Episode purchased in library not in explore (App)

Apologies if this was answered elsewhere, but I couldn’t find anything. I’ve noticed that inside the app (and on the VHX site) an episode shows as purchased in one area, but not other.

For example, I own Season 11. And If I access the Season through my library I see all the episodes and can watch them.

But if I view the episodes through the Season 11 section on the Explore section of the app, the episodes are locked and ask me to buy or rent them.

It’s kinda weird and inconsistent with how most digital content apps work. Is anyone else experiencing this or is it just me?

5 Likes

In mineses, on the website, on the browse page, some of the videos, on the top part of the page, have locks on them. But, they still play because I own them or have access. Down the page, in the “titles available for purchase” area, everything with a lock seems to must be bought, but what I own already has no lock. The lock down there seems to mean, “y’all send money now y’here”. The locks up top seem to mean “just remember what you went through to get this”.

3 Likes

Interesting. The items I own that are on the Explore page on the app still prompt me to pay to watch them. Only when going through the Library will they properly play without purchase.

2 Likes

It needs to be organized better. I should be able to do to explore and easily find all the episodes I have access to. Instead, I have to go in and out of backer packs for Gizmoplex Visitor Pass, Shorts Collections, Backers Collection, Deluxe Collection, etc. When you go to seasons it doesn’t highlight episodes you already own or pull them out. I know these are early days and that’s fine. I just want everything at it’s best for launch.

3 Likes
2 Likes

This is why we’re building the Gizmoplex – because through VHX, and the VHX OTT apps, we do not have the ability to create those sorts of organizational options. If we did, we might not have bothered trying to design the Gizmoplex at all.

Can’t promise that the app – at least in the incarnation we can afford with the EXCEPTIONALLY small budget we put aside to launch across six different platforms – will ever offer the functionality you’re asking for. But I can tell you we’d like it to, and we’ll keep looking into it. We have almost NO control whatsoever over the user experience, because the apps are essentially white-labeled from VHX.

For now, the value of the apps lies ENTIRELY in making it easy to watch this content on other devices and outside of the web browser.

If it turns out that enough people prefer the apps to the website, we can explore the path of building 100% custom apps for these platforms in the future… but that will cost a LOT more to build and support, and the budget just isn’t there for it, at least for now.

Sorry for any disappointment.

8 Likes

You are never a disappointment, Ivan! #IvanAskwithFanClub

8 Likes

I would be pro-Website for the record. (Though I fully intend on downloading the app version too)

3 Likes

No disappointment on my side, Ivan! I was actually delighted I could already watch my content so quickly and easily!

I just wanted to call it out because someone who isn’t paying attention could, in theory, purchase the same episode twice. But I completely respect resource and time restrictions, and still think you all are doing amazing work :slight_smile:

6 Likes

It would be good to know if it was possible to purchase an episode pack twice. If so, that’s a serious bug that needs fixing. If you try and it stops you with an error that you already own it, that’s much better than paying for something you already own. Obviously not the ideal experience, but much better than paying twice.

9 Likes

Tested last night - it does seem like that’s the case for the time being unfortunately. :frowning:

I suspect I will almost exclusively be using the AppleTV app for viewing, so would love it if it at least had the ability to watch owned episodes through the Season list rather than the library packs. I’d also be more likely to purchase episodes I don’t own if the Season lists in the app accurately showed which ones I did and didn’t already have access to. Sounds like there are technical hurdles to accomplishing that, but throwing in my vote for that functionality.

3 Likes

Playing around with this more, I did notice that the iOS apps for iPhone and iPad DO let you watch episodes you own through the season list. They still say ‘click here to buy/rent’, but if you click on the video thumbnail, it will start playing normally.

This is NOT the case in the iOS app for AppleTV. Clicking on the thumbnail throws you to a new popup asking you to buy/rent again. I have no idea of the limitations here, but do you think it might be possible to update the AppleTV app so it at least behaves like the other iOS versions? Still probably not ideal to see the ‘rent/buy’ button which could accidentally be clicked, but a huge improvement if you can actually easily browse to episodes by season within the app, similar to how you can in other non-Gizmoplex interfaces.

Thank you for your replies to our questions and all the hard work you’re doing! I did check out the Gizmoplex, and it looks great so far!

2 Likes

I agree with @KesslerWolf — it’d be great to have the iOS apps know that I’ve purchased stuff and show it like that on the Home Screen so I don’t have to then go to the Library, then to Purchased, then to Gizmoplex Member Pass and then scroll to find what I want.

Purdy pleez

2 Likes