Forum - View topicNEWS: The Anime Network Plans Streaming iOS App for Subscribers
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 7580 Location: Wales |
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Isn't there already an iOS app for The Anime Network? Never been any use to me because I don't have a subscription because there's little worth watching from the UK and what there is is in low quality and usually dub-only.
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invalidname
 Contributor Posts: 2444 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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Agreed. I guess I need to go listen to the podcast, because there's already an Anime Network app for iOS. Non-subscribers get the first one or two episodes of most series, and new stuff (the shows currently airing on Anime Network VOD) actually expose all their episodes to non-subscribers as a rolling window that matches the VOD schedule.
It's possible that what they're talking about is reconciling web-based Anime Network accounts with the accounts in the app, which (last time I checked) were unrelated to the web accounts and had to be purchased with Apple's in-app purchase. Again, maybe this will be more clear after listening to ANNCast. The app should work with Apple TV -- as a developer, you get the Apple TV icon for free -- but in my experience the Anime Network app sends only its audio and not its video to the Apple TV. In terms of encode quality, I've found AN to be pretty good on my 6Mbps DSL… usually as good as Crunchyroll, and far better than the Adult Swim app. That said, stream quality on iOS can be a function of how many speeds the content provider has encoded for. HTTP Live Streaming adapts to your bandwidth, so a provider can encode for multiple bitrates to provide a good experience across many different network speeds, or they can just dumb it down to one or two bitrates, at which point a mid-range DSL or cable connection might get served 1.5 Mbps or less. |
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invalidname
Contributor Posts: 2444 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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OK, looks like I was wrong about the I-AP iOS-only membership... the app now appears to work with the same membership credentials as the website. The app is also free now, whereas it used to be $6.99 for the app and a trial subscription.
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invalidname
Contributor Posts: 2444 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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Finally found it in the podcast. They come into it (around 36:20) from Justin's question about the growth of streaming over traditional TV-based VOD, and Stacy talks about the overall preference for watching on TV, but acknowledges the streaming boxes for TV like Roku and Apple TV. Justin follows up by asking if they're getting onto those boxes. Stacy replies "we're definitely looking into it. I mean, we are on Apple TV right now. And the app that we're releasing, that's coming out really soon, will have AirPlay functionality."
And that's really hard to square with the fact that there already is an AN app for iOS, and it does have the default AirPlay functionality that any app gets when it uses the built-in video player (though as I said, in my experience, it sends audio to the Apple TV and not video). You can opt into a deeper level of AirPlay support, treating the Apple TV basically like a whole second screen for your app (though one that obviously doesn't have a touch interface), so maybe that's what they're working on? Hard to tell. |
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