From today, we’re making some changes to the LOVEFiLM website. We hope these changes make it easier for you to find great movies & TV to watch, not just on your PC or laptop, but on your PS3, Xbox, iPad or Kindle Fire as well. And not just on LOVEFiLM Instant, but on DVD and Blu-ray too.
We’re rolling out gradually and all of these changes are in response to comments, questions and suggestions from you, our members, so we hope you like them.
A new look and feel
The masthead is now slimmer, so that you can see much more content when you first come to the site. Please note that the link to your rental list (if you have one) has moved from the masthead – it’s now neatly situated between the Your Account, Help, and Sign in/out links at the top right of any page.
A customised experience for LOVEFiLM Instant customers
LOVEFiLM Instant customers will see a different navigation bar, letting you chose immediately between Films and TV shows. Also, the search box defaults to searching only our catalogue of streaming titles. You can, of course, still browse our DVD and Blu-ray catalogue using the drop-down arrow to the left of the Search box…
Filter your search
All customers can use that drop-down arrow to filter searches: choose from All titles, Instant, DVD & Blu-ray, or Games.
Improved presentation of TV series and episodes
If you’ve been watching Lost* or Grey’s Anatomy, for example, you’ll have noticed that we had separate pages for every episode. And every episode turned up as an individual search result. Now, you can navigate between episodes in a season, or between seasons of a show, from a single page. Much more useful, we know you’ll agree.
* Lost has just been renewed on LOVEFiLM Instant, due to popular demand – it’ll be with us until at least 31 May, 2013.
Titles are sorted by ‘Most Viewed’ or ‘Production Date’
On any of our browse pages, by default the most watched titles are now at the top of the list, so you can immediately see the current most popular titles. You can still sort titles by ‘Member rating‘ if you wish, in addition to ‘Production year‘ (the date they were made), or ‘Date added‘ (when they became part of our catalogue).
DVDs & Blu-rays on a single page
There used to be separate pages for DVD & Blu-ray versions of a movie or TV series, which would appear as separate results on a search page. Now, there’s only one page for a title, with all the formats available collected together in one handy place – eg. The Social Network
As always, we welcome your feedback – that’s what has powered all these current changes and updates. And there are more to come…
Simon Waldman, Group Product Director
Regret the loss in the search box of the ability to search for artist. Having watched a film & coming across an actor not seen before it is useful to be able to look for other films featuring them.
I’m fine with the new design and think there are some good improvements. I’ve always thought Lovefilm was very customer-oriented, constantly trying to improve an already excellent service.
HOWEVER, I have a major problem with the lack of ‘last watched’ thumbnails/link to last watched list. I use Instant more than renting DVDs and hardly ever get to watch a whole film in one sitting. I used to just click on the relevant ‘last watched’ thumbnail to bring up my current film. Now I have to do a search for it before I can continue watching it.
It’s a disappointment… I usually have such warm, fuzzy feelings towards Lovefilm, gateway to escape and entertainment, but today I’m feelng a bit lost and annoyed.
Perhaps it’s an oversight? Hope to see ‘my last-watched list’ available very soon!
disappointed with lovefilm layout
Netflix ia amazing compare to this so called lovefilm
layout is to poor almost like youtube
where is recently watched so there is no need for search
if you lose your connection like i said poor design
and for that i am leaving lovefilm and staying with Netflix
I like to browse the lovefilm instant titles but badly need a button for queueing movies I want to watch eventually. Without a list I forget what I want to watch and have to browse them all over again each time I want a movie on.
Hurry up and make an Android client for instant, and make sure there’s a version optimised for tablet screens! Thanks.
Please, please re-instate the direct link to the last watched instant titles on the rental list page. Searching every time is a real pain!
Thanks
Still having nothing but problems using this site since the changes made. Sent email to Lovefilm to complain, I got a reply a few days ago saying there were some problems which should soon be rectified but still unable to access what I want and still unable to purchase gift subscription.
Why did the recently watched get taken off? For people watching series’ it’s extremely annoying having to type it into the search bar every time.
I like it, I like it, I like it. I agree with the others about being able to watch the series now, it’s much easier this way. I won’t name names but a competitor has it even better by having the next episode in the season come up when the one you are watching is over, that would be nice too. I agree we need more titles brought in, have watched almost everything already….well done though on the changes so far!
New format is good – after getting used to it! The only thing I don’t like is not having immediate access to my ‘watched online’ record. This was very helpful when I couldn’t remember which episode of, eg, Grey’s Anatomy I watched last. At 69, my memory is still good, but remembering things like the number of an episode isn’t a priority! Overall, I thoroughly enjoy LoveFilm. I especially like the new movie section: Haven’t seen this for ages.
Please bring back recently watched list as without it the new stuff is pointless.
I have to say that it’s not an improvement when you cannot see the list of titles you have previously watched, or are currently watching. I have to keep putting in the title to get the film up. Also if you have children, you can keep an eye on the titles that they are watching which you now can’t do.
Loving the layout. Easy to use etc.
The only thing is I would like to be able to see all the reviews I’ve written, and whether anyone has found them helpful or not. At the moment it seems the only way is to go into the page for each film and search through them all.
Also some way to read all the reviews written by one person if you find them particularly helpful or if you have similar taste.
Please bring back the link to ‘Recently Watched’ – this was a very useful feature – as others have highlighted – at least a link on the main page – thanks in antici…..pation
I agree with Tara’s comment below. I like to see my last viewed as I sometimes don’t watch the film in one go so go back to it, it’s more hassle to get back to it now. Please bring this feature back on the front page.
when will season 8 grey’s anatomy be on instant?
If it aint broke don’t fix it!
Why cant watched on my mobile phone?i have samsung s3.
Loving the changes to the TV series search for LFI, although on the downside, having the next episode right there, tempting me, could mean I’ll be having some really late nights!
One thing I would like to see return is the ‘Last chance to see’ page, I’ve caught some crackers, just in time. Film isn’t all about the new, y’no.
Well done guys, keep up the good work.
The reviews tab on the profile page doesn’t list your reviews:
https://www.lovefilm.com/profile/reviews.html?profile=
Hating this. I used to be able to look up genres pretty easily, and plan ahead by looking at ‘in cinemas now’ and now i am faffing around navigating as if in a new supermarket. Bored already!!
where can i view my recommendations now?
Great new look much neater thanks but I agree with D it would be great to be able to tidy up the viewed list so you can just keep where you are within a series without being clutered up with single episodes and films which you know where you are as they are just one off.
Thanks
Why are all the instant films I’ve ever watched now in my rental list. What a pain to go through and remove them all. This has taken the shine off of any new development. Not happy.
As with most other reviews, great changes but you should have left the home page as it was, so we can styill see the current rentals we have at home and the last watched online titles. I understand companies needs to have more content on pages than not, but the ticker bar at the top with account informaiton should have stayed.
What happened to the Review Breakdown where you can see how many people rated it in each of the star ratings?
You cannot filter the reviews between Loved It, and Hated It anymore.
Having 5 reviews per page and having to scroll through them is a bit of a chore.
Personally, i don’t understand why something that isn’t broke,is fixed.The previous layout was fine, nothing wrong with it at all.