Intrinsic AppleTV Driver NOT compatible with TVOS 15

[dinom]

I thought Control4 was no longer supporting 3rd parties who use reverse engineering to create drivers. I remember reading about the fiasco with the Liftmaster MyQ driver. Not true?

[msgreenf]

47 minutes ago, dinom said:

I thought Control4 was no longer supporting 3rd parties who use reverse engineering to create drivers. I remember reading about the fiasco with the Liftmaster MyQ driver. Not true?

Control4 Partner terms make it clear that developers must have authorization to use an API and reverse engineered drivers are not accpetable.

[Cyknight]

11 hours ago, dinom said:

I thought Control4 was no longer supporting 3rd parties who use reverse engineering to create drivers. I remember reading about the fiasco with the Liftmaster MyQ driver. Not true?

 

10 hours ago, msgreenf said:

Control4 Partner terms make it clear that developers must have authorization to use an API and reverse engineered drivers are not accpetable.

To the best of my knowledge (and I could be wrong), Intrinsic is NOT an official "Control4 Partner" - so they would fall outside of any such terms.

 

[Amr]

On 9/27/2021 at 11:24 AM, IntrinsicGroup said:

Thanks @Amr that's exactly what we're working through currently. We do some initial testing on the Apple Beta software but wait until the final release software is publicly available before we do proper testing and polishing of the driver. We're working through that as we speak and then we'll roll out the driver to our beta testers and assuming feedback is all positive  from them we'll roll it out publicly. 

If anyone would like to join our Beta Programme please drop us a message, the quicker we can get feedback on the driver once in beta the quicker we can release it. Otherwise we're working to get it out as quickly as possible but recommend staying on tvOS 14 or below for now until the new driver is ready as this will ensure control continues without any issues. 

What is the progress on the release of tvOS15 release?

[IntrinsicGroup]

13 hours ago, Amr said:

What is the progress on the release of tvOS15 release?

Finishing off internal testing and hope to get it rolled out to beta testers soon.

[bk]

Happy to beta test, i have 1 of 2 apple TV that was accidently updated selected just as the popup appeared. Grrr

[OzSoup]

Available to beta test.  2x Apple tv auto updated. 4k and previous model. 

PM me to test and provide feedback on usability and reliability

[Amr]

It’s not out yet to any one

[c4Iona]

Any update on this?

[BXTR]

On 11/19/2021 at 11:21 AM, c4Iona said:

Any update on this?

The silence is deafening 

This reverse engineering is bad for the industry & makes C4 look bad, from a client standpoint the Control4 system is broken and can’t control their AppleTV’s which were likely used daily 

Ultimately the blame shouldn’t be on the end user who’s paying for the driver, it’s with the dealer making poor decisions for their clients 

[C4 User]

It might be time to switch to the free C4 ATV IP driver. I have used it for years and it works great. Not sure what features this paid driver offer over the free driver, but considering it still does not function with the latest ATV IOS it might be worth considering IMHO.

[Amr]

On 11/22/2021 at 6:26 AM, C4 User said:

It might be time to switch to the free C4 ATV IP driver. I have used it for years and it works great. Not sure what features this paid driver offer over the free driver, but considering it still does not function with the latest ATV IOS it might be worth considering IMHO.

Not a lot of options available for IP control for HC800 users, IR is not bad either but it’s less hassle and is not available for every setup.

[Amr]

On 11/22/2021 at 4:37 AM, BXTR said:

The silence is deafening 

This reverse engineering is bad for the industry & makes C4 look bad, from a client standpoint the Control4 system is broken and can’t control their AppleTV’s which were likely used daily 

Ultimately the blame shouldn’t be on the end user who’s paying for the driver, it’s with the dealer making poor decisions for their clients 

I don’t understand your point here, what C4 got to do with this? There is an official driver that is supported by C4, and punch of other drivers as well, it’s a free world out there; the liability of this on the maker not the users as well as u said!

[BXTR]

People will bitch and moan even if they know full well that they’re doing wrong- see MyQ integration aka Dumpster Fire

 

Any end user that has this driver is having a poor experience and if you think otherwise then “you’re doing it wrong”

Explain for as long as you want to your clients why this is not Control4’s fault and it will fall on deaf ears, all they know is that their expensive system isn’t working but the free remote that came with the AppleTV works just fine. 

[Cyknight]

2 hours ago, BXTR said:

Explain for as long as you want to your clients why this is not Control4’s fault and it will fall on deaf ears

This is at the root of it. In the end most people will blame it on the dealer and/or Control4. People on here may be the ones that see an option like this driver and pass it on to their respective dealer (or are using someone on here) - and understand where the true 'failure point' is - but that's simply not what most other end users will see.

[jmb]

On 8/24/2021 at 11:16 AM, IntrinsicGroup said:

Please note the original poster has omitted a crucial part of the message sent out to dealers... that being that tvOS 15 requires a new driver due to a change in Apple protocol (which has also broken their own MRP based apps and many other third party licensed products which use it).  We continue to support all of our Apple driver range (1-3rd Gen, tvOS13-14 and now the new tvOS15 driver).  We deliberately market our drivers by the tvOS's that they support for clarity.

As the rest of the email states, we already have a new driver in production that uses the new protocol currently employed in the tvOS 15 Public Beta. This driver will require final testing once tvOS 15 is released to the public. As we do not know the date tvOS 15 will be released we cannot release the new driver instantly, and are therefore suggesting auto-update is turned off so all clients can keep complete control of their ATV via Control4 by temporarily remaining on tvOS 14 or below.

Once the new driver, utilising the new protocol is released this will be a free upgrade for all users of our existing driver.

 

Original Email sent out to all dealers using our existing Apple TV (tvOS13 and 14) Driver:

Immediate action required: Ensure auto-update is turned OFF on all Apple TVs that are using an Apple TV MRP Driver.

As you may be aware Apple currently have tvOS 15 in public beta, and we expect it to be released as final version software at the beginning of September.

This beta software is using a completely new protocol for the Apple TV, with Apple themselves no longer using MRP on their own apps. This new protocol is not compatible with any driver that uses MRP including our existing Apple TV drivers for Control4, Crestron, Elan and RTI. Please therefore ensure auto-update is turned off on all Apple TV devices that use our driver to ensure control continues uninterrupted for your clients.  MRP will continue to work on all systems that remain on tvOS 14 or below.

What happens next?

Our team are already working on drivers for all platforms that will work on the new protocol currently being tested in the tvOS 15 public beta.

These drivers will need to be tested on the final release Apple TV software once it goes live, which is why it is important all Apple TVs remain on tvOS 14 or below whilst we carry out our final internal testing. 

Once we have finished testing the drivers for the new protocol they will be rolled out FREE OF CHARGE for the first six months to anyone using our existing Apple TV drivers for tvOS13 and 14.

Can I still buy your existing Apple TV drivers?

Yes, we will continue to support all existing Apple TV drivers and they will work as expected on all Apple TV devices running tvOS 13 or 14. If you decide to update to tvOS 15 in the future you can download and install the new tvOS 15 driver (when available).

When will your tvOS 15 driver be available?

We can't give a fixed date for this as we do not know when Apple will release the new software. Once tvOS 15 is released we will complete internal testing as a priority and then push it out to our beta testers for final checks. 

We would like to assure you that releasing our tvOS 15 drivers as quickly as possible will be our top priority. You will receive another email as soon as the drivers are available.

Can you provide some sort of updated timeline?   Several months ago you were beta testing which was the last I heard.

Thank you in advance.

 

[snowcatxx87]

The TV is the only thing I don’t have controlled with C4 - I only have the new Apple TV tho, no other sources.

I just use the ATV remote (I quite like the new one), as I use the voice a lot. Have the 260 to control lighting, works great.

The swiping experience on the ATV remote blows away the SR260 to be honest.

I do miss the MyQ tho lol

[uddinz]

Any updates on the new driver?

[Amr]

On 12/30/2021 at 6:51 PM, uddinz said:

Any updates on the new driver?

I think this driver is dead, will never hear anything about it again, may be litigations issues as well, who knows but this weird silence and total cut off explains it, here goes 50UKP down the drains …

[Neo1738]

Pretty sure intrinsic group is folding or something. I've been waiting for updated Tesla driver for ages and then they started to ghost my asking what's going on. 

[istreich]

I don't know what is going on at the Intrinsic Group and I agree that it would be great to hear from them. But let's not discourage developers and entrepreneurs to build cool, useful and reasonably priced drivers by bashing them when something goes wrong, especially when it is most likely outside of their control (thank you Apple...). As a happy user of this driver, I hope they are doing ok and we hear from them soon with some encouraging news. But there is a good chance that their problems are bigger than the ones we are facing.

If these guys read us, I hope they take a minute to give us an update on what is going on and what we can expect, even if no definitive answer. I know they have a lot of fans on this forum who want to see them succeed, if only because they have enjoyed using their drivers  

[IntrinsicGroup]

22 minutes ago, istreich said:

I don't know what is going on at the Intrinsic Group and I agree that it would be great to hear from them. But let's not discourage developers and entrepreneurs to build cool, useful and reasonably priced drivers by bashing them when something goes wrong, especially when it is most likely outside of their control (thank you Apple...). As a happy user of this driver, I hope they are doing ok and we hear from them soon with some encouraging news. But there is a good chance that their problems are bigger than the ones we are facing.

If these guys read us, I hope they take a minute to give us an update on what is going on and what we can expect, even if no definitive answer. I know they have a lot of fans on this forum who want to see them succeed, if only because they have enjoyed using their drivers  

Hi all, apologies for the lack of comms - we've been wanting to hold off posting until the launch of a TVOS 15 driver is properly in sight.  

Whilst we've had our proof of concepts working for several months, translating that it something scalable and that is able to function in the confines of a control platform sandbox has been a mammoth task - the resources needed for this driver simply don't existing at all in the Control4 (or other control platform) sandboxes.  This has meant we have to build processes from scratch - something that would normally be build up over a number of years, not months!  It has been a huge investment from our team to do this, but we are keen to ensure we continue to support our customers, as we did for Apple TV 1-3rd Gen, ATV TVOS13 and ATV TVOS14.  With previous changes we've had something ready within 24 hours of launch - unfortunately due to the extensive nature of the change this has taken a fair bit longer, 

We are almost there now, so thanks for bearing with us.  Although TVOS15 is going to be a new driver, it's our intent to make this available free of charge for a designated time period to users of our TVOS14 driver.

I don't want want to give a fixed date but can say the end is site at last.  We'll be sure to post on here when we open up the beta.

[Cyknight]

33 minutes ago, istreich said:

especially when it is most likely outside of their control (thank you Apple...)

Well, I partly agree, but the issue remains that if you do something that is NOT supported or supposed to be used (by you) and then sell it, it's still somewhat the 'seller's' responsibility when it fails to work.

34 minutes ago, istreich said:

I hope they are doing ok...

For sure, no ill will towards them at all.

 

[IntrinsicGroup]

1 minute ago, Cyknight said:

Well, I partly agree, but the issue remains that if you do something that is NOT supported or supposed to be used (by you) and then sell it, it's still somewhat the 'seller's' responsibility when it fails to work.

For sure, no ill will towards them at all.

 

Appreciate the no ill will, even though it's been a long wait.

Also important to note that our existing tvOS14 driver does still work 100% with tvOS14 - it just doesn't work with tvOS15, which it was not designed for.  

[Amr]

22 hours ago, IntrinsicGroup said:

Hi all, apologies for the lack of comms - we've been wanting to hold off posting until the launch of a TVOS 15 driver is properly in sight.  

Whilst we've had our proof of concepts working for several months, translating that it something scalable and that is able to function in the confines of a control platform sandbox has been a mammoth task - the resources needed for this driver simply don't existing at all in the Control4 (or other control platform) sandboxes.  This has meant we have to build processes from scratch - something that would normally be build up over a number of years, not months!  It has been a huge investment from our team to do this, but we are keen to ensure we continue to support our customers, as we did for Apple TV 1-3rd Gen, ATV TVOS13 and ATV TVOS14.  With previous changes we've had something ready within 24 hours of launch - unfortunately due to the extensive nature of the change this has taken a fair bit longer, 

We are almost there now, so thanks for bearing with us.  Although TVOS15 is going to be a new driver, it's our intent to make this available free of charge for a designated time period to users of our TVOS14 driver.

I don't want want to give a fixed date but can say the end is site at last.  We'll be sure to post on here when we open up the beta.

Well, its late but much batter than nothing, you kept us circuling around with 0 comms, and tons of specualations had surfaced. Will I can wait, I turned to IR already, was also about to experimnit with pyatv.