nessMediaCenter on AppleTV simulator

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A few days ago, we started to port nessMediaCenter for AppleTV (4th generation). And now we can already access and view images and videos via DLNA media server (such as Plex or XBMC aka Kodi) and nessViewer media server with the AppleTV simulator.

The operating system of AppleTV (tvOS) is using “AV Foundation” to play videos and thus the video format compatibility is limited – and here, of course, the nessViewer media server has a great advantage compared to other media server: incompatible videos are automatically “just in time” converted for tvOS (as well as for the iOS version of nessViewer). This not only saves space and redundancy, but also makes previous convertion of all movies superfluous. In addition, DVDs and EyeTV films are displayed as file (and not as folder) – a feature which unfortunately is still not available for most of the other media server or media center.
But DLNA media server also have indeed their advantages – e.g. access to movies via title, category, actor… and of course using a NAS (Network Attached Storage) attached to a router and nessMediaCenter on AppleTV will be a very simple and cost-efficient but powerful solution.

In the screenshot you see on the left the list of videos available by the media server – and on the right the preview image and the synopsis. On AppleTV remote, a swipe scrolls in the list, a single press on the touch surface or PLAY button selects an entry and a double-press starts the playback of the selected entry.

In the coming days we will implement further features – and we can not wait for the availability of the AppleTV.

nessMediaCenter on Apple TV

Keywords: Apple, DLNA, DVD, media, MediaCenter, media center, Media Server, movie, TV, tvOS