Web TV Player Development: Challenges and Solutions
Smart TV Player Development Overview
The development of the player for online TV is a complex solution that requires expanded knowledge in the subject area. Before the web TV streaming development begins, it is worth considering the business requirements for the application, whether it will be cross-platform and cross-browser, whether it needs expanded functionality, whether it will contain additional functionality for the users, and many more. Smart TV’s applications allow viewing not only video content: movies, series, broadcasts and sports events, but also give the opportunity to read news, view social networks and communicate via Skype (for example). There are also interactive applications for children and huge variety of games.
Attention should be paid to the selection of middleware for your needs and the highest priority should be given to the stable libraries for working with video. For example, adaptive video conversion is not available in all libraries or it may just not work correctly on all platforms, so if you have never developed such applications, you should pay more attention to this issue. When undertaking a telemedicine app development project, partnering with top creative staffing agencies can ensure access to skilled professionals who excel in user interface design and frontend development, crucial for delivering an engaging and seamless user experience in the telemedicine app.
Key Points of TV Player Development
Here are a few key points, shared with us by one of our Angular.js developers, who has been solving similar issues for the client, to which you need to be prepared if you decide to develop an application of this kind:
- For ‘old’ smart-TV’s, do not count on the full power of CSS. It’s good to hire CSS developers with experience in working with web TV applications recommend to make simple sprites and get ready for interesting CSS features that are not found in browsers on the computer and rarely give in to a logical explanation.
- The power of the CPU module of the TV is several times weaker than the computer, hence, do not be surprised that the animations in old models will not be smooth at all. But when measuring the speed of code execution, it will be tens and hundreds of times slower than in the browser.
- The weak documentation from some manufacturers, and sometimes its complete absence, can lead you to despair and will force you to spend hours on the developers’ forums.
- For testing, you will have to use real TVs. Emulators do not repeat the full functionality of devices and often contain their own errors that do not occur on real devices.
- TVs do not have any debugging tools, they will have to use your own techniques during development.
- Unusual user interaction with the application. Remember, most likely, you will have to move around the application with one finger, pressing the buttons of the control panel (although you can still control the voice, gestures and gyroscopic remote control, as, for example, LG, but this is not found in all models and not from every manufacturer). At the design stage of the application, it is necessary to take into account not only the navigation inside the application, but also the input of data into the intuitions.
- It is necessary to work out the situation of connection loss. A little hint: Samsung testers in the process of pre-moderation for their store like to disconnect the network cable from the connector while playing video and watch how this situation is worked out in the application.
- The variety of JavaScript API platforms will complicate the cross-platform development, each manufacturer provides its API for interacting with internal functionality (video playback, keyboard display, etc.). This can become an unpleasant moment.
All these key points we identified above can significantly slow down the development process for beginners. At the same time an experienced Smart TV developer can solve them without time and cost wasting. Here at Mobilunity we source one of the best Ukrainian TV applications developers at very affordable prices.
Web TV Development Challenges You Should Be Focused on
Other challenges on which your attention will be focused when developing smart TV application:
- Add a new supported platform or devices without changing the code of the application itself;
- Storing user data and settings locally on user devices;
- Maintaining a stable video stream in the application;
Of course, do not forget about the strain on the application. To ensure the continuous operation of the application, you need not only the good Internet, but also good hardware. Loading a player into a couple of hundred thousand users can cause your server to fall. And it’s might be a problem.
If you are looking for hire dedicated developer for creating your Web TV Player or video streaming app development you have come to the right place. Here, at Mobilunity, we build highly-skilled, offshore teams just for your needs. Our team model offers you affordable, Western standards of development, at low-cost Eastern rates.
Contact us now and we will do our best to help you hire a Smart TV Developer!
All salaries and prices mentioned within the article are approximate NET numbers based on the research done by our in-house Recruitment Team. Please use these numbers as a guide for comparison purposes only and feel free to use the contact form to inquire on the specific cost of the talent according to your vacancy requirements and chosen model of engagement.
