pattday quilyn morain
Azucena Mcquay
How come videos won't play while using sidecar, no problem playing when using a normal second display? The videos won't play on my MacBook Pro display or the iPad Pro display. As soon as I disconnect the video is right there playing.
Netflix uses Digital Rights Management (DRM) to protect content. In a web browser, this is done using EME (Encrypted Media Extensions), and uses DRM products such as Google's "Widevine" (found in Chrome, Firefox, Brave, etc.), and other technologies.
When connecting an external display or other device, these DRM technologies require those devices to support something called High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP), which is an anti-piracy mechanism. It ensures the external device is "safe" and is not a recording device being used to duplicate the video feed. Many modern external monitors, TVs, projectors, etc. establish HDCP through an HDMI cable connection, and everything "just works."
I believe Apple's Sidecar feature works differently. Instead of sending a typical display feed to the iPad, it is sending an HEVC/H.265 video feed using technology similar to FaceTime video streaming. This is a non-standard/proprietary implementation for attaching a secondary display. It likely does not support HDCP and thus would be seen as an unauthorized display and probably why Netflix video playback stops working. I suspect the same issue arises with most other popular video services.
I saw this same behavior using the app Duet. Chrome works (as it does now with Sidecar) but Safari nor Apple TV App. I am going to open a support ticket because as most think on this forum, you should be able to play video on a Sidecar device.
I do believe product teams read the forums, at least on occasion. There are some feedback mechanisms like Product Feedback and Developer Bug Reporting. My theory is still speculative & not 100% confirmed, but it seems to jive with other comments I've read. I don't know a ton about the inner-workings of HDCP, but I hope it's technically feasible to solve this.
I have the newest MacBook Pro and iPad Pro, sidecar works, but when I try and play a movie, either web based like Netflix, or in the Apple TV app there is only a black screen and sound until a disconnect sidecar. Same problem using wifi or usb c cable with the iPad Pro.
Hope you've found some good answers to that. I've been struggling since I use Helium for watching netflix while I'm doing my job with my MacBook Pro with two-thundervolt ports 2017. I started using sidecar, and found that expensive sort of **** wasn't working properly... so I decided to watch netflix in iPad Pro using PIP(Picture-in-Picture) while I connect my airpods with the ipad..
Everything worked well for months. Suddenly, when we put Netflix on, no sound. There IS sound for a Netflix trailer, but not for an actual show. All other apps (Disney +, CW, Amazon Prime) are working fine. In another room, with another Roku, Netflix is working fine. What happened, and what needs to be done?
My son was able to fix it. I believe he went into Roku settings and then audio. And change the setting to stereo. Rather than the other one that was selected. And the hdmi setting was at auto. Restarted netflix and it was back to normal. Not sure why it started (never changed the setting to begin with) but it's worked fine since. Hope this helps!
Can you please provide more information about the issue you are experiencing? Is the issue you are experiencing only happen on the Netflix channel or does the loss of audio happen on all channels? What troubleshooting steps have you taken so far to try to resolve the issue? How long has the issue been occurring?
As a first step, could you try to remove any channel you observe this issue on from the Roku home screen? Then, restart your device. Once it loads up again, add the channel back once more and try playing content again.
Comparing image in Netflix app on TV, iPad and PC its pretty clear on the Sony TV everything is stretched. It doesn't matter which format it originially has (old, new movies same), the app on the TV will stretch the image a tiny bit making sure it fits perfectly in the frame of 16:9. This is hardly noticeable, but for me who's picky about these things its very annoying.
The big problem is you cannot change screen control (skjermkontroll in Norwegian) on internet content. On my HDMI channels it's set to wide and no matter what format plays there it will always show correct.
If I play the Matrix on Netflix (which is very wide format), it will offcourse not fit the screen to 16:9, but have small black bars up and below picture, which it should. However, it is still a bit stretched (or squeezed upwards is a better description).
Anyone else have this problem? It's really annoying. It just doesn't make sense to me why the Netflix app on the TV is a tiny bit stretched (or squeezed). You wont notice it unless you compare with your pc/ipad image. Then its very clear. Heck I've been watching Netflix on my TV since last summer and only now did I notice. Most noticeable with cars in the image, they seem a bit skinny, like squeezed. Sorry if I'm not explaining well.
I just played a DVD of Longmire on my Blurayplayer. And it's the same image problem there. So Im starting to think it's not the Netflix app, but the TV itself. I read about a guy having similar problems, offcourse I cannot find that now. He had a different Sony TV, but it appeared that his TV wasn't full HD ready (allthough advertised as), mentioning missing something like 30mm for a full 16:9 format. That's 1,5cm each side. I'm starting to think that's the problem I've got as well, it certainly would explain the squeezed image! So it must also inflict when I watch via tuner. Funny though, I've never noticed anything as the aspect ratio seems to be normal there when comparing. but now I'm starting to get angst it's always been squeezed there as well (allthough a quick test shows its normal). Another funny thing, is my pc is connected to the TV. And watching movies via the TV from my pc, the format is normal. So I'm becoming very confused here, it'd be simpler if the squeeze problem was on everything. Edit: No, I just watched Netflix via chrome via pc to tv (hdmi) and it's still squeezed. So it appears all a squeezed image on internet content, pc source and bluray. Tuner and chromecast has normal aspect ratio. This shouldnt be possible as there is a full image edge to edge on all sources, so why th differnce?
Suppose I just have to live with it... buying a new TV is a no no as I'm thrilled with this one, finally got the display settings/colors I'm happy with, which I spent months trying to get right to my liking. Oh well
Embarassing I only found this out now, have had this TV for many years. But only noticed it when I compared to other images on ipad, pc, even the phone. Me being so picky about correct aspect ratio, colors etc. it's funny how I've never noticed this watching tv in general, as mentioned before most easily noticeable on cars that seems "skinny". But you really need an image to compare to, or you just wont see it.
I actually already tried that, sadly to no avail. The reason full pixel doesn't work (I think) is because it only applies to the HDMIs, not internet content. But from what I can see, the full pixel sorta only "zooms out/show full", it doesn't affect aspect ratio/zoom/pixels on Netflix. Thanks for the tip though
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