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Anonymous User
Not applicable

Roku app UI now slow

Apologies in advance, this is quite a grumble!
My Roku updated last night with the new Now only branding.

 

Along with the update came the dreaded new user interface that I experienced on one of the NowTV Branded streaming sticks that I had to ditch in favour of the Roku stick instead.

This UI is so slow and it takes about 5-10 more clicks to do anything than the old layout. For example, the option to search is now tucked away down at the very bottom of the main page or behind the star button. It used to be the first menu option when you opened the app.

 

The other pain is that you can no longer quickly get back to the full list of TV show episodes when you start watching something. On the old app you simply pressed the back button when watching and it took you back to the full episode list for that programme so it was easy to select another to watch. Now it just takes you back to the main menu screen. To get to the list of shows you now either have to go through above said slow search option or many many clicks to find the TV channel or genre that the show was under.

 

Overall performance is just sluggish compared to the old layout which was fairly snappy. I think this is a classic case of if it ain't broke don't fix it!

28 REPLIES 28
Anonymous User
Not applicable

Hi higgic01,

 

I completely agree. I restarted my Entertainment subscription last night to start watching a new show only to find the UI process painfully slow and laggy. I also felt there were far too many steps to find what I was looking for, and wonder why on earth such an update would have been released!

 

If not fixed soon, I'll see the rest of the month out, and if the UI isn't resolved and streamlined, cancel and wait until it is before restarting my subscription again.

commanda6
Legend 5
Legend 5


@Anonymous User wrote:

Apologies in advance, this is quite a grumble!
My Roku updated last night with the new Now only branding.

 

Along with the update came the dreaded new user interface that I experienced on one of the NowTV Branded streaming sticks that I had to ditch in favour of the Roku stick instead.

This UI is so slow and it takes about 5-10 more clicks to do anything than the old layout. For example, the option to search is now tucked away down at the very bottom of the main page or behind the star button. It used to be the first menu option when you opened the app.

 

The other pain is that you can no longer quickly get back to the full list of TV show episodes when you start watching something. On the old app you simply pressed the back button when watching and it took you back to the full episode list for that programme so it was easy to select another to watch. Now it just takes you back to the main menu screen. To get to the list of shows you now either have to go through above said slow search option or many many clicks to find the TV channel or genre that the show was under.

 

Overall performance is just sluggish compared to the old layout which was fairly snappy. I think this is a classic case of if it ain't broke don't fix it!


Hi @Anonymous User 

I agree with you on not being able to see the full list of episodes for a show straightaway. The only reason why I can think of as to why they may have done that, though, is to make sure the app has to load/Pull less data once as they used to be an issue where if the had trouble pulling in the images of the episodes it would sometimes crash the app. The change might have been made for that reason.

 

The layout of the various sections of the app annoys me a bit as well. For example in the entertainment section the genre and channel filters are towards the bottom of the section, so they have put by far the most useful filters near the bottom when they should be near the top , so users don't have to scroll towards the bottom. It is similar on the cinema section as well as the genre filters are also near the bottom of the cinema section when again they should be at the top. Mind you, this is now the case on all devices.

 

What Roku are you using if you don't mind me asking?


I do not work for Now . I am simply a Now customer trying to help I am a Community Contributor This means that I know a lot about the service. But just like you I am still a customer. This means I cannot help you with issues that would involve looking into your account directly. A member of the now TV forum team or live chat will need to assist you with these issues.
tothbros
Scholar 2

for me this sounds similar to what happened a few years ago with the white now tv boxes: as the app was updated, it got painfully slow.

i think the problem is the lower specs of some of the currently used roku boxes, sticks.

i have three roku boxes: two roku 3 boxes (4200X) and a roku 2 box - and while i love these for different reasons (ethernet, remote with earphones), newer roku devices are far superoir in terms of CPU and RAM.

i also experience the sluggish performance of the new NOW app on my devices. but im afraid, they are optimized for later models. 

would be interesting to hear somebody with a newer roku model, whether they also have issues or not...

schnapps
Legend 5
Legend 5

A workaround I found if you want to view all the episodes by just clicking on the View more episodes button on screen was to add the TV show in question to your Watchlist and then keep using the Watchlist tile row instead of the Continue Watching tile row or other means of finding the full list of seasons or episodes on that particular TV show you are after.

 

Haven't had time to see if the work around still works on the latest NOW rebrand UI when using the Roku Player or any other NOW supported device that has the new look NOW rebrand UI. 

 

My Roku Stick Plus only had the new UI update yesterday and haven't had chance to play with it yet where my main NOW device that I prefer to use nowadays is a Amazon 4K firestick. 

 

 

Saint1976
Elite 3

Not exactly a work around but I use the Android app to search and add to watchlist there as it's much quicker accessing search, typing and once you've found what you're looking for you have all the episodes on one screen. Then I flick over to my Roku and it's all there waiting.

 

Had a play around last night and can't notice any discernable difference in speed/lag with moving around the app on Roku Premiere.

tothbros
Scholar 2

so if there are no issues on roku premiere, it might be a case of older devices not being able to handle the load, hence the slowness.

i would have updated my roku years ago, but unfortunately, roku ultra/roku 4 isnt available for the UK market. wifi-only devices are bound to have connection issues and the remote with earphones is a cool feature that is also missing from the current UK roku lineup.

i could get the US roku ultra, but that has limitations in the UK (no BBC for sure and possibly others)

Saint1976
Elite 3

@tothbros I've had my Premiere for about 6 months and not had a single connection issue but confess my router is about 6 feet away.

 

The only problem I've had (which is often reported on the Roku community) is overheating when streaming 4k content but I've overcome that by lifting the Premiere off the shelf by half an inch.

 

As for the headphones, it still has that feature through the remote control app. I use it with Bluetooth headphones without any lag.

tothbros
Scholar 2

thanks for your feedback. and do you notice any slowness using the new NOW app?

good to hear about the mobile app "private listening"! before i read forums where ppl complained about constant a/v sync issues.

Saint1976
Elite 3

@tothbros I wouldn't call it slowness. The app is as responsive as it was before the update but pages do seem to take a little longer to load fully. It's maybe a second or two for thumbnails or the TV guide to load but so far nothing that has me frustrated with it.

 

My TV is connected to a soundbar via optical and there was some minor sync issues with iPlayer and Amazon Prime Video on first use but went into my TV's audio settings where it allows me to adjust audio sync and all good now.