Spectrum TV App Challenges

CedricR

While overall, I am quite happy with Spectrum (internet and TV), I am quite disappointed with the Spectrum TV app. The days of the physical DVR set-top box are over; instead, we use apps like Spectrum TV on our smart TVs and devices (Apple TV 4k, or Xumo). To me, the Spectrum TV app behaves like a poor clone of the Spectrum DVR STB. I believe that Spectrum should invest to improve the Spectrum TV app to contemporary TV/streaming app standards.

Here's a list of key bugs or deficiencies I've observed in the Spectrum TV app, all of which are DVR-function-related

1. In the top DVR menu (My Library), under a given title, when a program is recording, the app will show “one program” (or more, if you have more than one) but when you click into that item, you can’t actually see or select the recording that's in-progress, thus you can't start the recording until the recording is finished. This is not a 100% universal failure, but it happens enough to be quite noticeable.

2. When a program is still recording and you begin watching it before the recording has finished (obviously, this is counter to #1), I've observed three bad behaviors on multiple occasions: (2a) Playback will begin to “skip,” meaning it’ll jump forward a few seconds every 5-10 seconds. (2b) Playback will start fast-forwarding for no apparent reason (without touching the controller), typically at a very fast framerate (e.g., 6x). For 2a and 2b, these behaviors cannot be stabilized back to "normal" contiguous playback through any of, stop/restart (the recording), fast-forward or rewind, or pause. Even if you start a different recording and then go back to the recording with these problems, the behavior remains. And finally, (2c) When in "normal" playback, started while recording, when the recording finishes you can no longer fast-forward or rewind; you must exit the recording and re-start it to regain these controls.

3. Sometimes, recording playback “loses the plot” (e.g., #2a, 2b) so in an attempt to recover, you restart the recording, but you cannot fast-forward to where you were as Spectrum TV app continuously goes back to the start of the recording no matter how many times you may attempt to fast-forward, or re-start the same recording. So, if you are deep into a program (think sports or a movie) and this happens, you basically give up because you don’t want to re-watch all that you’ve already watched.

4. The “Record a Series” function is highly inconsistent. Sometimes it’s offered as a capability, but most often it’s not. Think NFL football, or F1, or PGA. The result of this is I have a weekly reminder to “Set DVR Recordings” to ensure I get what I want, which is a pain.

5. There's no indication of a program set to record at the DVR search level. You have to go into the search results program to see that it’s set to record. Give me one red dot for a single recording and three overlapping dots for a series recording, in the search results.

6. Search sometimes returns program meta-data results in other languages than my primary language (English). From my experience, Spanish. For example, if I search Formula 1 Racing, which has five events for each race (practice, qualifying, the race itself) I’ll get up to five results in Spanish. Interestingly, when you click into any event where search meta-date is in Spanish, the specific event data is displayed in English.

7. Most recently, I've observed that when starting a recording that's in-progress, the recording starts at the "live" timeframe with no opportunity to "Play from Beginning." Consider a sporting event, you delay your playback of the recording by say 60 mins, then when you start the recording, it starts at the "live" time showing you the score. Ugh. I've taken to starting such recordings with my ball cap tilted really low so I can't see the screen, and the audio muted, then, stopping playback, re-starting again, and clicking "Play from Beginning." This is really annoying. An interstitial between starting a program and actually playing it back that allows me to select "start live" or "start from the beginning" is an easy fix.

There’s more but these are the most significant deficiencies that I have observed. As well, the overall UX in the Spectrum TV app would really benefit from a makeover. No doubt a full upgrade to the app, across all platforms would be expensive, yet it would be a fraction of your revenues, and likely a fraction of your marketing spend alone, and would greatly improve your customer's satisfaction. Given society's inexorable migration to an app-based world, I think it's a poor strategy to neglect this very important CX interface on the Spectrum TV app.

Honestly, I would likely switch my TV/internet provider if I weren't a "bulk" Spectrum customer through my HOA dues, so switching would add expense to my budget and we know the alternates for TV/internet aren’t cheap, so an impact to budget of $1,200-1,600 per year. Ugh. You got me. Please fix it.