TV App questions

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TV App questions

In macOS Catalina, if you have downloaded SD and 1080p video, how do you get the TV app to play the 1080p video? It seems that when you play, the TV app is playing the SD version (and I'd like to have it play the 1080p version).

Also, how do you tell when a video's been played?

I have a bunch of videos downloaded so they're not susceptible to streaming idiosyncrasies - how do you tell in the TV app which ones have already been watched? iTunes used to display IIRC a blue bubble next to unwatched videos, but the TV app doesn't seem to have carried that feature forward.

There are a bunch of nice things about having iTunes functionality moved into macOS (like being able to stream even if iTunes isn't launched), but there are also some things which seem to be missing.

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Apr 23, 2020 6:05 AM

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Answer 1

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leroydouglas

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Apr 23, 2020 6:58 AM in response to Verne Arase

Verne Arase wrote:

FYI, I'm talking about the TV app on macOS Catalina - not the Apple TV hardware platform.

Apple TV App User Guide for Mac - Apple Support

https://support.apple.com/guide/tvapp-mac/playback-preferences-tvdf855a1b/mac

https://www.imore.com/how-use-apple-tv-app-mac#playback

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Answer 2

Apr 23, 2020 6:38 AM in response to Verne Arase

Verne Arase wrote:

In macOS Catalina, if you have downloaded SD and 1080p video, how do you get the TV app to play the 1080p video? It seems that when you play, the TV app is playing the SD version (and I'd like to have it play the 1080p version).

Also, how do you tell when a video's been played?

I have a bunch of videos downloaded so they're not susceptible to streaming idiosyncrasies - how do you tell in the TV app which ones have already been watched? iTunes used to display IIRC a blue bubble next to unwatched videos, but the TV app doesn't seem to have carried that feature forward.

There are a bunch of nice things about having iTunes functionality moved into macOS (like being able to stream even if iTunes isn't launched), but there are also some things which seem to be missing.

Apple TV User Guide - Apple Support

Change Playback preferences in the Apple TV app on Mac ...

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Answer 3

Verne Arase Author

Level 1

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Apr 23, 2020 7:43 AM in response to leroydouglas

Nothing in any of those guides (or what I can see in preferences) address any of the issues I've described - watching downloaded video in the macOS TV app.

The quality toggles talk about streaming or downloading - not local viewing (on the Mac). I think there used to be a toggle about viewing highest resolution (quality) video locally, and there's nothing at all about the "unwatched/already watched" indicator.

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Answer 4

Verne Arase Author

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Apr 24, 2020 4:58 PM in response to Verne Arase

Found the "watched" indicator - it's active, not passive.

Hover over the icon for the show, and if it's been watched a check mark appears on the icon. Would prefer a passive indicator so you could see at a glance which episode to start watching.

Now if there was only some way to select which resolution media file to play when multiple resolutions have been downloaded.

I think (but am not sure) that there was a "play highest resolution" toggle in iTunes. As it is, the TV app seems to play the lowest resolution file (or maybe the file name that sorts lowest).

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Answer 5

Verne Arase Author

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80 points

Apr 23, 2020 6:48 AM in response to leroydouglas

FYI, I'm talking about the TV app on macOS Catalina - not the Apple TV hardware platform.

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