Apologies for the digression:
My following issues with Foxtel Go and the Samsung Foxtel Play app are:
- channel drops out every now and again - I have to change channels to another then back to get it back
- slow to pick up channels when you change, particularly on the Samsung Foxtel Play app
- lag / lower quality during peak times (fine other times), which normally happens to coincide with rugby games
- I've had the entire sport channels be down several times, when I've gone to FaceBook to complain there's already plenty of people there complaining. The attidude from Foxtel is to delete or ignore complaints until it hits a critical mass - it's always your fault, not theirs until they can't ignore it (multiple WhirlPool threads on similar)
- Catch Up system is horrible:
o it doesn't remember what you have and haven't watched apart from the last show
o it is laggy (stops and waits for ages for each menu of the multi-layered menu system to load), this is paricularly horrible on the Samsung Foxtel Play app with its horrible interface
o if you watch two or more shows, you have to navigate through the horrible, laggy menu system to get between each one
o only numbers episodes of shows (e.g. Daily Show and Colbert Report are shown as episode 151 without dates or other identifiers), meaning that if you infrequently watch them you have no idea what you have and haven't watched before
o is inconsistent with when it uploads shows, particularly those on Friday in the US
o ads before catch up programs sometimes simply fail to play and it sits there with a black screen (Foxtel Go app on iPad)
I have also have NetFlix on my Samsung surround sound system, which has waaaaay less processing power than my Samsun Smart TV - and it craps over the Foxtel Play app in every way possible.
Nothing like Foxtel Play being horribly laggy and low quality, then going to Netflix and having it perfectly smooth with good quality.
If Foxtel were serious about their online options, they'd have looked at tihngs like Netflix and Hulu and done better. As this stage, Catch Up is a horrible after thought so they can market a feature, instead of providing a really convenient option.
Disclosure: I work in the same building as Foxtel HQ (well, one of Foxtel's HQs - they have two buildings side by side, the second of which they use about 50%), and they seem have interesting hiring policies.
