I'm Not a Fan of Side-Scrolling Streaming Apps

[Wes Mantooth]

As the title states, I don't dig streaming apps that have side scrolling, which is pretty much all of them at this point.  Some people may know this better as horizontal scrolling.  And if you're still not clear as to what I'm talking about, I'm talking about those specific rows of movies you see on HBO, Netflix and Hulu where you keep having to scroll sideways to see more.

My biggest complaint is that it takes forever looking at them this way.  You can only see 5 or so at a time, and then you have to scroll over to load 5 more, and so on.  It would be much better if the whole page (instead of one tiny row) was filled with movies and you could just scroll down to load more.

There's other issues with this too.  Have you ever noticed they'll have a row for way too specifc of genres?  Examples:Late Night Comedies, Cult Comedies, Stoner Comedies, Family Comedies, Romantic Comedies, 80's Comedies, 90's comedies.  (Fwiw, this happens with every genre)

So now you have 5 different rows of comedies you have to scroll through instead of one simple comedy section.  I don't always know what I want to watch.  I may be in the mood for a cult comedy as much as I am a family comedy.  I just know I want to watch something funny.  Same goes for drama, thrillers, or horror.  And what makes this even more frustrating is a lot of the same movies will be in different rows.  Like, you'll go down to another row, say family comedy, and see Jumanji for the 3rd time on the app.

Even better is when they shoe-horn in movies that don't even belong in the genre.  I come across movies all of the time that are misplaced.  If you go to HBO right now you'll see "Freddy's Dead" (Nightmare on Elm Street) in the comedy section.  "The Craft" is too.  I saw "Boggie Nights" on there the other month.  These aren't comedies!

Is this the end of the world?  No, but it is annoying.  It feels like a chore to sit down and find a movie to watch.  And it's perfectly clear why they do this; it's to make their library appear larger than it is.  If you don't remember, it didn't used to always be this way.  Netflix used to be much more user friendly, and it's sucked ever since they made the change.  And of course everyone does it now.

Just wanted to complain (I realize I do that a lot on here).  Just curious if others hate they layout as much as I do.

[HarleyDog]

Yes it’s troublesome. Lately I have either been googling top streaming movies right now or go to entertainment section on this board to see what others watched and recommend. I’ve been off work for a month and I’ve watched tons of TV. It seems to be difficult to find a good movie anymore.

[SunsetBengal]

I don't know man, I seem to get about 12 movie tiles on each row. Results may vary, as our TV is only 55".

[Wes Mantooth]

(07-05-2021, 05:18 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: I don't know man, I seem to get about 12 movie tiles on each row.  Results may vary, as our TV is only 55".

I think it depends on the indvidual app, and also what device you're using to stream.

[*michaelsean*]

In my day you scrolled through five channels by walking up to the tv and turning a knob (two knobs for UHF) and watched whatever the hell they offered.

[*bfine32*]

They are done like that so you can see the titles from various genres. There's often a "see all" link in each genre that will give you all titles listed

[XenoMorph]

(07-05-2021, 12:14 PM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: As the title states, I don't dig streaming apps that have side scrolling, which is pretty much all of them at this point.  Some people may know this better as horizontal scrolling.  And if you're still not clear as to what I'm talking about, I'm talking about those specific rows of movies you see on HBO, Netflix and Hulu where you keep having to scroll sideways to see more.

My biggest complaint is that it takes forever looking at them this way.  You can only see 5 or so at a time, and then you have to scroll over to load 5 more, and so on.  It would be much better if the whole page (instead of one tiny row) was filled with movies and you could just scroll down to load more.

There's other issues with this too.  Have you ever noticed they'll have a row for way too specifc of genres?  Examples:Late Night Comedies, Cult Comedies, Stoner Comedies, Family Comedies, Romantic Comedies, 80's Comedies, 90's comedies.  (Fwiw, this happens with every genre)

So now you have 5 different rows of comedies you have to scroll through instead of one simple comedy section.  I don't always know what I want to watch.  I may be in the mood for a cult comedy as much as I am a family comedy.  I just know I want to watch something funny.  Same goes for drama, thrillers, or horror.  And what makes this even more frustrating is a lot of the same movies will be in different rows.  Like, you'll go down to another row, say family comedy, and see Jumanji for the 3rd time on the app.

Even better is when they shoe-horn in movies that don't even belong in the genre.  I come across movies all of the time that are misplaced.  If you go to HBO right now you'll see "Freddy's Dead" (Nightmare on Elm Street) in the comedy section.  "The Craft" is too.  I saw "Boggie Nights" on there the other month.  These aren't comedies!

Is this the end of the world?  No, but it is annoying.  It feels like a chore to sit down and find a movie to watch.  And it's perfectly clear why they do this; it's to make their library appear larger than it is.  If you don't remember, it didn't used to always be this way.  Netflix used to be much more user friendly, and it's sucked ever since they made the change.  And of course everyone does it now.

Just wanted to complain (I realize I do that a lot on here).  Just curious if others hate they layout as much as I do.

netflix has categories you can use to search places all the movies 6 or 7 across and you just scroll down can see 2 or 3 rows at a time.  try that type of searching.

[jfkbengals]

I agree that it is a terrible concept.

Unfortunately, they all do it...

[Benton]

I dig it.

I only want like three or four genres on a given day. I like chosing from that line of interests.

That's part of why I hate prime. It's like 'hey, here's the genre I'm interested in... Oh but 90 percent I have to rent or buy.'

[XenoMorph]

(07-08-2021, 12:25 AM)Benton Wrote: I dig it.

I only want like three or four genres on a given day. I like chosing from that line of interests.

That's part of why I hate prime. It's like 'hey, here's the genre I'm interested in... Oh but 90 percent I have to rent or buy.'

only thing that really bugs me is not being able to play something while searching for something else.. (unless using like your phone to search then play on the tv lol )

Like with cable you pick something tolerable till you find something better.   I need something in the background when im browsing