Comparison

HighballTV vs ciniq

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

HighballTV

Discover curated, independent films from major festivals like Sundance and Cannes. Engage with a community of film lovers, curators, and filmmakers through comments and behind-the-scenes content. Experience a human-centered approach to film discovery, free from algorithms.

Highlights
  • Curated film festival selections
  • Community commentary and discussion
  • Behind-the-scenes content
  • Filmmaker and curator interaction
  • Algorithm-free discovery
  • Monthly and yearly subscription options
Features
Read full description

HighballTV makes it possible for you to bring film festival cinema to every screen in your life. We are actual, real-life humans who track down exquisite films for you from major festivals like Sundance, Cannes, TIFF, and Venice, and we hand-curate them in fresh and innovative ways, so we can constantly bring you fascinating films you'll love. We missed that feeling of a video store and the in-person relationship shared by cinephiles, so we encourage our community to comment on films, and the film-curators and film-makers get in on the conversation with you. You'll also find the kind of behind-the-scenes and Q&A special features that make you feel like you're at the festival. We're proudly algorithm-free, because we believe in the essential humanity of film. HighballTV is a community of film-lovers, and we'd love for you to join us. To access all features and content you can subscribe to HighballTV on a monthly or yearly basis with an auto-renewing subscription right inside the app.* Pricing can vary by region and will be confirmed before purchase in the app. In app subscriptions will automatically renew at the end of their cycle. * All payments will be paid through your iTunes Account and may be managed under Account Settings after the initial payment. Subscription payments will automatically renew unless deactivated at least 24-hours before the end of the current cycle. Your account will be charged for renewal at least 24-hours prior to the end of the current cycle. Any unused portion of your free trial will be forfeited upon payment. Cancellations are incurred by disabling auto-renewal. Terms of Service: https://www.highballtv.com/tos Privacy Policy: https://www.highballtv.com/privacy

About

ciniq

Discover films tailored to your personal taste without relying on crowd scores or critic reviews. Engage in ten-minute film auditions and provide detailed readings across ten dimensions to refine your preferences. Share film recommendations with friends and compare your unique taste profiles.

Highlights
  • Personalized film recommendations
  • Curated film canon
  • Ten-minute film auditions
  • Multi-dimensional film readings
  • Friend taste comparison
  • Private by design
Features
Read full description

ciniq is a film-discovery app built on a canon of festival and academy award winners. No accounts, no user data collected. 1.10 adds a voice mode to the Ask tab. Everything else in this release is canon data corrections and Ask answer quality. VOICE (new in 1.10) Tap the microphone in the Ask tab and speak; ciniq answers aloud and keeps listening, so the user can interrupt it or ask a follow-up without tapping again. Speech is recognised on this device only. requiresOnDeviceRecognition is set rather than requested: if the device or language cannot recognise locally, the microphone reports unavailable instead of sending audio to a server. No audio, transcript or recording leaves the device, and nothing is retained beyond the conversation visible in the app. Answers are composed on-device with Apple's Foundation Models. There is no cloud model and no Private Cloud Compute. On a device without Apple Intelligence the voice mode still works and Ask still answers from the user's own data. To test: Ask tab → microphone → "What have I rated highest?" A real device is required; the Simulator has no microphone and usually no speech voices. The microphone and speech-recognition prompts appear on first use, and their purpose strings explain them. PLAY ON TV "Play on TV" sends a film to a Roku player on the same Wi-Fi using Roku's public External Control Protocol (unauthenticated HTTP on port 8060, enabled by default on Roku devices). ciniq discovers players on the local network, then sends a launch request with the streaming provider's own title ID so the app opens on that film. This is the same mechanism Roku's own mobile app uses. Discovery uses SSDP — a single multicast query on the local network — alongside a subnet probe. The Multicast Networking entitlement was granted to our team on 2026-09-11. This affects only how players are found; launching a film is unchanged. Testing this requires a Roku on the same network as the review device. Without one, the feature shows "No Roku found" plus a manual IP field, and nothing else in the app is affected. To reach it: open any film → Where to watch → Look up → the TV icon on a source row. The app requests local network access for this; the purpose string explains it. Nothing leaves the local network — no analytics, no identifiers, no server. WHERE TO WATCH Where-to-watch lookups use a Watchmode API key that the user supplies in Settings — ciniq has no server and no shared key. For review, please use the key below; paste it in Settings → Watchmode key. Then: any film → Where to watch → Look up → the TV icon appears on sources that can open directly on the film. [PASTE YOUR WATCHMODE KEY HERE] IN-APP PURCHASE ciniq+ unlocks sending to more than one TV. It can be viewed without hardware at Settings → ciniq+ → "See what ciniq+ unlocks". PRIVACY The privacy label is unchanged: no data collected.

Screenshots

HighballTV4 screens
ciniq4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: ciniq at every 2 days against HighballTV's every 3 months. HighballTV's advantage is iOS requirement (16.6 vs 26.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. HighballTV sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and ciniq sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

HighballTV ships an update every 3 months, ciniq every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
HighballTV versus ciniq: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHighballTVciniq
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple TViPhone, iPad, Apple TV
Requires iOS16.6 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size69 MB8 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperInternext Entertainment Distribution IncorporatedLabham LLC

Customer experience

HighballTV

Written reviews9 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

ciniq

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

HighballTV

Subscriptions2
  • HighballTV Subscription$4.991 Month
  • HighballTV Subscription$49.991 Year
1 purchases

ciniq

One-time1
  • ciniq+$5.99

Questions

Is HighballTV free?
HighballTV is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is ciniq free?
ciniq is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do HighballTV or ciniq have ads?
Neither HighballTV nor ciniq shows ads.
Which is updated more often, HighballTV or ciniq?
HighballTV ships an update every 3 months, and ciniq every 2 days. Most recently, HighballTV was updated on October 8, 2026 and ciniq on October 16, 2026.

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