UMM, Did Netflix Change its Interface?

Turned on Netflix this evening and the interface was completely different and terrible. As far as I can tell it is unchangable. Can anyone confirm this?

Indeed they did!

Confirmed about 5 minutes ago.

That’s the “power” of an HTML-based interface; NetFlix has complete control over it now.

Awful…it’s just a mess.

Yeah, it’s a bit awkward at first, but it probably won’t take long to get accustomed to it…

  1. Would have appreciated a warning of the impending change.

  2. You can only get 75 titles per genre - genres they pick for you

  3. Search is the only option you get - everything else is just flipping through titles - up to 75 per genre

  4. Search is not getting the same results I got this morning - titles that were once streaming are no longer streaming.

  5. If you scroll down 5 or 6 bars and say "HEY! I wonder if they have title XYZ? You have to scroll all the way to the top of the screen to search for it - by then you forgot what you were scrolling up there to begin with.

This is a waste of my time and money. i think i will be giving Blockbuster a try.

Wow this is just a horrible interface.  I called netflix customer service and apparently they did this to a lot of their devices to make the interface more streamline. I think its just ■■■■ and hope to god the can bring it back to the way it was.

I have seen Netflix on a number of different devices and the one on the Hub USED to be my favorite. The thing that made it different from the UI on other devices was the “see more” button that was available when browsing titles. When you clicked the “see more” button you could narrow the genre. For example you could click the see more button on the horror genre and it would give you slasher horror, foreign horror, b horror, etc. Now there is none of that. I find it infuriating when companies do this with a good UI. Some focus group tells them that 3.8 percent of the users find the different interfaces confusing and the rest of us get a dumbed down interfaced.

Maybe if enough people call and complain they can revert back to the old interface. I doubt it though.

Yeah, I doubt it too. Look at what happens when Facebook changes their interface. People form groups on the site to complain but never once has anything been rolled back.

Not being able to view all the same titles as before and not being able to sort films in sub genres really **bleep**. However, if this lighter version if Netflix in any way is to help with freezing problems and sudden stops in movies I am all for it. Only time will tell, I guess.

Giro413 wrote:
Not being able to view all the same titles as before and not being able to sort films in sub genres really **bleep**. However, if this lighter version if Netflix in any way is to help with freezing problems and sudden stops in movies I am all for it. Only time will tell, I guess.

Doubtful.   The playback engine is the same engine; only the navigation has changed.

This interface is terrible. The previous one was a pleasure to use.

The new one only presents a small view of their content, and is useless for browsing.

If Netflix do not make it better, I for one will be canceling my subscription.

Maybe if more people do the same, they will realize that the customer is always right,

and give us want we want, not what they want to impose on us.

I am going to call them and gripe although I know it is a complete waste of my time. If the new Netflix is based on HTML5 then it would be quite simple to have multiple templates that users could use to choose their own interface.

carsojo wrote:

This interface is terrible. The previous one was a pleasure to use.

The new one only presents a small view of their content, and is useless for browsing.

 

If Netflix do not make it better, I for one will be canceling my subscription.

Maybe if more people do the same, they will realize that the customer is always right,

and give us want we want, not what they want to impose on us.

So uh, raising their price 60% wasn’t enough? :slight_smile:

Yup their new interface blows!

Kids, I’ve been a Netflix customer for ten years, and I still think their DVD offerings can’t be beat.  Streaming ,though, leaves much to be desired.  I’d already decided to bail on streaming after the price gouge, just waiting for August 31.  This interface change gives me just one more reason to not regret my decision.  An interesting state of affairs, since Netflix is betting the farm on streaming and seems to be stumbling at every turn.  And, there will be no rollback of the interface.  Netflix absolutely does not second-guess their decisions.

Everyone shouild call their customer service and tell them that you’re about to abandon them and pick Hulu Plus or… whatever.

I did and the guy seemed interested to hear what I had to say. He says that they constantly tinker with their interface just to see what their custumer are going to say.

Besides, ever since the new interface, my LiveHub crashes or rather freezes  every time I pause during playback.

To pile on, I hate the new Netflix interface. Someone earlier in the thread said they called Netflix to complain and Netflix said the new GUI is ‘streamlined.’ Streamlined? If by streamlined they mean crappy, hard to find titles and search, then I guess it’s streamlined.

HORRIBLE! HORRIBLE! HORRIBLE! It used to be pretty good, but now here’s what I have to do: 1. Start my Desktop PC and open Netflix in a browser 2. Turn off my computer, then turn on my WDTVLIVE HUB 3. search for the shows I found on my computer if I can’t see them 4. explain to my dad that I’m not the one who screwed up his Netflix interface Many (most?) people would just use this version of Netflix, not a computer, so I really don’t know what they were thinking. I was in my 3rd season of a TV series which used to show up under my Favorites or something like that in previous version of Netflix but I had to actually SEARCH for the series.

Heheh…  I’m not sure what all the fuss is about…   :wink:

Last weekend, I actually compared the functionality of the new HTML5 interface versus NetFlix 1.0 (still on my Bluray player, and the same as the old interface on the WD…)  

There’s really nothing missing.   It’s just organized differently.   Search still functions the same way, gets the same results (in my few tests, the results were EXACTLY the same, in the same order, even…)  and the genres listed are the same.

One of the posters aboved indicated that search results were missing…  I’m not sure what that’s about.   Now, NetFlix changes content frequently.

I’ve come across a few TV shows (more likely with Movies, though…) were it actually had “Expiration” dates on the description…   Something like “Available until November 5, 2011.”   Perhaps that’s what he encountered…  Something was removed between searches.

But the fact that Dolby Digital Plus and subtitles are available sure makes this interface more good than bad…