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Apps BBC iPlayer is out!
- Thread starter john.burn
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Just tried it, and it's very bare bones. No favourites, no top shelf, no Siri search. It doesn't even look like iPlayer does on other platforms, more of a place holder first pass.
Still, it's a start. Hopefully it will get better.
Still, it's a start. Hopefully it will get better.
A really great start, interface is beautiful and the quality is spot on.
Personally I'm very happy to have this now rather than wait and have the extra features to be added over time.
Siri search integration for all streaming apps should be a priority after launch.
Personally I'm very happy to have this now rather than wait and have the extra features to be added over time.
Siri search integration for all streaming apps should be a priority after launch.
Only apps at launch that are reported to have Siri search will. Everything else is awaiting the Siri sdk
Hopefully it will get better, but it's surprisingly barren even for a v1.0. Take for example the PS4's iPlayer app, it was there at launch and is still, 2 years on, at v1.0. That said, it's the standard iPlayer UI with all the trimmings like so currently does far more than than the super basic ATV iPlayer app.
To be honest I'm surprised to see the BBC putting together a low rent TVML app instead of a full on iOS app. It feels rather beneath them.
Sign up for a UK iTunes account, download the app, then you could sign up for a location spoofing service such as unblock.us/unotelly which allow you to pretend you are in the UK. They cost $4-5 a month.
Apple is now heavily plugging the fact that iPlayer is now on Apple TV, with a spot on the front page of the UK site.
There's also a full and featured page devoted to iPlayer now as well.
Surprising to a degree and not surprising though, because iPlayer is quite a deal breaker for TV streaming boxes in the UK.
Also of note from this page is the fact that it says you can watch BBC channels live through the app. Something I'd like to see with all TV channels, so I don't even need free-to-air television.
There's also a full and featured page devoted to iPlayer now as well.
Surprising to a degree and not surprising though, because iPlayer is quite a deal breaker for TV streaming boxes in the UK.
Also of note from this page is the fact that it says you can watch BBC channels live through the app. Something I'd like to see with all TV channels, so I don't even need free-to-air television.
I've been using Auntie Player, but this official App is really good. I agree that it's very quick to navigate and picture quality is fine.
It's 480p. On every other platform, there is an option to turn on 720p, which is a slight improvement.
I always found iPlayer picture quality to be miserable, especially for shows with lots of complex motion (such as nature docs). Compared to Netflix and Amazon, it really isn't good enough.
My experience is streaming content is 1080p, live broadcast is 480p.....but I agree, its heavily compressed and every now and then you can see artifacts.
Sadly iPlayer has never done 1080p for any platform. Check the iPlayer blog. They were recently boasting about how they improving the quality of the "HD" 720p feed.
I agree. I watched the first three episodes of The Hunt on the Apple TV iPlayer last night as I never got around to watching the series during it's regular broadcast and the picture quality had a lot left to be desired. I wish I had watched it on BBC1 HD instead. The picture quality was pretty mediocre. I guess it depends on what type of content you're watching in as to whether it matters or not.
The player itself is pretty bare bones compared to other platforms including iOS. I hope they improve it sooner rather then later. There is no option for a TV guide to choose past shows from the same or previous days which is what I normally use. I don't know if there is a way to airplay the web based iPlayer from another device but that would probably be better at this point.
I have a feeling it's probably automatically giving you 720p if your connection is fast enough. I watched a few programs on it last night to try it out and it no way looked 480p to me, I have quite a large tv screen and 480p content is very noticeable whereas I was quite impressed with the image quality.
I was watching several things on it last night, and I tend to agree. The previous night though, it was definitely no higher than 480p. I did an A-B comparison with my PS4 on the same screen, and the PS4 had a clearly higher quality stream. The BBC haven't done much in the way of adaptive bitrate streaming in the past, requiring us to turn on HD in iPlayer settings. Maybe they're finally scaling the streams properly.
That said, the quality is still garbage. I wish they'd just do 1080p like every other streaming service of any merit, and turn the bitrate dial all the way up. Netflix is 10mbit at 1080p. The BBC should match them.
I also noticed some weird frame rate issues with ATV iPlayer which I haven't seen on any other version. I know the BBC is moving to 25fps for iPlayer, which may not be the best move given that every connected device outside of legacy things like Sky+ and TiVO are 60fps. There was a definite lumpen quality to horizontal motion which looked pretty awful on my ATV.