Love it
Didn’t expect much when I downloaded this because of all the negative reviews but with free trial nothing to loose. I love it works fine for me with Chromecast. Content is great and has played everything I have wanted to watch. I have found if you press Chromecast then press the program you want works fine. It actually works and streems better than some of the commercial stations.
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Could be better
Good content, but this app could use some work. Would be great with a few tweaks. It only makes sense to give the browsing mode the ability to rotate to landscape, since when you are watching you’re most likely going to have your phone in landscape. Makes it very annoying for navigation. Would be really nice if it supported Picture in Picture mode, like Netflix does on the new iOS. That would make it much more seamless when you have to do something else on your phone or iPad while you are watching. Would also LOVE to have the option for 2 saved lists: the watchlist (which BritBox already has) and a favorites list. That way you can differentiate between shows you’ve already seen and will return to again and again, and shows that you want to watch for the first time.
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POOR QUALITY
This app has good programming content but delivery is poor. The images aren’t full screen on my Samsung TV, the bar at the bottom of my iPhone screen that you push up to close the app displays constantly on my TV while the program is playing.
But what is REALLY annoying is that the program frequently freezes or the audio is momentarily interrupted during streaming via screen mirroring via my Apple TV. ARRRGH!! This is extremely unpleasant.
At first I thought it might be my iPhone or Apple TV but I shut them down and restarted, checked for software updates, etc., and it didn’t resolve the problem. I reset my internet modem and wireless router, then checked my Wi-Fi streaming speed and it reads 60+Mb down and about 12Mb up. This is way beyond adequate and none of my other apps have this problem. The problem is in the BritBox app.
So, if you don’t mind this frequent momentary, jerky loss of audio and video freezing, the programming content is good for us Anglophiles. Just exercise patience and don’t expect good playback quality. Or alternatively, you might treat yourself to three fingers of good whiskey before you start watching BritBox.
But what is REALLY annoying is that the program frequently freezes or the audio is momentarily interrupted during streaming via screen mirroring via my Apple TV. ARRRGH!! This is extremely unpleasant.
At first I thought it might be my iPhone or Apple TV but I shut them down and restarted, checked for software updates, etc., and it didn’t resolve the problem. I reset my internet modem and wireless router, then checked my Wi-Fi streaming speed and it reads 60+Mb down and about 12Mb up. This is way beyond adequate and none of my other apps have this problem. The problem is in the BritBox app.
So, if you don’t mind this frequent momentary, jerky loss of audio and video freezing, the programming content is good for us Anglophiles. Just exercise patience and don’t expect good playback quality. Or alternatively, you might treat yourself to three fingers of good whiskey before you start watching BritBox.
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Still No Landscape!
I really don’t understand what happened to this app. It was a perfectly serviceable app up until a few months ago. That update broke it. There has been no landscape mode navigation since. Also the first video I chose rarely loads. I often have to chose a second show I don’t care about to prime the pump. Only then will the app load the first show.
I was really excited to see the app was updated again in the last week, but it’s still trash. I haven’t noticed any fixes. I don’t understand why we can’t have landscape mode anymore - a feature the app had for years! I’ve been a BritBox subscriber since day 1 before there was even an app and I am seriously considering canceling because of how terrible the app has become.
I was really excited to see the app was updated again in the last week, but it’s still trash. I haven’t noticed any fixes. I don’t understand why we can’t have landscape mode anymore - a feature the app had for years! I’ve been a BritBox subscriber since day 1 before there was even an app and I am seriously considering canceling because of how terrible the app has become.
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Great starter build!
This build is a really great start so please keep working on it. Just doesn’t seem like it was ready to be released just yet.
-Buttons are not responsive immediately. There is a very big delay. This is probably the most important quality of life update needed.
-Chromecast doesn’t show up for me at all even though I can use it as it shows up in other streaming apps. (Didn’t even show up on the tutorial page, just a circle - for those that don’t know what CC is, the icon should be there for the tutorial.)
-When Airplay is activated and I turn on subtitles, it doesn’t cast on the screen, they turn on for 3 seconds on my phone screen and then completely disappear.
-If the app isn’t open while Airplay is on, it doesn’t start the next episode automatically.
-While in Airplay mode, I can’t touch my phone screen anywhere without the app thinking I am “pausing” the show. The pause area needs to be built around the pause button. The show annoyingly pauses when I tap on the screen near the bottom as I want to fiddle with the volume or the subtitles or even if I want to see the episode name.
-While it’s casting with Airplay I can’t keep browsing through the app.
-Buttons are not responsive immediately. There is a very big delay. This is probably the most important quality of life update needed.
-Chromecast doesn’t show up for me at all even though I can use it as it shows up in other streaming apps. (Didn’t even show up on the tutorial page, just a circle - for those that don’t know what CC is, the icon should be there for the tutorial.)
-When Airplay is activated and I turn on subtitles, it doesn’t cast on the screen, they turn on for 3 seconds on my phone screen and then completely disappear.
-If the app isn’t open while Airplay is on, it doesn’t start the next episode automatically.
-While in Airplay mode, I can’t touch my phone screen anywhere without the app thinking I am “pausing” the show. The pause area needs to be built around the pause button. The show annoyingly pauses when I tap on the screen near the bottom as I want to fiddle with the volume or the subtitles or even if I want to see the episode name.
-While it’s casting with Airplay I can’t keep browsing through the app.
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App could work better! Please Improve functionality
BritBox has great content but the app functionality leaves a lot to be desired. Developers could learn a lot from Netflix!
App doesn’t show current or most recent watched episode correctly. Every time I go back into the app it starts the wrong episode from the beginning (the last one I watched) and when I go back to look at the history the app tells me that or more past episodes - I can “continue watching” when in fact they were all watched in full beginning to end so I have to fumble around to try to figure out where I actually left off! For As Time Goes By you have to watch the intro and ending credits every single time, trying to use the 10 seconds skip ahead works a bit but, clearly a skip credits button would be much helpful!
For $6.99/ month, especially compared to similarly priced streaming services, I expect more.
App doesn’t show current or most recent watched episode correctly. Every time I go back into the app it starts the wrong episode from the beginning (the last one I watched) and when I go back to look at the history the app tells me that or more past episodes - I can “continue watching” when in fact they were all watched in full beginning to end so I have to fumble around to try to figure out where I actually left off! For As Time Goes By you have to watch the intro and ending credits every single time, trying to use the 10 seconds skip ahead works a bit but, clearly a skip credits button would be much helpful!
For $6.99/ month, especially compared to similarly priced streaming services, I expect more.
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Useless on AppleTV
January 2021. If you’re going to use this app on a TV it’s now somewhat stable. On an iPad, forget it. What a piece of junk. It forces the Home Screen into portrait mode and then when you select a program it will finally switch to landscape mode. No thought to look and feel? Next it will sit their with a spinning arrow for an inordinate amount of time. It appears to be downloading or caching the entire show before starting.
February 2020 update: works fairly consistently on iPad. On AppleTV4 (latest) it frequently crashes. “Could not load BritBox, network error - Retry” gets stuck on the screen and the only solution is to delete the app and reinstall.
May 2020 update. Crashing on AppleTV4 has gotten to the point the app is unusable. Almost a daily occurrence now that on loading the app, the usual BritBox could not load - retry error comes up, but now it does that with the previous viewed content blurred out but still running in the background. When is this going to get fixed!!??
February 2020 update: works fairly consistently on iPad. On AppleTV4 (latest) it frequently crashes. “Could not load BritBox, network error - Retry” gets stuck on the screen and the only solution is to delete the app and reinstall.
May 2020 update. Crashing on AppleTV4 has gotten to the point the app is unusable. Almost a daily occurrence now that on loading the app, the usual BritBox could not load - retry error comes up, but now it does that with the previous viewed content blurred out but still running in the background. When is this going to get fixed!!??
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Response from developer
Hello, we are so sorry to hear that. Can you please reach out to us on support@britbox.com and mention this review? We will look into this right away and help you resolve this issue asap. Thanks for being a subscriber and we appreciate your patience!
What have they done to the Britbox app?
Here I am on a ginormous 12.9 inch iPad pro and suddenly the interface absolutely INSISTS on turning sideways like it thinks I'm on an itty bitty iPhone screen, make it nearly impossible to use since, of course, my big TV-like iPad screen is resting compfortably in its keypad case, and now I have to search for my programs by turning my head sideways?!
Oh thank goodness. Doctor Who is still there and plays in landscape once you FIND it, although the nicely organized front page of the library is all gone and it seems like my watchlist has lost nearly everything too.
Please, please please fix the iPad app. Some of us old people who like older British programs cannot SEE teeny tiny iPhone screens. Tablets are iPhones for the vision impaired, ok? :)
Oh thank goodness. Doctor Who is still there and plays in landscape once you FIND it, although the nicely organized front page of the library is all gone and it seems like my watchlist has lost nearly everything too.
Please, please please fix the iPad app. Some of us old people who like older British programs cannot SEE teeny tiny iPhone screens. Tablets are iPhones for the vision impaired, ok? :)
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3 Years into the App and still...
I am new to Britbox and while I enjoy the programming, all versions of the app need work. Has the app ever had the ability to turn off auto play. It would appear that at least since Nov 2019 people have requested this. Developers need to give people the option to decide how to watch the programs. After all, we are paying for the service. There are far too many programs that continue the show well into the 15 seconds and even beyond the credits. Older folks like myself have difficulty seeing the smaller window and cannot resize it in time to catch what we missed. Fix this problem already and stop taking your customers for granted. It’s not as though you were forcing a commercial for us to see. Stop shrinking the end of the shows. Other services shrink the auto play warning. Other still simply overlay the warning. Why are you making us miss the ending or go blind trying to see it? I thought Brits had their brit together! Fix this already.
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Issues with app on mobile devices
This streaming service works pretty well on my Apple TV and once it gets going on the iPhone or iPad, it’s fine. But it’s aggravating to get it going, especially on the iPad (which admittedly is six years old). Firstly I have it in landscape mode but as it opens it flips to portrait and won’t actually flip back till the episode starts playing. It gives the option to continue watching what you’ve been viewing, but when you tap it (at least with tv episodes) it does a mad scroll up and down the whole season, and you have to find and tap the episode again. Then it takes forever to load, and four out of five times I got HLS streaming error. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app, rebooting the iPad and just trying over and over. Once it does work, it’s great, but I’ve just spent 20 minutes trying to get it to start. I have Binge and Netflix too and both are much easier to operate across devices. Fix the app issues and my rating will go up to five stars. I got this for Doctor Who and I’ll keep it because I can watch classic Who episodes, but it’s aggravating when it doesn’t work much of the time. Also the streaming error appeared as I was binge watching after a few hours so it’s clearly a major issue.
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