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Anonymous User
Not applicable

Update Now TV app for apple TV

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.

2,755 REPLIES 2,755
nst
Elite

@Anonymous User @Anonymous User @Anonymous User 

 

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
Not applicable

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
Elite

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
Not applicable

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
Elite

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
Not applicable

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?

Anonymous User
Not applicable
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
Not applicable

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. 

Anonymous User
Not applicable

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
Not applicable

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 🙂