The company that makes the popular HDHomeRun network tuners has released a new app for the Apple TV. At this point, SiliconDust has TV/DVR playback apps for nearly every other platform. We’ve been asking about Apple’s popular platform for years, and the answer has always been “you can use Channels.”
Back when SiliconDust successfully funded its ATSC 3.0 tuner box on Kickstarter, they made the strange move of adding an Apple TV app as a largely unrelated stretch goal. They hit that goal and kept their promise. And now HDHomeRun is at home on Apple TV.
SiliconDust is calling this an “early release,” and it definitely is that. Like with Roku, the approach is to support Live TV playback first. So this app will let you watch TV and pause. You can also peruse what’s on now through their unique sidebar guide, but navigating to that is still a bit awkward.
One of the reasons cited for not supporting Apple TV sooner was that tvOS, Apple’s platform for Apple TV applications, required a different code base, and SiliconDust couldn’t use its existing code for the user interface (UI). We had hoped this might encourage the team to rethink the UI to better align with the Apple TV experience, but alas, they’ve simply replicated their existing experience on the new platform.
We’re expecting SiliconDust will refine and add features to this new HDHomeRun app over time, eventually making it a full-fledged DVR app like its siblings on every other platform.
