Feedback about New Vudu Interface

[Robert Simandl]

Re: Feedback about New Vudu Interface

Not at all happy with the forced "auto-playing" on TV seasons- I'm an obsessive viewer and I don't want to see that countdown clock come up on the screen! (Since I started using Vudu 4 years ago, I've already become accustomed to hitting a button on my remote to make that display that comes on during the first few seconds go away immediately.) The last couple seconds seem to be cut off as well. I enjoy all of the closing logos, and on Season 4 of "Bob's Burgers", every episode has previews of other shows at the end that are getting cut off before they're done. Please at least make this an option that we can turn on or off! I will not buy any TV seasons as long as it's going to do that- on shows I have only one episode of, it still allows those to be played clean straight to the end.

I totally agree.

[Alan Smithee]

Re: Feedback about New Vudu Interface

I sent a formal "problem report" about the auto-play nonsense and got back a standard "Your comments have been forwarded..." response. Better than nothing; if I wanted to watch TV shows with a lack of respect for their presentation, I'd watch them over the air or on Hulu Plus!

[Emissary35]

Re: Feedback about New Vudu Interface

I sent a formal "problem report" about the auto-play nonsense and got back a standard "Your comments have been forwarded..." response. Better than nothing; if I wanted to watch TV shows with a lack of respect for their presentation, I'd watch them over the air or on Hulu Plus!

You are so right about that, total lack of respect for the viewer forcing a countdown clock on the screen. I absolutely will not purchase a single thing on Vudu again until it is either removed entirely, or an option is made to turn it off. There is no reason why this feature has to be mandatory and forced on everyone. Some people might like it and that's fine, I paid money for my shows and I deserve to see them without that popping up each time at the end of all shows!

As far as complaining, that's all you get most of the time, the standard company line about forwarding it to the tech team or whatever to be looked at. That's just another way of saying "we don't care, go away" so I doubt they'll look into this at all. Such a shame too because before this I thought vudu was great. They really have lost me now.

[Alan Smithee]

Re: Feedback about New Vudu Interface

And likely they won't have a single person purchasing MORE from them because they LIKE the countdown clock, much like I doubt the TV networks have gained a single viewer who likes seeing their logos on the screen all the time but they certainly have lost plenty of viewers!

[danglin709]

Re: Feedback about New Vudu Interface

I must be the only one that does not care if there is a countdown clock or if they interupt the end credits of a tv episode...... the autoplay feature is great and im sorry if you all do not agree but have any of you actually tried watching your UV library on any of the other Uv programs (Flixster,Target Ticket and cinema now all are slow and the UI's are horrible. Also with almost 2500 movies in my Vudu account and when i load any of the others it is about half that number i would say that in a very unscientific look Vudu has the best selection as well

[Emissary35]

Re: Feedback about New Vudu Interface

I must be the only one that does not care if there is a countdown clock or if they interupt the end credits of a tv episode...... the autoplay feature is great and im sorry if you all do not agree but have any of you actually tried watching your UV library on any of the other Uv programs (Flixster,Target Ticket and cinema now all are slow and the UI's are horrible. Also with almost 2500 movies in my Vudu account and when i load any of the others it is about half that number i would say that in a very unscientific look Vudu has the best selection as well

That's fine you think the autoplay feature is great. All those of us are asking is that they make a simple setting to turn it on and off. So you can continue seeing the countdown clocks since you don't care, and I can make it stop. Is this too much to ask of Vudu to accomplish?

[jeffpn]

Re: Feedback about New Vudu Interface

It's easy to say what you want. It's hard to say what most people want. It's also hard for you to say how many people use Vudu. I would wager that most people using the new Vudu interface don't care about the changes. Most of them probably don't even know about the forum. Maybe everyone but you likes the changes. Just like when FaceBook changes, you pretty much gotta roll with it.

[Scrapluv]

Re: Feedback about New Vudu Interface

There definitely needs to be a way to clear your watchlist. A "start from beginning" option would also be helpful.

[Emissary35]

Re: Feedback about New Vudu Interface

There definitely needs to be a way to clear your watchlist. A "start from beginning" option would also be helpful.

I agree with you on both counts. Even in the old app I was surprised they never bothered to make a "play from beginning" button, and then they make a new release of their app and still don't include this? Very poor work by the programming minds working for Vudu. Creating the watch list is nice, but common sense would say make the option to clear it out at the same time so people don't have things showing up there that they want to clear.

It's such an annoyance not being able to clear them out, and have to resume and load the stream, then rewind to beginning and start the stream again. Add to the that forced autoplay with no disable option and it just goes to show they mostly were thinking about making a shiny new interface that looks pretty but lacks function. I hope more people complain about these things because most likely they won't care enough to change anything, just patting themselves on the back for their new design.

[Jake]

Re: Feedback about New Vudu Interface

If it will calm people down (things are getting a bit chippy/borderline insulting, let's keep it constructive):

FYI, all suggestions on this thread are noted and being considered - and many are already planned (and have been for a while). Can't always get everything in the first release, unfortunately. I'm a movie purist more than many (maybe not "Alan Smithee", but at least enough to get that joke) and agree with many of the comments. But for what it's worth priorities and decisions were made based on customer feedback and testing - VUDU forum users are always passionate but not always representative...

The long-time customers out there will appreciate that the VUDU app features and UI have continuously updated/evolved for what, 7+ years, and I challenge you to name another company that has kept every TV/BD/STB UI up to date for that long. I could go through a feature laundry list over that time, and there is another laundry list of new features to add, but unfortunately I can't go through those

[Emissary35]

Re: Feedback about New Vudu Interface

If it will calm people down (things are getting a bit chippy/borderline insulting, let's keep it constructive):

FYI, all suggestions on this thread are noted and being considered - and many are already planned (and have been for a while). Can't always get everything in the first release, unfortunately. I'm a movie purist more than many (maybe not "Alan Smithee", but at least enough to get that joke) and agree with many of the comments. But for what it's worth priorities and decisions were made based on customer feedback and testing - VUDU forum users are always passionate but not always representative...

The long-time customers out there will appreciate that the VUDU app features and UI have continuously updated/evolved for what, 7+ years, and I challenge you to name another company that has kept every TV/BD/STB UI up to date for that long. I could go through a feature laundry list over that time, and there is another laundry list of new features to add, but unfortunately I can't go through those

Thanks for the reassurance, things have gotten a bit chippy I admit I've been very crabby about the new interface and the things about it that I don't like. I understand it does take a lot of work to do these things, I just really dislike new features that do not give the user any control over, it's just there in your face, deal with it. Like the auto play and not being able to shut it off. I get a lot of people might want this, that's fine with me I just want control to disable it. I want to play my episodes manually, and I never want my video covered by logos or anything from Vudu. This is a pay service after all and we have the right to see movies and TV shows without any interference overlayed on our videos just as you would on DVD or Blu ray.

The watchlist as well, I think is a good addition, but it lacks the ability to clear or simply turn off. I just wish Vudu would take the time to ask themselves when they add new things if it will appeal to everyone. Just more control is all we can ask for, I'm glad that what is being said on this thread is looked at and considered that is definitely reassuring and makes me feel better, for the moment at least.

I just hope these things can get resolved sooner rather than later, Vudu is a pretty damn good service and I hate having to like it better the way it used to be rather than how it is now because of a new update. I know you can't give us details about when certain features will be released, but it would be really great to know if the three main concerns here will be addressed. 1. Auto play disable 2. Play from beginning option added 3. Clear watch list. If those three things are solved I would find it very hard for anyone to have a problem with Vudu, let's please just get those things taken care of. Also the text is very hard to read and seems smaller, maybe that could be cleared up.

Thanks for listening.

[jeffpn]

Re: Feedback about New Vudu Interface

Definitely worth repeating.

But for what it's worth priorities and decisions were made based on customer feedback and testing - VUDU forum users are always passionate but not always representative...

As passionate as as the forum users are, I would bet they are far outnumbered. I think it's nice to hear that forum suggestions are noted and sometimes implemented.

[Otter0911]

Re: Feedback about New Vudu Interface

One thing I really like is the use of background pics. But the only device that this works on is the WD TV SMP, Does not work on the WD Hub or any of my Blu-ray players.

[Emissary35]

Re: Feedback about New Vudu Interface

Any updates about clearing watchlist and disabling the auto play yet? All it takes is a couple of settings to add either on the site or device apps, which in case you haven't noticed don't really have any settings except subtitles and parental controls. I think Vudu can do better than that.

[qazzaq]

Re: Feedback about New Vudu Interface

Most of my (admittedly minor) gripes have been mentioned....

- Autoplay for tv shows would be fine... if it could be turned off. Forced autoplay I do not like. Sometimes I like to let the credits play and I can't figure out how to do that. Make it optional please!

- Clearing watchlist would be nice, but what I dislike more is that watchlist is now the default when you go to my vudu. I can understand the reasoning but it would be nice if the user had the option of which screen was default. My preference is to go into my movies or my tv series to pick what to watch.

Not really related to the new interface:

- It would be nice if there was someway to reset all movies to 'watch hdx.' Right now I either have to ff past the credits so it says watch again, or rewind to the beginning. I know I currently have lots of movies that will resume at random locations instead of the beginning (and oddly, none of them show up in the watchlist).

- Still no way to reset a tv series to remove the checkmarks. Permanent checkmarks would be fine for a 1 time watch via rental, but when you own a tv season there should be a way to reset it for future viewings.

- As has been mentioned for years, please remove the option to purchase a tv season when you already own all the episodes in a season. The Buy Season button is pretty much right there when you go to watch something. I set parental controls to block purchases, but it's an unnecessary workaround.

I'm all for tweaking the look of the app, and can adjust to the changes (I preferred the old look however), but it would be great to see some of the issues I mentioned above addressed.

Thank you!