Beeb

An independent BBC player for Apple TV, with 4K HLG HDR and Apple's native playback controls.

Beeb is a native SwiftUI app for tvOS 17 and later. Browse BBC programmes, watch live television, save shows and pick up where you left off. When a compatible UHD version and your own UHD setup are available, Beeb plays the original 4K HLG stream without video transcoding.

This is an unofficial project, not produced or endorsed by the BBC. Choose source code to build with Xcode, or the prebuilt unsigned IPA to sign locally without compiling Beeb. Both require your own Apple signing account and device provisioning. There is no App Store/TestFlight release or universally installable signed IPA.

Install from source · Install the unsigned IPA · Set up UHD with TwinVine · Troubleshooting

The homescreen and Settings captures show the native 0.10.8 interface using cached BBC listings and artwork. The older playback screenshots below are from the original Reddit announcement; current playback quality badges read 4K, FHD, HD or SD.

Current prepared release: 0.10.8 (build 36). See the changelog.

• Homescreen Layout: choose Classic or Modern in Settings. Modern offers a floating Topbar or a Sidebar, and remembers your navigation choice when you switch layouts.
• Modern homescreens: large programme artwork, pink focus accents and navigation that scrolls away with the banner as you browse the rows below.
• Cleaner Browse: readable icon-led category cards and continuous browsing through categories and A–Z; 4K UHD cards also appear in one lazy grid. No Previous/Next controls for those listings.
• RED additional streams: a RED action in every live player opens Red Button or Red Button UHD. Event feeds depend on BBC availability; an unavailable feed leaves your current channel playing.
• Live subtitles: BBC's separate live timed-text feed is exposed through Apple's native subtitle controls. Captions use the stream's timing, including when seeking back. Confirmed working on Apple TV by the maintainer.
• Better Back navigation: return to the previous programme/menu screen, close the sidebar, or dismiss Additional Streams without choosing another channel. The dialog also offers Cancel.
• More reliable episode loading: updated BBC episode discovery and version selection for both HD and UHD playback.

• Public source ZIP: build and sign through Xcode using the steps below.
• Beeb-0.10.8-public-unsigned.ipa: a prebuilt arm64 tvOS app, intended as a separate GitHub Release asset with a SHA-256 file. Requires your own signing before installation. Follow the IPA signing/install guide. It contains no provisioning profile, developer signature or UHD identity.

Download the unsigned IPA and matching source ZIP from GitHub Releases. The source ZIP intentionally excludes compiled binaries; the IPA is a separate release download.

• A Mac with the full Xcode app and tvOS platform support compatible with your Apple TV's operating system. Command Line Tools alone are insufficient.
• An Apple account added to Xcode for signing your own installation.
• An Apple TV HD or Apple TV 4K running tvOS 17+, on the same local network as your Mac.
• Access to BBC services. Availability and service restrictions still apply.

HD and live TV do not require TwinVine. For UHD, also use Apple TV 4K, an HLG-compatible display/HDMI connection, suitable BBC content and your own working TwinVine iP configuration.

1. On this repository's GitHub page choose Code → Download ZIP, then extract it. Open BeebHD.xcodeproj in Xcode.
2. In Xcode → Settings → Accounts, add your own Apple account.
3. Select Signing & Capabilities for both BeebHD and BeebTopShelf, enable Automatically manage signing, and choose your own Team. The public project intentionally has no team selected.
4. In the project’s Build Settings, set the user-defined BEEB_APP_BUNDLE_IDENTIFIER to your own unique value, such as com.youralias.Beeb, for Debug and Release. This sets the app identifier and the matching .TopShelf extension identifier together. Leave the app-specific Keychain entitlement in place.
5. On Apple TV open Settings → Remotes and Devices → Remote App and Devices. In newer Xcode, use Xcode → Open Developer Tool → Device Hub → Pair Nearby Device → Apple TV. In older Xcode use Window → Devices and Simulators → Devices. Select the TV and enter its displayed pairing code.
6. Choose the BeebHD scheme and your physical Apple TV as the run destination, then press Command-R. Xcode builds, signs, installs and launches Beeb.
7. Open an available programme and press the pink Play logo. Confirm HD playback works before adding UHD setup.

A free Personal Team requires periodic reprovisioning and has seven-day limits. When signing expires, Run from Xcode again. Paid developer profiles also expire. Keep your bundle identifier and team unchanged when updating to preserve access to the same app data and Keychain setup. See Apple's account guidance.

For pairing details, update instructions and signing errors, see the full installation guide. This source-install route requires a Mac; an unsigned IPA cannot simply be opened on Apple TV.

TwinVine is used for the one-time UHD authentication setup. After connecting, the Mac is not needed for playback. Beeb fetches streams directly on Apple TV.

Follow the upstream TwinVine installation and configuration instructions, including initialising its iP service. You need your own working configuration containing a usable client certificate/private key and its configured User-Agent. Installing TwinVine alone does not guarantee that UHD access is available.

No client identity, private key or shared account is supplied in Beeb. Do not upload your TwinVine configuration or ask another installer to share theirs.

Install Python 3.10+ if needed. In Terminal, open the extracted Beeb folder and run:

chmod +x ./*.sh ./*.command scripts/*.py
python3 -m venv .venv-setup
.venv-setup/bin/python -m pip install -r scripts/requirements-setup.txt

This installs the helper's dependencies into a local virtual environment.

For TwinVine installed at ~/TwinVine:

./setup-uhd.command --check

For a different installation folder:

TWINVINE_DIR="$HOME/Apps/TwinVine" ./setup-uhd.command --check

Replace the example path with your own. The helper supports direct and remote-repository iP service layouts. If discovery fails or finds multiple configurations, supply the exact file:

./setup-uhd.command --config "$HOME/Apps/TwinVine/packages/envied/src/envied/services/iP/config.yaml" --check

This check validates the local configuration and matching certificate/key without starting a server or displaying credentials. Only a real playback request can establish whether BBC currently accepts the identity.

1. Run the same helper command without --check, keeping any custom path arguments. For the default location:

   ./setup-uhd.command

2. Leave Terminal open. It prints a complete one-time HTTPS setup URL, normally valid for 15 minutes. Keep it private and do not open it in a browser.

3. In Beeb → Settings → 4K HLG · TwinVine, focus One-time setup URL and enter the complete link. The iPhone Apple TV Remote keyboard is a convenient way to paste it.

4. Choose Connect TwinVine and allow local-network access if asked.

5. Wait for UHD identity connected. The helper stops after transfer; the Mac can now be switched off.

The transfer uses pinned TLS. Beeb retains the setup package and metadata in device-only Keychain storage. Never share the setup URL: it contains the one-use token needed to retrieve the identity.

Choose a currently available UHD-listed episode and press Play. Show the player controls and check for 4K. A catalogue badge describes advertised availability; the playback badge reflects the received stream. If UHD is unavailable or your identity is not accepted, Beeb can fall back to HD.

For local-network/interface problems, explicit config paths, expired links and identity renewal, follow SETUP-UHD.md and TROUBLESHOOTING.md.

Use Settings → Display 4K UHD category to show or hide this category in the topbar/sidebar and Browse. It is enabled by default and does not change TwinVine setup or playback quality.

Open Browse → Categories → 4K UHD to see programmes with UHD-listed episodes. Opening a programme from this category selects a season with UHD episodes when available, while showing every episode in the season. Individual 4K episodes have a badge. The received playback quality can still fall back to HD if UHD is unavailable or your setup is not accepted.

The app includes a public metadata snapshot so 4K browsing and Search work immediately. While Beeb is open, the UHD index refreshes once daily from the BBC’s UHD programme page. This downloads one webpage, merges its programme links with saved UHD discoveries, and caches the result. Beeb no longer scans every programme’s episode lists in the background. Individual episode availability is checked when you open a programme, and UHD discoveries made during normal browsing are saved automatically. No Mac or hosted indexing service is required.

Search covers the full cached A–Z programme catalogue, including films, rather than just viewed programmes. Its separate daily refresh downloads programme listing pages without fetching each programme’s episodes. Results match programme titles and synopses; this is not a full-text search of every individual episode subtitle. Dictation and the iPhone keyboard depend on the Apple TV’s system settings and remote/device support.

Check for updates in the UHD category refreshes the BBC UHD webpage. Failed updates retain saved listings and retry later. Refresh timestamps are stored internally; the category keeps its interface minimal. This is an editorial index plus cached discoveries, so it is not guaranteed exhaustive or a promise that every episode is currently UHD. BBC metadata, regional availability and live UHD events can differ from the on-demand catalogue. Actual 4K/HDR delivery is checked during playback, and no TwinVine credentials are part of the catalogue cache or bundled snapshot.

Beeb is written in Swift and SwiftUI, using AVPlayer/AVKit for playback. HD stream discovery adapts get_iplayer's request and selection logic; optional UHD authentication follows TwinVine's iP service.

For supported UHD presentations, Beeb translates the BBC's static MPEG-DASH manifest into local HLS playlists. A small on-device bridge normalises fragment padding while preserving encoded samples, timing and HLG metadata. Video is not transcoded. This works around the delivery-format mismatch; it does not add general native DASH support to tvOS.

BBC TTML captions become segmented WebVTT advertised as a real HLS subtitle rendition. Apple's player renders them. A caption fetch failure does not deliberately downgrade an already selected UHD stream.

• No offline downloads or BBC account/history synchronisation.
• Saved programmes and watch progress stay locally in the app.
• UHD depends on the actual episode/version, compatible equipment and an accepted identity.
• Dynamic, multi-period and protected DASH presentations are not supported by this bridge.
• BBC services and TwinVine's configuration can change independently of this project.
• The public source contains no preconfigured signing team or UHD credentials. Each installer signs their own build.

Developer build/test commands · Validation scope · Release checks · Source publishing guide

When reporting a problem, include the app/tvOS version, device model, public programme URL and a redacted error description. Keep certificates, private keys, setup links, signing profiles, device identifiers and signed stream URLs out of issues and logs.

Beeb is distributed under GPL-3.0-or-later. Stream-discovery work adapts get_iplayer 3.36; the UHD access flow follows TwinVine's iP service, by stabbedbybrick. See NOTICE.md for attribution and details. Programme images and video belong to their respective rights holders; screenshots document the app's interface and playback.