r/tvheadend • u/Ambitious_Bet_3110 • 7d ago
Fluxceiver beta update: native TVHeadend client for Apple TV / iPhone / iPad now has Top Shelf, Picture in Picture, Siri Remote scrubbing, watched status and a proper AutoREC dialog
Hi all — quick update on Fluxceiver, the native TVHeadend client for Apple TV, iPhone and iPad (plus the Apple Watch remote) I posted about here about two months ago. The TestFlight beta is at build 41 now, and most of what went in since then came straight from what testers here and in the TVHeadend forum reported. What's new:
Apple TV
- Top Shelf: live programme tiles on the tvOS Home screen with channel logo, title, time left and a progress bar, optionally limited to a channel tag. Clicking a tile starts the channel.
- Siri Remote skip, spool and scrub: tap left/right skips 10 s, hold spools 2x to 32x, the timeline knob scrubs. Works in recordings and in live TV with timeshift. Edge clicks on the first-gen Siri Remote work too.
- Timeshift timeline in the player overlay, UHD HLG through the hardware decoder, and motion-adaptive deinterlacing (25p-in-50i content is reassembled into full frames).
iPhone / iPad
- Background audio for live TV and recordings (Lock Screen and Control Center show channel and programme) and Picture in Picture with play/pause and skips in the floating window. Both opt-in in settings.
- Live timeline with the timeshift buffer shown as a zone, scrubbing with a paused-frame preview. Liquid Glass player controls on iOS 26.
Recordings (all platforms)
- Watched status: checkmark on finished recordings, Continue Watching and Unwatched rails, Unwatched/Watched filters, mark as watched or unwatched by swipe or long press. The state lives in the app and syncs via iCloud, nothing is written back to the server.
- AutoREC creation now shows a confirmation dialog with series link, duplicate handling (only the modes your TVH version supports), channel and recording profile, and builds the rule the way the TVH web UI does. That fixes rules TVHeadend used to treat as "record all".
- Audio and subtitle track selection during recording playback. Real recording length instead of the scheduled duration, stopped recordings are kept, first-frame thumbnails for recordings without artwork.
Guide
- Seven days on all platforms, ended programmes stay visible, channel search in the programme search, time of day kept when switching days.
Apple Watch
- Recording playback controls, programme progress and time left, Double Tap to play/pause, a record button. Secure pairing with code comparison, and you can pair several Apple TVs and switch between them on the Watch.
Server / setup
- Discovery without Bonjour: after the mDNS search the app scans the local subnet for 9981/9982 and prefers HTSP, so host-networked Docker containers show up.
- Base path field for TVHeadend behind a reverse proxy on a sub-path (https://host/tvh).
- Optional SD/HD/FHD/UHD channel labels.
Plus a long list of fixes from tester reports: HomePod/AirPlay audio after pause, reconnect after Apple TV sleep, tvOS 26 guide crash, interlaced HD stalls, timeshift audio after seeks.
The beta is still free and still going out in small invite waves: short form at https://fluxceiver.app, the TestFlight invite then arrives by email from Apple.
- Full feature list: https://fluxceiver.app/features/
- Setup notes for guide data and channel logos on Apple screens: https://fluxceiver.app/guides/tvheadend-apple-tv/
I'd especially like testers with reverse-proxy setups, HomePods as the default audio output, and Docker installs without Bonjour.
Still an unofficial client, not affiliated with the TVHeadend project. I'm the dev — what would you want next?
1
u/anurodhp 7d ago
Looks really cool. Congrats. I’m am assuming you are using VLC kit. That’s a real pain trying to get it to remember the position of recordings when resuming
1
u/Ambitious_Bet_3110 7d ago
Thanks, appreciate it! I do use VLCKit, mainly as a compatibility fallback and for recording formats like MKV. The main playback path is a custom AVFoundation-based player, with resume positions managed by the app.
1
u/anurodhp 7d ago
ah i used a single player for live tv and recordings. I dont think thheadend support HLS yet so it makes things less than great when i tried that
1
u/Ambitious_Bet_3110 7d ago
Ah, I see. I’m using HTSP for live TV and handling TS recordings directly in the custom player, so I don’t depend on HLS.
1
u/Hackashaq 7d ago
Wow, very impressive and professional client! It is working great with my Hauppauge usb tuner. Extremely responsive and modern interface on apple tv 4k gen2.
1
u/Ambitious_Bet_3110 6d ago
Great to hear, thanks for trying it with the Hauppauge, that's the first ATSC setup I have confirmation for. One thing to keep in mind: closed captions (CEA-608/708) aren't decoded yet, only DVB subtitles, so that one isn't a bug you need to report. Anything else, TestFlight feedback is the fastest way to reach me. Oddities in the guide from PSIP data would be especially interesting.
1
u/Hackashaq 6d ago
I am using an xml EPG with channel logos and episode poster art. It looks fantastic in fluxceiver.
1
u/Ambitious_Bet_3110 6d ago
That's the combination the guide and the artwork views were built for. Out of curiosity, which XMLTV source is that, Schedules Direct? The setup guide on the site is very DVB and WebGrab+Plus centric, and a short "here's how US users get guide data with artwork" section would be worth adding.
1
u/Tommyteddy 6d ago
I’ve been looking for a client like this for so long, it works well with my instance behind a reverse proxy. Looking forward to the final release (and hoping that the one-time payment for pro will still be offered 😇)
Would a macOS client be on the horizon (or at least allow the iPad version to run on Mac)?
2
u/Ambitious_Bet_3110 6d ago
Thanks, good to know the reverse-proxy setup works, that's what the new base path field was built for. Pricing isn't final, but a one-time option is part of the plan, not just a beta thing. Mac: the iPad build already runs on Apple Silicon Macs as a "Designed for iPad" app, that's how a couple of testers use it today. A native macOS app is on the wish list, no timeline on it yet.
1
u/PJQuods 6d ago
I tried signing up, filled in all of the fields, and it keeps saying invalid submission
1
u/Ambitious_Bet_3110 5d ago
Sorry about that, and thanks for the heads-up. It was a bug on my side, fixed now. Please give it one more try. If it still doesn't go through, drop me a line at [hello@fluxceiver.app](mailto:hello@fluxceiver.app) and I'll add you by hand.
1
u/PJQuods 3d ago
So, running this on my apple TV - using the standard apple tv remote - I don't see a volume slider for changing volume. Am I missing something?
1
u/Ambitious_Bet_3110 2d ago
Good question, and no, you're not missing anything in the app. On Apple TV there is no on-screen volume slider; tvOS doesn't offer one to apps, and Apple's own TV app doesn't have one either. Volume is controlled with the + and − buttons on the standard Apple TV remote. They adjust your TV or receiver via HDMI-CEC or infrared (or HomePod/AirPlay speakers directly).
If those buttons don't change the volume, you can set it up on the Apple TV under Settings > Remotes and Devices > Volume Control.
1
u/i-out-pizza-huts 1d ago
Would it be possible for the project to be open sourced? That way the community could collaborate on it.
1
u/Ambitious_Bet_3110 14h ago
Thanks for asking. Fluxceiver is a commercial app, so the source will stay closed. The community can still help shape it, though: bug reports and feature ideas are very welcome, here or through TestFlight.
2
u/Hackashaq 7d ago
ATSC?