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Fullscreen Video Playback is broken on late 2015 iMac 4K running macOS Catalina

Since updating to macOS Catalina fullscreen video playback in the Music and TV app is plagued by frequent 0.5 second fadeouts to black (up to 7 per minute) which makes watching music videos or movies a pain in the rear. I would call this a serious regression. Please fix this ASAP. Thank you!


Intel Iris Pro Graphics 6200 1536 MB

iMac 21.5", macOS 10.15

Posted on Dec 23, 2019 5:11 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 25, 2019 11:00 AM

Hey there Dirk Lenz,


Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities. I understand you’re not able to watch videos in fullscreen after updating to macOS Catalina. I’ll be happy to help.


If full screen isn’t working, reset the NVRAM and SMC on your Mac using the steps from these links:


How to reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac

Reset NVRAM or PRAM on your Mac


You may also want to see if this happens in safe mode or a new user account as well:


Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac

How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac


Also, see if this happens with all apps and videos. 


Let me know if this helps.

4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 25, 2019 11:00 AM in response to Dirk Lenz

Hey there Dirk Lenz,


Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities. I understand you’re not able to watch videos in fullscreen after updating to macOS Catalina. I’ll be happy to help.


If full screen isn’t working, reset the NVRAM and SMC on your Mac using the steps from these links:


How to reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac

Reset NVRAM or PRAM on your Mac


You may also want to see if this happens in safe mode or a new user account as well:


Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac

How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac


Also, see if this happens with all apps and videos. 


Let me know if this helps.

Dec 27, 2019 1:49 AM in response to Teddy_B

Hey there A13_usr,


thank you for your help! Here is what happened:


  1. (I was surprised to learn that startup key combos only seem to work when the keyboard is connected by wire)
  2. Resetting the SMC and NVRAM had no effect.
  3. Booting in safe mode prevented me from playing any video at all.
  4. Logging in as Guest User enabled fullscreen video playback without any issues.


Now here is where the Apple Magic happened ;-)


After logging back in with my regular user account it took quite some time for the first video to start after hitting Play. Since then the fadeout problem is completely gone.


While i have no idea what happened behind the scenes, the problem is solved and i am very happy.


Thanks again for your help A13_usr! Enjoy a happy and successful new year!

Dirk

Dec 25, 2019 11:15 AM in response to Dirk Lenz

EtreCheck is a simple little app to display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac.

http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck


Pastebin is a good place to paste the whole report...

https://pastebin.com/


Workable but harder for me to work with...the Note tool on the bottom of this editor's toolbar, as shown in the image, to copy and paste the output from EtreCheck.

Fullscreen Video Playback is broken on late 2015 iMac 4K running macOS Catalina

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