Developed by: Lovefilm in-house team
Tested on: iPad 2, 64GB, iOS v5.0
Editor's rating:
User rating:
(iPad App Store, 300
ratings)
Design
The BBC, 4oD and ITV players all give us TV content on the iPad
and Sky Go provides films but only if we want to watch them
linearly. The launch of Lovefilm's new Player app however promises
customers a true on-demand streaming film service. So, does it
deliver?
In terms of design, we think so. Launch the app in portrait mode
and the screen is split broadly in two. The top third includes a
discrete nav bar followed by featured recommendations. The bottom
two thirds houses a list of more films and shows which can be
sorted by genre, popularity and ratings. A button makes the list
expand over the whole page which is, literally, a nice touch and
particularly useful in landscape mode. Scrolling in any direction
is smooth.
Usability
Touching a list item opens a page dedicated to your content
including synopses, reviews and hyperlinks to more stuff by any
given actor / director. This is an excellent use of Lovefilm's
extensive editorial resource which has been built up over many
years. And once you start streaming a movie, the player itself is
clean and easily re-sizable.
The ability to rate content, watch a trailer or rent by post all
add to the core streaming functionality. Searching by keyword
brings back results without actually having to press a search
button and the 'Help' section is well-designed if not exactly
comprehensive. The two minor negatives are first, that for us the
app did crash a couple of times in testing when trying to play a
show and second, that one can't manage rental-by-post lists, change
account settings or set up parental controls. For these options
you're referred either to the Lovefilm website or the Player's
companion 'Lovefilm by Post' app. We hope a consolidated offering
is coming.
Content
When we heard about the new Lovefilm Player app our nascent
enthusiasm for it was immediately tempered by the question "How
much content will it actually have?" The answer is a fair amount.
Today (Sunday 23 October) we counted 987 available titles which is
about 200 more than when we first checked out the app two weeks
ago. That's encouraging and suggests that more of Lovefilm's
web-streaming catalogue of more than 4,800 items may come to the
iPad version soon - assuming Lovefilm can negotiate the rights.
Where the app does lose some of its sparkle however is in the
lack of new releases. Fair enough, Sky seems to have a lock on
first-run streaming rights for content from the big studios but
from the 30 showcased movies in the 'Pick of the Week' section only
4 were from 2010. That said, the Lovefilm app is a brilliant place
to find those movies that you might have once watched as a youth
and now have a hankering to revisit - hits like 'The Matrix' or
'Wallace & Gromit", TV shows like 'The Casebook of Sherlock
Holmes' or world cinema gems like 'Mesrine' and 'Audition'. We're
loving the long tail of the Lovefilm Player.
Conclusion
The only thing missing is a bit of new content. Other than that
we rate the Lovefilm Player app highly with 4 stars.