Met Opera on Demand Reviews

I am very unhappy with the amount of time and effort it took me to resolve an issue. It felt to me that MetOpera started from a position of not believing me despite repeated sending of proof that I had paid for the
subscription and my telling customer service that I had been using MetOperaonDemand until just a few days ago without incident. Instead I had to make repeated calls to
apple which totalled roughly 1.5 hours of time and send repeated emails to MetOpera as well. Rather than thinking there may have been an issue on their end
(which indeed there was) instead they made me do all the legwork. Very frustrating experience and a big waste of my time.

Ok, Met. I owe you an apology. I wrote the [below] brief review during the free streaming, then paid for a subscription in July. Since then, MetOperaonDemand has worked flawlessly, both on my smart tv and my iPad. I am enjoying every minute.

(From June)
Works great on my iPad, but when I can get MetOperaonDemand to work on my smart TV — which is always a challenge— it soon crashes.

I absolutely love the content but the Apple TV app is so buggy and broken! I have 2 different ATV remotes and MetOperaonDemand doesn’t work reliably with either. These problems have been around for well over a year and still haven’t been fixed. These bugs seriously negatively impact the experience. Please fix these bugs and you’ll have a great app to go along with your great performances.

I just downloaded MetOperaonDemand . My wife has subscription. We have enjoyed opera on big screen. Our technique that’s works is stream from laptop with HDMI connection to AV receivers. Got new iPhone. Download app both on TV and IPhone screen an annoying white horizontal line. Hire technicians from you tube please.
When I use the device and sign into the website it works. Fix MetOperaonDemand

I continue to be charged for a subscription that doesn’t actually allow me access to the site or app. The “manage my subscription” button is on a loop of pulling me back to my account that tells me that I’m already subscribed or MetOperaonDemand itself just crashes. There needs to be a website to access these archives or MetOperaonDemand just needs to be completely shut down all together.

I subscribed but each time I tried to watch something it said I had to subscribe. I repeatedly completed the subscription requirements only to be told I had already subscribed. Try watch and tells me again - subscribe. This goes on and on. Seriously get your act together.

After knowing the treatment to Anna Netrepko, I would like to cancel permanently.

Art cannot be managed politically motivated.

Carlos Martinez

I am trying to subscribe, but the page continues to say my email address is incorrect. It is not. Could you possibly help? Thank you.

App crashes every time it is opened on iPhone

Like a lot of others, I almost don't want to says anything negative because I really love that this exists and that the met provides such easy access to their archives. Still, it is far from perfect. As others have mentioned the fact that it does not remember your place can be a pain, especially when an accidental push of the home button means you have to start over and find your location. Luckily they break it down into chapters, but it's still something I'm used to in nearly every other app (even safari saves your place in the middle of a video if you change apps).

Perhaps the biggest complaint, though, is that the audio seems incredibly compressed. When a full chorus is singing it gets really tinny and kind of unbearable. I've listened to the same sections streamed through the met's website and the sound quality there is much better. I have a great connection (about 10mbps) so i'm pretty sure its not that, and the video always looks pretty good. You won't notice if you're listening through the iPad speaker, but plug in headphones and it can be distracting.

Actual airplay support (not just mirroring) would also be a plus, and would maybe convince me to get apple tv!

Anyway, I hope they improve it, because I love both the service and the level of quality that I find in all of the met's productions.

I love met operas and MetOperaonDemand delivers full catalogue that is pure delight to watch. Unfortunately MetOperaonDemand is very buggy and I hope developer is working on improving it to meet the quality of the content presented.
Few suggestions for upgrading MetOperaonDemand :
- improve sound quality. At home I use very good sound equipment and it is obvious that the sound used in even HD streams is very compressed. Operas are ultimate sound test and I know how good opera can sound if you have the right equipment. Ideally you should provide an uncompressed sound for ultimate experience.
- please provide the ability to download streams and audio recordings for offline use. I like to stream audio recordings when I drive and every time my car goes through the poor or no signal area I have interruptions that I hate.
- improve the info and bio on the recordings and artists that you showcase. They deserve all the credit and currently are treated like sub notes on the otherwise excellent content
- allow us to ‘favorite’ recordings that we love and would like. I would like to have ‘My list’ feature prominently placed on MetOperaonDemand home page.
- add 4k HDR content for newer recordings. 1080p is so outdated.

I hesitate to even say anything negative about MetOperaonDemand because to have such access to operatic archives such as are included here is, indeed, a tremendous privilege. The only "problem" that I have with MetOperaonDemand as it is right now is that if one switches to a different app in the middle of viewing or listening to something on Met Player, when returning to Met Player to continue viewing the previously uncompleted selection one must start over in the selection process and then jump to the location where one last left off. This seems like a relatively simple fix, so hopefully it will be addressed in future updates.

Thanks, Metropolitan Opera and Peter Gelb for your great gift to all of us opera lovers worldwide!!

Mark Mowry

I go to met very very frequently and am absolutely charmed by Met recording’s video/sound quality.

However, here are a few suggestions to make MetOperaonDemand a bit modern (maybe closer to the Deutsche Grammophon apps):
- allow offline contents please
- fix the subtitles (if you turn on the subtitles and leave MetOperaonDemand playing in the background, the subtitles will not appear unless you go back to the homepage and re-enter the opera again)
- now, the dream - to make MetOperaonDemand truly cutting-edge, the Met should offer viewers to switch between multiple angles. Sometimes the director’s cut may cause the users to lose sight of the breathtaking grandeur of the opera’s staging. The ability to switch between, wide angle and close-ups would be truly amazing.
- since for every opera the met has already prepared massive amounts of information on the program pamphlet, why not also provide them here on MetOperaonDemand in addition to the just synopsis.

Requires good wifi bandwidth -- i.e. a cable internet connection through wifi; DSL is not enough. We subscribed to cable Internet just to use MetOperaonDemand, and it works. The sample clips will show you whether your bandwidth is adequate.

The login facility is indeed clunky. I wonder how many phone calls the help desk gets to reset passwords.

The controls are a little irritating. Example: the user can add a favorite to the favorites list, but it is not the aria or track that is added, but the entire opera. That's no better than just knowing which operas you like. Wouldn't it be better to be able to watch and listen to all your favorite arias one after another?

Content: absolutely great. I should say more about how wonderful it is to have access to these recordings on the iPad, but I hope the prospective subscriber can imagine, or maybe has seen the HD screenings in theaters. The sample makes you want to sign up right away. Very worth the subscription prices, monthly or yearly.

Don't miss "The Audition."

The Met Player folks never seems to drop the opportunity to disappoint. I had high hopes that I could avoid the clunky error-prone, stuttering, glitchy unreliable desktop version (to which I have been a subscriber for years now), but they managed to mess this up as well too. The 2 stars are for the content, which is the excellent Met stuff, let down by this substandard app. As others have noted, audio is poor, no support for AirPlay (not even just the audio), stuttering and glitchy streaming ... Sad. I'm not sure why their streaming is so poor, but they were down for several days last year, and I don't think they have fired them yet. And, forget about customer support, all I've ever got from them is form responses. A sad, sad, disappointment and an embarrassment.

Every content owner wants to provide their own streaming service to cut out the middle man and collect all the profits, but delivering first-class software and infrastructure presents different challenges than content production. MetOperaonDemand is not bad — they’ve fixed a number of issues I see in earlier reviews over the five years MetOperaonDemand has been out. It would still be nice to use AirPlay on free previews (and return to them after leaving MetOperaonDemand ), and browse by artist. Also, like some other reviewers mention the sound quality could be better. I suspect it is being compressed too much, though the video quality is good.

First let me say that I LOVE MetOperaonDemand. I'm currently on the 7 day free trial to the on demand service but will definitely keep my subscription going.

There are 2 things that would make this a 5-star app:

1. Ability to exit MetOperaonDemand and continue listening to audio files. This is much like listening to natively stored music or pandora, and would give you the freedom of doing other things on your iPad while listening. Currently in order to listen you're locked in to that screen.
2. MetOperaonDemand should remember where you left off in each video/audio opera. I rarely have time to listen or watch one in its entirety in one sitting, but would like to quickly start again where I left off.

To summarize, love MetOperaonDemand and love having all this beautiful music so easily accessible, and a few updates to MetOperaonDemand itself would make this truly stellar.

For the most part, MetOperaonDemand does what it needs to do: playback content. I rarely experience buffering issues or drops in quality. I agree with other reviewers that it would be nice if the quality were better (especially the audio).

However, in my experience there are some persistent bugs. Right now what’s frustrating me is the inability to pause playback on Apple TV. To “pause” I have to exit and then return to MetOperaonDemand when I’m ready. Pressing play/pause has no discernible effect.

This is a beautiful first effort at an iPad app. But it's missing a few key iPad features that make it just short of greatness:

(1) AirPlay. This is one iOS's key technologies, and it would simply transform the experience to be able to project audio + video to home speakers and HDTV. Please implement.

(2) Background audio. Please allow the audio to run in the background while doing other tasks. You should be able to start a radio broadcast and then shift over to Safari, etc., as with any other music-playing app.

(3) Bookmarking. MetOperaonDemand should automatically bookmark where you were when you quit MetOperaonDemand , and resume where you left off. It should re-start to the video library shelf each time.

(4) If it hasn't been already (I can confirm later today!), it should be Retina-enabled for the new iPad.

Thanks!

MetOperaonDemand does not go widescreen when sending the image from the iPad to a TV. Also, there is no resume fuction. Therefore, everytime you pause to do something else, when you return you have to restart the opera from the beginning. Yes, I know I can fast forward, but I don't appreciate having to do so every time. Buying or renting the same production through iTunes is a far better option. Unfortunately there are far less operas available in iTunes Movies.

And another thing ... Not a single La Traviata!? Really!?

I use it while driving, at home on iPhone, laptop and Apple TV. I haven’t had any technical problems, as long as I have a decent signal strength. The annual rate is the best deal. The resume function is excellent and always picks up an audio or video file where I last stopped. Please put “Angels” on, as well as the latest Thais.

I love the ability to watch these great performances on demand. However, at least on the Apple TV, during playback, MetOperaonDemand will occasionally become unresponsive to the remote and will need to be force quit. I’ve also had subtitles stop displaying randomly. Fix these bugs and MetOperaonDemand will definitely be five stars.

I really enjoy MetOperaonDemand and the content it has to offer! I’ve loved Met On Demand for years. As a singer, I like to follow scores while watching/listening to the opera. It would be great to have split screen compatibility with forScore, so viewers can take in the opera and follow along in the music with any scores they have on their iPad. Thank you!

Love opera and the Met, but the failure rate of MetOperaonDemand’s host servers is truly frustrating. The content will stop streaming a few times through each title, and resolution drops in and out all the time. These ubiquitous issues are suffered on our Samsung TV apps, iPads, Apple TVs, and iPhones.

Again, wonderful content, but with the reliability of a teenager. I’m afraid that we’re compelled to unsubscribe. Please notify us when you get your game together.

I adore the concept and the selection seems pretty extensive, but, $15 dollars a month is far too expensive for one genre of music. Please reconsider your subscription fees. Compare it to other music streaming methods. Thank you

I love opera. I paid for my subscription without thinking twice about it. The Met’s performances are outstanding. The singers are first rate. Set design and the the orchestra are wonderful.

MetOperaonDemand has always been buggy, even with all the updates. It hasn’t worked for months - it will enter the home screen (and if I’m lucky, the login screen) and then immediately crash. I’ve tried deleting and reinstalling...same deal. I’ve even tried using it on other iPads...still crashes.

I LOVE being able to see these gorgeous productions! And I have always loved opera! But subtitles don’t work most of the time. When I’m introducing someone to opera (as I do a LOT) subtitles help so I don’t have to talk through it all.

Hi! Great app but please change the Apple TV app audio options so I can play the sound through my HomePod. Whenever I play anything it reroutes through my crappy tv speakers. Thank you!!

1. Subtitles disappear when switching away from MetOperaonDemand and then switching back
2. I keep getting logged out of MetOperaonDemand . Why is this necessary?

Too frustrating. Ended up cancelling during the trial period. Will try again if MetOperaonDemand is updated with fixes

Unable to open it on my iPhone X. Keeps crashing and crashing. When are you going to solve this issue? I’m a subscriber and never been able to use MetOperaonDemand though I have the lastest app and iOS version.

When I type my email in to subscribe, it keeps telling me my email address is invalid when I know it's not. Is there any way to fix this?

Nearly a after the debut of iPhone X, MetOperaonDemand still isn’t optimized for the edge to edge display of said device. That’s inexcusable for a premium app.

Unfortunately MetOperaonDemand really doesn't work well. At this moment I can't pause, stop, or exit MetOperaonDemand and it's not my remote.