Reliability

[Anonymous User]

This is not a rhetorical question.  Why is NowTV so unreliable?  We regularly see two different screen layouts, and regularly have to switch of the entire TV between shows, as NowTV so rarely goes back to the main menu.

Is the software being continually messed about with, or is it just not very good?

LGTV 42LA660V

[SeeMoreDigital]

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@Anonymous User wrote:

...Why is NowTV so unreliable?  We regularly see two different screen layouts, and regularly have to switch of the entire TV between shows, as NowTV so rarely goes back to the main menu.

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How very odd @Anonymous User,

I currently have two LG televisions running the 'Google TV' operating system and I've never seen two different screen layouts. Are you able to take some photos of what you are seeing?

That being said and much as I hate to say it, performing a 'factory reset' (which can be found via the 'Option' setting) often cures many wierd issues. I do it every-so often on my LG TV's when they become unstable. Which usually occurs after a couple software updates

Sufficed to say, a factory reset means you'll have to re-tune all your TV channels and you'll loose all your pre-sets. So make a note of them before you give it a go!

Cheers

[Anonymous User]

The two layouts relate to My TV.  Sometimes, there's a horizontal ribbon of "Continue Watching" shows across the top half of the screen, and a similar horizontal ribbon across the lower half for "My Watchlist".  When we get this layout, the top ribbon shows the name of the next episode, but not the name of the show, so you have to guess what show it is by peering at the thumbnail and hoping you recognise a character or two.

The second layout is seperate screens for Continue Watching and My Watchlist, with each screen using a grid layout.  In this layout, the title of the show is shown correctly.

In either layout, when you select a programme, it actually begins from about 60% of the way through the episode you've just watched (even though the orange bar shows that you've seen it all), not the beginning of the next one.  I've moaned about this before.

When I'm watching something, the Stop button on my LG remote doesn't do anything.  I either have to wait for all the titles to end, and then hope that it'll go back to the home screen.  When it does (maybe 10% of the time), we have to sit through three to four minutes of black screen before it does so.  More often that not, we just have to turn off the telly, turn it back on, wait for several minutes for the wifi to reconnect, and then go back into NowTV.

The reliability is so variable (which is, I suppose, the definition of 'unreliable'), and the screen layouts change so often that it feel abit like NowTV have modelled their software strategy on Adobe or Java, deciding that constant tweaking is preferable to just leaving it alone.  It isn't, by the way.

I'll try to get some photos of the screen layouts next time, but the missus is watching something on Amazon at the moment, which we signed up to because NowTV is becoming so tiresome.

The reliability, the four device limit, and the inability to watch NowTV on OUR OWN devices with OUR OWN subscription when we are out of the UK really aren't helping to maintain our loyalty.

And to your reset advice, SeeMoreDigital; my attitude is that if it loses my presets, hen it's not a fix, it's a workaround.  Workarounds, the world over, just hide root causes, and allow them to be overlooked or ignored. 🙂

[Anonymous User]

This is one of the two layouts.  This one is the newest, the worst and the most unreliable.

 As you can see, the ribbon across the top sometimes shows the name of the programme, and sometimes just the title of the episode.

You can also see the Talking Dead episode on the top ribbon.  The orange bar suggests we've not seen it all, but we have.  Consequently, the next episode isn't showing as available, so we have to go via the main menu to select it.

It's a pain in the backside, exacerbated by the constant delays and need to keep turning it off and back in again.

[Anonymous User]

And here are two pictures showing the other (better) layout.  You'll note that Continue Watching and My Watchlist are on two seperate screens.  You'll also notice that the names of the shows are displayed, rather than just the titles of the episodes.

This doesn't fix the issue where a programme begins part way through the previous episode, but hey-ho.

[Anonymous User]

Second pic..

[SeeMoreDigital]

Hi @Anonymous User,

Yes... Now you mention it, I do remember seeing the combined 'Continue watching' and 'Watchlist' layout a while ago on my GoogleTV OS based LG televisions...

I have not seen it for a while now....

[Anonymous User]

I'm not on Google OS (I don't think).  I'm just using the LG Smart TV menu

[SeeMoreDigital]

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@Anonymous User wrote:

I'm not on Google OS (I don't think).  I'm just using the LG Smart TV menu

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Indeed... I keep getting the GoogleTV and NetCast OS's mixed up 

If the GUI looks like this, then it's NetCast 4.0 (or higher): -

 LG's newest operating system is webOS 3, which looks like this: -

[Anonymous User]

I'm on the old one then.  So I will upgrade, but will it actually work?

I did a full factory reset today.  Consequently, Amazon Video works, for the first time ever, and NowTV is worse than it ever was.