Roku app UI now slow

[higgic01]

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!

[black-lodge]

The Roku premier is as slow as described by others, unresponsive pages, the remote control is unresponsive and jumpy, pressing down on the tv guide usually jumps down two channels, even inputting the pin number has become tedious. It's the app that's not well produced not the hardware it runs on. It also now makes a call to a known adware/spyware url which when blocked as it is by most DNS ad blockers the interface won't open saying that NowTV is unavailable.

[higgic01]

Thanks commanda6 - I have two Roku Express's, one updated last night, the other hasn't yet but assume it will do shortly. 

[Anonymous User]

What is wrong with these people who design the NOW tv app,  can't they leave what was already good alone, because I do not know what they have done with this update, but the NOW app when selected flashes about 3 times on and off on the screen slowly until it finally displays the programs? Before it loaded straight away. This new update is so slow now and like others have said the layout is crap.

Please revert to the old format, which worked a lot better on the Roku stick.

[Anonymous User]

The update app is quite slow and improves nothing on the previous interface. It took me 20 minutes to find the live TV guide for movies was under options

[Anonymous User]

I'm glad to find it's not just me that dislikes the update, I preferred the previous version as well.

[NOW_BSG]

I totally agree.

It is slow and confusing. Don't know if it is just me, but have noticed that the TV guide always jumps to sport? It is almost as if they are trying to entice people to go for more expensive items.

It would be nice if members were given a choice of UI, or just have an option to go back to the previous version!

[Saint1976]

@NOW_BSG if you use the tile on the top left of the home screen to access TV guide, it will go to the section that is being pushed by that tile ie at this moment the tile is 'Sports Sunday' so it will default to sport.

If you use the '*' button and select TV guide, it will default to the entertainment tab.

[Ozie]

Agree with all the comments the new app is a disaster, god knows how it past testing for a Production sign off. Both my 4k stick and my Soundar are woefully slow, where as the netflix app is slick and fast wit finesse and show how it  can be done. 'Now' app on my Samsung TV is not that much better and lacks finesse, they need to sort this mess out asap. Looks like the marketing guys set a deadline and that had to be met regardless of quality, original subscriber here since the 1st now tv box and I can't remember a worse release, its like they have lot all there marbles with this one so bad!

[Anonymous User]

1. Yes this and the adverts not being skippable are definitely reasons I'll probably leave now. Just want to see the end of SEALS first. I will put up with it until that happens.

[Anonymous User]

It's hugely unintuitive (my daughter couldn't find any of her shows which meant I had to stop my meeting to look for her) and painfully slow on my Roku 3s - everything is running over a gigabit ethernet connection (which is why I use these over other decides).

It looks like it's because it's trying to load too much too quickly whereas the old app only used to load the section I wanted. Honestly, I don't want to see the HAYU playlist - can we just get back to seeing what I want?