DEMAND FIVE

Only users in the United Kingdom can watch programmes on the Demand Five service. This is due to the legal rights agreements we have in place with the television companies who produce our shows

If you are able to connect your computer to a TV you can watch the videos from Demand Five. In most cases you can connect to a TV from your computer's video card using a VGA or an S-video cable. These are the standard connections for video on most modern televisions and computer video cards.

The VGA or S-video cable is only for the video picture so you will also need to connect the audio from your computer to your TV or your home stereo system. This is usually done using an RCA cable, which plugs in to your computer's audio or video card.

Please check the documentation that came with your computer for more information about its capability to link to a television or home stereo.

If your computer is a Microsoft Media Centre you can find more detailed information on the Microsoft website at: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/default.mspx

You can only watch programmes on the single computer you used to download them. If you move or copy the downloaded video files onto a different computer, you won't be able to play them and will see the error message: Maximum Licenses Reached.

No, you do not need a TV licence to watch programmes on Demand Five as long as you do not have a TV in your home.

The Demand Five Player is a piece of software that works alongside the Demand Five website. This allows you to control the downloading of programmes and it is where you play your downloaded programmes.

When you purchase a programme you will be directed to the video download page. This page shows the programmes you have downloaded in the past and the programmes you are currently downloading.

Clicking on 'Download' will launch the Demand Five Player. The Download Manager in the player will ensure that your programme downloads properly and you can see you download progress.

When you click 'Play' the programme will play in Demand Five Player.

You can open the Demand Five Player by clicking the 'Open Player' link at the top of all pages in Demand Five. You can also use the Icon on your desktop or access the Player from the Programs list on your computer (Start > All Programmes > Demand Five Player).

You can see the status of your Demand Five Player in the status bar, which is usually in the bottom right hand side of your computer screen.

RSS is short for Really Simple Syndication and allows you to choose the content you like and have it delivered directly to you as soon as it's updated. Demand Five RSS feeds allow a user to keep abreast of video content updates on the Demand Five website in the specified categories that follow:

Last Night on Five
New on Demand Five
Popular on Demand Five
Recommended by Demand Five
Free programmes on Demand Five

There is a small orange RSS icon in the bottom left hand corner of the home page and watch now pages of the Demand Five Website. Click this icon to be taken to the RSS feeds page. From here you can subscribe to the content feeds of your choice.

The following is a list of web applications that will read the feed from the Demand Five RSS section:

Google
My Yahoo
Windows Live
Bloglins
Feedzilla

Feeds from this website are free for non-commercial use. For all commercial use of Channel Five feeds please contact us.

To view downloaded programmes, trailers and previews in full screen simply click the full screen button at the bottom right of the video window. To exit full screen click the 'exit full screen' button or press the 'Esc' button on your keyboard.

On some programmes that are available in the Windows Media format you can view programmes in full screen using your mouse. Left click on in the video window, then right click, select Zoom > Full Screen. To exit full screen press the 'Esc' button on your keyboard.

You can use a single computer to access Demand Five. If you move or copy the downloaded video files onto a different computer, you will not be able to play them and will see the error message: "Maximum Licenses Reached".

Most programmes on the Demand Five service are available for free and you can watch them as many times as you like while the programmes are available.

For paid for programmes, the video will be stored on your PC for 14 days after you've downloaded it. You can watch the video as many times as you like for 48 hours after you first press play, or until the 14 days has expired (whichever comes first).

Check the expiry date of your programmes in your Downloads page or the Demand Five Download manager to check how long you have left to watch a programme.

Most programmes on Demand Five are available for free.

Some programmes are paid for and these are priced at £0.99 if they have been already broadcast on one of Five's TV channels or £1.99 if they are available on Demand Five before broadcast on TV.

The red 'G' logo signifies Guidance. Any programme that was broadcast on one of Five channels after the 9pm watershed or that Five broadcast a verbal warning about carries a G logo.

Every 'G' also comes with information about why the programme has guidance, such as 'contains strong language', 'contains violent scenes', etc. This will be displayed alongside the 'G' or is viewable if you put your mouse over the 'G'.

Viewers must be over 18 years of age and must register and log in to view programmes with a G.

You can also set up an optional PIN number to ensure that even if you are logged in to Demand Five children using your computer can not access programmes with guidance.

'Catch Up' is the common term used to describe the service that allows you to see programmes that were recently broadcast on TV. Once a programme has been broadcast on Five (and as long as we have the necessary rights for it) it will become available on Demand Five. We usually can make the programme available for 30 days after it has been broadcast on Five, sometimes longer.

Downloading video allows you to receive and save a programme on you computer. You can watch this video many times without have to download it again. Typically, downloaded video requires you to install extra software on your computer to help manage the download.< br/> Downloaded video allows you to access higher quality pictures as the video quality is not affected by the speed of your broadband internet connection. However, downloading programmes can take a long time if you have a slow connection.

All paid for programmes on the Demand Five service are downloads. Demand Five uses 'progressive downloads'. This means that you can start watching the video before it has finished downloading.

A streamed video allows you to begin watching a programme whilst it is still being delivered to your computer. Typically, streamed programmes are viewable within the web page you are looking at and allow you to start watching a programme very quickly after pressing 'play'. The programme is not stored on your computer.

The quality of streamed video is affected by the speed of your broadband internet connection.

Demand Five uses video streaming for all the free programmes in the service.

Video on Demand is exactly that – Audio Visual content, such as television programmes, when you want to watch it.

The Demand Five Video on Demand service allows you to download or stream TV programmes for watching on your computer.

Video on Demand give you full control and allows you to start, stop, pause, forward and rewind your programmes.

Widescreen is the same as 16:9 format. The ratio of the width to the height of the TV picture is 16 to 9, often called 16:9 format. Most major TV channels now make and broadcast their programmes in widescreen format. Older programmes were in the narrower 4:3 format. Your media player should display the picture on your screen in 16:9 or 4:3 as appropriate for the programme.