TVNZ+ Upgrade - What's Changing?

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Journeyman

1209 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1244

#3482627 20-Apr-2026 19:41

RunningMan:

What platform are you using @Journeyman ?

Pixel 8 for the phone, Chrome browser on the PC. I'll usually Chromecast it to the tv from my phone but I haven't tried that yet.

RunningMan

9226 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 4862

#3482628 20-Apr-2026 19:59

Just for reference, bitrate watching on AppleTV is about 1.2Mb/s with pretty blurry picture. ATV App doesn't specify the resolution.

ATV is running tvOS 26.4, but note conflicting info in the minimum requirements:

https://helptvnz.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360019571112-Which-devices-can-I-watch-TVNZ-on

Apple TV - 4th Gen & 4K, tvOS 15+ supported

https://helptvnz.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/categories/360001260171-Smart-TV

TVNZ+ supports tvOS 13

Starlith

211 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 83

Trusted

#3482640 20-Apr-2026 21:32

Put some tv on for toddler and noticed adverts, my toddler had a go at me for subjecting her highness to watching ads even though I plead my innocence. Then I looked at Tvnz’s own preschooler advertising guidelines - bloody rude alright. So in the end my toddler won and I decided to ditch the app for a return to kodi and the 3rd party addin

RedactedRetracted

99 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 45

#3482645 20-Apr-2026 22:37

Had a look at the TVNZ 1/2/DUKE livestreams on the website, it appears that in the backend they are now 1080p50 with 5.1 audio - however they explicitly filter these options from being returned to the web client at least. They are also DRM'd now (with Widevine/Playready/Fairplay depending on your client).

Here's the ffprobe output of the livestream for those interested in the exact codecs etc:

Duration: N/A, start: 1776680932.010667, bitrate: 19523 kb/s
Program 0
Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (Main) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 416x234 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 180 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 50k tbn, start 1776680932.080000 (default)
Metadata:
variant_bitrate : 299968
id : video-234p25-300
Side data:
Encryption initialization data: (102 bytes)
Stream #0:1: Video: h264 (Main) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 640x360 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 412 kb/s, 50 tbr, 50k tbn, start 1776680938.080000 (default)
Metadata:
variant_bitrate : 699968
id : video-360p25-700
Side data:
Encryption initialization data: (102 bytes)
Stream #0:2: Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 768x432 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 762 kb/s, 50 tbr, 50k tbn, start 1776680938.080000 (default)
Metadata:
variant_bitrate : 1200000
id : video-432p25-1200
Side data:
Encryption initialization data: (102 bytes)
Stream #0:3: Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 1024x576 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 1206 kb/s, 50 tbr, 50k tbn, start 1776680938.080000 (default)
Metadata:
variant_bitrate : 1800000
id : video-576p25-1800
Side data:
Encryption initialization data: (102 bytes)
Stream #0:4: Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 1280x720 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 2213 kb/s, 50 tbr, 50k tbn, start 1776680938.080000 (default)
Metadata:
variant_bitrate : 2400000
id : video-720p25-2400
Side data:
Encryption initialization data: (102 bytes)
Stream #0:5: Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 1280x720 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 3764 kb/s, 100 tbr, 50k tbn, start 1776680938.040000 (default)
Metadata:
variant_bitrate : 4800000
id : video-720p50-4800
Side data:
Encryption initialization data: (102 bytes)
Stream #0:6: Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 4506 kb/s, 50 tbr, 50k tbn, start 1776680938.080000 (default)
Metadata:
variant_bitrate : 4200000
id : video-1080p25-4200
Side data:
Encryption initialization data: (102 bytes)
Stream #0:7: Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 6066 kb/s, 100 tbr, 50k tbn, start 1776680938.040000 (default)
Metadata:
variant_bitrate : 6000000
id : video-1080p50-6000
Side data:
Encryption initialization data: (102 bytes)
Stream #0:8(eng): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 93 kb/s, start 1776680932.010667 (default)
Metadata:
variant_bitrate : 96000
id : aac-96k
Side data:
Encryption initialization data: (102 bytes)
Stream #0:9(eng): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 125 kb/s, start 1776680932.010667 (default)
Metadata:
variant_bitrate : 128000
id : aac-128k
Side data:
Encryption initialization data: (102 bytes)
Stream #0:10(eng): Audio: eac3 (ec-3 / 0x332D6365), 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 192 kb/s, start 1776680938.016000 (default)
Metadata:
variant_bitrate : 192000
id : eac3-192k
Side data:
Audio Service Type: main
Encryption initialization data: (102 bytes)

nova

261 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 143

Trusted

#3482648 20-Apr-2026 23:10

I tried to watch the news yesterday on my Samsung TV, part way through the news hour. The "Watch from start" option didn't work, I got an error message about "Invalid end time". "Watch live" did work, and I could rewind to the start, but fast forward and rewind were barely usable. And when I fast forwarded a bit too far, it started showing me "Ad 1 of 7" at which point I gave up. It used to be that if you watched live content, within a few hours of broadcast, that you would just get the live ads as part of the stream which you could fast forward through. I can see why they might want to have fixed that, but I don't see myself using TVNZ+ much anymore. The old app was a little buggy, but this one is so buggy I can't believe they released it in the current state.

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