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
Why has all the wii U games disappeared from rental? Only reason im keeping my account is for my wii u.. can someone please tell me why all the games are not showing to reserve the games?
No, I do not like this new format. I liked the yellow ‘Watch Now’ boxes for the Lovefilm Instant titles. If looking down a search list it made everything easy to see. These changes are not improvements – if something is not broken, then don’t ‘fix’ it, you have not – you have just spoilt it all!
Hi, an additional change I would like to see is the ability to queue films on the lovefilm instant service just as we can add disc based films to rental lists. This way I can have a separate list for instant films so that when I am browsing the catalogue and see films I’d like to watch I can add them to my list and save myself searching every time I use lovefilm instant.
If this could be incorporated that would be great.
Thanks.
Hello
I do not like the new website unfortunately. I found the older website much easier to use and now I have spent a long time trying to use the website. I can log in but as soon as I try to go to my rental list the page advises to sign in again and another page appears asking about cookies. I have trawled the internet to find out how to get past this only to find I have the correct settings and I can still not look around.
The error page does advise about these cookies but this does not work on my computer and I am now going to have to find another way to use your website. I currently can not access anything once I have signed in.
Some great changes – certainly makes seaching on the website easier.
One comment would be that it’s good to know which episodes are on which disk eg Walking Dead Series 2 has 3 discs. I have seen a few episodes on TV so I’m jumping into the discs halfway through.
Thanks!
Where has the little chart gone that shows the distribution of review scores. I found the spread of scores as informative as the average.
Instead of categorising as high, normal or low priority, it would be simpler and better to leave it to us, your customers, to list all our choices in order of descending priority: highest at the top, lowest at the bottom. Then, all you need do is send us the highest priority that is available.
Perhaps its very simplicity makes it difficult to recognise the advantages of such a system.
It would also be helpful if your were to list separately all your 3D titles, as well as increasing their number.
Otherwise, thanks for a great service.
hi
where can i find my recently viewed list? thanks
still not fixed silverlight for windows 8
I think the High, Med, Low in the list selection in fine. But what it could do with is being able to move titles within the high, med and low as at the moment it puts them in alphabetical order. IE on my list in order top-bottom Breaking bad, Covert affairs, Game of thrones, Sinbad all on high. I would like to be able to move them into this order… Sinbad, Covert affairs, Breaking bad, Game of thrones as that’s the order if available I would like to watch first.
Regards Steve
where is the with package icon please?
The changes have made things more confusing and long-winded for me ! I relied on the now missing ‘Recently watched’. Invariably don’t finish watching a film completely on its first viewing, and rarely remember the title. I guess we all have different reasons for watching films; not having any great interest in films beyond escapism after a long day, I am a disgrace to all the Lovefilm film buffs.
Why oh why can you not get your series delivery sequencing correct.At one time there was never a problem as we watch mainly series in getting the correct disc in the correct order, but all that super efficiency seems to have vanished lately.
We know there are times when the next disc in the set is not available but recently we were switched halfway through watching one series and sent a disc from another series and then to add insult to injury we were then sent another disc not even on our list which meant that we had 2 unfinished series running.
With great credit to your customer service department my email was swiftly acted upon and the missing discs arrived. We commend the excellent corrective customer service to solve an annoying problem that should not have occurred but seems to occurring too frequently.
I would use the overall star reviews (used to be on the right hand side) as a guide of how good a film is but it seems to have disappeared! When you can see at a glance what thousands of people are giving it as a star review you get a fair idea of what it is like. Am i missing it somewhere and if its gone please bring it back!
Thanks for this. Is there any progress on integrating Low Priority into the new-style rental lists? There’s been no info on this since you announced that you were switching back to the old-style list “for a couple of days” back in June (see http://blog.lovefilm.com/website/improving-your-rental-list-update.html). When I asked a few months ago, I was told that the new-style lists *with* Low Priority would be rolled out shortly. Still nothing though, and no information, and it seems that you’ve kicked the update into the long grass while you worked on a different set of updates.
Would be grateful for some solid information – thanks in advance.
when’s lovefilm instant gonna be on the wii……….
Looks a lot better, especially the series for TV shows on Instant.
However on the side bar I would much prefer to see check boxes rather than links.
E.g. If I want to see all shows ‘just added’ within the last 4 weeks, I could tick “last week”, “two weeks ago”, “three weeks ago” and “four weeks ago”. At the moment you have to click each of those and then back (or reselect all) four times. Same with Genre etc.
Secondly – the thing that is almost definitely going to stop me using Lovefilm in the very near future (as soon as I’ve watched a few films that I have outstanding in my list that I really want to watch) is the lack of Android support. You allow Apple devices and your own Android devices but for some reason refuse to support normal Android devices just stating the usual canned statement of “we are constantly…more devices…all the time…blah blah”. Netflix UK may not yet be as good but at least it supports Android, and therefore is soon what I will be using.
The queue/wish list in Instant is perhaps the most useful tool which is still missing!
I am also missing the recently watched film icon.
Yeah this is so much easier with the TV series as when you searched for movies you would get hundreds of tv episodes – so annoying.
Just need a ‘watch next list’ – and what you have already watched tab so you can go back and watch your favourites.
thing is with lovefilm is you come across so many cool films you have never heard of it would be so great to see your favourites in a list as I keep forgetting the title names etc and gets so annoying to then have to find them again, we deffo need this – then it would be perfect.
Oh a the odd recent blockbuster would go down well too on instant!
free popcorn? going too far, ok ok!
But your doing a great job lovefilm
Hi,
Welcome the changes. It’s not been that good for navigation getting where you want to be on the site, a simple design is effective. Thanks.
What happened to my recommendations list? I used it to choose my next films?
The changes to the tv section are fantastic. i didn’t watch tv as it was difficult to find anything. i’ve since noticed more shows and will be using it more.
well done lovefilm
Like the new format. However, apart from keeping your High Priority List short, how can you avoid titles with a first letter low down in the alphabet from always being pushed down the list that you are most likely to receive next.
I appreciate some of the changes but really used to enjoy having both side of reviews split in 2 categories.
The “hated it” Vs “loved it”
so i could read some on both sides before renting. Now, all reviews are mingled into a long list as far as I can tell, I can’t find a way to jump to low ratings or higher rated ones….Maybe I missed it. But indeed it is great to read a whole review without losing the current page! took you a long time to improve it…:)
dear Lovefilm,
you are still setting the standards far higher than other providers and have risen to the challenge of being leader in films and tv weldone.
one thing though if i were to suggest somthing could please make a program to work on android phones as i can get bbc iplayer and catchuptv and others but your not listed thankyou though for the wonders of film and tv play basckup.
Happy christmas.
I think the new changes are unfriendly !I cant see my history of what Ive seen. Also, the movies that are available to see as ’staff picks’ or other, are the same movies over and over.
A little while ago, there were featured movies of about 6 at a time that changed weekly..that was much better.
This change is not a change for the better.
I am not pleased to see the removal of the last viewed Instant film/TV. It took me ages to find the list in My Account, I don’t carry around series and episode numbers in my head until I view again maybe days later. A search for The Tudors S02 E02 produced a NOT FOUND message – and yes I did filter for TV programmes (this in my opinion makes searching more complicated). I had to go to The Tudors and find the episode. Thank goodness they are now grouped.
A final appeal from a partially sighted person – please can text be in black – not grey. I cannot read what I have typed here. Sorry for mistakes.
the redesign is just an attempt at pushing streaming which barely works.
no thanks, please respect your users
Please, please, please put “recently watched titles” back, it is very frustrating having to go through an intire season to find the last episode I watched. Thanks
Dear LOve FIlm – I couldn’t find an option to add INSTANT WATCH films to a film list. I know I Could do that before but this options seems to be gone. I like to have a separate list of films available instantly that I selected for watching online later. Can you please introduce this option or let me know hoe to do it?
i think that you need to bring back an instantly accessible link to see what was last watched online. ive been following ‘lie to me’ and just had to read several episode descriptions to try and figure out where i was up to. this is going to make it much more annoying to be able to watch anything online
Not keen on seeing films listed that I’ve already watched and rated. I also can’t find my recommendations now – where are they? Otherwise it looks ok.
there used to be a list of my last viewed films,tv series act….does that still exist as I don’t always remember what was the last episode of certain tv series I have watched….all the other changes are quite good…the best one must be not having to have to search for each episode…
thanks
i dont like this new design the old one is much better, this is my second time i have added this comment, it just isnt the way forward.
We wont films marked with package so we can stay within the £4.99?
Great new look to the site but as I am a recent joinee to lovefilm can I ask a huge favour please can we have Brothers and Sisters back on instant so I can see the rest of the series thanks
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………..
except this one!!!
At last! The changes are most welcome. Who ever thought the old way was a good idea?
Why are there many TV series available to rent on DVD but not Blu-ray, when the Blu-ray discs are available?
Dark knight rises,
TV ADs “Available for rental” not here untill Amazon has bolstered its sales profets. And it’s the same for all major releases.
Lovefilm you stink and are about to lose a loyal customer.
And I wont be buying it from Amazon I’ll get it at a local supermarket even if I have to pay a pound or two more and I’m never buying anything from amazon ever again.
It dosn’t matter how “pretty” the web sits is the service is s**t.
I’m missing the last movies watched on the top right of the screen. It was really helpful start play directly the movie watched before straight away from the main menu… All changes really fresh… Like them… the Improved presentation of TV series and episodes is just what we were waiting for,
thanks
B
I have to say I love the new design! Given the new filter-based design, I was wondering if it is possible to implement a “Hide rated titles” filter as well?
Basically if I’ve rated a title it means I either own it or have rented it already. If I am browsing movies or e.g. Xbox games, it would be really useful to be able to see only titles that I have not rated.
Great work though
What I still don’t understand is that if you say click ABD on demand it shows a list of TV series episodes rather than just the titles of series? Moreover these episodes are in a funny order.
Great that languages are all available except subtitled for HofH. Very disappointing to get a film and find it has no subtitles and has to go straight back.
The changes sound good. One change I would like to see would be the film classification / age rating. This would hep parents decide if a film is suitable before watching online or even getting it in the post in disc format.
Trying to view my rental list isn’t working….it just loops back to sign in page ..love film or Facebook one…..
Improvements… REALLY?… Well, not in my eyes. Whilst we all know that there were problems with some of the previous workings of the LoveFilm website, surely the best action for you to have taken would have been to listen to the suggestions of your members and implement those changes in a user-friendly way.
That being the case, why did you totally annihilate the rent / reserve buttons and the trailer window at the top of the page? Why are you still posting titles (albeit with a releasse date) that can neither be rented nor reserved?
Not so much “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, because we all know the website had it’s faults, but we didn’t expect the Amazon “Cowboy (website) Builders” to “bodge it and leg it”, leaving it in a worse state than before.
So, if you would kindly put the site back to the previous look and feel with immediate effect, then get somebody to think things through properly before implementing any changes, I’m sure that I and many others will appreciate it.
Fortunately, there are more and more alternatives to LoveFilm these days, so we can all cancel our memberships and look elsewhere for our movies. All of which should mean that you buck your ideas up to stay ahead of the competition. Instead, the LoveFilm servvice has got steadily worse. Seriously… quit resting on your laurels… you need to improve, A LOT, if you don’t want to be processing cancelled memberships for the next year.
I, for one, will not be offering 2 months free membership to my friends (as per your latest mailshot) when you no longer offer a service that I can recommend. Sort it out, please, before it’s too late !!
I used to like the option of being able to select blu-ray or dvd from the initial results lists without having to go to the actual page. Now it automatically selects DVD. I need to go in to the actual film/tv show page to be able to select blu-ray.
Hi,
I do like the new site, but as mentioned before, I would like the previously watched list for instant films and tv shows to be reinstated. It can be annoying when accessing the site where your last page isnt saved and them typing the tv show in the search before remembering which episode you were last on, rather than just clicking on the last viewed and using the links from there.
Thanks
Nice redesign, but shame you’ve not sorted out the speed issues. LoveFilm has to be one of the slowest websites I use. Please modernise the back-end to fit in with your new look (or just give it more server welly, whatever will make it quicker!)