HIDIVE Reviews

by Tw!tch13

Listen, I could ignore the terrible quality and playback issues that one has to put up with while using your app. I could even deal with the poor functionality of your app in it’s entirety because I am aware that it is very new. However, what I will not accept is signing up for a subscription, having your app crash while I am watching something and then telling me I need to subscribe again. I happened to get the 30 day free trial which my Apple account shows is STILL active, but for whatever asinine reason my account within your systems does not register this anymore. I’m not paying you up front for something that I was given a 30 day free trial for. I would like this fixed because what I am not going to do is pay for an app that does not have the functionality nor the quality to justify the money you ask for. This was the only streaming service I could find that allows me to watch a dubbed season of a specific show so I was willing to deal with the bugs while you guys figured it all out, but not this. There isn’t even a way to contact someone about my issue and your help page is unhelpful, which is why I am taking to this review. I’m not paying you when I was told I’d get it free for 30 days, it’s literally only been 30 minutes.

by Rey-zero

Sentai has licensed some great shows, and I have to admit it disappoints me for both the dub quality and because of the execution on HIDIVE. I understand there are restrictions and limitations on their ability to deliver on the former, but there is almost no excuse for the latter.
While other apps allow you to jump forward or back in 10 or 15 second increments, that option is missing. Additionally, the progress/scrub bar is situated in such a way that it activates my menu bar.
I have noticed another issue as well: some multiple-season shows are not accessible under the "season" menu and have to be located individually. Oddly enough, the first season shows as "Season 1" and the second season shows as "Season 2", so I think it might be dirty data causing the seasons to not be grouped together (likely because the titles are slightly different between the seasons).
Lastly, why put a help section with an "About HIDIVE " tab only to direct the user to go to the site? Why not load HIDIVE info within HIDIVE ?
HIDIVE feels like a beta that has not fully baked and it causes a lot of frustration as a result.

by Cody42585

Rarely works for any of the titles. And when it doesn’t the video formatting is terrible. All of the negative reviews are spot on. And their app team doesn’t seem to give a crap about fixing it. I love pretty much all anime and that’s what got me to jump at the subscription, however this is the worst streaming service I’ve tried. I feel like a moron for jumping at the discounted year subscription. Most titles aren’t available through any app not just iOS. The ones that are won’t play. “Stream not found”. Customer service is a joke. “We’ve tried to recreate the issue but haven’t had any luck.”, is their standard response. I’ve tried the apps on multiple devices from iPads to Xbox to play stations. All have terribly clunky video streaming when it works. Constantly having to delete the apps and reinstall. No way to just restart a video from the beginning. It’s the modern equivalent of having to rewind a vhs. This isn’t some new technology. Video streaming has been up and running for over a decade. The beta for Netflix was 100% better than this. At this point it feels like they are just jerking people around. Definitely not renewing my subscription.

by ThreeDee912

So HIDIVE “works” but feels very rough around the edges.

I have the iOS subtitle settings at the recommended default and half the time the subs are reversed, with the second line of text displayed before the first line in a sentence.

It uses its own video scrub/seek bar which is virtually impossible to position at the exact spot you want because it doesn’t tell update and tell you what time you dragged the bar to until you let go. There’s no easy 10/15 second rewind button, which other apps have and is even baked into the default iOS video player.

I had to redownload HIDIVE recently to reset everything because a recent update made it stay at the initial loading screen forever.

When looking at a show’s episodes, swiping from the left edge of the screen doesn’t go back a view, it always opens the hamburger menu which is frustrating. You have to move your finger all the way up to the back button.

What’s even worse is when you’re on the main home screen, the behavior is reversed! Swiping from the left edge when you have shows in your queue doesn’t do anything! You’d expect the hamburger menu to open this time, but it doesn’t! You again have to reach up to the top left to tap the icon to see it.

All of these small bugs and design issues really add up and make HIDIVE a horrible experience to use overall.

by Black-barron

After this app left VRV I figured I’d get HIDIVE as there are a lot of shows I liked that they had the rights too. However I couldn’t have made a dumber decision than to get an subscription for this. HIDIVE doesn’t have a skip forward option on videos it’s basically impossible to move the slider on the bottom to skip ahead which is infuriating to say the least. Also I’m not sure if there’s a way to change this but the subtitles are in the worst possible place almost dead center of the screen. I can understand from a business aspect that separating from VRV was a reasonable decision financially, however they should of stayed on VRV until they had a good app themselves. Also the website isn’t much better if at all honestly at least on mobile. Honestly never thought I’d say this but this might be the only time I recommend watching their shows on an unlicensed streaming website.

by Pebo666999888777

If and I mean IF you can get HIDIVE to load, the functionality of it is bad. After you start watching the show, buckle up and be prepared to watch every last minute of it. There are no fast forward, no rewind, no skip buttons, and the play/pause button is so close to the bottom of the screen your phone thinks you are trying to swipe through your apps. Once you have watched every second of your show it won’t automatically play the next episode and frustratingly it keeps putting you in the “recently watched” section instead of the show list. So now you have to go to another section, select the show, and then select the episode. Terrible design, terrible functionality, and terribly unreliable.

by — L

I never write reviews for apps but this app has won the opportunity. They have succeeded in creating a very mediocre app with horrible functionality and effectiveness. The interface and service of HIDIVE is just extremely terrible. I created an account and purchased their monthly subscription in order to watch the english dub version of ’Haikyu’, but quickly realized that I shouldn’t have. Firstly, I tried login in (to HIDIVE ) soon after signing up, and it wouldn’t let me log in when all the credentials were 100% correct. I had to change my password and it still wouldn’t let me sign in after countless times (and multiple devices). Luckily I decided to take a look at the reviews and decided to log into the website, and fortunately I was able to login. But still the problems didn’t stop, after finding the show and deciding to watch it on the tv… both the website and applications wouldn’t connect with my AirPlay tv. I get that HIDIVE /website might not support it but if you're going to have a subscription based service at least make it more accessible for users to use…

by Tubbis24

A great selection and lovely shows!!! yet HIDIVE is new and not ready in my opinion.
This is a new streaming service for Sentai Filmworks. I LOVE their stuff. But HIDIVE simply isn't ready. Use their website on your computer. They don't even have all their shows on mobile! A simple slice of life PG anime I'm watching on PC isn't even on here. It's frustrating to be in the middle of shows and wanting to continue them on mobile yet they're not there. If there's an explanation, fine but HIDIVE 's overall Ui is lacking and it can be annoying just to get to your queue. Plus many other small things that others have mentioned I'm sure.

TLDR : subscribe through their website and watch on there till this is better.

by Doshgoneit

Unfortunately, there is a huge difference when it comes to streaming on the website versus streaming on HIDIVE . AppleTV and iPhone apps don’t actually allow all the shows in the library to be seen. You’re totally missing out on a lot more content and you’re better off watching it from a computer or going to the website as an alternative. I complained about it a few times and every time the this app crew actually responds to me they just say something along the lines of not having the full rights for the apps. Something about it being more expensive on their end. What kind of crap is that? Hiding shows that we actually paid for is almost messed up. If you logon through a browser, the whole library is exposed for you to watch. I wouldn’t be as upset if you can at least see the whole list whether your using an app or browser and just not allowing playback if they felt like it. Something about hiding the fact that we have access to more anime that we paid for seems a little shady.

by Mjmaggio

The selection of shows is fine no complaints from me there, but the interface is a whole different story. It looks bland and doesn’t have the same ease of use settings other streaming platforms have which is fine I understand that it’s new. But what gets me the most is the fact that I continually have to delete and reinstall HIDIVE to actually watch a show because for some reason I don’t know why but it will begin to only display part of the show and I cannot interact with it or see a majority of the screen and the only fix I have found is reinstalling.

by Eda521

I like this app in general, but HIDIVE is INCREDIBLY difficult to use. There are no fast forward/rewind buttons at all (whereas most streaming apps have advanced far adopted the double-tap to rewind/fast forward). Moreover, the timer bar is so close to the bottom of the screen, that even using your finger to fast forward/rewind is pretty impossible because it just moves the whole video. On top of that, it doesn’t always LET me rewind/fast forward. I’ve spent so much time trying in vain to use my finger to move the button thing on the itty bitty timer bar, only for it to automatically go back to the point in the show I was trying to move away from. It got to the point where I just logged in on my computer to restart the episode.

The only other thing I don’t like is how big the icons for the shows are when you’re browsing. I think bigger is okay, but I can only see like three shows at a time. Maybe if they were just a teensy bit smaller that would be better.

by ShrekKnowsitall

I really think their anime selection is good but their app is another thing. There’s some problems with it which I don’t mind but it sometimes gets annoying. There’s times the video shows 1/4 of the screen and I have to delete HIDIVE and download it again in order for it to work properly. Also I think HIDIVE should have more options for when we’re in the video. For example I think HIDIVE should have an option to skip the intro, skip 10 seconds (which they have that option but only for the website) and have an option to go to the next video without having to exit the video and go to the next one. But overall it’s good just that there’s some problems with it. I recommend using the website it’s more convenient.

by Acemcfly101

People need to understand that this is an extremely new iOS app and a new streaming service in general. It’s legit but has a way to go and that’s to be expected. VRV has offered this as part of it’s service as a dub alternative to crunchroll’s sub library ever since Funimation got stingy and backed out within like a year of their deal. With Funimation being such money-grabbers, it’s this or nothing. So the fact that they’re actually keeping their word and bringing a primitive port of HIDIVE to both iOS and PS4 is great news to me and I’ve been waiting a while. Expect the library to be small but gradually grow. Expect HIDIVE to need work and likely receive it (hopefully.) I’ve kept up with this company and I’ve seen first hand that it has a way to go to compete with Funimation, but I’m grateful someone’s trying.

by Cjcj91

Overall I am okay with my actual this app subscription, BUT and it’s a big BUT, I wish some problems with the apple app could get fixed. The biggest problem I have is once I am done watching a video and I click out of my app, when I return to it, the video play screen is stuck on the bottom left corner. Only a small portion of the video shows on the screen and the rest seems to run off out of view. For me to fix the problem I have to delete HIDIVE and download it again to fix it. Please fix this problem soon! I mostly watch on my phone and it gets time consuming and difficult to always have to reupload HIDIVE .

by Ben🧢

App is much better than Funimation's, so hats off for that. Loading times are much faster and there are less ui quirks. Seeking the video when it is chromecasted actually works and buffers properly. I am able to minimize HIDIVE after casting the video without issues unlike Funimation's app.

Two things this app can improve on.
1. Subtitles. Please actually respect my subtitle preference colors and use a more readable font
2. Video types. It is annoying to select if I the simulcast, uncut, or dubbed versions for every. single. video. I select. And the order they are presented is inconsistent. Please have some way to save my preference.

by Matthew Rooney

I subscribe and usually watch this app stuff on my PC, but they had HIDIVE advertised on the site today, so I decided to try it out. People are right that it does not include all of the content. Right now, the currently airing series that I am watching, Senryuu Girl, is available on HIDIVE , but one that I watched last season, Bloom Into You, is not (I can watch either on my PC right now). I cannot imagine why since BIY was this app exclusive in North America. Anyhow, HIDIVE seems fine other than that. I’m not going to give it anything too low because it is nice to have at least have some other option besides my PC. The service isn’t that bad, they just need to keep working on improving it.

by Algierious

I only have this app because it Has a couple anime thst no one else carry but HIDIVE is unstable and crashes. Actually haven’t been able to use HIDIVE in a few days won’t load anything keeps saying something happens and closing. For a brief moment it worked but the subtitles weren’t working so I closed vid and opened back up and back to crashing. I would prefer not to get rid of it HIDIVE because I like the random shows you got that no one does but at this point paying for a broken app is just plain silly. Fixed the unstableness by doing frequent app updates

by Precious_75

I originally downloaded HIDIVE because this app was removed from VRV so I didn’t really know what to expect from HIDIVE but I was pleasantly surprised. They have a section for all of their dubs and they have a switch to flip in the settings if you prefer to watch in English whenever it’s available. They also have an app available if you want to watch it on the tv such as ROKU. The only problems I’ve really come across are that some of the shows on and movies that are on tv aren’t on the phone app and vice versa and the queue doesn’t show all the shows you add. The other problem would be that there are no subtitles to translate the writing on the actual show like with “My Love Story” for example and there should be more colors to choose from for the subtitles other than yellow and white.

by Goonpocalypse

I would say this is the best anime app when compared to Funimation or Crunchyroll. There are a lot of common sense features that are offered here that the other two lack. I feel like this company cares about anime whereas the others care more about business.
That said, HIDIVE isn’t perfect. It regularly “forgets” what episode I’m on in a series which isn’t a big deal for some but is for others. The cast feature also needs to be enabled before starting a video which I count as a minor inconvenience when moving from one room to another.
The most disappointing part about HIDIVE actually isn’t their fault but how Apple has stunted them by giving them the ultimatum of hiding half of their shows or losing their app altogether on the platform. The fact that Apple is playing favorites with the other anime apps is nothing short of disgrace.
All in all, despite the shortcomings, I love HIDIVE, I love the value and am happy to continue my support as they grow and improve.

by Goddess Akai

Let’s face it, Funimation is trash, and the fact that they have now taken on even more trash (Buying Crunchyroll) they are now a bottom-tier anime streaming site. this app is the only haven left if you want to ‘legally’ stream anime in the US including subs and dubs. this app has become our beckon of light in this dark, gloomy world of translators trying to interject their political crap into our wholesome, untainted medium known as anime.

Please, this app, stay around for us to raise ever higher, so we may beat the stupidity that is political interjection in a medium where it is not needed nor wanted.

by Xsoulon

As a quick overview, HIDIVE did not deliver at all. I tried out the one month trial and did not renew because all of the shows I wanted to watch weren’t on here. The original ad that I saw for this app, was for uncensored anime. When you download HIDIVE you find there isn’t hardly any at all and the most well known ones, such as high school dxd and monster musume and others like that aren’t on there. Add to that the fact that you can’t easily search for home video versions of shows and it makes it not worth its salt. In an age where you can get anime from so many different sites, you really have to be at the top of your game to expect people to pay every month for your app.

by Kester82

I originally subscribed because they had access to dubbed versions of shows I wanted to see but unfortunately once I browsed through the full catalog it was horribly apparent they had very few properties that were of interest to me. HIDIVE format has some pretty glaring faults especially in regards to browsing. Since the last iOS update to 14 HIDIVE has only gotten worse with heavy glitching both in the mobile and the Apple TV versions. I would recommend skipping HIDIVE completely and just waiting for their few interesting properties to revert to a better streaming provider.

by QJHorton

Every time I go into HIDIVE on iPhone and try to play any video wether it be a series or movie it cuts the screen off so half my screen is dark and only a fourth of the video actually shows on the half that isn’t just gone. The only way I’ve found so far to fix this is to delete HIDIVE entirely and re download it, but after a couple of videos are watched it goes right back to doing it again. There are some good series and movies here with room to grow their library of content but that doesn’t really matter when I can’t even watch any of it.

by NoahDay

I agree with a whole lot of the comments down below! We have some viewers that want something more like adult like anime such as TV-MA! But this anime service is not giving people what they want or prefer. All in general the shows are pretty good and they might be dubbed, but this service is missing content the most important. I checked VRV earlier and I saw this app on there and it is $10 a month for this app, VRV, and other streaming services. Also TV-MA is on this app if you log in to VRV, so it makes no sense. I do not know what is true or not about apple not giving you that content, but for god sakes give people what they want! But all in general keep up the work and strive to do better.✌🏻

by Woodspyr

The player isn’t good for much besides just letting it play. There’s no skip forward or backward button and it absolutely refused to let me go back more the a couple seconds when I tried moving the scrubber back. Skipping forward is possible but only if you’re willing to skip a large chunk. There’s no finesse, and I hope this is something they are working to fix sooner than later. Also a bit confused about why some series are missing the first season. Like Kaikyuu!, I found season 2 and 3 but no 1. For now, the website works way better even on my iPhone.

by Andbbdje

I got HIDIVE hoping I can watch the love chunibyo and other dellusions movie but I tried to and it said I had to subscribe so I thought no problem so I went to go sigh up and I put in my email and a password and all that but after that I didn’t know what to do so I read the bottom (keep in mind I’m on a iphone SE original) and the bottom said to click on next and there was no next button to be seen so I tried scrolling but I couldn’t so I can’t even sign up so please fix this problem for smaller devices

by AOaks826

I really do. They have so much more than Netflix and have dubbed newer seasons of the shows Netflix has. HIDIVE isn’t perfect though for whatever reason anytime I close HIDIVE out and go back in to watch it the screen is only in the left half of my iPhone screen so I can only see the top right corner of the actual show. I can fix it buy just redownloding HIDIVE from HIDIVE Store but once I close it out it’s the same issue. I still love this service I just hope they can fix this in the future. Not everyone will have the same issue as me though it might be perfect for someone else so give it a chance you won’t be sorry