AMC plus wont play video?

I am having the exact same issue. The program slides work and I click play, but then the screen goes dark and the icon says the video is playing via airplay. Pausing the video makes the still image appear, but hitting “play” makes it disappear and the icons comes back over a black screen. Very strange. And yes, other apps are working just fine. AMC+ is the only app that is doing this.

UPDATE:

1) You can try submitting this issue to Apple, but Apple will re-direct you to AMC+ Support. Even though the issue occurred simultaneously with an automatic update to TV OS 15.5.1—because it seems the issue only affects AMC+ app and not Netflix (for example), it is in their (AMC+) court...

2) So I have submitted a support request to AMC+. They're response:

1. 1. Standard acknowledgment email that they have opened a ticket, and
   2. Boilerplate email with basic troubleshooting info and requesting additional details.

I have responded with all the requested additional details, and a link to this discussion.

FYI for AdvisorMP (above) in my case:

1. Not using it with a Smart TV
2. Connected to TV via HDMI cable
3. Only affects AMC+ (no other channels/apps)
4. Acts like a DRM issue, but before the latest Apple TVOS update, everything worked fine. It's as if some internal DRM switch has been flipped somewhere by accident - triggering that blank video screen - even though the video in fact is NOT playing on AirPlay on any other device.

If you have this issue, please send an email to AMC + <customerservice@amcplus.com> and provide your details.

🤓 BTW: I can use the AMC+ App on my iPad and then AIRPLY it to my Apple TV 4k. Maybe I should just delete the app off the Apple TV and pretend it was never there?

There’s actually a workaround that I discovered on accident and it allows you to still use your HomePods.

Go to settings on your AppleTv.

Select Video and Audio

Select Audio Output

Select TV Speakers as your Default Audio Output

Scroll Down to Temporary Audio Output

By Default your TV Speakers Are selected.

Select your HomePods (Room - whatever you have this set to mine are “Main Bedroom”)

When you do this TV Speakers gets deselected.

Lastly, select TV speakers again.

Both should now be Checked off.

when you exit back one screen it should now say under Temporary Audio “Main Bedroom + Master” or something along those lines.

Now turn the TV volume all the way down and use the audio from the HomePods.

The Only downside is that you have to control the volume of the HomePods on the App or On the Speakers themselves, but if you don’t mind doing that then this works great.

There’s actually a workaround that I discovered on accident and it allows you to still use your HomePods.

Go to settings on your AppleTv.

Select Video and Audio

Select Audio Output

Select TV Speakers as your Default Audio Output

Scroll Down to Temporary Audio Output

By Default your TV Speakers Are selected.

Select your HomePods (Room - whatever you have this set to. Mine is set to “Main Bedroom”)

When you do this TV Speakers gets deselected.

Lastly, select TV speakers again.

Both should now be Checked off.

when you exit back one screen it should now say under Temporary Audio “Main Bedroom + Master” or something along those lines.

Now turn the TV volume all the way down and use the audio from the HomePods.

The Only downside is that you have to control the volume of the HomePods on the App or On the Speakers themselves, but if you don’t mind doing that then this works great.

Thanks for getting in touch, Zequé.

It sounds like you're having some trouble watching a particular channel on your Apple TV. We can help.

You've definitely taken some good steps so far in trying to isolate the issue. If you could tell us more about your set up, that would probably be useful to narrow down the cause. But, in general, content that is available on the AMC channel could be DRM protected, which would explain why anything sent over AirPlay has audio but not video.

The part that we need to understand is why you're getting an alert about AirPlay when you're sure you aren't using it, and have turned it off.

Are you connecting the Apple TV to a SMART television? If so, are you doing that using an HDMI cable, or wirelessly? If wirelessly, try using an HDMI cable instead.

Another consideration is if any other channels are doing the same thing. If not, the issue might be with AMC, and you might need to reach out to them.

Let us know what you can, and we'll continue from here.

Take care.

I’m having the same issue trying to watch The Walking Dead on the AMC+ app on my Apple TV. I turned off AirPlay and it still happens. I don’t see any software updates that I can do. It has to be a problem with the app because I don’t have any issues with my other streaming apps at all.

Same issue here. To be clear, we're NOT using AIRPLAY, just trying to watch AMC+ using the app on the Apple TV. I'm pretty sure this occurred after the latest automatic update to the Apple TV OS. Have logged in and out of AMC+, deleted and re-installed the AMC+ app, turned off Airplay on the TV, and logged out of the app on iPad. All other Apple TV functionality and Apps appear to work fine. NO AMC+ shows work - it is not specific to one show, appears to be all of them. As mentioned by others, the app opens, shows the "slides" of available shows, but when one is selected and you try to play it, the screen goes black with a white message (screenshot in message from someone above, the same) that "the program is currently being watched on AirPlay". AND no, it is not being watched by anyone on Airplay.

I received this gem of a response from AMC... "disconnect my speakers" Really? Ridiculous. See below

Thanks for reaching out to the AMC+ support team. We're sorry to hear that you're having some trouble with our TV app. Our tech team is aware of an issue involving certain types of connected speakers, mainly HomePod speakers.

The wireless protocol used for these speakers is similar to that for connecting your TV to an iOS device and unfortunately is creating this problem. We are working with Apple to resolve this in our next update. For now, we suggest that you please disconnect your wirelessly connected speaker from the TV.

(If you have no speakers connected, please reply to let us know.)

We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause. We hope to have this resolved soon. Thanks for being an AMC+ member.

Thanks,

AMC+ Support Team

Yes, the "disconnect the speakers" response may be one of the troubleshooting steps. I am currently using an M1 Mac Mini connected with HomePod mini for my audio. I could not get passed the AirPlay message so I updated the software. It disconnected my HomePod on the reset and AMC+ finally worked fine. I realized that my HomePod was not playing audio, reconnected it, and boom, AirPlay message with no video. Here are my suggestions.

-If you are using HomePods for Audio, try disconnecting them to see if this works. Report the problem to both Apple and AMC. When I purchased the HomePod mini, it would not play audio from my M1 Mac. I could see that it was connected and it was receiving audio because the HomePod was lighting up, just no audio. What did I do? Nothing, I just figured there was a bug and waited for them to fix it. A month later, tried it out, and it was working fine. I did nothing different, just waited for them to fix the bug. I had read that some minis were doing this same problem so I did not report it.

-Apple is updating tvOS to include the best audio available for supported tvs. This actually may be a part of a bug because my JBL soundbar has been shifting inputs the past week or so. So, report the issue to Apple. I will be doing so after I troubleshoot my soundbar. It keeps shifting to PCM on its own when it never did this in the past.

I know that this was not a good answer, but maybe it will help some people who are experiencing this issue. My fix was not using my HomePod mini for audio. When I connect it, I get the AirPlay message, with audio and no video.

Exact same situation here cj. The only difference is that I contacted AMC+ by email and have been going back and forth with them for weeks. I tried all the same things as suggested by them to no avail. The last email from them said basically "oh well watch on your other devices" So crazy.

I only have AMC+ because of a Verizon promotion. I'm not going to mess with my Homepods because AMC can't seem to do what every other vendor is able to. When I watch AMC shows, I use my iPad and Airplay it to my AppleTV. Unless AMC fixes this, and I find some compelling reason to stay with them, when the promotion runs out, AMC+ will be deleted from all my devices.

It might sound ridiculous but it actually worked for me. That said, disconnecting the HomePod isn’t really ideal for me since I don’t have any other speakers hooked up at the moment and AMC is the only app that seems to have this issue. Bravo AMC…

Yes I agree. I won’t disconnect and mess with Homepods just for this and their crappy app. Haven’t used this app since Better Call Saul ended in May. Tried to watch tonight and it’s all screwed up! Thus app was bad before and now it’s worse. Had to play it on my IPad and airplay to the appleTV. Shouldn’t need to do that! If I ever subscribe again, it will be through another app. Will NEVER use their app again!

I agree the App is poor, like many others, but "disconnecting" HomePods is not too much trouble if you're invested for the month. Go to Settings>Video and Audio>Audio Output and switch from HomePods to the TV speakers. That's all I had to do to get mine to work. When you're done with the show switch back. Hopefully these App developers start realizing they *will* lose customers when they don't put proper effort into their products. I won't be renewing until this (at least) is fixed.

I started just using my Bluetooth Headphones whenever I watch on the AMC+ app. This way I don’t have to disconnect my HomePods in the settings menu and then reconnecting them afterwards. It would be great if they would fix the issue already, but I prepaid for the service for a year at the $28 promo price they had a while back.