Welcome to the YouView Community Forum - please be aware that from the 23rd of June you will be unable to create or reply to threads here and existing content will no longer be accessible from the 1st of July onwards. You can find more information about our support site changes here.

Annoying new guide

Davey23Davey23 Member Posts: 57
This new "focus box" on the guide is ridiculous and needs a way to be turned off.
The one thing most wanted on their guide was a mini tv box and you come up with this instead??
Also still waiting for you to add back the choice of time to start playing back a recording, but its  sad to see you are focusing your efforts in to things like this...
«13

Comments

  • redchizredchiz Member, Super User Posts: 5,476 ✭✭✭
    I quite like it, each to their own.
  • Davey23Davey23 Member Posts: 57
    redchiz said:
    I quite like it, each to their own.
    Which is why it needs the option to turn on or off.
    Those who want to see whats on next and those that want it covered up by an info banner.
  • Stevef_fr8ysStevef_fr8ys Member, Super User Posts: 773 ✭✭
    I too hate it. If you are scrolling through looking at "now and next" programmes, the expanded box obscures the programme next to it so you then have to move up or down one to see what that programme is.
    You can see the time the show is on from the timeline (or have a pretty good idea) so don't need to see this or to know it's ending soon etc.
    The info it shows on a programme is very limited and of no use whatsoever so you still have to use the info button. I like the info button and don't find it inconvenient to use this if I want more detail.
    I agree with @Davey23 that it needs to go or have user control to turn off. And also that we want old functionality restored before getting new features foisted upon us, including a true hiding of hidden channels.
    One new feature I would like to see (and I've asked for before) is a select all button on the guide filter so you can hide whole categories at once. we have a deselect all so why not a select all.
  • Davey23Davey23 Member Posts: 57
    Reinstating all the old functions that people have wanted back from day one, should be the priority, why on earth the option to choose a playback start time isn`t back by now, i do not understand.
    Clearly their attempts to copy sky or netflix are a priority over actual daily function.
  • highdeftvfanhighdeftvfan Member Posts: 52
    edited 15 October 2018, 5:04PM
    As updates to BT boxes seem to have stopped I don't have the new guide change, however, having seen the screen image I doubt I would like it...

    ...but, I think the real issue here, and the reason why people are getting annoyed, is that we no longer know how things are going to look or work since youview seem to be designing and implementing features on the fly...

    When I originally got youview I KNEW what I was getting, I could see a list of features, dozens of screen shots of the UI, and many in-depth reviews... I knew what I was getting into... now we have lost that, we simply don't know what direction youview may take a feature, and that I think is the problem... it's enforced feature modification after the point of purchase, which for me, is very annoying.
  • Davey23Davey23 Member Posts: 57
    I look at the coming updates often and am very often annoyed that the simple basic features we lost seem to never be coming back, all we get are extras that just seem to be added to keep up with other platforms.
    I keep saying it but, not being able to choose a start point to playback a recording from has to be the most basic simple feature possible, all other platforms have it, we used to have it, why hasn`t it come back by now?
    If they just brought back the original features we lost, i would have no problem with them adding any extras they want.

  • RoyRoy Member, Super User Posts: 17,813 ✭✭✭
    YouView have completely lost their way, haven’t they?

    I’m starting to think they no longer deserve the effort I am putting in here  :'(
    ‘Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful’ Wm Morris
  • John LJohn L Member, Super User Posts: 933 ✭✭
    I agree Roy. Since the latest update with the guide I begin to wonder myself. I can only add this to my list of moans! Roy if you look at my recent comment, I mentioned about the design team's young age range. I honestly think this may have a bearing on ideas + more importantly Consumers eyesight problems. Not everyone is under 40/50? Very badly thought out. Hopefully they will listen & fix along with other defects. Watch this space. John L
    Can't wait for the day when Youview get rid of the dreaded darkened banner when using fast forward/rewind recordings. 
  • SarahSarah Member Posts: 1,812 ✭✭✭
    Hi everyone,

    Thanks for taking the time to feed back regarding the latest feature, synopsis in guide. This has been fed back to the relevant teams so that they are aware. 

    For the newer members on the forum who may not know, we monitor all feedback we receive from the users on the forum and on social media and this gets collated and forwarded on to the relevant teams here at YouView. We may not post on all the threads but the feedback is always noted down :) 

    Thanks,
    Sarah
  • Davey23Davey23 Member Posts: 57
    If this feedback is always fed back to the relevant teams, doesn`t this prove they never listen?
    I am new here but have read through post after post of people asking for the same things over and over for about two years, a return to the list option on recordings, the mini tv on guide, the choice of playback time on recording, all the basic options we once had returned, yet nothing.

    If for some reason these things can not ever return, why are we not told that?
    Why leave us in hope of these things returning if you know they never will?

    What would it take for one of these guys you feedback to, to take five minutes away from designing things like this new guide and tell us if and why we won`t get these features back?
  • I have never commented on this type of forum about anything ever before. However, this new "focus box" feature is SO bad that it has finally forced me to do so.

    PLEASE GIVE US AN OPTION TO GET RID OF IT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!! 

    It makes me question Youview altogether.

    (I'm obviously being over dramatic for effect, but I do seriously hate this awful new feature.)
  • TomWTomW Member Posts: 508 ✭✭
    Could someone share a screenshot or a link to a page with a screenshot of this new ‘focus box’ feature. I’m curious to see what it looks like, particularly the ‘synopsis in guide’ feature. I have a BT YouView box and I haven’t noticed any change to the guide so I assume it hasn’t been rolled out to BT boxes yet.
  • Davey23Davey23 Member Posts: 57
    This feature is coming to BT boxes in the latest update, so you should get it anytime soon.
    And yes a few weeks on it is still extremely annoying, every time you open the guide you will find yourself pressing left and right firstly to centre the guide, as for some reason they still feel the need to start it half an hour back to see programs you have missed, then moving it again to get rid of the pop up box that appears.

  • redchizredchiz Member, Super User Posts: 5,476 ✭✭✭
    edited 17 November 2018, 1:14PM
    @TomW The release notes and screenshots can be found in Sarah's announcement, or here: https://support.youview.com/youview-box/software-updates/bt-software-update-31-69-0-3-5-132
  • TomWTomW Member Posts: 508 ✭✭
    edited 17 November 2018, 3:19PM
    redchiz said:
    @TomW The release notes and screenshots can be found in Sarah's announcement, or here: https://support.youview.com/youview-box/software-updates/bt-software-update-31-69-0-3-5-132
    Thanks redchiz.

    I’ll reserve judgment until I’ve had a chance to use it but my initial impression is this. 

    1. The synopsis is not exposed in the guide. The first part of the first sentence of the synopsis is exposed. The usefulness of this I think is at best questionable.

    2. The pop up obscures ajoining cells in the guide which could be very annoying indeed.

    3. It would be far better, in my opinion, to make better use of the screen real estate at the top of the guide to expose the full synopsis and other programme details along with reinstating the mini picture-in-picture tv. This is how guides on some of YouView’s rival boxes are laid out and it seems to work very well.

    4. As with all features like this that have the potential to elicit a marmite reaction from users it would be preferable if it were optional via the settings.
  • Davey23Davey23 Member Posts: 57
    Yes Tom a "marmite reaction" which is very simply solved with an off switch for those that hate it.
    The way it is now, i am being forced to eat marmite every day and i hate marmite.
  • Stevef_fr8ysStevef_fr8ys Member, Super User Posts: 773 ✭✭
    I eat marmite every day, but I hate the exploding guide!
  • VisionmanVisionman Member, Super User Posts: 10,303 ✭✭✭
    edited 18 November 2018, 12:20AM
    TomW>
    "3. It would be far better, in my opinion, to make better use of the screen real estate at the top of the guide to expose the full synopsis and other programme details along with reinstating the mini picture-in-picture tv. This is how guides on some of YouView’s rival boxes are laid out and it seems to work very well."

    Honest question - What benefit does the PiP (mini picture-in-picture) give? What is the advantage in having one and why? As it appears many miss it? Why?

    Second honest question - What 'real estate at the top of the guide' where the synopsis could go? As the Guide doesn't have any?
    I'm now happy with the disagree icon, because its gone.
  • TomWTomW Member Posts: 508 ✭✭
    edited 18 November 2018, 1:45AM
    Visionman said:
    TomW>
    "3. It would be far better, in my opinion, to make better use of the screen real estate at the top of the guide to expose the full synopsis and other programme details along with reinstating the mini picture-in-picture tv. This is how guides on some of YouView’s rival boxes are laid out and it seems to work very well."

    Honest question - What benefit does the PiP (mini picture-in-picture) give? What is the advantage in having one and why? As it appears many miss it? Why?

    Second honest question - What 'real estate at the top of the guide' where the synopsis could go? As the Guide doesn't have any?

    Honest answer - I would have thought that it was obvious. It allows the other person in the room to continue watching their programme while I’m viewing the guide and vice versa.

    The fact that the guide only has a limited amount of space at the top is purely a result of the way it has been designed. It’s perfectly possible to fit the synopsis into the main EPG. Many other EPGs on other boxes are designed that way. Hence my ‘better use of screen real estate’ comment. Getting rid of the frankly, rather useless filter bar, would be a good start.
  • Davey23Davey23 Member Posts: 57
    Not only does the filter bar take up pointless space, why on earth do we need to go backwards in the guide?
    For some reason we can go back up to a week to see programs we have missed, why??
    All this space could be redesigned to add a mini screen and synopsis, like pretty much every other platform does and like we used to have.
  • VisionmanVisionman Member, Super User Posts: 10,303 ✭✭✭
    Davey23>
    "The filter bar take up pointless space, why on earth do we need to go backwards in the guide?"

    Why? Because its a one-stop shop to the portals YouView provide. Which are usually called 'Players'. Such a feature was revolutionary when it first launched and is still relevant today.

    The filter bar is much like 'Discover' in that it will focus a search for the user on one particular theme or genre.   
    I'm now happy with the disagree icon, because its gone.
  • Davey23Davey23 Member Posts: 57
    Its revolutionary to go back to last sunday to see what you missed??

    I know what the filter bar is, but there is no need for it to take up the amount of on screen space it takes up.
  • VisionmanVisionman Member, Super User Posts: 10,303 ✭✭✭
    edited 18 November 2018, 3:28AM
    What would you have them do? 
    I'm now happy with the disagree icon, because its gone.
  • drhowellsdrhowells Member Posts: 634 ✭✭
    Davey23 said:
    Its revolutionary to go back to last sunday to see what you missed??
    Just to clarify, if you go backwards in the guide, and the selected program has a play icon, you can click on it and watch it. This is one of YouViews main features. 
  • Davey23Davey23 Member Posts: 57
    If its one of youviews main features, i haven`t used it in five years.
    I get using that feature with upcoming programs, but going back a week?, why wouldn`t you just go to the players manually instead of wading through the guide?
  • RoyRoy Member, Super User Posts: 17,813 ✭✭✭
    edited 18 November 2018, 11:30AM
    I agree with @Davey23 about the essentially pointless filter bar, which can be called up from the blue colour button anyway, if anyone really wants it, and the way it has been implemented means we can no longer go back over the top of the EPG to the high-numbered channels. The two regional ITVs we are able to get used to be two clicks down from BBC1 SD, and one click up; now the alternate ITV is miles away, and needs to be chosen by channel number.

    Do you ever get the feeling that YouView consult usability experts, and then do the exact opposite?  :s

    But I disagree with him, of course, about YouView’s one-time USP, the backward EPG.

    We must wait to see, though, if @Davey23 never realised how you work it, and will change his mind now that he knows what it can do.
    ‘Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful’ Wm Morris
  • Davey23Davey23 Member Posts: 57
    I am at a loss as to how you are finding a backwards guide useful.
    I turn on my tv, put on the guide and set any programs i want to record for the day, maybe even a few days, and i may use a player once in a while if it something i want to watch before its on live tv...
    What i have never done and has never even crossed my mind to do, is go back to last weekend in my guide and scroll through it to see what i missed just in case i can watch in on a player.
    Seriously, people do this??
  • RoyRoy Member, Super User Posts: 17,813 ✭✭✭
    Davey23 said:
    I am at a loss as to how you are finding a backwards guide useful.
    I turn on my tv, put on the guide and set any programs i want to record for the day, maybe even a few days, and i may use a player once in a while if it something i want to watch before its on live tv...
    What i have never done and has never even crossed my mind to do, is go back to last weekend in my guide and scroll through it to see what i missed just in case i can watch in on a player.
    Seriously, people do this??
    Not necessarily, no.

    But if there is something you never thought to record, but you find there is a buzz about it, perhaps in the papers or round the water cooler at work, then you can go back to where it was shown, the day before perhaps, and just click to get it. No need to choose which player, or to go searching about once you are in there.

    We did just that, this week, for ‘They shall not grow old’.

    The feature was a lot more valuable at first, when the Players only kept programmes for the one week anyway, they weren’t as navigable as they are now, and we were still watching individual programmes instead of binge-watching box sets.

    But your basic point falls down anyway. The backwards EPG is one week of three that you can page through, so there is no space lost to it, and if YouView wanted to overload the EPG with extra pages of this and that, they could perfectly well just add a fourth, or even a fifth, if they chose.

    ‘Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful’ Wm Morris
  • Davey23Davey23 Member Posts: 57
    My box goes backwards one week and forwards one week, by removing the back week as well as reducing the space the filter menu takes up, they could easily add a mini tv screen and synopsis, like every other platform has.

  • TomWTomW Member Posts: 508 ✭✭
    edited 18 November 2018, 1:17PM
    In the five years or so that I’ve owned a YouView box I could count on the fingers of one hand the times I’ve used the backwards epg. That said I don’t see any reason to get rid of it. As Roy says it wouldn’t create any more space in the epg. It was at one time a unique selling point for YouView and while that is now no longer the case it’s still a party trick that receives a lot of attention in YouView’s marketing campaigns. So there is no way they would get rid of it regardless of whether its usefulness matches the marketing hype.

    To be honest I’ve almost given up on YouView in any case, and more generally broadcast TV is becoming less and less relevant to me with each passing year. YouView is a half decent PVR and that’s about all I use it for these days. But even that functionality is compromised by the reliance on (not) accurate recording which results in truncated recordings. The only thing I watch live on TV these days is football and the number of programmes I record has reduced quite considerably in the last couple of years. I just don’t have as much time for TV as I used to, and when I do have time Netflix, Prime and YouTube (all of which I can access on my iPad or in 4K via my TV’s built in apps) offer so much choice that broadcast TV has become much less important. Even the TV series that I have enjoyed recently e.g., Snowfall, and Trust, have been released all in one go, Netflix style as box sets on iPlayer, before the series has been broadcast on TV.

    The one feature that might draw me back to broadcast TV is Amazon style recommendations i.e., you watched that, or you recorded this, so we think you might like this. Given the glacial pace of development at YouView, however, I’m not holding my breath.
Sign In or Register to comment.