Update Now TV app for apple TV

[Anonymous User]

Will the Now TV app for Apple TV ever get an update?

The current version is complete rubbish and makes me regret ever getting a Now TV pass.

Unless there is an update my Now TV experience will be very short indeed.

[nst]

@Anonymous User 

Genuinely happy for you... but I guess you werent / aren't / will never be a boost subscriber - and that's fine.  If you are watching on a TV or device with only 2 speakers then it does the job perfectly well.. and why would you care?  I can see why not.

Non boost subscribers are who the current App is aimed at right now.  Its prettier and in some ways but not others more functional than the old one.

As much as It doesn't bother you.. there are some of us (many perhaps but I don't want to assume the majority) with a boost subscription who enjoy movies in HD and 5.1 (and that's significantly LOWERING expectations compared to pic and sound available on other services available on the AppleTV) - and we would rather like to be able to enjoy content as such and not have to still resort to other streaming sticks / boxes / TV apps in order to experience it.  The appleTV is a great box - very technically capable, and just astonishing that "simple" 5.1 cannot be implemented by NowTV.

And more astonishing that NowTV clearly think that implementing boost-lite and leaving off the sound and charging the same is acceptable.  It isn't!

[Anonymous User]

That’s where you are wrong, I am a boost subscriber. I subscribe for the HD but only when I can get an offer. 

[AlexB83]

Could nst sound anymore condescending. I think a lot people will be happy with the improvement in picture quality and let's hope the stuff will come 

[nst]

@AlexB83 

I don't appreciate the reference to being condescending.  that was not anywhere close to my intention.  I don't come into this forum to bicker.

Each to their own.

Im surprised to find boost subscribers who don't care about 5.1.  Live and learn.  and again.. im happy for you!  I would still suggest you are in the minority.  

Personally though, boost was sold to me as being 1080p with 5.1 sound.  Not one or the other.  £3 a month for both.  I don't want one without the other.  Thats not what I signed up for when I took out the subscription.  It didn't, at the time, say anywhere that certain devices that were 'boost' compatible were only capable of one and not the other.  This is a brand new and unfathomable phenomenon.

[MrZippy]

It’s funny we can see why NowTV didn’t make any effort. Joe Public don’t care!

[nst]

@MrZippy 

Sure seems that way.  Always interesting to see the other viewpoints in here.

When they said on Twitter :

"we know that our customers value the option to be able to steam our content in HD and on multiple devices simultaneously.  We therefore wanted to offer this functionality to them as quickly as possible via our Boost Pass"

I just couldn't get my head around the notion that there were people out there who are happy to pay for boost and yet only get / use bits of it.  To be honest you might well not make use of the additional simultaneous streams but I feel that the audio/video upgrade go hand in hand as a feature.

But, yes there are those who seem to be only interested in picture and not sound and in that case NowTV seem to be correct in their assumption.

I still hope this is a very temporary situation however given the length of time they had to work on the app through beta testing.. and to still launch like this... I get the feeling the solution is more than a few weeks away.

[AlexB83]

I pay for boost for the main reasons that it's HD and 50fps (which is important for sports) plus the extra stream is also very important for me. 5.1 audio is the least important aspect of boost for me and I'm sure not everybody has a system which supports it anyway hence I imagine why it was less of a priority. So while it would be nice to have I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. Also when you compare it sky it's like combining their hd pack and sky go extra so I don't think it's terrible value even without 5.1 

[Anonymous User]

@Nst has got every right to air his view. Nowtv have pulled a fast one here not having 5.1 is just not on. You go shopping for 6 eggs and only 3 in the box your not gonna complain. For 8 months we have waited for this app and it’s been a struggle. Now they release it without a main function. Don’t know what there doing. @nst maybe from the likes of whathifi t3 an email or on Twitter I’m sure they’d be interested. I know there was a thread also on avforums regarding the nowtv app surely a post there is worth it. I’m a member on there so I’ll have to try and recover my password. 

[Anonymous User]

Im a big fan of the Apple tv remote,i glide around my apps no problem and it feels weird navigating around other devices on a regular remote.... one of the frustrating things about this new now tv app is how unresponsive the Apple tv remote seems just within the nowtv app, sometimes it takes a fair few swipes to navigate around. Its fine in other apps, feels really quick and can whizz through menus etc.

anyone elses remote feel sluggish in the new now tv app or is it just mine?

[waldopepper]

Yeh something is definitely off with swiping to move around in this app, it feels like you have to swipe down two or three times to make it move sometimes.

Also I can had the 'missing images' bug but can't remember exactly where. 

[Anonymous User]

Yep I mentioned that in a post swiping is slow and unresponsive, also for some reason starting a programme can either be instant or take ages or not happen at all and I need to come out of the app and back in and it starts instantly!

[nst]

@Anonymous User @Anonymous User @waldopepper 

This sluggish responsiveness is something that we picked up in the Beta back in March... again.

However, again this seems to have been ignored and made it to the live version.

Somebody mentioned it was down to the way NowTV have used their own code instead of Apple’s (or suchlike).  I think its similar to the way Amazon Prime have implemented it and theirs is also sluggish too.

May I suggest a workaround that I have used in the app..... instead of swiping on the remote trackpad... just gently tap (don’t click) on the top/bottom/left/right.  It registers the taps perfectly instead of the swipes and makes the app far less annoying to navigate.

Yes, swipes should be better... but taps solve the frustrations.

[Anonymous User]

Great thanks I will try that, any idea on why some programmes just take ages to start or won’t start unless I come out of the app and back in?

[nst]

I wish I knew

For what its worth I got a reply today from the Trials Manager.

She forwarded to me a simple copy and paste to the response given via twitter... word for word.  So this is the company line right now.

The only 'hope' is that they reiterate that they did this on purpose and wanted people to have 2 out of the 3 features of a boost pass (and as we've seen here some people seem content with that)... however they do say "...the teams are working hard on a fix and we hope to be able to offer this in the near future"

As much as I take this with a pinch of salt.. and "near future" could mean a long wait - it appears they see it as a "fix" and "hope" (not encouraging) to get it out soon ish.

My other hope is that if this is a universal app then it should receive regular updates and therefore get some more polish.

My main concern is that this has been known about from the start.  8 months ago.  they had all that time to get 5.1 working and didn't manage it.  So therefore how long will this take now?

[Anonymous User]

It would seem the new app doesn't support Frame Rate Match and thus resolution match.

I have the ATV output set to 4K SDR 24fps, so there's as little switching of the input frame rate as necessary. When firing up the new Now TV app and watching Discovery, I can see the ATV is outputting 2160p24 and there's very noticeable judder, from where the ATV is converting the 50fps content to output as 24fps.

If I set the ATV to output 1080p50, the format for which I have SDR calibrated for, the picture is zoomed in and looks like a low resolution presentation. As such, the app isn't matching the correct resolution either.

So I'm left with having to set the ATV output at 2160p50 (4K SDR 50fps), which means I'll need to check and possible re-calibrate that input.

What a clusterf*ck this app seems to have become. 🙄

Paul

[nst]

Well here's a fun occurrence.

I just started to watch Raised By Wolves.... HD, 5.1... and of course didn't even bother with the AppleTV app... so went back to my (working) LG WebOS app.

And...  was sure that there was something amiss. 

On checking the sound output, it was only 2.0, and the stream quality was 4080 which... is not 1080p, and not 5.1!

The show is labelled as HD 5.1 but certainly wasn't.  I tried logging out of NowTV on the app and back in again but although boost was present, and active..... I couldn't get HD or 5.1.

This app has always worked perfectly well up until today.  All movies and TV shows that should have been HD and 5.1 have been.

I actually resorted to the AppleTV app... at least that was HD.

What is going on????? is there a general problem with NowTV right now?  My recurring theme here is paying for boost.. and not getting it!... in the case of the up-till-now working LG app.. not at all.

Sigh.

[Anonymous User]

I've been following this thread for ages now awaiting a release.

I'll take what's given. I just use NowTV for sport and the update seems fine after a quick check on that and I can retire the TV stick I had to get for it.

What I want to know, is how were we supposed to know there was a new version of the App?

When talk hit on here of an actual release I got excited but still had the old app. I figured that it must take a while for AppleTV to update apps as they don't work like they do on the phone, but nothing happened.

I decided to try and see if using the App store could force an update and found a new app!

Once installed and got around it thinking it was a new device, all good.

But what if I didn't follow this thread, how do average users know a new app is out?

[MrZippy]

They don’t!

Although it is number two in the App Store if you look on the Apple TV, so it might be discovered.

This new app is either universal or linked to the iOS app, hence why the old app hasn’t been updated directly. Why they didn’t put some sort of pop up in the old app mind, maybe they will.

[Anonymous User]

Thanks.

Hopefully, they will put in a message or maybe cut it off so it forces you to look for another version.

I find VERY little need to go to the app store on the ATV. I guess others may use it differently but once I had my main TV apps on it, I don't need anything else. 

[Wentey]

I did raise that the now tv beta app was not using the Apple TV frame/resolution matching function during testing but it has not been integrated 

that said BT sports (I guess my benchmark as it’s so good) doesn’t either but they do at least have “in app instructions” on what to set your Apple TV too.

I have stereo homepods connected to my Apple TV that are now capable of outputting atmos they sound great on BT sport and I have to admit not bad for now tv even with just stereo so I’m glad they went ahead with at least HD and hope 5.1, up next, integrated search and other features (4K?) will follow soon...

[Anonymous User]

I would like to point out that the BT Sport app on ATV4K does actually support frame rate matching and dynamic range matching. The only thing it doesn't support is matching source resolution, but I don't know of many, if any, streaming boxes/sticks which do the auto matching of resolution. It would be great if it did because I would prefer my TV to do all upscaling. Maybe in the future. I think a lot of people complaining about the brief black screens when the HDMI handshaking occurs when changing dynamic range or changing refresh rate (which a lot of people dont understand and so dont appreciate) puts companies off implementing this feature for fear of bad feedback re UX. Look at SkyQ, you have to set one resolution the whole time whereas Sky+HD had an automatic resolution setting which auto matched. Virgin V6 if setup correctly passes native video formats through untouched.

I would like to add that in terms of sports I am not that fussed about 5.1 seen as the 1080p and 50fps (along with 3 concurrent streams) are the much more important factors here IMO.

For TV Shows and Films, which are only 25fps, the lack of 5.1 does become an issue, but then again a lot of people still only watch through TV speakers or stereo setups...

It's interesting that there doesn't seem to have been as much uproar about only providing some boost features on other platforms like LG TVs and Xbox's which don't support 50fps for the Sport channels.

I am lucky that on my Sony 55XF9005 I have the recently released fully fledged NowTV app that I can use with some Motionflow settings to smooth out the content frame rate inside a 60hz refresh rate mismatch judder. I also in the past have used NowTV Smart Stick but my preferred device actually for accessing NowTV is the 3rd Gen Chromecast set @ 50hz. I prefer it to the Chromecast Ultra because the Ultra 'upscales' the signal to 4K and doesn't do as good a job as my TV whereas the CC Gen 3 just passes on the 1080p, at a correct refresh rate for the content frame rate and supports passing dd plus 5.1 as well.

Hope this is useful. Looking forward to more discussion 🙂