Zap2itReviews 55

Zap2it.com was changed a while back and became unusable. I found the Yahoo version which was how Zap2it used to be. The only problem that I encountered was that the HD channel numbers would revert to SD when I saved my preferences. I bit the bullet and penciled in the HD channel numbers on my printout that I would do for a week. That worked for over a year. Enter a week ago. When I called 'print' the software seemed to cycle but then went back to the grid. I tried this several times, even went back the next day, some result. Now for the big joke on me. I went to 'help' and was advise to '*******@zap2it.com, wow what results. I received a canned reply saying how important I was blah blah. The problem is still there and I have not gotten anything back from Zap2it.

Both thier app and thier website SUCK AT AN INCREDIBLE level! They are hard to navigate, freeze a lot and hide the info that you are most interested in. To add another insult they also refuse to provide any workinf feedback options on the site itself. WOW EVERYTHING THEY DO IS TERRIBLE!

NOTE: I moved my rating UP from one Star to two Stars because they at least made the site more functional; however, I still hate the new interface as a whole.
Thank you Jabber for this opportunity to speak. First, sincere thanks to pj b. (4/8/14) for the link to Yahoo! Tv's "powered by zap2it" tv guide page:
http://tvschedule.zap2it.com/tvlistings/ZCGrid.do?aid=tvschedule
Second, this opinion and rating stands as long as the "new" Zap2it remains in this format.
Third, Tribune Digital Ventures has acquired "TV by the Numbers" and with it, Zap2it.com (1). In doing so, TDV has changed the interface of Zap2it in what looks like an attempt to mirror that of TVGuide.com. For those of us who are not fans of that other guide site, this new interface of Zap2it (which, dare I say, is even worse than the other's to boot) comes as a severe blow to a great many of us. As for myself, I have been using Zap2it.com for well over a decade-and-a-half --- I saw it powering Channel 14 --- Cablevision's on-air channel-lineup back in the 90s and 2000s. I should add that Zap2it did upset me once back in the very early 2000s with an interface change --- but that was about their color scheme which was livable since its functionality remained intact and user friendly. And so, the site remained stellar. This radical change, however, is a different story. "This is genocide... the deliberate and systematic destruction of all life on Arrakis!" Oops, sorry, watching Dune. What I meant to say was that this time they killed the interface of a truly great site. It was easier to look at, preferences were spot on for such things as:
• 6 hour programming (sometimes I was blessed with 7 hours, no lie
• when I clicked on a program, the program details were useful for things such as cast and director
• the site looked professional and useful --- not cartoonish and overblown.
• most of all, I could change the order of my listings to group different classes of channels together
Lastly, the old site loaded infinitely faster... instantly for me in fact.
Thanks again to pj b (4/8/14) and Yahoo! Tv, because of them I can still use a decent online television guide again. Hope it lasts.
NOTE: I moved my rating from one to two because they at least made the site more functional; however, I still hate the new interface as a whole.
(1) Spangler, Todd. "Tribune Acquires TV by the Numbers, Relaunches Zap2it Entertainment Site." Variety, April 3,2014|8:59AM PT. Online. April 23,2014. http://variety.com/2014/digital/news/tribune-acquires-tv-by-the-numbers-relaunches-zap2it-entertainment-site*******147/

Used Zap2it for years. Was the best, and easiest to read, tv listings site. Now they've changed to look -exactly- like tvguide's website from several years ago... which was the reason I found Zap2it in the first place. They didn't have cartoonish bubbles around every listing, which means fewer listings per page, and it actually showed information about a show or episode. That was great, I loved it. Bookmarked Zap2it right away.

Now they've... suddenly become the thing I got away from? They've become the site that I left once I found a better one?

It's very confusing, but I guess I'll look at the Yahoo TV page until I find something similar to what Zap2it used to be - clear to look at, informative on all levels, and capable of showing the details we want to see about the TV listings in question. They had something good and they threw it away. Why they did is something that I guess we'll never understand, unless someone lets us know -something- about their bad decision. Which they'll never admit to. If history teaches us anything.

Or maybe they'll act like human beings and make the thing easier to read the information on again. I bet they would, once the page views start dropping like a stone thrown off a cliff.

Go to "http://affiliate.zap2it.com/tvlistings/ZCGrid.do" - it's not a complete restoration of the Zap2it listings that I, and many others, loved but maybe more of the broken links will be restored to functioning.

The classic TV listings webpage is functional and logged me in automatically with my original username, using the current date and time, all my old settings intact, and the clickable drop down addtional information on any show on the grid.

What isn't functional (takes you to a page with the error "The requested URL /tvlistings/ZCGrid.do was not found on this server"):
- links to jump to another day or time (but you can click on the arrows to jump the grid forward or back);
- link to jump from the drop down information on a current show to another page with additional details on that show;
- links to jump to "This show on TV" or "This episode on TV";
- link to jump to "My Faves" BUT the button on the drop down information on a current show does add work to add the show (but you cannot delete it from your Faves).

Maybe someone can mess around and find a workaround to get these links working. I don't have the time - I only found this alternate URL because I had been putting off customizing a TitanTV login to match my old Zap2it setup, and I Googled Zap2it to see if Zap2it had come to their senses and restored their old version.

I have used Zap2It for several years. The newly designed website looks like a child designed it. If you read the section of what has remained it basically says NOTHING! It will only show ONE hour of programming on my laptop and TWO hours of programming on my tablet. If a show runs from 2-3 hours I now have to scroll to find out, which by the way is very slow. It also keeps logging me out every time my device goes on standby or sleep so that now I have to log in almost every time. It also keeps going back to the general location so once again I keep having to change the location and input my zip code. You would think that the designers would have kept the options that their registered users liked before they launched this joke of a redesigned website. I sent them a feedback email stating these things and here is their reply:

Hello Zap2it user,

Welcome to the new and improved Zap2it. While we know change can take time to get used to, we hope the new design offers an improved user experience for avid TV fans. To learn more about these changes, click here.
We truly appreciate your feedback and strongly encourage you to spend time on the site. Check out our fresh, new TV listings grid and our viewer friendly TV showcards.
Registered Zap2it users, your favorite channels have been transitioned to the new site. We are continuing to work to transition all registered user's location, lineup and service provider settings. We appreciate your patience as well get this in place. Also know that we are working to add the `My Faves feature at a later date.
New users trying to register with Zap2it will have to wait a bit. We hope to have the functionality available to you in May.
Due to the volume of emails we receive, we may not be able to respond immediately. Please be assured that we are reviewing every email and take every concern and suggestion into consideration as we continue to make enhancements to the new site.

Thank you for being a loyal user of Zap2it.
The Zap2it Feedback Team

Zap2it wasn't broken before April 2014, why did they "fix" it?

Before they changed it:
I could specify the number of hours on the grid. Now I can't
I could specify which channels I wanted on the grid. Now I can't.
I could specify the exact hour I wanted the grid to start. Now I can't
I could tell it to show me episode summaries on the grid. Now I can't.

Thanks A LOT for the huge step BACKWARD in functionality.
Back to TV-Guide's web site *sigh*

I first used zap2it.com a few years ago so I could have a customized television guide drilled-down to only twenty or thirty of my most viewed TV stations of the hundreds of cable channels available. Back then there wasn't a "my favorites" feature on cable box guides. I went back to have a look before I penned my review and what a disappointment. Pop-ups and pop-overs everywhere. And not the kind traditional pop-up blockers can stop. Why do the web developers do that to us? And better yet, why doesn't the internet public stop visiting these sites?