tvOS Curiosity Question (ATV4 and iPad)

[jasnw]

As I test out various ATV4 apps I am struck with what a lousy hardware interface Apple has saddled the ATV4 with, which translates into ATV4 app UIs that range from godawful to barely acceptable. I'm not a developer, so I'm curious if there's any way to split the functionality of a content-serving app such that the UI lives on an iPad and the rest of it lives on the ATV4? Seems like a logical thing to do, but would require iOS and tvOS to talk to each other in ways that I'm not sure they can.

 

[benjitek]

...I am struck with what a lousy hardware interface Apple has saddled the ATV4 with... ...ATV4 app UIs that range from godawful to barely acceptable...

That's pretty vague -- what apps are you referring to? What specific UI elements within those apps fall into the "godawful" range? What apps and UI elements achieve your "barely acceptable" rating? Personally, I like the overall UI even if some developers have implemented elements better than others.

 

[jasnw]

My problem is largely with the limitations placed by the remote, a hardware limitation that could be circumvented if the hardware at the user end was an iPad. This is a logical paring, but the only thing I currently see that uses something other than the Apple ATV4 remote is Apple's remote app, which is as crippled as the remote hardware since it only strives to emulate the remote. The biggest limitation of all TV-based apps is the user input device, which has historically been a hand-held button or touchpad-like chunk of hardware. An app running on an iPad opens up a much better user interface for driving a content-providing app on an ATV4 than the hardware remote. I'm just asking if anyone knows if this is feasible given the current iOS and tvOS APIs.

 

[mildocjr]

You could probably do something like what Firemonkey(Firemint) did with Real Racing 3. They have the iDevice control the car while the aTV displays the graphics through Airplay Mirroring. The iDevice screen renders the full track map so it's possible.

Other examples would be Song Pop where you can swipe on your iDevice to choose the song, but the aTV handles the music and the main interface.

 

[jasnw]

So, from what you say it sounds like this sort of thing can be done. I'd guess the main reason not to do this is that you'd probably need to have two UI code sets, one that's tied to the Apple remote (for people without an iDevice) and the second that's tied to an iDevice. Not impossible, but a pain nonetheless.

 

[inkahauts]

So, from what you say it sounds like this sort of thing can be done. I'd guess the main reason not to do this is that you'd probably need to have two UI code sets, one that's tied to the Apple remote (for people without an iDevice) and the second that's tied to an iDevice. Not impossible, but a pain nonetheless.

What buttons is it you think are missing? I ask because there's a lot of different things that can be done with the same buttons just a matter of how or where you press... and Siri is meant for searching and entering in search boxes for faster input than even a keyboard could give you. My issues have only been with apps decisions such as Netflix and their terrible app.

 

[Carlanga]

So, from what you say it sounds like this sort of thing can be done. I'd guess the main reason not to do this is that you'd probably need to have two UI code sets, one that's tied to the Apple remote (for people without an iDevice) and the second that's tied to an iDevice. Not impossible, but a pain nonetheless.

nope, because the app would not exist on the atv, only on the ios device. Its streaming via airplay to the atv to attain that double screen mode.