# Netflix rolls User Profiles, but not for TiVo



## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

http://blog.netflix.com/2013/08/make-netflix-your-own-with-profiles.html

Profiles give you separate Instant Queues, Recently Viewed lists, taste preferences, ratings, bookmarks and recommendations for up to 5 different users. You can also specify that the user is a child, which probably restricts him/her to the Netflix Kids UI (formerly called "Just for Kids"). Of the Netflix playing devices that I own, the feature can be used on the PS3, Panasonic DMP-BDT220, Sony BDP-S390, WD TV Live and the web site player. It cannot be used on the Xbox 360, Panasonic DMP-BDT110, Win8 Netflix app, Roku 2 XS, Roku 3 or TiVo Premiere.

To add profiles to your account, log in and go to https://movies.netflix.com/EditProfiles . Once you have, you can set the profile in use on the web page by pulling down a menu where your account name is at the top of the page.

This is just another Netflix feature missing from TiVo Premiere's player, like people search, the "Netflix Kids" UI and the "'Post-play' Experience" (though not everyone loves that last one ).


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

It just went live yesterday and they said it would take a few weeks for it to hit all devices. That's the problem with having Netflix on everything, they have dozens of different apps to update when they make a change.


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## PotentiallyCoherent (Jul 25, 2002)

Some are never satisfied. The "I want it, and I want it now" attitude is killing our society. We, as a people believe that we are entitled, instead of believing that we should posses what we work for.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that this from the sole perspective of looking at a NetFlix app, but am instead looking at the attitude itself, and its effect on our society as a whole.


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

We'll see. TiVo did get passed up for all those features which were added to other devices (Post-play, people search, Netflix Kids, etc). I wonder if the TiVo implementation, though it looks like the others, can be changed as dynamically as they can, implemented with HTML5 and Webkit. There was absolutely no firmware change to add this on my PS3, BDPs and TV Live; it came in the dynamically downloaded HTML5 components. I don't think that the TiVo Netflix player has been changed since it was released.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

mikeyts said:


> http://blog.netflix.com/2013/08/make-netflix-your-own-with-profiles.html
> 
> Profiles give you separate Instant Queues, Recently Viewed lists, taste preferences, ratings, bookmarks and recommendations for up to 5 different users. You can also specify that the user is a child, which probably restricts him/her to the Netflix Kids UI (formerly called "Just for Kids"). Of the Netflix playing devices that I own, the feature can be used on the PS3, Panasonic DMP-BDT220, Sony BDP-S390, WD TV Live and the web site player. It cannot be used on the Xbox 360, Panasonic DMP-BDT110, Win8 Netflix app, Roku 2 XS, Roku 3 or TiVo Premiere.
> 
> ...


Is this for streaming or discs? When I go to the edit profile link it gives me the choice of profiles for discs, not for streaming. I must have set up a profile a long time ago as a test.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

mikeyts said:


> We'll see. TiVo did get passed up for all those features which were added to other devices (Post-play, people search, Netflix Kids, etc). I wonder if the TiVo implementation, though it looks like the others, can be changed as dynamically as they can, implemented with HTML5 and Webkit. There was absolutely no firmware change to add this on my PS3, BDPs and TV Live; it came in the dynamically downloaded HTML5 components. I don't think that the TiVo Netflix player has been changed since it was released.


The TiVo app and the Samsung TV app are both missing those capabilities and both are written for Adobe Air. They may even use the same code, I'm not sure. My hope is that when/if they update the Adobe Air version to support profiles they will add these other capabilities as well. And hopefully the same update will apply to both TiVo and Samsung TVs. (I have both)


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

PotentiallyCoherent said:


> Some are never satisfied. The "I want it, and I want it now" attitude is killing our society. We, as a people believe that we are entitled, instead of believing that we should posses what we work for.
> 
> Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that this from the sole perspective of looking at a NetFlix app, but am instead looking at the attitude itself, and its effect on our society as a whole.


Since people actually pay for this service they are entitled to want what they want. And Netflix is free to ignore them and risk losing them as a customer if they don't think it's worth the effort. That's how capitalism works.


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## aadam101 (Jul 15, 2002)

PotentiallyCoherent said:


> Some are never satisfied. The "I want it, and I want it now" attitude is killing our society. We, as a people believe that we are entitled, instead of believing that we should posses what we work for.
> 
> Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that this from the sole perspective of looking at a NetFlix app, but am instead looking at the attitude itself, and its effect on our society as a whole.


Shame on customers for wanting a service that is being offered by a company that the customer is paying for!


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

mikeyts said:


> I don't think that the TiVo Netflix player has been changed since it was released.


I misspoke--I know that they change the Netflix player code on TiVo because I check the versions from time to time with the remote sequence UP UP DOWN DOWN LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT UP UP UP UP. What you get on screen looks like this:



Spoiler












Note that it allows you to deactivate the individual device. The sequence works on every Netflix playing device that I own other than Rokus (they have their own secret Netflix menus).

I know that that version info has changed but they've apparently only made bug fixes.


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

aaronwt said:


> Is this for streaming or discs? When I go to the edit profile link it gives me the choice of profiles for discs, not for streaming. I must have set up a profile a long time ago as a test.


I have no idea how it interacts with discs. I haven't had disc rental on my Netflix account since they came out with streaming-only.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

mikeyts said:


> I misspoke--I know that they change the Netflix player code on TiVo because I check the versions from time to time with the remote sequence UP UP DOWN DOWN LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT UP UP UP UP. What you get on screen looks like this:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I love the homage to the old Contra cheat. :up:


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

PotentiallyCoherent said:


> Some are never satisfied. The "I want it, and I want it now" attitude is killing our society. We, as a people believe that we are entitled, instead of believing that we should posses what we work for.


 "Atlas Shrugged" parts 1 and 2 are on Netflix. Enjoy.


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## JWhites (May 15, 2013)

Dan203 said:


> The TiVo app and the Samsung TV app are both missing those capabilities and both are written for Adobe Air. They may even use the same code, I'm not sure. My hope is that when/if they update the Adobe Air version to support profiles they will add these other capabilities as well. And hopefully the same update will apply to both TiVo and Samsung TVs. (I have both)


The problem is, according to a TiVo engineer I spoke with, is that the hardware specs on the Premiere is far below the specs required for the Adobe software to run. So unless TiVo does something radical like overhaul their entire software or overclock the processor in everyone's box, there is gonna be issues.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

JWhites said:


> The problem is, according to a TiVo engineer I spoke with, is that the hardware specs on the Premiere is far below the specs required for the Adobe software to run. So unless TiVo does something radical like overhaul their entire software or overclock the processor in everyone's box, there is gonna be issues.


While the Premiere may never be up to snuff, future TiVo hardware should support these features just fine. The Mini uses a CPU that is much faster and well beyond the minimum specs for Adobe Air. The next gen TiVo, which is due out this fall, will use a similar or faster CPU.


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## tebici (Sep 17, 2007)

My TiVo actually asked me what profile I wanted to use. Problem was that was before we set up profiles, so I selected the default. Now that we actually set up multiple profiles I can't get back to the selection screen. I tried signing in and out. I even tried restarting my router thinking it was connected to the IP address.


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

tebici said:


> My TiVo actually asked me what profile I wanted to use. Problem was that was before we set up profiles, so I selected the default. Now that we actually set up multiple profiles I can't get back to the selection screen. I tried signing in and out. I even tried restarting my router thinking it was connected to the IP address.


Interesting. Mine's still not asking. There should be a button at the top of the browser next to SEARCH labelled PROFILES, as you can see in this image (of the UI on WD TV Live; it's the same on my Panasonic DMP-BDT220 and Sony BDP-S390, slightly different on the PS3, which uses controller face buttons to activate functions).


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## doyling (Aug 11, 2006)

This is a cool idea, now if I can get my TiVo to switch between profiles, that would be great. My wife and I have different taste in movies, but right now everything is coming up under her profile.


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## JWhites (May 15, 2013)

Dan203 said:


> While the Premiere may never be up to snuff, future TiVo hardware should support these features just fine. The Mini uses a CPU that is much faster and well beyond the minimum specs for Adobe Air. The next gen TiVo, which is due out this fall, will use a similar or faster CPU.


What's your thoughts now since the Roamio was released? In an email from TiVo Margret, both models use Adobe Air (Flash) so it's looking like it's a CPU upgrade (until they introduce new features that overtax that as well)


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## JWhites (May 15, 2013)

tebici said:


> My TiVo actually asked me what profile I wanted to use. Problem was that was before we set up profiles, so I selected the default. Now that we actually set up multiple profiles I can't get back to the selection screen. I tried signing in and out. I even tried restarting my router thinking it was connected to the IP address.


Not seeing it on either TiVo. What software version are you using?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

JWhites said:


> What's your thoughts now since the Roamio was released? In an email from TiVo Margret, both models use Adobe Air (Flash) so it's looking like it's a CPU upgrade (until they introduce new features that overtax that as well)


The Roamio actually uses a new HTML5 based aps platform for Netflix and YouTube. This should allow Netflix to add profile pretty easily. In fact I'm pretty surprised it didn't get them already as all other platforms that use Netflix's HTML5 platform has them.


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## JWhites (May 15, 2013)

Yup.


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

It's my impression that AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) runs HTML apps with a subset of HTML5 features and the Webkit rendering engine (also Flash, Flex and Ajax); I thought that the AIR version of the Netflix player running on Premiere _is_ a version of the HTML5/Webkit app.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I don't know about that, but on the Roamio it launches an embeded version of Opera and then runs the true HTML5 version of the app. It does have the Kids section, like other HTML5 versions of Netflix like the PS3 and Yahoo! Apps TVs, but for some reason it does not have the Profiles yet. Perhaps they intentionally disabled them for some reason? I know that some people with Samsung TVs were saying the profiles interfered with the DIAL functionality. Since TiVo was touting that as a major feature maybe the requested Netflix turn them off so as not to interfere with DIAL?


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

The only Netflix platforms I have which don't have profiles other than TiVo Premiere are (surprisingly) the Win8 app and my Panasonic DMP-BDT110 (at least the last time I tried it, which was weeks back; the DMP-BDT220 got profiles on the day they were announced, along with PS3 and my Sony BDP-S390). I don't think that the Android Netflix app on my tablet has profiles either, but I never watch Netflix on it or any other tiny portable device screen (Nexus 7 running Android 4.3).


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