August 15, 2012 8:48 pm

Whining about Netflix again

After stumbling across this “Post-Play” entry on the Netflix blog, I was compelled to write another whiny entry regarding the Netflix interface on the Xbox.

According to the Netflix blog, here’s what Post-Play is:

When you finish watching an episode of a TV show, we’ll minimize the credits and tee-up the next episode. If you do nothing, the next episode will start to play in 15 seconds. You can also stop it to get more information or select another episode.

Seriously, Netflix? I like the minimization of credits thing – that’s been there for a while on the Xbox interface – but the next episode starting to play after 15 seconds? WILL DRIVE ME BATTY.

I was already annoyed with the recent “preview” feature – if you leave your cursor over a movie/tv show, it now expands it to play a 30-second preview that you can’t exit out of. You can move the cursor to stop it, but if you leave the cursor alone again, it starts to preview THAT title. It would be one thing if I could hit pause and be done with it, but you can’t.

A comment on the Netflix post:

This is a killer feature I’ve wanted for years–but why isn’t this experience a user-optional setting? If I’m watching episodes of “Lost” on my couch, yes I want this feature! If I’m watching an episode on my tablet in bed before going to sleep, I may want it to stop after one episode so it doesn’t run all night[…]
– Kevin Park

I often watch several episodes of a given show in a row, but I don’t want Netflix to make that decision for me. I would accidentally stay up all night watching TV if I didn’t have the built-in failsafe of the episode stopping and having to make the conscious decision to put another one on.

The other most recent update involves being able to choose which “Netflix Experience” I want when I open the app, and my choices are the normal Netflix or one specifically for kids. I see why some people would enjoy the kids-only option, but… I don’t use it, I don’t plan to, and I want to avoid having to select it over and over.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the Netflix Xbox app desperately needs a preferences menu. You could choose your default Netflix experience so it doesn’t ask you EVERY SINGLE TIME you open the app, you could choose whether or not to have the bip-bip noises when you move your cursor (NO), you could choose whether or not you want the preview option (NO), you could choose whether or not you want the auto-play option, either globally or on a per-viewing basis… the list goes on.

Netflix: Please let your users choose how they want to use your app!

File Under: ,

Tagged: No tags

Comments are closed here.