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Apps Video Explorer, my video player for AppleTV is In Review

eiprol

eiprol

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 20, 2009
266
151
Spain
[EDIT Jan 8th: Now it's iOS Universal App!: (#153)]
[EDIT Dec 21st: 1.2.1 released: Bug playing files should be fixed now (#150)]
[EDIT Nov 9th: 1.1.1 released: .SRT subtitle files support! (#90)]
[EDIT Nov 4th: 1.1 released: Built in subtitles and audio support! (#62)]
[EDIT Nov 3rd: 1.0.1 just released, but I already submitted a big update 1.1 (#52)]
[EDIT Oct 30th: It's already 'Ready for Sale']

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...etv-is-in-review.1931080/page-4#post-22217073
Hi guys,

I just wanted to let you know that my app, Video Explorer, which is able to play content from your LAN Media Servers (including PLEX , NAS, and shared folders), is already In Review :)

You can take a look here
http://video-explorer.com


Screen2.png

Screen3.png

Screen4.png


I hope it gets approved for launch day!
 
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Awesome! Please update when you hear back from Apple :)

So to be sure, even if for some reason Plex doesn't get approved, I'll be able to access my Plex library via your app?

I'll be sure to remember to check it out as soon as mine arrives!
 
FrederikTK said:
Awesome! Please update when you hear back from Apple :)

So to be sure, even if for some reason Plex doesn't get approved, I'll be able to access my Plex library via your app?

I'll be sure to remember to check it out as soon as mine arrives!
Click to expand...

Yes! at least it's been working flawlessly with my Plex server, installed on my mac
 
Looks interesting but not too much info on your site just now. Does it support Plex metadata or library structure or is it a normal folder based browser? Are subtitles supported?
 
For now, it lets you browse any server (with folder-like browsing), including PLEX (but here, its navigation style is 'library-like¡, showing you its typical structure of videos, music, iTunes library, etc... as configured on your Plex server... not just random folders), and being able to play any format without the need of a transcoder (so you won't be restricted to mp4 files only).

This is only the first version, submitted to the AppStore as soon as it was functional, but I'm already working on improvements. It's basic but functional enough, since you can discover and browse (folder-like) media servers and computer shared folders. The idea is, of course, to introduce subtitle support and playlists soon.

I'm also preparing a video, the website was also done in one day, so sorry if it doesn't show many information yet... but I don't think it's pointless though!
 
My question is can/have you figured out how to include your app in the siri search?
 
eiprol said:
For now, it lets you browse any server (with folder-like browsing), including PLEX (but here, its navigation style is 'library-like¡, showing you its typical structure of videos, music, iTunes library, etc... as configured on your Plex server... not just random folders), and being able to play any format without the need of a transcoder (so you won't be restricted to mp4 files only).

This is only the first version, submitted to the AppStore as soon as it was functional, but I'm already working on improvements. It's basic but functional enough, since you can discover and browse (folder-like) media servers and computer shared folders. The idea is, of course, to introduce subtitle support and playlists soon.

I'm also preparing a video, the website was also done in one day, so sorry if it doesn't show many information yet... but I don't think it's pointless though!
Click to expand...
does it support the file format .rmvb?
 
How bout some codes/trials for people on here (or make it free for everyone for a while) so we can try the IOS version as sorta a preview - if works good I am sure you will sell a lot of ATV ones.
 
It has just been approved by Apple, so it's officially ready for sale on the App Store.

I'm thinking of, (like you said) maybe, making it free for a few days/weeks, so I can get nice feedback and improve it as much I can...
 
Last edited:
eiprol said:
It has just been approved by Apple, so it's officially ready for sale on the App Store.

I'm thinking of, (like you said) maybe, making it free for a few days/weeks, so I can get nice feedback and improve it as much I can...
Click to expand...

Excellent news. A day one install for me. If you do charge, it may be worth offering some promo codes on here to solicit feedback and reviews. I for one use Plex and have a DLNA server for movies so am keen to check this out.
 
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Congratulations! This is exactly the type of app I was hoping they would approve. If I can view the folders on my NAS and play my locally stored videos I will be very happy. It is definitely a good sign for the future potential of the new ATV.

Will you be making it available in the Canadian store as well?
 
Yes make available in Canada. Unless it's a glitch and will automatically be resolved for now it shows in USA store only.
 
And Germany please.

If the App is running, does it mean I only need my NAS running and I can play all my files?
Which formats are supported? MKV and ISO?
Thanks
 
Yes, It will be available in every store, not only US! the only reason it's not showing there yet, it's because Apple doesn't seem to have released the proper TV App Store worldwide yet... so maybe it's just a glitch. But don't worry, there is not any kind of region lock for the App (at least by my side)!

As for the way it works, you only need a NAS running, and It should even find it automatically (but you can also enter manually the IP if it doesn't and it will remember it). It should play MKV files, but I haven't tried with ISO. It works indeed with mp4, avi, flv, 3gp, mpeg... and so on.

It will be free at least for the first days, so you can test it in its first version and give me some feedback if you want. I guess that's fair enough, since It's a first version and I want to improve it with your feedback as much as I can, and although I've tested it with my AppleTV SDK Unit and my NAS, I'm sure we will find some bugs :)
 
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Awesome, thanks.
Could you please try ISO and if it's not possible at the moment, could you try to implement it in future builds? That would be the perfect App I was looking for.
Thanks
 
Looked at your website and should get my ATV4 tomorrow. Just curious:

- What about audio support ? Likely DTS and DD/DD+ (E-AC3) decode will cost you licensing. Infuse has support, but that's a paid app. What do you do ? Do you support bitstreaming over HDMI ?
- What about TrueHD or DTS-HD ? Apple seems to ignore these. Will CoreAudio just strip about the core stream, so you still end up DD or DTS ... hopefully via HDMI.
- Subtitle support ? Does it have to be embedded or are you able to pick a .srt file sitting on a NAS/share next to the video file ?
- Scaling ? Do you upscale to 1080p or does tvOS it for you ? What about non-linear upscaling. E.g. old 4:3 content will look nicer if you stretch it to 1080p. Will tvOS do this ?
- AVI files ?
- Restrictions on H.264 coding ?
- Do you actually support SMB ? I hate DLNA/UPnP.
- Interlaced files ?
- ISO files. (= DVD rips) ?

I currently use Kodi on a Nvidia Shield ATV. I don't care about PLEX with its fancy metadata. Just want to browse files sitting on a SMB/AFP NAS and play these.
 
loekf said:
Looked at your website and should get my ATV4 tomorrow. Just curious:

- What about audio support ? Likely DTS and DD/DD+ (E-AC3) decode will cost you licensing. Infuse has support, but that's a paid app. What do you do ? Do you support bitstreaming over HDMI ?
- What about TrueHD or DTS-HD ? Apple seems to ignore these. Will CoreAudio just strip about the core stream, so you still end up DD or DTS ... hopefully via HDMI.
- Subtitle support ? Does it have to be embedded or are you able to pick a .srt file sitting on a NAS/share next to the video file ?
- Scaling ? Do you upscale to 1080p or does tvOS it for you ? What about non-linear upscaling. E.g. old 4:3 content will look nicer if you stretch it to 1080p. Will tvOS do this ?
- AVI files ?
- Restrictions on H.264 coding ?
- Do you actually support SMB ? I hate DLNA/UPnP.
- Interlaced files ?
- ISO files. (= DVD rips) ?

I currently use Kodi on a Nvidia Shield ATV. I don't care about PLEX with its fancy metadata. Just want to browse files sitting on a SMB/AFP NAS and play these.
Click to expand...

Yes, I support SMB. I use a custom SMB wrapper around 'libdsm' (a minimalist smb client with commercial licensing, since the official SAMBA library wouldn't be compatible with App Store and has GPL license), and it has some limitations... However, it can browse and play most of NAS servers with SMB protocol flawlessly.

As for the player, I don't use Apple's one but a custom one that plays most of the formats (not only mp4). It plays AVI and H.264 with ease, but as you have said, I have no license to let you play AC3 and similar so far (but should be technically possible indeed). It also plays MKV, but I haven't done tests with ISO DVD rips yet.

Subtitle support is on the road map, and It's already included on the player (but not accessible from the released build you will get,sorry; I'm still testing the best approach to select subtitles etc).

Scaling is made automatically, but 4:3 will show some black stripes (to prevent stretching or cropping the image). However this is something I would like to change and let users decide in the future.

Don't forget it's a first version though :p

Tourgott said:
Awesome, thanks.
Could you please try ISO and if it's not possible at the moment, could you try to implement it in future builds? That would be the perfect App I was looking for.
Thanks
Click to expand...

I will check it out to see if I can implement it, no doubt!
 
eiprol said:
Yes, I support SMB. I use a custom SMB wrapper around 'libdsm' (a minimalist smb client with commercial licensing, since the official SAMBA library wouldn't be compatible with App Store and has GPL license), and it has some limitations... However, it can browse and play most of NAS servers with SMB protocol flawlessly.

As for the player, I don't use Apple's one but a custom one that plays most of the formats (not only mp4). It plays AVI and H.264 with ease, but as you have said, I have no license to let you play AC3 and similar so far (but should be technically possible indeed). It also plays MKV, but I haven't done tests with ISO DVD rips yet.

Subtitle support is on the road map, and It's already included on the player (but not accessible from the released build you will get,sorry; I'm still testing the best approach to select subtitles etc).

Scaling is made automatically, but 4:3 will show some black stripes (to prevent stretching or cropping the image). However this is something I would like to change and let users decide in the future.

Don't forget it's a first version though :p



I will check it out to see if I can implement it, no doubt!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick reply. So you are not even allowed to bitstream DTS & Dolby encoded audio streams ... or... is this is not possible in tvOS ? AFAIK, on OSX you can bitstream audio, but only DTS and DD.. so the core stream (without the TrueHD, Atmos etc extensions).

So what I can do is playing MKV or MP4s with AAC LC... right ?
 
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