@dabassgoesboomboom@Andreas_Elia
I haven’t looked at it, but I don’t think that touch as a technology is necessarily better than buttons. The key thing about the Roon interface is that the information about the library is visible on the screen and directly manipulable, scrollable, selectable – albums, artists, tracks, the queue, the tags, the playlists, the bookmarks. I don’t assume the Apple TV remote does that? That would make it an iPhone or iPad.
Wrt AirPlay, I wasn’t suggesting AirPlay for music, only to mirror the screen.
I use the iPad for user interface, with all its advantages.
I mirror the iPad screen to the TV so others can see the library and can yell out, “play CSN, it’s their best album!”
The music is sent to a quality endpoint in the normal way (in my case network to a streaming endpoint with SPDIF connection to the home theater system).
I think this is an optimal experience. Only disadvantage is cost (the iPad) but I think you need a real screen anyway.
The main advantage of a minimal Play/Pause/Next control is that your guests can use it with messing with the whole system.
But my points were based on a very basic and limited function Apple TV Remote app, not a fully fledged remote app like an iPad.
I really just want cover art of ‘now playing’ up on a big screen and limited functionality like play/pause and next track. At least to begin with anyway.
The AirPlay Mirror is ok but not the full screen beauty that a native AT4 Remote App could be, I think?.
My big problem with mirroring from my iPad to the TV is the aspect ratio. Only 4:3 (the iPad aspect ratio) on my 16:9 TV, black bars on the left and right side.
The Roon API (due with or after 1.3) will allow for developing apps with functionality like this. I don’t think Roon will do this themselves (‘simple’ apps fitting simple needs have a tendency of attracting a never-ending slew of feature requests afterwards), but any interested third party could develop one.
I guess we are a simple family with simple needs. Turning on the TV and pointing the apple remote at the ATV4 to play music is enough. Whether they want to play movies or listen to an album, it’s the same thing. The apple TV remote has enough functionality to cover our needs - including the touchpad for scrolling. If I was living alone I might have a different view.
Currently, I have Plex set up to automatically monitor the roon music library, as well as its own movie/TV library. So people can use the plex apple TV app to either watch movies or play music. I would like to convert them over to Roon, which I think is far better for music.
I understand that some users want a Roon remote app for Apple TV – but not AirPlay streaming as the audio protocol. However, is that even possible? Would Apple allow it?
I agree ROON needs to support the latest Apple TV. ROON needs a feature called theater mode found in other software. I’ve tried Apple mirroring through my ipad and it’s not even close to the same experience. Why do I think it’s needed?
Many of us have visitors to our music rooms. It’s not practical to give everyone an ipad so they can see what’s playing. In the part with the “other” software package it was easy and fun to do. My guests really liked the experience then, it wait till they see what ROON can do. Right now many if my friends don’t see the point of ROON, but I’ll bet they will easily when Roons sets the table in a GIANT way.
I realize the ROON programmers have been busy with 1.3. And congratulations are in order!
I’m sure you guys can knock out an Apple TV app in 30 minutes or less! Just kidding!
So even
Hi, Roon has been able to play to an Airplay receiver for a while.
I think this thread is only about a Remote App (it can’t be as fully featured as the iPad app) for controlling playback to a different Core.
At least what I’d love is full screen artwork with basic next/previous/pause track selection. The Mirroring doesn’t do it for me for displaying artwork. Not an elegant solution.
I do this now - to 3 Apple TVs in various parts of the house, in Roon. All I want is to do exactly the same thing from the “theatre” interface on each Apple TV, rather than having to use the iPhone. Given the reasonably close relationship between IOS and TVOS, and the ability of many app developers to provide apps for both platforms, I thought this would not be “too hard”. I don’t care if the app continues to use airplay. And, for the record, if it is too much for a small team to do (after the 1.3 release and inevitable bug fixes), then it won’t be the end of the world.
In the living room, it would be particularly useful, as it would allow visitors to play what they want from the Apple TV interface, without needing a Roon app on an iPhone or iPad.
In what way do you think the Apple TV 3 remote is “limited”? It has a touch pad and you can click. Same as an mouse or touch interface.
Yes, it is possible. We are talking about an interface to control the Roon Core, like the iPhone/iPad interface. Streaming to the Apple TV would still be over Airplay. I don’t see any reason to think Apple would not allow this as Plex and other similar apps are already available.
Just kidding!