We are constantly pursuing ways to make the X1 experience as easy-to-navigate and intuitive as possible, and this month, we’ve made updates focused around making it easier for customers to access the content they want on their own terms. Here are a few highlights:

Restart Notification
Some of you may have already tested out the Restart Notification — which allows users to quickly and easily restart a program from the beginning. The feature — previously available in Labs — notifies users if a program is available to view from the beginning after tuning to a channel. This feature is now officially moved out of Comcast Labs and will be turned on by default in Preferences. When the notification appears, press Info on the remote to invoke the Mini Info. Then select Restart from the action bar to start the program from the beginning.

 

Comcast Labs – Kids Zone
You may have seen the news last week about the launch Kids Zone, a new X1 feature that offers a safe destination for kids to independently browse and watch their favorite movies and shows. We’re excited to announce that Kids Zone is officially live in Comcast Labs! Every choice in Kids Zone has been approved by Common Sense Media for kids age 12 and under, giving parents peace of mind that their children won’t stumble across anything inappropriate.

 

Comcast Labs – Control Panel
New to Labs this month is “Control Panel” — a quick access point for customers to get to their Xfinity service information and frequently used settings without interrupting whatever they’re currently watching. Once on, pressing the left arrow button when viewing full screen video will bring up the Control Panel on the left side of the screen. Right now, the features of Control Panel include Current Time, Weather, MyAccount, Tips and Tricks, and Start Power Saver, which powers off box to conserve energy.

 

Comcast Labs – Enable All
Many of our customers have discovered the Comcast Labs section of X1 — the place to check out and use some of the new features of the platform before they officially launch. Many features of the platform started out here, and it is the result of great feedback from customers testing beta versions that often inspires us to roll out features permanently to the platform. This month, we’ve added a new setting within Labs –”Enable All” – that makes it easier for users to opt-in to all Labs updates and automatically turn on new features as they are released. Many customers have told us how much they like being able to try things out during the development phase, so this makes it easier for you to stay looped in.

 

Video Description Icon added to Linear Info
In line with our efforts to make our products and services more accessible to all, we have added the Video Description Icon to the Grid Guide. The icon signifies Descriptive Video Service is available for the programs that have a secondary audio track with Video Description.

Descriptive Video Service (DVS) is valuable to customers who have low vision, or are vision impaired, and provides audio descriptions of a program’s key visual elements. To hear the DVS track, go to Settings > Accessibility Settings, and turn Video Description On.