RJM62
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2007
- Messages
- 13,157
- Location
- Upstate New York
- Display Name
Display name:
Geek on the Hill
About a week ago, Roku force-updated a new interface to their devices. I noticed it immediately and mildly disliked it because it looks a lot like the Windows 8 Metro interface, and I'm frankly tired of every device in my life thinking it needs to look like a phone. But hey, it's only a Roku box, not something I have to work on ever day, so no big deal.
Until last night, anyway.
For the last couple of months, I've only been watching two things: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Why? My daughter wanted me to. We've had some nice discussions about the plot lines, "story arcs" (whatever those are), alleged deeper meanings, and so forth.
A couple of days ago, however, I watched the last episode of Angel; so last night, I decided to browse Netflix for other stuff to watch. I found that using the new interface, some of the genres and sub-genres were missing, and even when they were there, the browsing was limited to the first 50 titles in that category.
Now, Netflix has tens of thousands of titles, and hundreds in some individual genres and sub-genres; and it doesn't make sense that users can only browse the first 50 titles in a genre. So I farted around in the Preferences dialogue looking for some way to change this, and finding none, I called Roku support.
My call was cheerfully answered by "Rusty" from Bangalore, who put me on hold a few times to "investigate" before finally telling me that the limitation was designed into the software update because of "hardware limitations" and couldn't be worked around.
It didn't sound like Rusty really understood what that meant, so I didn't ask him to explain it in more detail. But apparently, some hardware limitation in the device -- CPU power, memory, or whatever -- meant that running the new interface required a trade-off in the number of titles that could be displayed, and they made that trade-off.
Or in other words, in order to make the interface look like a phone, it was necessary to lose the ability to browse most of their biggest content provider's catalog. That's pretty stupid, in my opinion. Just to make something look different, they severely limited the device's functionality at the only thing it is designed to do. How does that make any sense?
But hey, what do I know.
I told Rusty to close my account and deactivate the device. I really don't need a device that is crippled from doing the one thing that it is designed to do, and it's taking up a space in my accounts with content providers.
Rusty sounded generally shocked and hurt.
"But, Mr. Richard, it is true that every user of device such as you have did get the new software by automation updated," Rusty said.
"Yes, I understand that, Rusty. Please deactivate the device and close my account," I said.
"But, Mr. Richard, it is being said by many users of the Roku boxes that the new interface is indeed very attractive," Rusty said.
"Yes, so was my ex-wife," I replied, "and I got rid of her, too. Please deactivate the device and close my account, nonetheless."
"Your ex-wife has also a Roku device on your account?" asked Rusty.
Sigh...
Long story short, after realizing that Rusty was not going to close my account, I deactivated the box and closed the account myself on the Web site. The Roku box was just a second-room convenience anyway, since I fell out of love with Hulu Plus because of the incessant advertising. I also have a DVD player that can play streamed content, and the entire Netflix catalog is browsable on the DVD player.
The things about this that annoy and baffle me are why would Roku do such a stupid thing in the first place. Did they think that following Microsoft's lead by making their interface look like a phone would attract enough "oohs" and "aaahs" that user would overlook the fact that they can't browse the bulk of the Netflix catalog anymore?
I mean, Netflix is a big part of the reason why Roku exists, and I believe it's still their most popular content provider. Isn't it a little stupid to code a 50-title browsing limitation into the interface to their biggest provider's library, just to make the interface look like a phone screen?
But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe some users are so stupid that they would rather give up their access to the bulk of the programming just to have the interface to what's left look like a phone. Nothing would surprise me anymore.
I have no idea whether this 50-title limitation and the absence of some of the Netflix genres and sub-genres are problems in Roku 3 boxes, in which the new interface is native. Mine is a Roku HD, to which the update was backported and forced.
But I'm not going to shell out a hundred bucks to find out.
-Rich
Until last night, anyway.
For the last couple of months, I've only been watching two things: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Why? My daughter wanted me to. We've had some nice discussions about the plot lines, "story arcs" (whatever those are), alleged deeper meanings, and so forth.
A couple of days ago, however, I watched the last episode of Angel; so last night, I decided to browse Netflix for other stuff to watch. I found that using the new interface, some of the genres and sub-genres were missing, and even when they were there, the browsing was limited to the first 50 titles in that category.
Now, Netflix has tens of thousands of titles, and hundreds in some individual genres and sub-genres; and it doesn't make sense that users can only browse the first 50 titles in a genre. So I farted around in the Preferences dialogue looking for some way to change this, and finding none, I called Roku support.
My call was cheerfully answered by "Rusty" from Bangalore, who put me on hold a few times to "investigate" before finally telling me that the limitation was designed into the software update because of "hardware limitations" and couldn't be worked around.
It didn't sound like Rusty really understood what that meant, so I didn't ask him to explain it in more detail. But apparently, some hardware limitation in the device -- CPU power, memory, or whatever -- meant that running the new interface required a trade-off in the number of titles that could be displayed, and they made that trade-off.
Or in other words, in order to make the interface look like a phone, it was necessary to lose the ability to browse most of their biggest content provider's catalog. That's pretty stupid, in my opinion. Just to make something look different, they severely limited the device's functionality at the only thing it is designed to do. How does that make any sense?
But hey, what do I know.
I told Rusty to close my account and deactivate the device. I really don't need a device that is crippled from doing the one thing that it is designed to do, and it's taking up a space in my accounts with content providers.
Rusty sounded generally shocked and hurt.
"But, Mr. Richard, it is true that every user of device such as you have did get the new software by automation updated," Rusty said.
"Yes, I understand that, Rusty. Please deactivate the device and close my account," I said.
"But, Mr. Richard, it is being said by many users of the Roku boxes that the new interface is indeed very attractive," Rusty said.
"Yes, so was my ex-wife," I replied, "and I got rid of her, too. Please deactivate the device and close my account, nonetheless."
"Your ex-wife has also a Roku device on your account?" asked Rusty.
Sigh...
Long story short, after realizing that Rusty was not going to close my account, I deactivated the box and closed the account myself on the Web site. The Roku box was just a second-room convenience anyway, since I fell out of love with Hulu Plus because of the incessant advertising. I also have a DVD player that can play streamed content, and the entire Netflix catalog is browsable on the DVD player.
The things about this that annoy and baffle me are why would Roku do such a stupid thing in the first place. Did they think that following Microsoft's lead by making their interface look like a phone would attract enough "oohs" and "aaahs" that user would overlook the fact that they can't browse the bulk of the Netflix catalog anymore?
I mean, Netflix is a big part of the reason why Roku exists, and I believe it's still their most popular content provider. Isn't it a little stupid to code a 50-title browsing limitation into the interface to their biggest provider's library, just to make the interface look like a phone screen?
But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe some users are so stupid that they would rather give up their access to the bulk of the programming just to have the interface to what's left look like a phone. Nothing would surprise me anymore.
I have no idea whether this 50-title limitation and the absence of some of the Netflix genres and sub-genres are problems in Roku 3 boxes, in which the new interface is native. Mine is a Roku HD, to which the update was backported and forced.
But I'm not going to shell out a hundred bucks to find out.
-Rich
Last edited:
