Apple TV Full Screen Black Flicker On 2020 MacBook Air

Hi maidenfan84,

Thanks for your post! We understand your MacBook Air will not produce a consistent image when in full screen mode using the Apple TV app. If you haven't already, restart your machine and perform any available macOS update.

• How to turn your Mac on or off
• How to update the software on your Mac

If the issue is persisting, delete the Apple TV app, then reinstall.

• How to delete apps on your Mac

If the issue is persisting, see if the issue is replicated in another user.

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

Let us know what you find out!

Take care!

On my Mabook Air 2020 I had this problem too. I've solved it by disable the option 'Optimize video streaming while on battery power' at the 'Energy Safer' settings in macOS 10.15.6. I did not need to restart, but it can help if it doesn't work yet. Maybe connecting the MacBook Air to the power adapterwhile streaming may also help. Other tips to reduce flickering can be; downloading the video before watching instead of streaming, disable 'True Tone' and 'Night Shift' during streaming or video playback in general.

Hi maidenfan84,

Thanks for the response. If the issue is persisting in another user, try starting the machine in safe mode and testing.

How to use safe mode on your Mac

If the issue does not persist in safe mode, restart and test. If the issue continues, reinstall macOS.

How to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery

Hope this helps.

Cheers!

I had exactly the same problem and ended up returning the computer for a refund. The full screen video issue also happens with Quick Time Player, but not with the black flickering, but rather with colorful artifacts that pop up all the time. These issues are only on full screen. Since customer support was unable to fix them or tell me why these issues were happening, and failed to follow through with multiple phone calls scheduled with me, I returned my computer. I would love to know when this is resolved so I can feel safe purchasing the computer again.

Hi maidenfan84,

Thanks for the detailed reply. For further troubleshooting steps, please Contact Apple Support.

Best regards.

Lucky for us it is no hardware problem :-) I think the energy consumsion is regulated different when the option is enabled and causes some instability in the render or buffer process or videocard performance. I wonder if it still happens when the video is already downloaded and streaming is not required. Happy to read it work out well for you too. Maybe in 10.11 this will work in a better way.

Just did this and it resolved my problem. Thank you!!!

Same thing is happening to me right now! Super annoying. It only happens when I'm watching something on Apple TV+ on my 2020 MacBook Air.

Thanks a lot! You just helped me to resolve this annoying thing!!!