We are loving the Channels app on our M1 Macbook Air! So much better than the browser viewing experience (less stuttering & commercial skip support). One issue we noted was that the Mac goes to sleep while videos are playing in the app. We’re working around the issue by installing “Jolt of Caffeine (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/jolt-of-caffeine/id1437130425?mt=12)” and disabling sleep while watching videos on Channels. Not sure if this is an Apple bug or something the Channels team can address, but mostly wanted to say ‘Thank You’ for making the app available so quickly on M1 Macs!
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Yep came here to report that my Mac is sleeping while watching videos through the Channels app too, even full screen. Thanks for the work around idea but hope this can me remedied soon!
¯(°_o)/¯ there's nothing much we can do. This iOS apps on macOS stuff is a black box.
Until macOS responds to iOS apps turning off the idle timer, it's gonna be stuck this way.
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Amphetamine can be configured to keep your Mac awake while a specified app is running.
I haven't tried using it for this myself but it might be worth a shot!
(Edit: D'oh, just realized that Jolt of Caffeine was suggested above to do the same thing too... so maybe try that as well!)
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it'd be nice have a feature to keep the window on top of other apps. I am also finding that using an airplay 2 speaker (HomePod mini) causes a significant delay. Other audio on the Mac works in sync. I have changed the video drive to experimental but it hasn't changed the result
This is an iOS app running on macOS, not a MacOS app with APIs that we can take advantage of. It works like it works and that’s all we can do.
The iOS app is written for iOS. How it works on macOS is 100% up to Apple.
Understand thx
Just watched a 2hr show on my M1 MBP while on battery. Loved how the arrow keys jumped forward and backward just like on the Apple TV, except way snappier on the Mac which made it a real pleasure to skip commercials before comskip had run.
Very pleasant experience using this app on MacOS. I too experienced my MBP going to sleep during playback, but I adjusted settings to prevent. I’ll try the jolt of caffeine app. Also slightly annoying that the mouse pointer doesn’t disappear in full screen. Anyone have an app recommendation to address that similar to jolt of caffeine?
I’m very excited for Apple to continue improving iOS app experience on MacOS and open up more ways for developers to take advantage of this.
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Update on my secondary monitor issue (video stream fixed size, cropped in window, and rendered over any playback controls). With PIP added in the latest version, PIP works perfectly on either display. And if I tell the video to return to the window, regardless of which screen the window is on, it will display in the window properly (scaled to the window, and controls displayed in front of the video). If I move the window to the other display and back, the problem returns. It also doesn't matter which screen the PIP comes from. So the bug is still there, but PIP works great, and the transition from PIP to window fixes the canvas attributes. I haven't tried this with the 11.2 beta, but the fix is probably on Apple to do, unless the iOS Channels app was made into a hybrid iOS/Mac app to directly target Mac functionality and APIs.
Thanks for the great app! Cheers!
Having the same issue in my 2nd monitor. How did you update to the latest version, with uninstall/install? Didn't realize macOS does not show updates available for iPhone/iPad apps...
iOS apps do show up for me in the App Store, since that's where I got them. I've had instances where even Mac apps forget they're from the store (going to the app's page shows a download-from-cloud button, not "open" or "update"), and I have to delete and reinstall from the app store.
On the app store update window, you can also use command-R to "reload" the update window (like a browser window), and it will recheck for any updates.
Good luck!
Now with PiP. Loving it on M1, iPad Pro, iPhone.
I understand that this maybe out of your control:
Mac paired with a HomePod mini-
When I play any audio/video from other apps or via the browser, there is short lag in response to playback start and stop but the audio and video are in sync.
Via the channels app, the same lag exists however the audio and video are not in sync. it works normally when not using the HomePod. This is on current ver big sur.
E: The experimental Audio driver resolves it. The experimental video driver does not seem to impact the result
That's only true for iOS/iPad apps that are sideloaded via iMazing or other means. If a developer hasn't opted out and you're able to install that iOS/iPad app via the Mac App Store (like we can with Channels) then updates should appear as usual.
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Wow thanks for this fix with the PiP trick to get it to match the window size! Exactly what I came here looking for.
Just wanted to chime in here with a non-update. Video payback canvas size behavior is the same when using 11.4 and the latest Channels app. Either a complicated bug, or Apple doesn't know about it yet. A good way around it would be if Channels released a Catalyst-based Mac app, which will either help find a way around the bug in an explicit way (rather than automated hands-off Apple Silicon way it is now), or expose the bug a bit more visibly. Also, Intel-based Mac users could then use the app.
Hey all, just wanted to give a quick non-update. The scaling issue between screens hasn't changed at all, and the last improvement was PIP support, since when you have playback working, you can move it to PIP, move the Channels window to the screen that normally mis-scales it, and de-PIP it into the window for proper scaling. The layer the video is playing on is clearly not being synced to match the window UI when it switches screens properly, while de-PIP does do the necessary UI update to the proper screen context. It's not totally naive about it tho, cuz moving back to the correct screen still works correctly. It's like internally, its always using a single screen for scaling info context info, and it returns a null for other screens (since the video is shown at a fixed resolution with no regard for the window size, this isn't a default behavior, but an unconfigured or null behavior). I think this is still an issues only Apple can fix, since it's an iOS app misbehaving on the "automatic" M1, but kinda sad it hasn't been fixed. Hopefully they're at least aware of it.
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Hey all. This bug is still here, but I discovered another app that has a similar issue. RadarScope will work fine on the display Channels also works fine, but on the second display, Radar scope will lose all the UI controls, and just display a full-window radar image. If it's in a dual-pane mode, it still picks one and displays just that. It's the only other app i've seen anything similar (layers and views lose arrangement, one takes over the window)
I went through the trouble of recording the screen scaling issue and then found this topic, but figured I would post it anyway for posterity. Hopefully this can be addressed (by Apple I would assume) or even better yet a native Mac app one day!
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Thats pretty common. Your monitors appear to be different resolutions. Happens to me on windows when i drag any video to another monitor.