Live TV App

[breezytm 124]

Hey, 

 

Any interest in a live tv app for Emby? I was using the Emby app for Android and I think it would be nice to have an independent one. What are you thoughts. 

 

P.S I feel the same way about a music app for Emby.     

 

 

[Luke 42077]

i have thought about it because then you can basically have multiple entry points on the device home screens, plus it would be a great way to increase exposure in the app stores. The problem is that turning them into multiple apps would make each of them larger, more focused on it's single media type, and a much greater effort. So we have a chicken and the egg scenario. We can't justify the effort with one single $4 unlock for all of them, but users would kill us if we ask them to pay multiple times. So that probably means it's unlikely.

[breezytm 124]

i have thought about it because then you can basically have multiple entry points on the device home screens, plus it would be a great way to increase exposure in the app stores. The problem is that turning them into multiple apps would make each of them larger, more focused on it's single media type, and a much greater effort. So we have a chicken and the egg scenario. We can't justify the effort with one single $4 unlock for all of them, but users would kill us if we ask them to pay multiple times. So that probably means it's unlikely.

 

I'll suggest moving your market strategy towards "Emby Premiere". I can tell you this much, no one would want to pay $4 for an app that does pretty much half of what another does for the same price. What I would imagine they would do is becoming a subscriber to bypass that payment. I noticed a colleague of mine did that. Besides a lot of Emby premiere users, including myself, don't really see what's special about being a subscriber. I mean you guys do have some stuff for us but it all depends on the user. I for one don't care for most. But I was glad to see that I can unlock my Emby for iOS with it and for me that was definitely a thumbs up to you guys. I felt so appreciated. Illusion   

 

 

[Luke 42077]

actually i think live tv should remain with regular video for tighter integration, but i do think that we could potentially offer better experiences with dedicated music and video apps. Unfortuantely though, no matter how much effort we put it, or how good they are, I can guarantee the feedback we would hear the most is "why should i have to pay twice."

[techywarrior 689]

actually i think live tv should remain with regular video for tighter integration, but i do think that we could potentially offer better experiences with dedicated music and video apps. Unfortuantely though, no matter how much effort we put it, or how good they are, I can guarantee the feedback we would hear the most is "why should i have to pay twice."

 

Besides paying twice (which wouldn't matter if they are Emby Premier) it would actually be sort of annoying to have to launch multiple apps just depending on what media you happen to be playing at the moment.

[Luke 42077]

Not if you think of your device homescreen as your gateway to everything, which i imagine a lot of people do. I think there are some times when you might bounce back and forth between video and music quickly, so i could understand it there, but most of the time those are two separate activities.

[techywarrior 689]

Still makes you have to think about which app you need at a given time and then depending on the phone and OS you may have extra load times etc.

 

Can't the music "section" still be integrated into the app but be more customized? I would imagine that there would be a lot of overlap with the code regardless of if the interface and player eventually changed. The app would get larger and probably have a larger memory footprint then stand alone apps but less then the two combined.

[breezytm 124]

Who watches a movies and listen to music at the same? No one...Ever. I am not asking to remove the feature from the original app. As a side note, I noticed most top media companies actually splits their apps base on activities.

 

Apple (Music, Videos).

Google (Google Music, Google Play Movies & TV) 

Amazon (Amazon Music, Amazon Instant Videos) 

 

I can only speak for myself but I really do like the idea of having a standalone app for music. And also a dedicated app for live tv would certainly be golden for the big screen. Certainly for a devices running Android TV and the new apple TV. Dedicated App doing a decidated function. I mean who would of thought the "Channels" app would of been so big in the appstore already.

 

I have no doubt it, people would download them and use them accordingly. 

[techywarrior 689]

Well, you don't play music and movies at the same time but you can certainly switch from one to the other rapidly.

 

Also, the examples you give are geared towards purchasing content so I feel it's a little different.

 

I realize that you aren't saying to remove anything from the current app(s) but with the limited developer time Emby has, new or old will suffer in some way.

[ebr 16169]

Not if you think of your device homescreen as your gateway to everything, which i imagine a lot of people do. I think there are some times when you might bounce back and forth between video and music quickly, so i could understand it there, but most of the time those are two separate activities.

 

But, since we are multi-user, that becomes difficult as well because we need log-in information before each of those actions.

[breezytm 124]

Well, you don't play music and movies at the same time but you can certainly switch from one to the other rapidly.

 

Also, the examples you give are geared towards purchasing content so I feel it's a little different.

 

I realize that you aren't saying to remove anything from the current app(s) but with the limited developer time Emby has, new or old will suffer in some way.

 

1. No they are not geared towards purchasing. They are geared towards media playing. The ability to buy a song, album, tv show, movie are just bonuses. You can use the apps with your personal contents. You are not required to buy anything. 

 

2. I don't see where the limited dev factor comes in considering the developer is already managing the maintaining the app for that platform. It's just a matter of taking a component and turn it into its own independent app. Whatever feature you add in one app you copy and paste the same code in the other app. Unless I am missing something. 

 

 

Again that's just my take on this and I see great potential here. Specially now that most TV and portal devices are gearing toward apps to do everything. 

[Luke 42077]

part of the reason to split the media types would be so that we can really focus on each of them separately, give them care, and dedicate the entire presentation towards that one media type. yes that does require more developer time which increases our cost. if all you want are more entry points on your device home screen, then we can easily add a widget to the app and call it a day. all that would do is put icons on your home screen that would dump you straight into live tv, music, etc.

[breezytm 124]

part of the reason to split the media types would be so that we can really focus on each of them separately, give them care, and dedicate the entire presentation towards that one media type. yes that does require more developer time which increases our cost. if all you want are more entry points on your device home screen, then we can easily add a widget to the app and call it a day. all that would do is put icons on your home screen that would dump you straight into live tv, music, etc.

 

You got a good point. You are absolutely right. Well I hope you guys decided to put some focus on each of them separately and decide to release these apps.