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Apple TV 4K Screensaver causes media to start

Ever since the update yesterday to tvOS 18.0 I’m having an issue with YouTube. I’ll pause a video and do something for a bit, and then when the Apple TV screensaver starts after the 5 mins I have it set to, my video will be unpaused and start to play. The screensaver remains on the screen, but the video will play in the background and I’ll hear the audio from it playing. I haven’t checked this on other apps, but it’s very annoying, I’ll leave the room while a video is paused, come back, and it will be finished. Is anyone else experiencing this issue since the latest update?

Apple TV 4K

Posted on Sep 27, 2024 4:10 PM

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Posted on Oct 3, 2024 10:23 AM

Having the same issue when paused on YouTube Premium(Ad Free) subscription. Also get a black screen when selecting a vid, then it switches back to the thumbnail screen(sometimes multiple times) OR finally starts playing the vid(that I have yet to view)& starts playing it about 3/4 of the way in OR kicks me out completely to the account screen, where I then have to reselect my account, which at that point puts said vid in my history as already completely viewed!!! The issue with the black screen seems to be switching back & forth form Dolby Vision? Running an AppleTV A2843 on an 86" LG Mini-LED model 86QNED85UQA & yes television software has been updated as well!

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 3, 2024 10:23 AM in response to visi0nize

Having the same issue when paused on YouTube Premium(Ad Free) subscription. Also get a black screen when selecting a vid, then it switches back to the thumbnail screen(sometimes multiple times) OR finally starts playing the vid(that I have yet to view)& starts playing it about 3/4 of the way in OR kicks me out completely to the account screen, where I then have to reselect my account, which at that point puts said vid in my history as already completely viewed!!! The issue with the black screen seems to be switching back & forth form Dolby Vision? Running an AppleTV A2843 on an 86" LG Mini-LED model 86QNED85UQA & yes television software has been updated as well!

Sep 29, 2024 2:52 PM in response to visi0nize

This is happening with the YouTube App, I don’t subscribe to YouTube TV. I’m also noticing that I will play a video I have never watched before, and rather than starting from the beginning, it will start from somewhere in the middle or near the end. And on top of all that, the app has been crashing and kicking me

out a lot. I use YouTube more than any other app, I really hope Apple fixes this soon.

Oct 9, 2024 5:23 AM in response to visi0nize

Happening for me on TV OS 18.0. Like others the way to fix it is to turn off features in tvOS settings.


Turning off Dolby Vision and using SDR resolves it.

Turning off QMS solves it.

Turning off Match Frame Rate solves is.


The thing is, I use those features. I shouldn't have to turn off OS level features for an app to work.


There are other issues in the youtube app as well. They all seem to stem from trying to switch from the OS default picture settings, like Dolby Vision, to something else when actually loading a video. But they manifest in colorful ways like unpausing videos, or when loading a new video the timestamp from the last video you watch is inherited to the new video, or just a black screen with no video and no metadata.

Sep 29, 2024 12:06 PM in response to visi0nize

an issue with YouTube

Is this with the free ‘YouTube’ app, or the TV provider ‘YouTube TV’? The latter had been known to cause issues with its own screen saver. Not sure if or when that was solved, as I am not a customer with them (and not in their service area).

I can’t replicate the described issue with the regular free YouTube app on my Apple TV 4K (1st gen) on tvOS 18.


_______________________

Try this for any misbehaving app:

  1. Force-quit the app, then relaunch and try again.
  2. If the issue persists, force-quit the app, restart the device, then relaunch and try again.
  3. If the issue still persists, delete the app, re-download and try again.
  4. If the issue still persists after that, then contact the app developer for further assistance.

Oct 5, 2024 10:40 AM in response to dkitsov

This is what I figured. It’s an issue with Quick Media Switching. Disabling Match Framerate disables QMS, since matching framerate and matching dynamic range must be enabled for QMS.


I bet this broke when Apple made changes to the screensaver features in tvOS 18. Seems like a “play” command is sent to the screensaver (maybe to play nice with QMS), which triggers background video, too (YouTube).

Oct 22, 2024 2:01 PM in response to visi0nize

Same in here !

YouTube application is working in a completely erratic way, I sometimes have to launch one, two, three times a video before it actually may work, otherwise I have a black screen and only sound or It’s just trying to adjust the format so black screen then first image of the video then black screen again and so on and on until I eventually succeed to launch, the video and if I haven’t been kicked out in the middle of the process from the app, finding myself on the login screen, I don’t think it’s strictly Dolby Vision related as my TV (a recent 4K Phillips ambilight model that doesn’t support it 🫤) though it’s supporting 4K HDR10 and could even support HDR10+ if I had the Apple TV 4K third edition but sadly only have the second.

Also quite often it’s not starting at the beginning of the video as if I already had watched a portion the video before which I’m sure I have not ! Then, last, but not least it also systematically unpause the video when the screensaver starts, videos not showing up in the history which is even more upsetting if the bugs pushes me to switch on the iPad or iPhone/screen mirroring to try to get a better experience !

It’s a lot of bugs, especially considering it seems that we, the paying subscribers, are apparently more touched by these bugs !!! (or maybe we have a paying subscription because we are heavier users)

I don’t know if it’s that YT responsibility or iOS, I would guess a mix of the two but anyway YouTube and Apple have to make a quick fix this situation as it’s completely insane how many bugs appeared since the new updates.

Thank you for those reading me.

Apple TV 4K Screensaver causes media to start

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