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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2014
Netflix, or the Android Netflix app, I don't know which, is pretty much the minimum one might expect from streaming video. If all you want to do is watch a movie or TV show continuously, or with a few pauses and resumes, then it does okay. A TIVO this is not and I find that simple things such as rewinding and playing back a challenge the app just is not up to.
At least, this has been my experience. Here is a list of some issues I have met:
1. The app does not respond to the pause and resume buttons on my Android G-Box remote. I have to use their on-screen stuff.
2. The app almost always stalls a few seconds into streaming and I have to click on the red button in the progress bar in order to resume. It might go on its own if I were to give it enough time. I am not patient enough with it..
3. When I pause, I have to click on the pause icon; as I said, the remote is not recognized. Almost always, the app will not resume clicking the play icon. I have to use the escape key to get out of the video and then renter it.
4. The video is pixilated when it first starts to run. I assume that is to stream lower quality video until it has pumped out enough to get going reliably. As you can see from above, it has trouble even doing that.
5. Clicking on the replay icon takes you back so short a distance as to be virtually worthless. There is a mental delay from the time you think you want to rewind, and then the time it takes to get the keyboard out and do it; that time is longer than tha time Netflix goes back. When I click the icon several times, I often lose the stream or it can go WAY back erratically.
6. Fast forward? Forget about it. You can shift the video forward by manipulating the slider bar image but it is hit and miss because you don't have any time info on the screen, so you have to guess where you might want to be. I have to do that to the end of the show if I want to fool Netflix into believing that I have watched the show.
7. Some things such as changing lists need to be set on Netflix on your computer, rather than through the G-Box on the TV screen.
It surprises me that Netflix seems to have such a clunky, kludgey interface. Netflix has been around since the late 1990s but the G-Box is much more recent. Computers don't usually have remote controls, nor do phones. Perhaps this is partly why Netflix is remote challenged.
My G-Box came with a Netflix app installed, but one day Netflix crashed and would no longer open. I downloaded this app and upgraded the old app. That didn't fix the problem. A call to Netflix eventually led to my solution which was to flush the caches on the app. This app has the same functionality, and disfunctionality, of the original app had.
I had read the reviews on this app and I frankly wonder what planet some of the gushy and gooey reviews are from. My experience is different. Perhaps I am a victim of expectations. I have Dish and its TIVO-like pause. rewind, and fast forward work like a dream. Netflix is Cro-Magnon in this respect.
There are benefits to Netflix. It usually streams more reliably that 1 Channel or Ice on the XBMC app on the box. On the other side, Netflix has limited content and is usually at least a year behind on TV shows currently running. It must be licensing issues for the TV shows.
I like old movies and this is not a forte of Netflix. Movies are spotty. Don't expect to find Casablanca, Cabaret, or The Maltese Falcon on Netflix. I find four, count them four, John Wayne movies on Netflix. Classic Sci-Fi? Unlikely. Downton Abbey? No, Amazon has that. (Amazon does not have an Android app yet for its Prime Instant Video movies, alas.) Netflix focuses on the current and that liked by today's (juvenile) tastes.
Netflix has made a recent profit of $8M. What is it doing with its money? Is it making Netflix better? Is it making its Android app any better? I would hope so.
Hmm, maybe I'll check out Hulu?
Update: I forgot about subtitles. We often use subtitles because many actors mumble and swallow their words, especially at the punch line, some show's music drowns out dialog, and we watch some British stuff ("Sherlock" and "Doc Martin", for example) that is often audibly challenged to my American ear. Netflix's subtitles proceed the actual spoken words, sometimes by several seconds. If there is to be a lag, I would prefer if the subtitle followed. That way, if I don't understand something I can keep an eye out for it to come up in a second. Netflix's way is perverse.
Netflix's subtitles on my G-Box are yellow upper and lower case on a transparent background. This makes them difficult to read, especially on a brighter image. As with most of Android Land, documentation is scarce so I do not know if I have choices available for subtitles on Netflix. (Update this update: I did find a way to modify subtitle settings on my computer and logged into my account. Now I have small caps in white on a black background. Now if I could solve the sync thing...)
The sorry documentation is a general lament for Android apps. It seems that using Android is a never ending parade of Easter Egg opportunities; that is, fining out hidden and obscure surprises built in by the programmers for those who are not old enough for the term "easter Egg". This of clever Android programmers coming up with all sorts of goodies but failing to let us in on them. If we are lucky, we stumble on them from time to time.
Netfix support can be a little Nitwitflix at times. I called early on to see how I could scroll a window and I got several bat $^!# crazy answers, none of which were at all correct. Eventually I found out by accident to hold down the left mouse key and drag the window, one direction or the other, I forget which.
All together, the Netflix app appears to be a dull knife of the cutting edge.
At least, this has been my experience. Here is a list of some issues I have met:
1. The app does not respond to the pause and resume buttons on my Android G-Box remote. I have to use their on-screen stuff.
2. The app almost always stalls a few seconds into streaming and I have to click on the red button in the progress bar in order to resume. It might go on its own if I were to give it enough time. I am not patient enough with it..
3. When I pause, I have to click on the pause icon; as I said, the remote is not recognized. Almost always, the app will not resume clicking the play icon. I have to use the escape key to get out of the video and then renter it.
4. The video is pixilated when it first starts to run. I assume that is to stream lower quality video until it has pumped out enough to get going reliably. As you can see from above, it has trouble even doing that.
5. Clicking on the replay icon takes you back so short a distance as to be virtually worthless. There is a mental delay from the time you think you want to rewind, and then the time it takes to get the keyboard out and do it; that time is longer than tha time Netflix goes back. When I click the icon several times, I often lose the stream or it can go WAY back erratically.
6. Fast forward? Forget about it. You can shift the video forward by manipulating the slider bar image but it is hit and miss because you don't have any time info on the screen, so you have to guess where you might want to be. I have to do that to the end of the show if I want to fool Netflix into believing that I have watched the show.
7. Some things such as changing lists need to be set on Netflix on your computer, rather than through the G-Box on the TV screen.
It surprises me that Netflix seems to have such a clunky, kludgey interface. Netflix has been around since the late 1990s but the G-Box is much more recent. Computers don't usually have remote controls, nor do phones. Perhaps this is partly why Netflix is remote challenged.
My G-Box came with a Netflix app installed, but one day Netflix crashed and would no longer open. I downloaded this app and upgraded the old app. That didn't fix the problem. A call to Netflix eventually led to my solution which was to flush the caches on the app. This app has the same functionality, and disfunctionality, of the original app had.
I had read the reviews on this app and I frankly wonder what planet some of the gushy and gooey reviews are from. My experience is different. Perhaps I am a victim of expectations. I have Dish and its TIVO-like pause. rewind, and fast forward work like a dream. Netflix is Cro-Magnon in this respect.
There are benefits to Netflix. It usually streams more reliably that 1 Channel or Ice on the XBMC app on the box. On the other side, Netflix has limited content and is usually at least a year behind on TV shows currently running. It must be licensing issues for the TV shows.
I like old movies and this is not a forte of Netflix. Movies are spotty. Don't expect to find Casablanca, Cabaret, or The Maltese Falcon on Netflix. I find four, count them four, John Wayne movies on Netflix. Classic Sci-Fi? Unlikely. Downton Abbey? No, Amazon has that. (Amazon does not have an Android app yet for its Prime Instant Video movies, alas.) Netflix focuses on the current and that liked by today's (juvenile) tastes.
Netflix has made a recent profit of $8M. What is it doing with its money? Is it making Netflix better? Is it making its Android app any better? I would hope so.
Hmm, maybe I'll check out Hulu?
Update: I forgot about subtitles. We often use subtitles because many actors mumble and swallow their words, especially at the punch line, some show's music drowns out dialog, and we watch some British stuff ("Sherlock" and "Doc Martin", for example) that is often audibly challenged to my American ear. Netflix's subtitles proceed the actual spoken words, sometimes by several seconds. If there is to be a lag, I would prefer if the subtitle followed. That way, if I don't understand something I can keep an eye out for it to come up in a second. Netflix's way is perverse.
Netflix's subtitles on my G-Box are yellow upper and lower case on a transparent background. This makes them difficult to read, especially on a brighter image. As with most of Android Land, documentation is scarce so I do not know if I have choices available for subtitles on Netflix. (Update this update: I did find a way to modify subtitle settings on my computer and logged into my account. Now I have small caps in white on a black background. Now if I could solve the sync thing...)
The sorry documentation is a general lament for Android apps. It seems that using Android is a never ending parade of Easter Egg opportunities; that is, fining out hidden and obscure surprises built in by the programmers for those who are not old enough for the term "easter Egg". This of clever Android programmers coming up with all sorts of goodies but failing to let us in on them. If we are lucky, we stumble on them from time to time.
Netfix support can be a little Nitwitflix at times. I called early on to see how I could scroll a window and I got several bat $^!# crazy answers, none of which were at all correct. Eventually I found out by accident to hold down the left mouse key and drag the window, one direction or the other, I forget which.
All together, the Netflix app appears to be a dull knife of the cutting edge.
