Apple TV App?

[Ericft]

I have been a loyal SageTV user since 2003 or so and continue to have HD300s around the house. I am down to my last 4 and wanted to know if there was a possibility or not of development of an APPLE TV app that would interface with the server. I would love to have such a feature that would allow access to my recordings and videos similar to what is available via FireTV interface.
Not sure if apple TV would even allow such an app, if this has been already discussed please forgive me as I did a search and didn't find any specific info about ATV app. Thanks!

[wayner]

It ain’t gonna happen. There have been a few false starts at iOS apps - you should find those with a couple of searches.

Your best bet is to try an AndroidTV device or buy more used HD300s.

[Tiki]

Is it possible? Yes
Is it likely? No

It would be a really big development effort and there just aren’t many developers around anymore with the time or desire and also the skill to take on a big project like this.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by Ericft

Not sure if apple TV would even allow such an app

I think that's the real crux of the issue. Someone has to invest about 1000 hours of effort into getting this started, and then you have no idea if that work will even be accepted. At least with Android, even if Google decided to reject it, you can offer it as a side loaded app, but with Apple, if they reject it, then you are done.

[Ericft]

Thank you all for the replies. I assumed as much about difficulty in Apple approval and of course the huge effort it would take to code it. Would have been amazing though.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by Ericft

Thank you all for the replies. I assumed as much about difficulty in Apple approval and of course the huge effort it would take to code it. Would have been amazing though.

I am not so sure. Having an iOS app for phone and tablet would be very useful.

But when it comes to streaming devices for your TV you have a bunch of options and it isn't clear to me why AppleTV will be a winner when you are using it to watch Netflix, Disney +, Amazon Prime, HBO, etc as well as Apple TV+. What is the competitive advantage of Apple over AndroidTV on a Shield or Google device, a Roku, a FireTV, or for the hardcore geeks a PC or RPi. An Apple TV device makes sense when you are tied into the Apple ecosystem when you buy/rent most of your content from Apple but it makes way less sense when your primary content is non-Apple streaming services. Why should I pay a >$100 Apple premium? I think Roku gives a better experience and it is way easier to control with other devices as Roku has a very well thought out and publicly supported API.

But maybe I am biased. I am all in with iOS and my house is filled with iPhones and iPads, but I have never owned an Apple TV and don't see the attraction of it vs my SageTV extenders and a Roku. I have enough SageTV extenders to last me another decade but I will probably have to kill them in the new future as they don't work for HEVC or 4K.

[davidb]

I agree the 1000 hours or more part is realistic but if someone were to do it as long as they followed the Apple tv app store guidelines the app would be accepted. I do know the app would have to use HLS(Http Live Streaming) using either H.264/AVC or HEVC/H.265. This is not a problem to create though using ffmpeg. With the small remaining SageTV user base and the maturity of the Android client I think that is a better option. But unlike other Apple products the cost of the Apple TV is not much more than the Nvidia shield.

David

Originally Posted by stuckless

I think that's the real crux of the issue. Someone has to invest about 1000 hours of effort into getting this started, and then you have no idea if that work will even be accepted. At least with Android, even if Google decided to reject it, you can offer it as a side loaded app, but with Apple, if they reject it, then you are done.

[wayner]

@davidb - Weren't you the person working on a SageTV iOS client at one time?