# Interface issues; rearrangement needed!



## TiVoEvan74 (Sep 11, 2004)

OK, so we are late to the Roamio party...but the interface is far too busy and even illogical! What follows are suggestions for improvement--from big issues to small nit-picks.

1. First, and foremost, we should be able to turn off the Discovery Bar *entirely*. Even when we uncheck all choices, the bar is still there and, even if we leave just our shows, we still get miscellaneous stuff. Now, we're seeing adverts for Fall TV and photo icons of shows on TV now. Didn't ask for that; don't want it. Plus, when we go to My Shows, we want to see a list of what we recorded, not a "discovery bar" of changing photos. That's cluttered and visually distracting.

2. The move to MTV, USA Today style presentations is dismaying- and rampant--many news apps dumbed themselves down in a similar distracting orgy of visual glitz. Give us a "Classic interface" option! Please!

3. The My Shows display is the pits! Bring back the simplicity and ease of the past-- it should be confined to a list of the folders of shows we have RECORDED (and TiVo suggestions) as it was way back in the Series 2 days. Instead, we're getting a long list of all sorts of channels--they are NOT our recorded shows! 

It would make more sense to have them be on the TiVo Central screen, under a folder called "My Streaming Services". That would separate them nicely from the TiVo recorded shows.

4. We were able to hide the streaming services we don't use, but figuring out how to do that required calling in the CSI squad! Suggestion: It should be included under Options there, not just under the Channel List, Video.

At least we're glad you all provided a way of hiding the left column there.

5. Now, there is an option there, B, for sorting by name. Will that sort the streams, too? No way of knowing. Need a help system built in.

6. Give us an option for turning off the time. We don't want to be reminded what time it is in the middle of the night.

7. The Back button is a nice addition, but sometimes does not work--I.e., when an item in a list is selected, one must use the left arrow to back up; back should also work there.

8. Ensure that the remote can handle TV Input. Need to be able to select or Enter to select choice. Or, even better, add a learning features.

9. Then, of course, you should also exercise a tad more control over your 3rd party apps-- Amazon Prime has HUGE photos for each show, but tiny, unreadable text descriptions. Netflix has rotating photos for shows we already know--it's distracting, too. And their episode descriptions are also too tiny to be readable. Then, Netflix buries the My List 3 rows down! We have to scroll past Top Picks, Trending Now, and Recently Added. All the while, we're getting barraged with the rotating photos at the top and seeing long bars of photos of things we'd rather not see.

You should insist on parity with the native Roku apps-- with text the same size--even better, with text resizing options! 

If you want the TiVo to be the box, then the text should be readable!

10. Include a manual with the TiVo! For example, what does CreateOnePass mean vis-a-vis Netflix? Will it really record the show? Why would anyone need to do that? 

Having a manual in hand is useful, easier to flip through, and put post it notes in, etc. than having to dig up the computer and browse through or print out a PDF. 

Oh, and lose the gargantuan fold out, get started, glossy sheet of directions. It's unwieldy and even juvenile. A smaller one would suffice and be more manageable. Brought back memories of trying to u fold and fold maps.

Oh, well. I suppose one just gives in and accepts the odd design, but we've even given thought going back to our Series 2 and SD TVs!


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

These seem to be preferences, more than they are issues. I'm not saying I disagree with several of your suggestions, just that your description seems to indicate actual functionality issues/bugs.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

TiVoEvan74 said:


> Oh, well. I suppose one just gives in and accepts the odd design, but we've even given thought going back to our Series 2 and SD TVs!


As you said: one adjusts to it all. And there's no contest with a Series 2 (which I still have as well, along with a Roamio).


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## TiVoEvan74 (Sep 11, 2004)

jrtroo said:


> These seem to be preferences, more than they are issues. I'm not saying I disagree with several of your suggestions, just that your description seems to indicate actual functionality issues/bugs.


I certainly was not suggesting any of these were bugs! However, they most certainly are about functionality.

While people vary in their preferences, there are standards of logic and efficiency for judging interfaces-- ones that transcend idiosyncratic variations in tastes. It's hard to make a convincing case, for example, that "My Shows" should include both recorded shows AND a host of channels that are streaming SERVICES--for which nothing has been recorded or even designated as a preferred show! As Spock would say, "That's illogical!"

It's also hard to argue that the Discovery Bar is an efficient use of screen real estate or an efficient approach to getting to one's recorded shows, when it varies, gets sprinkled with advertised new shows, etc. But even there, the key is give the users the option of turning the Discovery Bar OFF!

Now, given that the Back button does NOT always work, even in places where it logically should, is a design issue, even a flaw.

I understand your main point, but underlying most of my suggestions was the idea of giving *options* to users and that is an interface issue! Long-time users should be able to see old arrangements; non-MTV users and others should have the option of seeing longer lists rather than photographic icons--especially ones that change and take up a substantial chunk of the screen.

There are also aesthetic standards. What was once an elegant, uncluttered design has given way to something less functional and busy. The Tivo OS interface is simply not as logical or efficient--or, user-friendly, as it once was.

Things would be dramatically improved with just two simple changes:

1. Letting users turn off the Discovery Bar, and

2. Moving the streaming services to the top list, not within "My Shows".

```````````````
P.S. Who do I see about the miserable closed captioning on some of the streaming services? The same service through our Roku has great CC, but via Tivo has tiny unreadable text!


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

TiVoEvan74 said:


> Things would be dramatically improved with just two simple changes:
> 
> 1. Letting users turn off the Discovery Bar, and
> 
> 2. Moving the streaming services to the top list, not within "My Shows


IMHO, neither one of these would be a "dramatic" improvement.

Would I prefer to have the option to disable the Discovery Bar and recover that part of the screen? Yes, but it's just not that big of a thing.

The streaming services are at the bottom, so exactly how are they a major annoyance?


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## TiVoEvan74 (Sep 11, 2004)

I wrote a really long analysis of all this which I may post at some point.

In any event, as to your question...

It's a matter of design, elegance, and logic. The streaming services are in the **wrong** place--they are not "My Shows", they are not anything that I have recorded!

Sure, they are at the end, but that doesn't meant that they don't get in the way. In the old days, you could jump to the bottom of your list of recorded shows and quickly get to "This Old House" or "Wild, Wild West".  Now, you jump to the bottom and you end up at a list of streaming services. You have to hunt to find where your shows are! With the top part of the screen taken up by the Discovery Bar, there are also far fewer shows listed, meaning that it takes more down presses and times to find any particular show!

I happened to use our Series 2 TiVo the other day. It's amazing how much easier and quicker it is to find the shows that one has recorded, how much more user-friendly it is in that regard, and how much less of an assault on one's visual senses the overall interface is.

Did USA Today or MTV buy out TiVo?


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

My Shows/Now Playing has contained both the other TiVos in your network as well as TD and pyTivo shares since HMO/MRV first appeared (2004?).

IOW, it hasn't been limited to "what you recorded" for 11+ years, so adding the streaming services is _*,IMHO,*_ the logical thing to do.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

lpwcomp said:


> My Shows/Now Playing has contained both the other TiVos in your network as well as TD and pyTivo shares since HMO/MRV first appeared (2004?).
> 
> IOW, it hasn't been limited to "what you recorded" for 11+ years, so adding the streaming services is _*,IMHO,*_ the logical thing to do.


But "...other TiVos in your network as well as TD and pyTivo shares..." represent stuff you've actually recorded available for playback on that TiVo, even if it was recorded on a different TiVo.

If you opened Windows Explorer (the File Manager replacement, not Internet Explorer) or ran

ls -l

would you be pleased to have the screen cluttered with suggestions for files you might create or import in the future instead of just telling you what you actually have right now?


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

lpwcomp said:


> The streaming services are at the bottom, so exactly how are they a major annoyance?


In that respect, the bottom of "My Shows" seems a logical place for the streaming services launch buttons, since that's where the "launch buttons" for accessing any remote TiVo DVRs sit, as well.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

unitron said:


> But "...other TiVos in your network as well as TD and pyTivo shares..." represent stuff you've actually recorded available for playback on that TiVo, even if it was recorded on a different TiVo.
> 
> If you opened Windows Explorer (the File Manager replacement, not Internet Explorer) or ran
> 
> ...


It's "My Shows", not "My Recordings" and includes everything to which you have immediate access.

If you think that most people's pyTivo shares contain only recordings that were originally made on one of their TiVos, you are delusional.

"Cluttered"? There at the bottom, what is the freaking problem?


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## TiVoEvan74 (Sep 11, 2004)

Don't know about your list, but mine has, regularly, included channels or services that I have not flagged or subscribed to!

Plex just suddenly got added, even as I was typing this. At one point, I had 4 channels or services that I have no connection to. So, they're not even "My Services"! 

We've had Series 2 for years... going way back... and sure, they show you your other Tivos via multi-room viewing, but as unitron points out, those contained your *recordings*, not services, not channels.

Even, by definition, "My Shows" is quite different from "My Channels" or "My Streaming Services"!

"Shows" are the ones you've set up for recording or that have been recorded... channels are the streaming *services* you subscribe to, with scores, hundreds, even thousands of shows (and *films*) you would never watch.

Clearly, many have gotten so used to this cramped, cluttered, USA Today interface that they've forgotten what the old one was like! But for those of us who remember, or just upgraded, have heart and cut us some slack-- give us an option to go more text than icon, photo-based!

-------------------------
*Specifics*

The main problem for us is that the Discovery Banner takes up lots of room; more than ONE-THIRD of the screen is taken up by it and the BIG Title "My Shows"!

The result is that only 8 items are listed under my shows than many more under the old interface. The display feels--and is--cramped. It's like looking through a small porthole on a ship rather than standing on deck!

"What to Watch Now" eats up another line and shows up both in the top menu and under My Shows. Real logical that! Well, what's on now are not my shows.

The streaming services take up more lines, too. Hence, the old pop to the bottom of the recorded show list can have you 5-6 items below your recorded shows--and require a bunch of manual up arrow presses. Ridiculous!

Listen, the key here is that the interface should give you the *option* of turning off the Display Banner and the option of hiding the services or parking them in the top location, even in a folder labeled streaming services.

We are never going to use the services-- we tried them and the Netflix and Amazon Tivo apps are a poor substitute, even a sorry shell, of what their Roku apps are.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

TiVoEvan74 said:


> Don't know about your list, but mine has, regularly, included channels or services that I have not flagged or subscribed to!
> 
> Plex just suddenly got added, even as I was typing this. At one point, I had 4 channels or services that I have no connection to. So, they're not even "My Services"!
> 
> ...


Settings&Messages->Settings->Channels->My Video Providers
-------------------------


TiVoEvan74 said:


> *Specifics*
> 
> The main problem for us is that the Discovery Banner takes up lots of room; more than ONE-THIRD of the screen is taken up by it and the BIG Title "My Shows"!
> 
> The result is that only 8 items are listed under my shows than many more under the old interface. The display feels--and is--cramped. It's like looking through a small porthole on a ship rather than standing on deck!


Don't much care for the discovery bar myself but the Preview window is depriving you of that vertical space anyway.



TiVoEvan74 said:


> "What to Watch Now" eats up another line and shows up both in the top menu and under My Shows. Real logical that! Well, what's on now are not my shows.
> 
> The streaming services take up more lines, too. Hence, the old pop to the bottom of the recorded show list can have you 5-6 items below your recorded shows--and require a bunch of manual up arrow presses. Ridiculous!O


Or one or two channel ups.


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