Hi @james i believe I suggested during beta testing that we not completely disable the inline on-deck line/item while we hash out the issues with continue watching, it was a very topical issue for Plex users during the change over and caused a lot of headaches for developers and users alike. This may help ease members into the transition and help establish that sweet spot that will leave at least most users satisfied.
To answer the question, as a series junkie, i prefer the Plex way of displaying CW, something which I got from the previous on-deck experience for Infuse. The CW helps me more with movies in progress. Plex managed to eventually hit the sweet spot on the CW by giving users the ability to set the number of items they would want to display thereon etc.
The meaningful impact would be being able to differentiate at a glance between partially-viewed media and up-next - the way you can in your competitors. It’s not about the series name/season info, it’s about the progress bar.
Basically infuse just needs to revert the top row to how it used to be, and display the new combined Continue Watching as a separate row, the way the way the others do it - and ideally Portrait, like Plex, as opposed to Landscape, like Emby. (But even landscaped it would be an improvement over the way it is now.)
Are you saying you want to distinguish between an in-progress episode vs in-progress season?
Personally as a non-plex user I prefer the landscape since it shows progress of items and separates this section from other sections. But actually it would probably work to add an option for each favorite or list to set as landscape or portrait. That way people could chose.
No, I’m saying I want to distinguish between an in-progress episode vs an unwatched one. I couldn’t care less about season progression from the Home Screen.
My thought on this is as much as I dislike the combined on deck and continue watching thing since it came to Plex (and Emby/Jellyfin) it become more tolerable, as at least certainly in the case of Plex there is the option to drill down to a specific library. You still see the same view but at least then the combined OD/CW will only relate to shows or movies.
With Infuse there’s no such option so it’s just a one row mishmash of partially watched movies, partially watched episodes and the next on deck episode.
After using this for a couple weeks, I completely prefer the pre-7.3 behavior of Infuse. I don’t like the combined in-progress and on-deck, even if the proposed changes are made to align more closely with Plex.
I always revert to what’s wife and children friendly.
The in season progress bar is confusing, either remove or display as the partial watched episodes only.
Continue Watching and On Deck should be separate in my eyes, it allows you to distinguish what you are watching sometimes upto 10 shows and what’s ready to be started Ie New Season.
I prefer posters as it’s more on the screen without having to scroll.
I am not a designer but I can sum up my problems with the current set up:
3 items on the screen is not enough “on deck”
“Recently added” makes it more confusing now because it is hard to distinguish between “in progress” and “recently added” and my “in progress” list is long (currently 10)
In progress seasons and unfinished shows look indeed the same
Personally, I was happy with the old set up but happy to accept a new way if it was more usable.
This is clearly a very well thought out post and the comparison images are eye-opening. I basically agree with everything, especially the need for an episode focus in Continue Watching. I don’t think season progress is crucial information, certainly not to the point of needing indicators on the home screen. The fact that this indicator makes it difficult to distinguish between different types of items makes it even worse.
Initially I did like the 7.3 changes. And it does look good, but after a couple of weeks there is no way around the fact that my user experience feels like it has gotten worse. 4 items at a glance is just not enough. I tend to be watching upwards of 10 tv shows at any given time so not being able to get a nice overview of the content i’m watching is a problem. I sometimes catch myself quickly peeking at the Plex app for that instead, which is a shame as I didn’t buy Infuse’s lifetime for no reason.
Before 7.3 I used the top row as Recently Added Only and I really liked this setup. Recently Added items are relevant but not crucial which is why it worked with landscape posters. I would much prefer to go back to that and having a dedicated combined Continue Watching row with portrait posters. If a dedicated row is no longer an option for some reason, I think an episode-level focus and the removal of the season progress indicator would still be a big improvement.
