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HBO Max Updating Apple TV App With New Features and Improved Stability
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It's still worlds better than Prime Video.
It is long past time for Apple to fix the mistakes of tvOS and enforce mandatory requirements for streaming apps. No one, repeat, no one needs custom video playback UI. Not one single customer on the planet enjoys using 15 different apps with 15 different video players.
I totally understand that, for sure. But that can be muted. No sound can't be turned up.
I totally understand that. I'm typically not an auto sound on kinda guy. But in this case where a preview is playing, I find it odd that I have to do something like 3 more clicks top get to the same preview with sound. Annoying. Plus, sound on previews can always be muted. But no sound previews can't be turned up.
Haha. So true. THE WORST. A weirdly grouped sea of awful.
Quoting myself to add: I have yet to figure out AppleTV+'s organization. I can't stand the delineation between ATV as a conglomerate for shows you watch across all streamers/channels and the original content of ATV+. Possible user error on my part, but that whole cluster has been goofy af. For me. The opposite of intuitive.
No logging in to multiple apps, managing user profiles, or setting up parental controls, utilizes Apple's streaming tech and servers, work with TV app on Mac.
something all apps could do is to stop asking me "who is watching". i only got 1 profile, i don't understand why i need to see this menu every time.
Reading these comments is funny.
How are all the streaming apps so crap? They feel the need to force crap down our throats, make us hate them, and restrict discoverability.
How are all the streaming apps so crap? They feel the need to force crap down our throats, make us hate them, and restrict discoverability.
Those are all good under the hood benefits, but it doesn't address the content discovery concerns for the app, which is the most important thing to providers.
It likely isn't in the interest of providers to be on Apple TV Channels, as they lose agency of their content and direct relationships with their customers. But as a user, I don't care about those things.
I used to try to get by with Netflix but couldn't take it. ATVs "Up Next"/TV app feature is by far the best UI so far ever available on any platform. Beats Roku, Fire/Android and the rest. Having all of my shows in one simple list from all different sources makes watching TV absolute magic. I'm not even sure how anyone could hate it?
Going back to my Netflix comment, the reason I don't use it anymore is for one specific feature that they refuse to support on ATV which is the "Up Next" list support. Nearly every other app supports it, and again this makes watching content from all over the place, super easy.
The Amazon Prime video app even supports it. Hulu does. Disney+ does. Philo even does! Netflix intentionally does not support this feature and walls its app off completely. I do not want to have to open up 10 streaming apps to play a show or movie that I know I want to watch or especially, continue watching. Screw opening up Netflix, trying to navigate their ridiculous interface, no thanks.
On the other hand if Netflix did support the Up Next list, I would most likely be a subscriber again. Yes it really is that much of a deal breaker for me and the family on multiple TVs and rooms. Am I alone here??
HBO Max is, without a doubt, the WORST app of all the streaming services. I can be watching something all day, and then later that night go to watch something, and i'm signed out. Or, it tells me I'm signed in and asks me if I want to continue, and then asks me to sign up for HBO Max. Then I gotta grab my phone/computer to sign back in. At least Amazon Prime has a QR code you can just scan on screen.
Plus, if you have "search" highlighted, you can't even exit out of the app! You have to go back up to your profile name to even exit the app. And just from a UI perspective, it's almost impossible to figure out what you're actually selecting at any given moment.
It's super annoying because it's probably my most-used service. REALLLLY hope they fixed this.
That’s because it’s not the revamp they are talking about. It’s not even out yet smh
Which is why we don't have a good experience today. Providers and users want completely different things, and Apple has stopped trying to help be the middle man, and just joined the fray as another provider.
Why if I’m the only person, does the app still make me pick my profile, before letting me go to a show that I just said I wanted to continue? ?
Good because IT. SUCKS.
Without it in front of me it's hard to put my finger on exactly what the issue is, but out of HBO, Hulu, Peacock, and Netflix, HBO is the only one where I find myself fumbling around trying to navigate. I always somehow end up in the wrong place.
Without it in front of me it's hard to put my finger on exactly what the issue is, but out of HBO, Hulu, Peacock, and Netflix, HBO is the only one where I find myself fumbling around trying to navigate. I always somehow end up in the wrong place.
For a month, Apple TV+ on a browser did NOT have the "Up Next" feature on there. You can add shows and films to it, but it required an Apple device to access it. Now, it's available on the website!
On a related note, CODA won an Oscar and went from taking up 3 rows of screen real estate space towards the top of the page, to now being much lower, and only taking up 2 rows, so that's nice too! (wish there was a way to remove that if you've already seen it)
Maybe they, along with Disney+, can release an update that fixes their terrible encoding of 5.1 audio, right now it sounds like hot garbage.