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What's happened to the Apple TV app?


JayZee

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JayZee

It's been 6 months since any update was done on the Apple TV 4 app. I've moved over from Plex as I prefer the developers of Emby who are far more communicative than Plex, but I'm finding the Emby Apple TV app isn't quite as good as the Plex app and feels very dated, as well as quite slow to start.

 

I see a very nice interface and lots of new features (eg live TV) on the other clients but the 6 month hiatus without even a minor update has me worried that the Apple TV platform is not considered a priority?

 

Are we likely to see any update very soon and if so, is an overhaul of its current dated appearance coming?

 

Thanks for your hard work.

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Hi, the apple tv app is using native tvOS layouts. What exactly do you feel is dated or could be better? thanks !

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There actually have been a few minor updates recently and we are working on more internally but, as Luke said, we are interested in what you feel is "dated" since we are using the tvOS standard layouts.  Thanks.

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corey

Hi @@JayZee!

 

I'm one of the developers of the Apple TV version of the app. First, I want to apologize that we haven't been pushing out more frequent feature updates outside of bug fixes. I happen to be a volunteer developer and dedicate time to Emby for Apple TV when I can.

 

As far as the appearance and performance of the app that is feedback that we appreciate. We have been hard at work on Live TV so please stay tuned.

 

We appreciate your questions and support!

Edited by corey
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JayZee

Well guys, this is EXACTLY why I fell in love with Emby and started to transition from Plex. In a matter of minutes THREE Emby developers have shown interest and care while any posts in Plex forums would never get answered. Thank you to you all!

 

As a new Emby user, I'll offer as much constructive feedback on the Apple TV app as I can so hope that helps. When I say it felt "dated", it's probably the wrong word to use. It feels very bare bones in terms of functionality and also in terms of use of available display space compared to that of your Android TV. I'll post some photos to describe what I mean:

 

 

The loading up of the app seems to take a lot longer than other Apps on my Apple TV 4 including Plex which has the same NAS shares as Emby linked to it.

 

59729e0da6a95_IMG_5628web.jpg

 

 

 

 

One of my biggest suggestions is that this Home Screen has WAYYY too much wasted space up the top with the Emby Ribbon etc...None of the other Emby apps waste so much screen real estate. This space would be best used to show a default of e.g. "recently Added" , "Recently Released" "continue watching" etc rather than have 80% of the screen with nothing useful and having to scroll down to get to the "Continue Watching".  From a usability point this definitely needs to be fixed.

 

 

59729e8ae1dc9_IMG_5629web.jpg

 

 

 

 

Similar issue with this page as well. Huge waste of space at the top of the screen which could have been used to have a selection of Watch Filters,  A Search field etc instead of losing 30% of the top of the screen to blank white space.

In addition clicking on the "Sort" filters reveals only 1-2 filters instead of a collection of them like Recently added, aired, etc

 

59729ef84c960_IMG_5632web.jpg

 

 

 

 

Many of my shows keep showing these huge "Scenes" in the page which doesn't look particularly attractive given there are no thumbnails and it seems to take up 50% of the screen!

 

59729f8b6fe8f_IMG_5631web.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

There is a bug in the app that despite turning off "show upcoming shows" they STILL show up in the app. This causes a lot of clutter as I'd rather not see shows that don't yet exist.

 

59729ffa47a97_IMG_5630web.jpg

5972a0632fc9c_IMG_5635web.jpg

 

 

 

 

Many of the actor thumbnails are missing. Not sure why as the same shows have extensive thumbnails in Plex.

 

5972a08e0ad67_IMG_5634web.jpg

 

 

 

 

And finally of course the big missing feature is the Live TV/Guide/DVR recording which you are working on though and we will see soon. I'd also like to see more frequent updates in line with all the other platforms.

 

Hope some of this feedback is useful and keep up the great engagement with the community!

 

Cheers

Edited by JayZee
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Spaceboy

Hi @@JayZee!

 

I'm one of the developers of the Apple TV version of the app. First, I want to apologize that we haven't been pushing out more frequent feature updates outside of bug fixes. I happen to be a volunteer developer and dedicate time to Emby for Apple TV when I can.

 

As far as the appearance and performance of the app that is feedback that we appreciate. We have been hard at work on Live TV so please stay tuned.

 

We appreciate your questions and support!

yes please to live tv!
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sfnetwork

I agree with lack of live TV and the space wasted on home screen...

 

Home screen

-I'm not a fan of the big movie ribbon picture to be honest, I just like when all apps tends to have the same design, look... And like mentioned previously, wasted space...

-The profile picture is super small in a small grey square... that can be improved easily I'm sure... lose the square and bigger IMO

-Like on the other clients, I would like an option to have small media tiles

-59734b996c46d_atvhome.jpg

 

Detail screen

-Can you see what's circled? me either. Those must not be black

-No trailer button

59734c49bbce9_atvdetails.jpg

 

Shortcut menu or something similar

One of the reason Apple TV app is one I use a lot with Plex is because of this shortcut menu (accessible from any screen by sliding left)... It lets you go back to home screen, access your libraries, settings, etc... from anywhere in the app. It make navigation in the UI so fast and easy.

I'm not saying to copy it, just an idea to work with (mostly to go to home screen easily from anywhere)

59734d4aacf62_atvplex.jpg

 

***Is it me or the title appearing during loading is kind of "grainy" (not really showing in my pic thought)

59734deda6203_atvgrainy.jpg

 

I focused on the what could be improved here but A LOT of positive, I love this app (BTW)

Edited by sfnetwork
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The icons on the detail screen being black is an Apple bug they introduced in tvOS 10 and won't even respond to us on.  I guess we'll have to take it into our own hands.

 

As for shortcuts etc. - after Live TV, we are also looking at re-designing the basic interface to use the "swipe down" menu that you see in other Apple TV apps.

 

Thanks for the feedback!

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If you are interested in helping us test Live TV in the Apple TV app, please PM me your Apple ID for the device.

 

@@sfnetwork

 

Thanks!

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corey

 

 

There is a bug in the app that despite turning off "show upcoming shows" they STILL show up in the app. This causes a lot of clutter as I'd rather not see shows that don't yet exist.

 

59729ffa47a97_IMG_5630web.jpg

5972a0632fc9c_IMG_5635web.jpg

 

 

 

@@JayZee --

 

I can't repeat this problem. I'm curious have you tried restarting and/or reinstalling the Emby Apple TV app?

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corey

The icons on the detail screen being black is an Apple bug they introduced in tvOS 10 and won't even respond to us on.  I guess we'll have to take it into our own hands.

 

@@sfnetwork --

 

As @@ebr mentioned we haven't been able to get a response back from Apple on this bug that was introduced in tvOS 10. With that said I was testing tvOS 11 (which should release in the fall) on an Apple TV this weekend and this problem appears to be fixed.

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MickSlash

Hi corey, in the next version of the app you will also add other translated languages ​​(german, french, italian ...)?

Thanks for your great work!

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b0dyr0ck2006

If you are interested in helping us test Live TV in the Apple TV app, please PM me your Apple ID for the device.

 

@@sfnetwork

 

Thanks!

Out of interest, how would live tv work on this? Are we talking live streaming from the internet? It may be different in the USA but the uk laws seem to be clamping down on live streaming for some reason, not that we really have much options of channels. I personally don't watch uk tv as the programming isn't to my taste, hence the reason for amazon accounts or the like so I can watch better programming coming from the US.

 

There have been some really good points brought up in this thread, some of which were pointed out when we were beta testing the app at the beginning. In the whole the app works pretty well but it could do with some tweaks here and there. With the advent of ios11 around the corner will this open more options to you guys? Can we implement voice search yet, have they finally released the api for this?

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Out of interest, how would live tv work on this?

 

It works the same way as all the other apps with our Live TV implementation.  Live TV Wiki

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b0dyr0ck2006

It works the same way as all the other apps with our Live TV implementation. Live TV Wiki

Ok, so I need an HDHomerun box installed in my network. Fair enough. I don't watch enough live tv to warrant buying one of those. Not unless it'll stream USA tv haha Edited by b0dyr0ck2006
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  • 5 months later...

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