But obviously there is broad support for MPEG-DASH on other devices. Because otherwise the app would have the same limitations there too. But I’m pretty sure that those devices will also support HLS. So you could also argue that if there are two very popular protocols out there, you should support both. And that you can’t expect from the BBC to change their protocol just because of that one streaming device out there.

But I don’t want to take a side on this. In the end it’s just the usual blame game of big companies. And the customer has to pay the price for it.

Won’t disagree on that. I think if they would really try, they would find a way to do all those things on Apple TV. I had an app from a german broadcaster that also lacked subtitles support for a long time. But a while ago they finally added support. Although you can see that the subtitles don’t respect my style settings. So I guess they are using some workaround. And I could imagine that subtitles support lacked because of the same reason.

But on the other hand I think it’s also true that Apple is kind of ignorant sometimes in some cases. And thinks they can afford to do things differently than everyone else. And regarding phones and tablets they can. Because they have a leading position there. But not when it comes to streaming boxes.

I don’t use those services in a web browser. But of course they want to have a working copy protection / DRM. Chromium based browsers should work without issues (Chrome, Opera, Edge). But again: On Apple devices, all web browsers are forced to use Apple’s own WebKit engine. Even Google’s own Chrome browser. And on Apple TV, WebKit and web browsers aren’t supported at all.

I agree about Apple making some questionable decisions. If it wasn’t about having proper “frame rate matching“ across all major streaming apps, I think I would not own an Apple TV.

And of course Amazon doesn’t care about selling hardware. They want you to use a FireTV device to be able to force you to watch more and more ads.

https://www.aftvnews.com/fire-tvs-now-autoplay-full-screen-video-ads-when-waking-up-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/

As FireOS is based on Android, the apps (Netflix and Spotify) look and feel almost identical to the Android TV versions. I would think the same about the BBC iPlayer app, but I don’t use it myself.

But Amazon‘s new OS (Vega OS) is said to also be Linux based (like Android) and rely even more on web technologies. Maybe similar to LG‘s WebOS they use on their Smart TVs. So I don’t think app developers will have problems porting those apps over.

And that’s my point here: Apple doesn’t allow WebKit on tvOS. So developers can’t rely on those web technologies and use the same shared code base on Apple TV. But as a hardware device, Apple TV is just not important enough, so they will spend much time and money with developing a native tvOS app. So I think that’s why we end up with those apps that feel very basic compared to other devices.

But I agree that it doesn’t help that especially Netflix and Spotify aren’t really big friends of Apple. Of course both can’t afford to ignore Apple‘s phones and tablets. But I guess it doesn’t hurt them much to kind of ignore Apple TV.

I could imagine that Amazon is making the Prime app on other devices bad by intention. Because they want that people use their services on their own Fire TV devices. But neither Netflix nor Spotify have their own hardware. And both have already stopped offering their subscriptions over Apple’s AppStore. So if they provide an app for Apple TV, why should they have an interest in making the experience less good than on other devices? Instead of just ignoring Apple TV completely?

So personally I still think that those apps would be in a better shape if the developers could just use the same cross-platform code on ATV. Nowadays many apps are basically just dynamic webpages. But as far as I know Apple doesn’t allow WebView on ATV. So developers would have to write workarounds or use wrappers to do things on ATV. So to me it seems that tvOS is just not a very developer friendly platform in this regard. But maybe a developer following this might want to comment on this.

Over at avforums.com I’ve heard a while ago that a user was told by the BBC tech support that the app has all those limitations because of the lack of “MPEG-DASH” support on Apple TV.

So the solution would be that the BBC does some extra work to find workarounds for Apple TV or Apple would have to add support for “MPEG-DASH” in tvOS. I don’t think any of this will happen.

I think this is similiar to Netflix not supporting interactive content on Apple TV because they say there is no support for “seamless branching”. Or Spotify not rolling out their new “TV experience” to Apple TV because they can’t use the same cross-platform code.

So to me it seems that we can also thank Apple for the state of some apps. Not supporting some standards and technologies in tvOS that are supported on many other devices. And I think it’s understandable that some app providers don’t want to do time and cost intensive extra work for the Apple TV device that has a relatively low market share.

The TV app available on non-Apple devices lets you view content from their TV+ subscription service and your content purchased on iTunes. And I think that’s the crucial point here: Before they started to spread their TV app, you needed an Apple TV to watch your iTunes library on your TV. But now with the app available on so many other devices, they made the Apple TV evitable for using their own services. So this might even strengthen their position as a content provider, but I think on the other hand it also weakens the position of the Apple TV as a hardware device. And I think in this regard they gave away their leverage in forcing UI/UX standards on other app providers. Because I think it won’t hurt them much not to be present on Apple TV if this would mean time and cost intensive extra work to conform with Apple’s UI/UX standards.

As a streaming device, the Apple TV has a relatively low market share. Even Apple is bringing its TV app to more and more other devices / platforms. Weakening their own position by making their own streaming device kind of redundant. And I think if they would enforce those things, some apps would just vanish from Apple TV.

On the other hand many available apps somtimes even feel kind of “left behind” compared to other platforms. And I’ve heard several times now that developers can’t just use the same cross-platform code base on ATV as on other devices. And I think that might be the reason for the state of apps like Spotify or Netflix. So if Apple can’t enforce a unified look & feel, maybe it would be even better if they would put some effort in making tvOS more developer friendly. In a way that developers can more easily use the same code base on ATV than on other devices.

Same here. Does only happen in the Disney+ app. I think it has something to do with that current issue that the app always gets stuck at the current display mode. And doesn’t switch back to your default mode after stopping playback.

https://www.reddit.com/r/appletv/comments/17p2yd8/disney_app_is_broken/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

So you will get a screen blank out every time you exit and enter the app. And I have the feeling this is when those frame skips happen. After force closing the app with the app switcher and re-opening it, the skips are gone until I have left the “stuck” app again once and go back to it.