Whilst reading Jim Hillier’s excellent article, Streaming Video Services Colluding? I was reminded of other annoyances that crop up in the streaming universe, so here are just a few, because there are plenty!
This Video Is Not Currently Available To Watch In Your Location
Prime Video
Prime Video has a vast selection of films and TV shows, but continues to show videos that you cannot watch. For example, I enjoy tech documentaries and saw that Blackberry was available, which is a dramatised account of the phone company’s rise and fall. On clicking the link/icon, I saw the message above, which begs the question, why offer it to me if I can’t watch it then?
Search For A Film That You Can’t Watch!
Another oddity about streamers is that they appear to catalogue every film or TV show that was ever made. This is evident by searching for a film you’d like to watch, and you find it in numerous links. Yesterday, I searched for Peter Jackson’s They Shall Not Grow Old, and it popped up as being available on Prime, Netflix, and Apple TV. But guess what? We can’t watch it. I searched for a don’t show me stuff that’s not available filter in Prime, but clearly that’s too much to ask because it doesn’t exist.
I understand expired rights and licensing agreements, up to a point, but tantalising viewers by giving the impression that said show or film is available is a tad annoying, to say the least.
The Apple TV Interface Is Total Crap
I only signed up for Apple TV+ because of the high quality of content on offer, not to mention the low price of $8 per month where I live. I don’t use any Apple products, let alone any of its horrible software, and have no intention of doing so because of its walled garden attitude. Even signing back up with Apple was akin to the Spanish Inquisition, but I finally managed to get in and watch its content through a browser on the mini-PC connected to the telly. However, every time I open Apple TV+, it thinks I’m not signed in, as per the above image, and the only way to get around this is to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and change the language to English. Even then, I sometimes have to try to sign in multiple times and end up in a vicious circle, going nowhere, except up my own rear end.
Most streamers at least give us a short résumé of what the film or TV show is about by either hovering over the icon or clicking a down arrow, Netflix style, but not Apple TV+. Neither can I set the default interface language to English in the perfunctory settings page.
Say what you like about Netflix, but its UI is still streets ahead of all other streamers, so perhaps Apple TV+ should take note. Furthermore, there are certain shows and films that you can only watch through the Apple TV app, which you have to download from the Microsoft Store (Windows) or iTunes (IOS, etc). This happened to me when Apple tantalised me with They Shall Not Grow Old, only to discover that I would have to buy it for $10! Furthermore, I had to authorise this PC to watch anything, something I had already done when using a browser. Not only that, the app showed me as signed in and signed out at the same time. Wtf!
As a PC tech, one needs a certain amount of patience, but through the years, my patience has always been stretched to the limit when dealing with anything Apple-related, and Apple TV+ is no exception. The company produces beautiful hardware, of that I have no doubt, but its software leaves a lot to be desired.
If you’re an Apple aficionado, please chime in with a comment below.
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