So, TVTime is sunsetting, and we're all looking for a place to migrate to.As I was doing the same, my hyperfocus kicked in, and I delved a little too deep with AI research & comparison sheets & all...The one I thought at first would be the feature rich one I really like but won't end up choosing cause it's new, Cinephile, actually came out as the winner on almost all accounts.First of all, the import process itself. Even though this app isn't using official TVTime exports, it has, BY FAR, the smoothest imports of all the apps I tried. And I tried many (just ask my excel table).Not only do you have clearly distinct statuses on this app, the dev actually doesn't see them as an afterthought, because from a single TV Time Out series export file, Cinephile manages to keep Gave Up (TVT's 'Stopped watching'), For Later (TVT's 'Watch Later'), and Completed (TVT's 'Finished') statuses. Might seem trivial to the average TV fan, but if you got hundreds of shows in your log like me, each with its own decree lol, then having your Now Watching list cluttered by 50-60 shows you dropped years ago can become quite the nuisance.Sure, other apps I tried, e.g. Showly, Trakt itself, Sofa Time, and Refract (makers of the TV Time Out Chrome extension), have *some* of the statuses— but not all, and the ones they do get *lost* during import. Even Trakt and Sofa Time, which take official exports. Cinephile loses only rewatch counts (even though it includes this metric).And a word of advice, if you connect your Trakt account, rather than helping, that exchange between Trakt and Cinephile actually destroys these statuses that Cinephile could maintain on its own. That's why I actually gave up on Trakt and will be using just Cinephile's iCloud backup.Speaking which, what the app opts to reserve for its premium tier, including iCloud backups, is very reasonable, which you can't say for a few of the others. And with the huge sale on yearly subs right now, I'm likely to keep my sub after my free trial.Beyond that, you get BALLPARK DATES in logs, i.e. you can choose only a month, or a year etc according to what you remember. This always bothered me with Letterboxd –not that I'm replacing it also– how I keep wanting to log movies I saw as a kid and only remember which year it was, but having to include a random day and month. Well here that's not a problem.Another feature I like is Skipping a particular season or, optionally, all seasons before it as well. Means you get to pick the season & point that'll show up on your Now Watching list, which you couldn't do on TVTime.One thing I missed was TVTime's default behavior of putting recently released episodes at the top as an exception to whatever sorting you have on, as well as the Haven't Watched in a While section. And what do you know— while I was in the process of migrating, both of these were ADDED in a recent update. So, you know, that worked out well.So aside from its superior filtering, sorting and cosmetic options, the front page of this app now contains a Premiering Now section at the top and a Haven't Watched in a While section at the bottom for Shows.Currently the only thing I'm missing is episode-level comments. Dev says he'll add it, but until then I'm gonna have to jump over to Trakt when I wanna hear what people are saying about a particularly interesting episode.But with all the stuff I mentioned, plus a highly customizable Library, this one took the cake and I made the move yesterday. Cool cool cool.
Whoa this is hands down the best written review I have ever seen! 🤩 You did your research well, and it shows! I’m very glad you ended up choosing Cinephile; having such a dedicated user like yourself in our community is just priceless. Two things to mention: 1) the rewatch count from TV Time has now also been added (you probably migrated before this change was made, sorry for being late on that!); 2) the community features are coming VERY soon.. I’m talking days here, not weeks or months 👀☺️Thanks again for the incredible review! And do feel free to reach out to support anytime or request improvements and features in the features board!