Roku App - Version 4.0 build 26

[Ollio 0]

Instead of fixing minor issues they pretend Roku is a cell phone display by having you browse seasons of TV shows by scrolling downward with a wide rectangle that displays a small pic of the episode, and a plot description. The Old way had you scroll sideways with the plot description on top. Users need a way to be able to install an older app if they wish or a user option to choose which way to scroll. Priorities are a mess - you're fired!

[speechles 1917]

What if we could improve that seasons view? What if it could be larger than before? What if you had the Roku app looking nothing like a Roku app anymore?

I am asking because I am interested to hear you on this. When you say instead of fixing minor issues what exactly are the issues? We would have fixed them if we had known. We may already have them fixed in future versions we just have not released beyond our own internal testing team. Being on a Roku will not mean you are stuck with that box, square and old format of doing things. Where the focus as you move right is stuck on the left and uses this white box around everything. All images on everything are very square. We can improve this.

There is much better coming.. I just do not want to let the cat out of the bag. I must remain.. speechless. There has been much time spent on improve the Roku application it just hasn't been made public. But soon you may see some of these improvements trickle in. We do listen. Please give us feedback on where you see any issues so we can improve.

Knowing that we failed you is enough though. We then feel that. Thanks for not pulling punches.

Which issues should we fix today? If you had the steering wheel and could move us towards particular issues, what are they going to be? Please take the wheel.

The detail view problems with small images on the season view is also a concern. The entire application should be viewable from 10+ feet away. It is a television interface and the Roku is designed for older eyes. Combined when things get smaller on a Roku you confuse your audience and force them to get closer.

How close do you need to move to your television when view the new season screen before it becomes comfortable to view? Be honest... It isn't 10 feet.

 

  

25 minutes ago, Ollio said:

Priorities are a mess - you're fired!

NOOOOO!!1shift!!!!!!!!!!one

But seriously I understand exactly what you mean. We will be better in the future. Thanks for all input you provide. Please do not feel the need to be nice. We want how you "really feel" not some watered down version. Thanks.

Edited April 20, 2021 by speechles

[Ollio 0]

On my 27 inch TV I need to sit 3' 9'' away to feel comfortable reading the screen, plus I still like it better the other way. "Where the focus as you move right is stuck on the left and uses this white box around everything" - no different than how we are now scrolling down like 3 items then it's the same thing with the white box around everything on the bottom item as the screen scrolls through the box.

Minor issues were spacing of tv shows or movies when using SUGGESTION mode to view. It displays 7 items across but the last item is slightly cut off.

Playlist does have the feature to select all as played, then do it again to unplay, but it has no red check mark like it normally does. And Collections is missing this feature.

Movies does have a way to check and uncheck movies from watched to unwatched but I'd rather have it the same as TV where you click on PLAYED to get a red check mark on every movie in that category, then click again to uncheck it. Minor issue.

The way you can rearrange items in a playlist by dragging feels a lot smoother than the way you rearrange your Main Page Display clicking up or down, then moving up or down to get back to the item so you can continue to click up or down.

That's about all for now.

 

[ebr 14904]

Hi. The feedback we have gotten from most people was that they did not like episodes showing in a horizontal row like that and all of our other apps show them the way this one does now.  Options are possible in the future.

1 hour ago, Ollio said:

It displays 7 items across but the last item is slightly cut off.

That is actually a recommended design approach.  It makes it obvious that you can scroll further.

 

[Ollio 0]

Possible for the future? Is this your personal guess? If this is the official statement then Emby will be deleted instantly.

[Luke 37022]

We work very hard on Emby to make it the best we possibly can. Typically with sequential/episodic content, a vertical display is much more common. For example, the way Netflix displays theirs is similar to ours.

But we are always willing to adjust based on feedback, and as Ebr said, we're open to providing options to changing it if there's enough feedback around this.

[Ollio 0]

If I get annoyed I could care less about anything. Just like I could care less about scrolling up or down. I looked better, and I could actually read it when scrolling the episodes sideways. If it were to stay vertical, the size needs to change - something. And here's another thing I noticed while annoyed - when you scroll to the bottom of the episodes list it doesn't cycle the first episode after the last, you need to scroll back up...

If anyone prefers the vertical scroll, as it is now, needs to also be fired.

 

[Ollio 0]

1 hour ago, ebr said:

Hi. The feedback we have gotten from most people was that they did not like episodes showing in a horizontal row like that and all of our other apps show them the way this one does now.  Options are possible in the future.

That is actually a recommended design approach.  It makes it obvious that you can scroll further.

 

The person that designed this approach needs to be fired since common sense tells you 1 of 30 means there are 30 items. And you can't compare other apps such as a phone app to a TV display.

Edited April 20, 2021 by Ollio

[Carlo 4330]

Keep in mind this was overwhelmingly requested by users. There is a dislike of horizontal scrolling in general in all the apps so we try to accomodate what is being asked for by the users as a whole.

The other things is that you're using a 10 foot interface on a small TV so it's likely going to look tiny at a distance.  Many people these days use multiple monitor larger than 27" attached to a computer sitting a foot to foot and a half from them.

With that said you have the 3 key devs (speechles, ebr, Luke) in this thread corresponding with you to try and learn from you and improve the UI because they CARE a great deal about the clients and want it to be highly functional for large and small monitors alike.

It's quite possible for example to keep the vertical scrolling but adjust spacing or size of elements on the screen to make them easier to see and read. This is what they are trying to find out from you what could be done to help.

 

[Luke 37022]

Are you saying the text size should be larger?

[explor202 4]

I agree and do not like the new horizontal scrolling. The previous vertical scrolling was much easier to see and flat out just looks better, plus it matches the vertical scrolling of the rest of the Roku app when viewing different libraries, up next, etc.

[Luke 37022]

1 minute ago, explor202 said:

I agree and do not like the new horizontal scrolling. The previous vertical scrolling was much easier to see and flat out just looks better, plus it matches the vertical scrolling of the rest of the Roku app when viewing different libraries, up next, etc.

HI, what screen are you referring to?

[explor202 4]

1 hour ago, Luke said:

HI, what screen are you referring to?

Isn't this thread about the recent change to the Episode screen within the Roku app? I had a power failure last night, after my Roku's rebooted I went to watch a show from my library today and all of the episodes within the season folders scroll horizontally. Yesterday they scrolled vertically, like the rest of Emby does.

Edited April 21, 2021 by explor202

[Happy2Play 8252]

 

14 minutes ago, explor202 said:

Yesterday they scrolled vertically, like the rest of Emby does.

To avoid confusion can you post screenshots to ensure everyone is talking about the same location.  As I don't see a difference in the Roku vs the Web Client.

[explor202 4]

4 minutes ago, Happy2Play said:

 

To avoid confusion can you post screenshots to ensure everyone is talking about the same location.  As I don't see a difference in the Roku vs the Web Client.

Refresh the page. I edited my post and added a screenshot just before you added your reply.

Edited April 21, 2021 by explor202

[Carlo 4330]

22 minutes ago, explor202 said:

Isn't this thread about the recent change to the Episode screen within the Roku app? I had a power failure last night, after my Roku's rebooted I went to watch a show from my library today and all of the episodes within the season folders scroll horizontally. Yesterday they scrolled vertically, like the rest of Emby does.

I'm confused as this is showing vertical scrolling.  What am I missing?

[Happy2Play 8252]

1 minute ago, explor202 said:

Refresh the page. I edited my post and added a screenshot just before you added your reply.

Don't remember that screen before but all other clients have that view for Season level.  So if it was something different then it has been corrected to the proper view per client unification.

[explor202 4]

Sorry, I wasn't clear in my description. The up and down scrolling of the episode list is less functional than the previous left to right scrolling. In the screenshot, you can see only three episodes get displayed, where as I think in the previous version 5 or 6 were displayed. Plus, it's not consistent with the rest of the UI and honestly, it's just plain ugly. I've had Emby for several years and I've never seen the episodes displayed like that until today. Are you saying a new version was not pushed out to Roku that made this change?

Edited April 21, 2021 by explor202

[Carlo 4330]

You are correct that fewer episodes are  viewable at a quick glance. However in this view you get a much more informed view of the episodes as you can read info for multiple episodes vs scrolling, stopping to read the" header" info (shown above).

Arguable it's easier to scroll vertically to get to episode or see what's already watched. It can be a shock as it's different but it can grow on you once you embrace it and learn where to look for the info.

The UI's in all the clients are typically always changing a bit based on customer feedback AND what new users would expect if they've used other services like Netflix, Prime, Hulu, etc.  It's important to provide a UI that is "natural" or "usable" to both new and experienced users alike.

Of course what you see on a small screen isn't always representative of what a person would view/see on a 55" or 75" TV either.

There are a lot of things to consider and take into consideration to make the UI the best it can be for the majority of people.

[skidmarks 188]

11 minutes ago, cayars said:

However in this view you get a much more informed view of the episodes as you can read info for multiple episodes vs scrolling, stopping to read the" header" info (shown above).

I was just getting ready to be that user...  Exactly this!  Would like to see the loop back to the top return after hitting the last episode though.  Realize it was a roku only feature...

Edited April 21, 2021 by skidmarks

[explor202 4]

16 minutes ago, cayars said:

 It can be a shock as it's different but it can grow on you once you embrace it and learn where to look for the info.
 

I'm only shocked by how ugly it is, and by the fact that it takes longer to scroll down thru the episodes compared to scrolling left to right. Count me as a user who will not embrace this change, and would really like to see an option to go back to the previous view.

[Carlo 4330]

How does it take longer to scroll?  It's fast scrolling up and down.

Are you factering in trying to read each and every episode which will be different than what you were used to?

When you try this back to back for season with 25 to 100 episodes per season the vertical scrolling is so much easier and faster.  For 12 to 15 episodes or more the norm it likely what you're used to that will seem best but hold back judgement and try to get used to it.

[explor202 4]

52 minutes ago, cayars said:

How does it take longer to scroll?  It's fast scrolling up and down.

 

I don't need to read the description of the episode I'm looking for; I read the title of the episode that I want to watch. Seeing just three episodes at a time versus 6 episodes at a time makes it slower.  And please stop telling me to jump on the bandwagon, as I will not get used to this. If I was using the free version I'd have no right to complain about this. But as a user who dropped P..x and has supported Emby by paying for the Premium version, I think I should be able to have a choice in how things are displayed.

Edited April 21, 2021 by explor202

[Ollio 0]

Here's how I see it. People that bypass the Play-all and Shuffle button obviously want to be able to see a nice listing of episodes. That's the purpose of Emby, right? A nice graphical interface. This new vertical scroll looks cold and lifeless. And it's not vertical vs horizontal. It's a small pic with small writing making 4/5 of the screen useless except for the long thin rectangle at the bottom. And I can't read it at a normal TV distance. About all you see to remind you of what you're browsing is the backdrop pic. This display looks made for a computer screen viewing.
Here's an idea. Keep the vertical scroll to read episodes, but make it bigger since it's a TV display. Currently, the top left of tv episodes shows the TV Show name with three rows of vertical listings below. Add the Play All, Shuffle, Played, Favorite View Series and Refresh buttons,  and maybe the TV show Logo up there above the scrolling listings so it doesn't look empty. One row of listings showing at the bottom while showing a piece of the next listing below that should be enough to actually feel like a scroll. If that display looks nice enough from a normal TV distance then you can add some sort of grayed out version of the Play, Played, Favorite, View Series and Refresh buttons inside the episode box being viewed. If a person selects the OK button for that episode, the buttons light up to play from there directly, making the usual next screen redundant. Would have to have chapters light up also... If something is going to become small, let it be pics of the chapters before the episode pics. Or forget any scroll, you can press up or down button but instead of scrolling it does a transition wipe or blink type of change to the view next episode. Here's a pic with my guess for ratio size....
Now make Netflix copy emby!

 

[Ollio 0]

3 hours ago, cayars said:

However in this view you get a much more informed view of the episodes as you can read info for multiple episodes vs scrolling, stopping to read the" header" info (shown above).

Pure misinformation. You see 3 rows displayed. Once you read the 3rd row you need to click one at a time. You get a less informed, less overall appeal to the episode in place of a nice, clean, simple display with a small pic with small writing. Don't confuse the two. You keep believing what you want.