Alternative to UINavigationController or UINavigationBar, custom height wanted

My goal is to get a navigation bar like the HBO GO app on iPad. 开发者_运维技巧Their nav bar has a larger height and a custom background. It seems like they're using a navigation controller since when you press on a show it takes you to a new screen with a back button.

I'm wondering either

1) Can I use an instance of UINavigationBar without a NavigationController and use the navigation bar delegate to handle pushing and popping my views?

or

2)Is there another way that I can implement this?

I am currently trying to do this with a navigation controller and navigation bar but I am running into difficulties and I think its not the best way to do it. Also Apple docs specifically say not to change the frame of the navigation bar in a navcontroller.

Ideas please? Thanks in advance!

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From the looks of it, the HBO Go application uses completely custom navigation controls. A basic UINavigationController-alike class is relatively straightforward to build, but you must be careful to consider that UIViewControllers are not intended to be nested on iOS <= 4 and so you will have to pass through several methods such as view{Will,Did}appear:.

I recommend starting from the ground up, as trying to heavily customize the built-in controls will only lead to further frustrations as you run into issues or limitations in their customizability.