Netflix's Personalized User Profiles Begin Showing Up on Apple TV

MacRumors · Jul 29, 2013

According to multiple Twitter reports and a tipster who contacted MacRumors, individual Netflix profiles are now showing up on the Apple TV. The personalized profile feature, which is expected to be launched in August, will allow users of shared Netflix accounts to select a unique profile when accessing the service.

Netflix first debuted its personalized user profiles earlier this year at E3, giving select users beta access to the feature. With personalized profiles, each family member or Netflix user can have a separate profile with customizable avatars, individualized viewing histories, unique content recommendations, and parental control options.

While the feature is not yet available to the general public, the infrastructure has been launched on the Apple TV. According to a Netflix customer service representative, Netflix users who previously set up profiles when using the DVD service will now see those profiles show up on the Apple TV.

Profiles cannot be altered at this time, and additional users cannot be added, but users who already have profiles in place will see the option when opening the Netflix app. Netflix says that the official release will come to all users "later this summer," allowing individual profiles to be set up on the web and then accessed on the Apple TV.

(Thanks, Mark!)

Article Link: Netflix's Personalized User Profiles Begin Showing Up on Apple TV

JonasCalhoun · Jul 29, 2013

This has truly been the only thing stopping me from buying an Apple TV.

My iPad Netflix app has profiles on it, am I the only one? I've mentioned it to others, and they look at me like I have lobsters coming out of my head.

Roy Hobbs · Jul 29, 2013

The Netflix iPad app does not have user profiles.

JonasCalhoun · Jul 29, 2013

Like I said, most people don't believe me. This is a screenshot taken a few minutes ago. When the app starts, then you select who you want, and they are personalized. It's been like this for me for a few months.

HiRez · Jul 29, 2013

I didn't see individual Instant Queue in there...surely that would be the most useful component?

JonasCalhoun · Jul 29, 2013

After you select a person, it goes to personalized queues.

dazed · Jul 29, 2013

Personalized profiles would be great, then I wouldn't have 100 cartoons in my recently watched section

I'd also love a watch later queue on the Apple TV so If I find something I'd like to watch I can mark it to watch later. Can't believe it's not there already (unless im missing something)

SteveLV702 · Jul 29, 2013

now the important question can you password protect your personal profile so nobody else can access it?

Aldaris · Jul 29, 2013

GenesisST · Jul 29, 2013

dazed said:
Personalized profiles would be great, then I wouldn't have 100 cartoons in my recently watched section

I'd also love a watch later queue on the Apple TV so If I find something I'd like to watch I can mark it to watch later. Can't believe it's not there already (unless im missing something)

Ha! Same here...

Klae17 · Jul 29, 2013

Lets all share one netflix account

cclloyd · Jul 29, 2013

Anyone know if there's a way to reset all my info about what I like/watched so my brother's stuff wouldn't affect my profile?

randomnut · Jul 30, 2013

I'm glad to see there's still *some* work being done on the Apple TV Netflix App.

There is a long way to go though. It is disappointing that the Netflix app on the ATV is pretty poor compared to others. The 1080p stream is quite grainy/noisy, and the picture is quite soft compared to the Windows 8 App or PS3.

I chose the ATV to have a low power device purely for netflix but is is quite a let down. Given the absolute basics is the picture quality they haven't got it right at all considering there *is* better quality available from a netflix stream.

Also, the app is quite lacking in features. For example, no Post Play support. So once you've finished an episode you have to go up a couple levels and then select the next one, select play and then you're off again. Really is so far behind the times.

I complained to Netflix but was told they didn't make the App, they just provided the APIs and Apple made their own.

If I could have my Win8 machine hooked up to the TV I would have that permanently because even the picture quality is so much better than what the ATV offers :/

davidg4781 · Jul 30, 2013

Hopefully we'll be able to delete them once it's fully launched. I've had my old roommate's profile on mine for the past 5 years and have been told there's no way to take it off.

Doesn't really bother me much, but just annoying that it's there. I guess it'll be even more annoying when I have to pick him or me when I start up the app.

Regbial · Jul 30, 2013

JonasCalhoun said:
Like I said, most people don't believe me. This is a screenshot taken a few minutes ago. When the app starts, then you select who you want, and they are personalized. It's been like this for me for a few months.

Is the first one "Dad"? haha No way right?

hipnetic · Jul 30, 2013

This is nice, but it would probably be better if Apple implemented this as a system-wide feature.

dazed said:
I'd also love a watch later queue on the Apple TV so If I find something I'd like to watch I can mark it to watch later. Can't believe it's not there already (unless im missing something)

One workaround I use is to use my iPhone to search for stuff, and add it to the Instant Queue from there.

randomnut said:
The 1080p stream is quite grainy/noisy, and the picture is quite soft compared to the Windows 8 App or PS3.

I chose the ATV to have a low power device purely for netflix but is is quite a let down. Given the absolute basics is the picture quality they haven't got it right at all considering there *is* better quality available from a netflix stream.

The terms grainy and soft usually don't go together. In any case, I've always chalked up poor Netflix quality to the fact that they've never been known for high quality streams, and they've always been a last resort for me when I want to watch something in my living room which has a front projector and very large screen. That said, I seem to recall reading when the ATV2 first came out that a lot of folks found Netflix on the ATV to be of superior picture quality to other implementations. The other day I played an older movie (Coming to America) in the room with the projector and was actually pleasantly surprised by it.

randomnut said:
Also, the app is quite lacking in features. For example, no Post Play support. So once you've finished an episode you have to go up a couple levels and then select the next one, select play and then you're off again. Really is so far behind the times.

OK, that just makes you sound really lazy.

2010mini · Jul 30, 2013

I have never been able to set up profiles in my Netflix account. I keep getting an error that profiles are temporarily unavailable. This is going back to last year.

randomnut · Jul 30, 2013

hipnetic said:
This is nice, but it would probably be better if Apple

The terms grainy and soft usually don't go together. In any case, I've always chalked up poor Netflix quality to the fact that they've never been known for high quality streams, and they've always been a last resort for me when I want to watch something in my living room which has a front projector and very large screen. That said, I seem to recall reading when the ATV2 first came out that a lot of folks found Netflix on the ATV to be of superior picture quality to other implementations. The other day I played an older movie (Coming to America) in the room with the projector and was actually pleasantly surprised by it.

OK, that just makes you sound really lazy.

Noise/Grain and Sharpness are two entirely different visual properties and can affect an image independent of each other :s I guess I should use the term artefacts, as the effects in question don't exist on streams on other devices like Windows 8 app or PS3.

There's some really odd network behaviour with the ATV3 as well. When streaming on Netflix, it seems to burst at high speed, and then drop right down, burst higher, then drop down again. A network graph looks like a 'sawtooth' effect. It is certainly not my connection because it is isolated to my ATV device and also Netflix confirmed they are seeing it as well and seems to be common on ATV devices.

From my conversation with them today the constant burst and drop network behaviour is rendering the ATV only 'just' able to render a netflix 1080p stream , when my connection is 40mbps and Windows 8 and PS3 can stream perfectly with higher picture quality and none of this odd network behaviour.

Apple certainly have some work to do.

Anonymous Freak · Jul 30, 2013

I *USED* to have multiple profiles, back when we had Netflix DVD delivery - my son could put his own movies in one queue, and us parents could put ours in another - made sure we didn't end up with all-kids or all-adults movies. But back then, only one profile could do streaming.

Kid got older, left home, didn't need his profile any more.

Now the young one is going nuts on Netflix streaming (all kid/educational stuff,) and my Netflix instant watch suggestions are totally ruined!

(No, I really don't want to watch Dora the Explorer, thanks.)

I think I'll have to "give up" my profile to her, and start a new one for the grown ups.

Rocketman · Jul 30, 2013

I wonder if the sawtooth network activity is Apple caching the stream to memory to account for slow or choppy connections?

If so, that is more of a feature than a bug.

The UI differences between Roku and Apple TV are interesting, but the one that bugs me the most is Roku lets you play an entire show series and come back to it anytime and ATV forces you to select each series episode by manually navigating "back" in the menuing system.

I have access to both and so far like the Roku better, at least for Netflix and Roku Plus.

I would like to see a simple way to cue Youtube videos and remember the cue for replay.

As for multi-user features I strongly hope Apple makes any user preference features accessable on all channels and have a separate personality for adult content that is not suitable for children, so the kids can see what dad is watching if they want, but not the stuff mom and dad watch together and protect.

Rocketman

repete7 · Jul 30, 2013

Right now, I've got two profiles showing on my AppleTV, mine and my husband's back from the day when we had two Dvd queues. Don't see a way to add another profile for the kids (adult kids, not little kids)? Is there a way to add a profile yet?

These really need to be password protected, too. Once they are (and I have my husband's password), I can finally get my revenge on him for adding "Human Centipede" to my queue.

randomnut · Jul 30, 2013

Rocketman said:
I wonder if the sawtooth network activity is Apple caching the stream to memory to account for slow or choppy connections?

If so, that is more of a feature than a bug.

The UI differences between Roku and Apple TV are interesting, but the one that bugs me the most is Roku lets you play an entire show series and come back to it anytime and ATV forces you to select each series episode by manually navigating "back" in the menuing system.

I have access to both and so far like the Roku better, at least for Netflix and Roku Plus.

I would like to see a simple way to cue Youtube videos and remember the cue for replay.

As for multi-user features I strongly hope Apple makes any user preference features accessable on all channels and have a separate personality for adult content that is not suitable for children, so the kids can see what dad is watching if they want, but not the stuff mom and dad watch together and protect.

Rocketman

I'm not sure, but it only happens on Netflix and not if I stream iTunes movies. Certainly seems like a fault because every other device can stream 1080p in great quality with no issues on this 40mb connection.

Out of interest which Roku are you using? I am very interested to try one but in the UK only Roku 2 is available and not 3. Also from what i've read the picture quality is inferior on netflix and the UI for netflix not so good.

Would you recommend Roku over ATV? Does Roku have the post play feature?

Cheers

thefourthpope · Jul 30, 2013

I love this idea! Is there a way to set up profiles right now, or do you have to get an invite or something? I poked around the Netflix website but couldn't find anything.
We have the 1 DVD at a time/streaming account.

Edit: Found it (account: assign DVDs to profile) but just get a page that the feature is temporarily unavailable

hipnetic · Jul 30, 2013

A couple people have asked about this. The answer is right at the bottom of the article:

MacRumors said:
Profiles cannot be altered at this time, and additional users cannot be added, but users who already have profiles in place will see the option when opening the Netflix app. Netflix says that the official release will come to all users "later this summer," allowing individual profiles to be set up on the web and then accessed on the Apple TV.

tonyr6 · Jul 30, 2013

randomnut said:
Out of interest which Roku are you using? I am very interested to try one but in the UK only Roku 2 is available and not 3. Also from what i've read the picture quality is inferior on netflix and the UI for netflix not so good.

Would you recommend Roku over ATV? Does Roku have the post play feature?

Cheers

The Roku UI for Netflix is down right horrible. The ugliest most dated UI I have ever seen. The artwork is squashed and low res. Also the Roku Netflix channel can't handle congestion well. Most of the time I can get a great HD picture but sometimes I can't get HD at all yet the PS3 has no problems.

Also when streaming Netflix on the Roku and everything is fine it will just black out saying "Loading. Please Wait" and not recover. Rolling back to the same spot will cause it to crap out.

As I said I should have chosen a Apple TV over the Roku 3. I will most likely ditch my Roku 3 when the new Apple TV comes out and they add a Amazon Instant channel.

Netflix's Personalized User Profiles Begin Showing Up on Apple TV

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