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.
"I just don't understand this holy grail of a 'recording' function."
Well with about 4million ish UK Virgin Media subscribers using Tivo, there must be a good reason!
Personally, I would much rather subscribe to a terrestrial show on Tivo, then have it work in the background for me recording episodes, then I can see in one simple list what new episodes have been broadcast and I can watch them one by one, whilst forwarding through adverts. It's that simple really.
Of course there are some shows only on Netflix, Amazon etc but if they are being released weekly, I always find it a pain to fire up that app and check to see if new episodes have been added (unless I remember which day they are released).
With TV channel catchup services, yes you have to sit through adverts, but also some of the quality isn't as good as is broadcast live, ITV the most notable, I can't believe how bad that is sometimes, it almost looks SD.
I'm with @nst - I really don't like recording stuff.
I did have a sub for a short while to the premium ITV Hub service - no ads, HD. Channel 4 now offer the same. £4 a month each. I don't subscribe, on the grounds that there's only a couple of things I watch on either channel.
I guess series record on TiVo / some other service, is trying to 'emulate' the big streaming services - you have all episodes queued up ready to watch as and when. Both 'work' - but streaming / catch up is better for me. A couple of examples: 1) I watched Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema recently. Really liked it. Discover previous series / episodes available, so I stream them, rather than kicking myself thinking: why didn't I record that when it was on? 2) Channel 4 news. I don't watch it every day, so I'm not going to put in on series record. And I often don't sit down in front of the TV until 7.30ish - no problem, fire up All 4 and 'watch from start'.
It's not just that I can't be bothered to record (agree, its not huge effort) but streaming does have some advantages.
Absolutely
And to me the paradigm of 'recording' belongs in the remit of PVRs. There are plenty of PVR services Both expensive (SkyQ / Tivo) and cheaper/free to use (freesat and freeview). These are however a very different beast to a streaming box like the AppleTV.
My point being there is simply no need to record something when its available on demand.
I take the point that some streaming services are lower quality - but to be fair my main viewing habits cover the sort of shows that you'd find on Netflix and Sky1 - There are many too on E4 and potentially ITV2 that are of interest but im happy to watch those in a lower quality as my TV does a decent job at upscaling so I don't notice it much.
The trouble with modern streaming services is there are just too many of them. Imagine subscribing to NowTV, Netflix, Disney+, AppleTV+, and the ITV and Channel4 ones too - that makes things quite expensive (though I note still not as expensive as the SkyQ subscription I was paying).
This is, in my opinion, AppleTV's HUGE advantage over the competition. The TV app is just amazing. It totally replaces the need for a recording queue, and I wish that Netflix and NowTV would play nice. yes its still a pain when something is on Weekly on either of those services to have to remember to go into each app and check their own 'up next' queue. Its so much nicer to have the unified experience that the TV app gives you. Ive never understood why Netflix refuse when almost everyone else uses it. BBC, ITV, C4, C5, Amazon Prime, Britbox, and Disney+ all seem quite able to use it - and of course we were promised that NowTV would also... but we know how that turned out eh.
My only criticism about the TV app is that its retrospective... so if I know something brand new is coming up next week on a PVR I would set it to record using the upcoming 7 day EPG. On the AppleTV you have to wait until after the show has first broadcast to be able to find it, and add it to up next.
I do miss the casual channel hopping that is possible with a TV guide and SkyQ / Tivo box... as the streaming apps are not really good at that - however I am interested to see how the Firestick is nudging towards this with its live tv feature. This is something that is relatively new and seemingly changing all the time - only Channel 5 seems to play nice with this at the moment but I can see it being way more useful when the others join in.
Which Patent are you referring to? I haven’t seen anything mentioned about an EPG patent for Apple TV. If you want an EPG, channels works fantastic for Freeview alongside the HDHomeRun
Could you repost the link, not showing up?
Yes I use HDHomeRun with channels, gets you all the freeview channels and does offer an EPG they’ve now added PIP support too which is very nice. I only really use NowTV personally for Sports so current app in this iteration is fine for me the 50fps being far more important than the 5.1 albeit the 5.1 would be a nice addition and would have me consider some of the other packages but truth be told there is just so many television shows/movies as it is on Netflix, Prime, Disney+ etc. The entertainment/cinema packs just feels like a situation where if you’ve run out of things to watch on those then add it on for a month or two!
My only gripe with NowTV is feels crazy to charge £11.99 and £9.99 for those packs when Netflix will only be costing £13.99 after the bump, feels like a trick missed not to merge those two packs together and charge £12.99 or something...
@Anonymous User
For all things HDHomeRun, have a look at silicondust.com
I’ve had one of their devices for a couple of years now. Mainly use it as a backup for Freeview stuff, which we normally watch via streaming. Bought a Plex Lifetime on offer a while back so can use Plex DVR to schedule recording and Plex app for playback. SiliconDust also have a PVR (paid subscription) or there’s the Channels app.
Tivo was fab back in the day - had two back in 2000. Hackable & moddable - brilliant! Ahead of it’s time back then, VHS was king, Sky+ was in it’s infancy. But the whole PVR/DVR concept wasn’t easy to grasp back then, people didn’t “get it”! Eventually “original” Tivo lifetime support ended (around 2009/2010?) and we got Sky+ for a while. But then along came iPlayer etc and streaming....
Ive been fairly happy with Now TV since the update but I went downstairs yesterday to show my son Liverpools second goal yesterday on a 4k firestick and the picture quality on sky sports looked fantastic compared to my 4k apple tv
The nowtv app is so bad compared to the 4k Amazon, I’m experiencing slow user interface, continue watching is not updated. Truly shocking how this app can be so different on separate devices. It really does beggar belief. I want to use the Apple version but I just simply can’t. We’ve had this discussion before.
@Anonymous User
Totally agree as normal.
Shocking how an app that was in beta for 8 months with goodness knows how much feedback... and then they release the version in the state that it is...
and to rub salt into the wounds one week later the Firestick version appears out of thin air and completely out performs the AppleTV one in every sense.
I too cannot use the AppleTV app - a real shame - i want to, but I cannot.
Also a shame that despite our vocal criticism, and their placating comments - they have made no updates to the app in the last2 months since its been released - so the promised 5.1 audio support and AppleTV TV app integration seem to be something they have little intention of fixing.
Meanwhile, sadly, the Firestick app is now my app of choice and actually works very well.
Can’t see any obvious changes but again the app on Apple TV has been updated at the same time the iOS app has for iPhone. Least something is happening though! 🤞🏻for some more significant updates sooner rather than later
@Anonymous User
I've totally given up believing they will fix the AppleTV app I gave them basically a year of dithering about and have totally given up which I am sad about.
Sadly I completely agree.
Despite the ridiculous situation of the long drawn out beta testing... the app they delivered was and still is awful.
What I have come to believe now is that it wont be addressed for a long time. I still think that the Firestick one is demonstrably superior on purpose.
When it launched, they had an avalanche of queries and feedback and they did imply that missing features such as 5.1 audio were being imminently addressed... however I feel that if this were true then we would have had a fix by now. We aren't talking shiny new features that we asked for.. we are asking for things that should have been working from the outset that weren't.
Some 2 months on I have given up on using the app. Although others disagree and have no use for the 5.1 aspect of the boost pass.. I certainly do and until the app works correctly I can't use it.
Of course it would be nice for the app to get a bit more polish, and work better with the AppleTV remote, as well as TV app integration and top row dock functionality. All these things were fed back many times from the beta testers but It now seems there is little intent from NowTV to make the app everything it should be.
I will keep my eye on it.. as I dont particularly want to be using the Firestick as much as I am - but my hopes of a rapid fix are long gone and I think we are here for the long haul now.
@Anonymous User
No idea what to think to be honest.
One thing I will say is the Firestick 4K doesn't seem to pull down as good off a WiFi Signal as my Apple TV 4K box. Just brought the ethernet adapter for it though and now that problem is solved and got rid of the buffering issues but that's not really a knock against the device more my WiFi Set up but least amazon provide a solution.