of the page. Ok, minor annoyance but I still think as a premium subscriber I should be exempt from these. Now I come to find out that when I have a program playing on the tablet and I pause the show and attempt to rewind or forward, a google ad pops up that prevents me from doing anything other than resuming play. Now that is unacceptable!!! It’s one thing if there is a dedicated header for ads on the home page, it’s another to force me to deal with a pop up in the middle of a program that limits my interface options. What’s next, ODK? Is this a sign that you’ll be shoehorning in more ads as time goes on? On an unrelated note, not all of my “favorites” will show up in my account menu… I recommend ODK to all of my aunt’s Korean acquaintances so I hope ODK will look to improve the app, not make it unbearable with incessant ads. Again, I have no problem with paying a reasonable fee but there are other avenues to getting a lot of these programs if it becomes too annoying.

Update: Apple TV app was updated today and it fixed 95% of the previous issues. Picture quality has been significantly improved. No more crashing or hanging issue. Play/pause button for Apple TV works 60% of the times. Scrubbing to fast forward or rewind fast still doesn’t work. But this update improved the app significantly. iPhone app almost has no issues but, this review is solely for Apple TV app. Recent update looks nice. But that’s about it. Most of the issues has to do with Apple TV app. Picture quality is somehow pretty terrible now. It’s so dark that I have to crank up brightness and contrast to the max on my tv. Then I go to a different streaming app and it way too bright. Picture seem blurry. Play/pause function on my Apple TV remote doesn’t work anymore. Keeps crashing or won’t load with constant server outage. Haven’t had buffering issue like some others experienced tho.

First time leaving an app review simply out frustration with OnDemandKorea. I am a Premium subscriber primarily so my parents can enjoy Korean content on their AppleTV. The current version 2.0.1 of the app is almost unusable and frustrating to use on the AppleTV. When I wrote to address my concerns they simply asked for patience because the app is in beta. But the issues go beyond a few bugs. It seems like they just ported over their touch screen interface into the Apple TV app. Is there an explanation why the play/pause button on my remote is not working at all with their app? OnDemandKorea Korea is an app designed to be used exclusively to play and deliver video content on streaming hardware designed for playback of video content, correct? How can a company release an app update where the play/pause button does not work, something that works on every other app? The absolute most basic function to play and pause media does not function properly. It is a reflection of other major issues including; the fact that it takes in excess of 20 seconds for the Home Screen to load, or the back function on the remote does not function. But it is also a reflection about ODK’s disregard for their customers to release such a poor product with terrible quality control. Software that can not even perform the most basic functions with its primary hardware interface is more than an “inconvenience.” It’s a total failure.