HBO Max has found a number of hits in its infancy as a streaming service, but even those behind the scenes will apparently admit that the app itself is very much a work in progress. While the actual content available on a streaming service is the biggest draw to getting eyeballs and subscribers, a platform’s user interface is extremely important to keeping them around.
And while HBO Max has had a lot of hits thanks to Warner Bros. movies debuting on the platform as well as a slew of hit series making waves, some users have certainly complained about the performance of the app on certain devices. Fast-forwarding and rewinding, for example, has been a particular problem on Apple devices and for some Roku users and has even spawned some viral tweets complaining about the issue.
Attempted to rewind on the HBO Max app and my tv started smoking and shaking then fell off the wall
— R’as al Gooch (@CashAppRecords) August 9, 2021
And according to a report in Vulture, the company is well aware that things aren’t perfect in Maxland and that a “major fix” is in the works over its various devices. The report described a number of issues on a variety of platforms, but the most egregious seems to be the fast-forward and rewind issues seen across devices.
Back in June, some subscribers who accessed Max via Apple TV’s high-end streaming devices found it almost impossible to fast-forward or rewind programs. While that bug was squashed for most users relatively quickly, HBO Max insiders acknowledge that issues with playback control and scrubbing are still popping up for some folks when they watch titles with longer run times, including movies.
Another big issue seems to be some movies and shows not playing at all, with odd freezing and slowdowns frustrating a number of users.
Roku users have borne the brunt of the Max malfunctions. In addition to overall slowness and occasional freezes, many are still experiencing repeated crashes when trying to play content on the app, often rendering it virtually unusable — or at the very least incredibly annoying.
Some of those Roku issues have come with the newer Warners films hitting the platform, which is an unfortunate annoyance for sure. Personally, I’ve had to switch to an Amazon FireTV Stick to watch movies like Space Jam: A New Legacy and The Suicide Squad in recent weeks when the app failed to play the films on other devices.
The full report from Vulture gets into some specifics about other issues, such as closed captioning errors on Apple devices. But it’s good to know that the company has admitted to the problems, especially given how often they seem to pop up for a wide variety of users given social media buzz.
[via Vulture]