Freeview manufacturers like Humax, Sagem and Topfield were offering this feature years ago without the need for promoting or customer requests. It was even advertised as being a central Freeview feature.
My initial impression of YouView is that it is not a well designed service but rather a cut and paste job with little thought given to foundational features or basic Freeview functions.
If the software architecture has been so badly designed as to omit the genre flags from EPG search then this is a serious project management failure. Such failures can be tricky to correct down the line but in this case it should be pretty easy to take remedial action. It does though say something about the quality of management in YouView that a year on this so basic feature is missing. Still no implementation time either. Is this partly because the YouView companies are more interested in on demand programming and have a disincentive to develop Freeview EPG viewing?
iPlayer integration with YouView is okay but the lack of genre search of EPG means that the total package lacks an essential feature.
I am really tempted to exchange the box, using the retailer's 14 day exchange period, for a Humax Freeview box.
I'd advise anyone to research the box beforehand, buy from a retailer with a reliable returns policy, check out the features that matter, and make the decision to keep it or take it back. As the OP has just done.
It's not worth letting a piece of consumer electronics make you feel hard done by.
Called retailer today and claimed 14 day exchange. They asked me why I wanted to exchange. The guy didn't dissuade me when I explained.
YouView is flawed big time stylie.
Very interesting, so it's still a contender after all. I guess the bottom line is to follow JamesB's advice and make sure you have a water-tight returns policy. Ultimately you need to try these things out for yourself. (I have an appalling record of buying from Amazon and then returning because I wasn't happy - I'm surprised they haven't black-listed me. )
As with many things Youview is lacking this feature and at some time vaguely in the future it may be added but in the meantime for the information you are after try
As with many things Youview is lacking this feature and at some time vaguely in the future it may be added but in the meantime for the information you are after try
Piers (Official Rep)> Just a bit of background. YouView boxes have access to 3 types of information for all programmes including films:
a) data via the aerial like all freeview boxes use. (DTT) b) the same data available via YouView's IP servers. (we need this for searching, and to avoid gaps in the EPG while the box is still waiting for the DTT data to load if it's been off for a while) c) YouView's enhanced data that is sent to us from the content provider or collected by us, including on demand availability, and in some cases longer synopsis - and in the future - actors, directors, ratings etc.
There's a couple of YouView bugs relating to "Films" that we're hoping to squash in the next few months. It's been hard to raise the priority as the don't really break features as such - they're just annoying, but they're moving up the queue steadily.
1) Most films in the future EPG showing as "Programmes". The cause of this is just a missing feature in the UI - it doesn't know how interpret the category data (film in this case) from either DTT aerial feeds or the IP feed of that DTT data (types a and b from above). It does work correctly, (e.g shows "Film") for a lot BBC films because they are (or will be in the 7 day EPG period) available on-demand, and we get the data in a format we do understand from the content provider (type c from above) - bypassing the DTT data, and using our own metadata system. The important part is that our servers and the YouView box do know which items are films in all cases - we just can't show it in the UI yet for items that only have DTT or DTT via IP data.
2) Our search servers don't return films if you ask for film. This one isn't really a bug as we don't have a "search for films" option yet, but we do want to add this to the mobile search as well as the YouView box search. And we need to fix the server problem first.
I'll update when we've made progress on either bug. No date has been set yet for a "search for films" option, but I'm doing what I can! _________________________________________________________________
Piers (Official Rep)> Just a bit of background. YouView boxes have access to 3 types of information for all programmes including films:
a) data via the aerial like all freeview boxes use. (DTT) b) the same data available via YouView's IP servers. (we need this for searching, and to avoid gaps in the EPG while the box is still waiting for the DTT data to load if it's been off for a while) c) YouView's enhanced data that is sent to us from the content provider or collected by us, including on demand availability, and in some cases longer synopsis - and in the future - actors, directors, ratings etc.
There's a couple of YouView bugs relating to "Films" that we're hoping to squash in the next few months. It's been hard to raise the priority as the don't really break features as such - they're just annoying, but they're moving up the queue steadily.
1) Most films in the future EPG showing as "Programmes". The cause of this is just a missing feature in the UI - it doesn't know how interpret the category data (film in this case) from either DTT aerial feeds or the IP feed of that DTT data (types a and b from above). It does work correctly, (e.g shows "Film") for a lot BBC films because they are (or will be in the 7 day EPG period) available on-demand, and we get the data in a format we do understand from the content provider (type c from above) - bypassing the DTT data, and using our own metadata system. The important part is that our servers and the YouView box do know which items are films in all cases - we just can't show it in the UI yet for items that only have DTT or DTT via IP data.
2) Our search servers don't return films if you ask for film. This one isn't really a bug as we don't have a "search for films" option yet, but we do want to add this to the mobile search as well as the YouView box search. And we need to fix the server problem first.
I'll update when we've made progress on either bug. No date has been set yet for a "search for films" option, but I'm doing what I can! _________________________________________________________________
You can now browse a 'Films' category using the Free YouView App on either iOS or Android.
This can't be done on the box but as Piers said before it is something we want to do on the YouView box search also. At the moment I don't have anything new to share on this topic I'm afraid.
Piers (Official Rep)> Just a bit of background. YouView boxes have access to 3 types of information for all programmes including films:
a) data via the aerial like all freeview boxes use. (DTT) b) the same data available via YouView's IP servers. (we need this for searching, and to avoid gaps in the EPG while the box is still waiting for the DTT data to load if it's been off for a while) c) YouView's enhanced data that is sent to us from the content provider or collected by us, including on demand availability, and in some cases longer synopsis - and in the future - actors, directors, ratings etc.
There's a couple of YouView bugs relating to "Films" that we're hoping to squash in the next few months. It's been hard to raise the priority as the don't really break features as such - they're just annoying, but they're moving up the queue steadily.
1) Most films in the future EPG showing as "Programmes". The cause of this is just a missing feature in the UI - it doesn't know how interpret the category data (film in this case) from either DTT aerial feeds or the IP feed of that DTT data (types a and b from above). It does work correctly, (e.g shows "Film") for a lot BBC films because they are (or will be in the 7 day EPG period) available on-demand, and we get the data in a format we do understand from the content provider (type c from above) - bypassing the DTT data, and using our own metadata system. The important part is that our servers and the YouView box do know which items are films in all cases - we just can't show it in the UI yet for items that only have DTT or DTT via IP data.
2) Our search servers don't return films if you ask for film. This one isn't really a bug as we don't have a "search for films" option yet, but we do want to add this to the mobile search as well as the YouView box search. And we need to fix the server problem first.
I'll update when we've made progress on either bug. No date has been set yet for a "search for films" option, but I'm doing what I can! _________________________________________________________________
Thanks Sanj for the prompt reply. The app is very good.
I've tried this out and it looks great but there are no films from the BBC channels. I've not done an exhaustive search, but the only channels showing are film 4, 5++ etc
Piers (Official Rep)> Just a bit of background. YouView boxes have access to 3 types of information for all programmes including films:
a) data via the aerial like all freeview boxes use. (DTT) b) the same data available via YouView's IP servers. (we need this for searching, and to avoid gaps in the EPG while the box is still waiting for the DTT data to load if it's been off for a while) c) YouView's enhanced data that is sent to us from the content provider or collected by us, including on demand availability, and in some cases longer synopsis - and in the future - actors, directors, ratings etc.
There's a couple of YouView bugs relating to "Films" that we're hoping to squash in the next few months. It's been hard to raise the priority as the don't really break features as such - they're just annoying, but they're moving up the queue steadily.
1) Most films in the future EPG showing as "Programmes". The cause of this is just a missing feature in the UI - it doesn't know how interpret the category data (film in this case) from either DTT aerial feeds or the IP feed of that DTT data (types a and b from above). It does work correctly, (e.g shows "Film") for a lot BBC films because they are (or will be in the 7 day EPG period) available on-demand, and we get the data in a format we do understand from the content provider (type c from above) - bypassing the DTT data, and using our own metadata system. The important part is that our servers and the YouView box do know which items are films in all cases - we just can't show it in the UI yet for items that only have DTT or DTT via IP data.
2) Our search servers don't return films if you ask for film. This one isn't really a bug as we don't have a "search for films" option yet, but we do want to add this to the mobile search as well as the YouView box search. And we need to fix the server problem first.
I'll update when we've made progress on either bug. No date has been set yet for a "search for films" option, but I'm doing what I can! _________________________________________________________________
I was sure Armageddon was coming on BBC soon. I just double checked on the YouView App and this is available on BBC one and BBC ONE HD Sat 11th October *sets recording*
Also noticed some films on ITV HD and BBC TWO HD on Saturday and some more throughout the week.
Piers (Official Rep)> Just a bit of background. YouView boxes have access to 3 types of information for all programmes including films:
a) data via the aerial like all freeview boxes use. (DTT) b) the same data available via YouView's IP servers. (we need this for searching, and to avoid gaps in the EPG while the box is still waiting for the DTT data to load if it's been off for a while) c) YouView's enhanced data that is sent to us from the content provider or collected by us, including on demand availability, and in some cases longer synopsis - and in the future - actors, directors, ratings etc.
There's a couple of YouView bugs relating to "Films" that we're hoping to squash in the next few months. It's been hard to raise the priority as the don't really break features as such - they're just annoying, but they're moving up the queue steadily.
1) Most films in the future EPG showing as "Programmes". The cause of this is just a missing feature in the UI - it doesn't know how interpret the category data (film in this case) from either DTT aerial feeds or the IP feed of that DTT data (types a and b from above). It does work correctly, (e.g shows "Film") for a lot BBC films because they are (or will be in the 7 day EPG period) available on-demand, and we get the data in a format we do understand from the content provider (type c from above) - bypassing the DTT data, and using our own metadata system. The important part is that our servers and the YouView box do know which items are films in all cases - we just can't show it in the UI yet for items that only have DTT or DTT via IP data.
2) Our search servers don't return films if you ask for film. This one isn't really a bug as we don't have a "search for films" option yet, but we do want to add this to the mobile search as well as the YouView box search. And we need to fix the server problem first.
I'll update when we've made progress on either bug. No date has been set yet for a "search for films" option, but I'm doing what I can! _________________________________________________________________
Comments
"This is a seriously terrible machine."
It's not worth letting a piece of consumer electronics make you feel hard done by.
I can query the status of the the search features to see if I can get some idea of status as well.
Thanks,
Phil
http://www.trustedreviews.com/samsung...
I guess the bottom line is to follow JamesB's advice and make sure you have a water-tight returns policy. Ultimately you need to try these things out for yourself.
(I have an appalling record of buying from Amazon and then returning because I wasn't happy - I'm surprised they haven't black-listed me.
http://www.viewfilm.net/
This can't be done on the box but as Piers said before it is something we want to do on the YouView box search also. At the moment I don't have anything new to share on this topic I'm afraid.
I've tried this out and it looks great but there are no films from the BBC channels. I've not done an exhaustive search, but the only channels showing are film 4, 5++ etc
Also noticed some films on ITV HD and BBC TWO HD on Saturday and some more throughout the week.
Thanks