Next Gen: on entering a series rollup tile the focus should be on the next unwatched episode

KeithKeith Member, Super User Posts: 2,454 ✭✭✭
edited 24 September 2017, 9:07PM in Feedback
In the next gen software when one enters a series rollup tile the focus is on the newest episode. Unless one keeps almost up to date with a series and yet does not delete watched episodes this is unlikely to be desirable behaviour.

For those that let recordings build up in a series rollup and then binge watch and delete as they go one would want the focus to be on the oldest episode. For those that binge watch but then do not delete the watched items one would want the focus to be on the next unwatched item (which in the former deleting case is the oldest item).

In conclusion having the focus on the oldest unwatched episode would most often be the right behaviour and save people needing to scroll back along what could be a very long line of episodes. As such one should either just implement that or if flexibility is wanted then implement an option for the user to choose between oldest unwatched, oldest, newest as the initial focused tile.

Comments

  • DanielDaniel Member, Super User Posts: 1,979 ✭✭✭
    edited 24 September 2017, 9:07PM
    For what its worth I agree it should focus on the older tile. Hopefully this gets more of a response now I have bumped it four months on and more people have next gen
  • jim1jim1 Member Posts: 60
    edited 2 May 2017, 2:23PM
    Completely logical. We have a smart TV with an  Amazon videos app. For the series we've bought, it shows one or more pages of tiles, with watched ones greyed out, and the focus (as we enter)  on the first unwatched episode. Below the tiles is also a summary of that episode. 
    In comparison, youview is primitive. 
  • KeithKeith Member, Super User Posts: 2,454 ✭✭✭
    edited 28 April 2017, 9:26PM
    I'll note here for completeness the latest changes mean one now lands on the oldest tile rather than the newest tile. Whilst this is a big improvement for a deleter like me, for a keeper it has now made it much worse.

    YouView should invest the little extra effort to compute the oldest (partially) unwatched tile and land there!
  • VisionmanVisionman Member, Super User Posts: 10,303 ✭✭✭
    edited 24 September 2017, 9:07PM
    Alas there will never be a perfect answer for everyone no matter what YouView comes up with, and keeping 65 episodes of a watched soap would be a minority behavior to say the least, as the majority watch then delete.
    I'm now happy with the disagree icon, because its gone.
  • KeithKeith Member, Super User Posts: 2,454 ✭✭✭
    edited 28 April 2017, 9:36PM
    Visionman said:

    Alas there will never be a perfect answer for everyone no matter what YouView comes up with, and keeping 65 episodes of a watched soap would be a minority behavior to say the least, as the majority watch then delete.

    It is certainly true that in areas such as this a single answer can never be perfect for all. That is where options can come in ;-)

    It would arguably be straight forward to code a setting so the user can choose between oldest, newest, oldest unwatched (with the 1st or 3rd being the likely default) :)
  • DanielDaniel Member, Super User Posts: 1,979 ✭✭✭
    edited 28 April 2017, 10:40PM
    Visionman said:

    Alas there will never be a perfect answer for everyone no matter what YouView comes up with, and keeping 65 episodes of a watched soap would be a minority behavior to say the least, as the majority watch then delete.

    I will be honest my situation is strange although I do horde recordings in series Stacks nine times out of ten I prefer to watch the oldest recording so I prefer it the way it is now since 27.50.0.
  • DaveGrohlDaveGrohl Member Posts: 81
    edited 1 May 2017, 9:33AM
    Surely the best way round this would simply be for the user to be able to click right if they wanted to thereby landing on the oldest episode on the carousel, rather than only having the option to click left. The solution they have apparently come up with has solved one problem but created another for some people.
  • RoyRoy Member, Super User Posts: 17,812 ✭✭✭
    edited 29 April 2017, 5:00PM
    DaveGrohl said:

    Surely the best way round this would simply be for the user to be able to click right if they wanted to thereby landing on the oldest episode on the carousel, rather than only having the option to click left. The solution they have apparently come up with has solved one problem but created another for some people.

    Oldest is better than Newest, Oldest not completely watched would be better still, clicking left from Oldest to reach Newest, in addition to the above, would be yet better still.

    There are a few other things in NextGen that would benefit from being regarded as a circular carousel besides this, notably putting the EPG back as it was in CurrentGen, where I would go to 900 if I went down from 1, and not into a bunch of filters I will never use, and can get to by a different route anyway if I did want to use them.
    ‘Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful’ Wm Morris
  • CegCeg Member Posts: 184
    edited 29 April 2017, 9:11AM
    DaveGrohl said:

    Surely the best way round this would simply be for the user to be able to click right if they wanted to thereby landing on the oldest episode on the carousel, rather than only having the option to click left. The solution they have apparently come up with has solved one problem but created another for some people.

    Is the 'wrap around' feature not used on any menu or screen in NextGen?
  • RoyRoy Member, Super User Posts: 17,812 ✭✭✭
    edited 29 April 2017, 10:07AM
    DaveGrohl said:

    Surely the best way round this would simply be for the user to be able to click right if they wanted to thereby landing on the oldest episode on the carousel, rather than only having the option to click left. The solution they have apparently come up with has solved one problem but created another for some people.

    You can wrap from 1 to 900 (or whatever your highest-numbered channel is) in the mini-EPG you get from (IIRC) pressing the Down arrow when watching a broadcast channel. Or something like that.

    So wrapping around doesn't seem to be something verboten in HTML5.

    (e.g. I have heard rumours that the mini-TV has gone because HTML5 makes programming such a mixture of text and small version of what is normally full screen nigh-on impossible to do in HTML5, but I have no direct knowledge if this is true or not).
    ‘Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful’ Wm Morris
  • MrMcgMrMcg Member Posts: 105
    edited 29 April 2017, 11:45AM
    DaveGrohl said:

    Surely the best way round this would simply be for the user to be able to click right if they wanted to thereby landing on the oldest episode on the carousel, rather than only having the option to click left. The solution they have apparently come up with has solved one problem but created another for some people.

    Roy,
    I actually prefer that the EPG has an end-top at the top of the list (i.e. channel 1). When I'm browsing through the EPG looking to see if there's anything interesting to watch, I use the "page up", and I prefer it to hit the top, and stop (as it is now). Don't think I've ever found anything worth watching at the other end of the guide. If I want radio, I switch category to "radio".
  • RoyRoy Member, Super User Posts: 17,812 ✭✭✭
    edited 29 April 2017, 12:39PM
    DaveGrohl said:

    Surely the best way round this would simply be for the user to be able to click right if they wanted to thereby landing on the oldest episode on the carousel, rather than only having the option to click left. The solution they have apparently come up with has solved one problem but created another for some people.

    MrMcg

    We have the choice of two ITV regions where we live, and the one we elect becomes 3, while the other becomes 800-something, and usually the highest-numbered channel of all.

    So when we wanted the regional news for the 'other' region, we simply scrolled 'up' from 1, got the wraparound, and there we were.

    NextGen has broken this, as far as the main EPG is concerned :-(
    ‘Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful’ Wm Morris
  • KeithKeith Member, Super User Posts: 2,454 ✭✭✭
    edited 19 March 2018, 6:47PM
    The announcements for software version 29.53.0 introduce a 'smart landing on series recordings'. 29.53.0 is rolling out to BT and Plusnet, and will no doubt roll out to retail soon too, and hopefully TalkTalk will get it in their software in due course. This new feature should implement landing on the oldest (part) unwatched item, the optimal aim of this idea topic :D

    It only took YouView about 5 months after next gen launch to make the first tweak to the landing point, and now another 11 months for this optimal tweak - they got there in the end though ;)
  • jimbjimb Member, Super User Posts: 1,425 ✭✭✭
    Keith said:

    It only took YouView about 5 months after next gen launch to make the first tweak to the landing point, and now another 11 months for this optimal tweak - they got there in the end though ;)

    It is so good to find a sensible objective view on this forum.
    Thank you. 
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