Nothing plays on TV app (blank but with control overlays showing)

[creaton]

So a couple of things to report as I dug in:

1) Suspecting my rx580 I ordered an MSI Vega56. Did not fix the 'TV App not streaming' problem (but in the end a good and likely necessary change to have made...)

2) I was attempting to run my graphics in headless mode => IGPU enabled (in bios) with Whatevergreen.kext. Using SMBIOS iMac 19,1

3) Spent a lot of time trying to manually set framebuffer values, etc... ig-platform-id's... all to nought; I think WEG should be doing this.

3) Then, I found this post which (thanks to user Jaco1960) clearly indicated that a DGPU only solution (i.e. not headless) was working - but required using SMBIOS iMacPro 1,1

Using Clover, I changed my model to iMacPro 1,1 (updating the RT VARIABLES serial number to match the main board serial (to keep facetime, messages, etc... working); then, disabled my IGPU in the BIOS and Voila - it worked.

I was always struggling with Airplay on the rx580 (accelerated or not) but in this mode (at least with the Vega56) Airplay seems to be accelerated fine and the TV app streams too. Also, iMovie didn't run in this mode on the rx580 - but it all works on the Vega56. Much better support across the board - worth changing the card I think.

The link I found indicates that Sidecar might not work - but, as soon as I get an iPad to test I'll update.

 

[esafeddie]

Ok gotcha! - Well streaming is a no-no just the 'Spinning Wheel of Frustration' but I'm not too fussed over it, as long as my purchased material is assessable I'm good. Maybe one day when I'm bored I'll dig into it but at the moment it's waaayyyyy down my to do list

 

[esafeddie]

It’s an app in Catalina. It’s in your dock. It says Appletv.
Just open it and click on one of their streaming shows such as “The Morning Show”.
see if You are able to stream the trailer for the show.

OK. Here is an update on the streaming Apple TV debate - I decided to dabble and see if I could get it to work. Each time I tried, I got the endless spinning wheel. So I decided to refresh the system from the 'Recovery Partition'. After a while a message came up that the recovery couldn't continue as the PreBoot partition was missing!!! (HUH!!!).

How that came about I haven't a clue and yet the system was working flawless or so I thought - I mean iMsg, F/Time, my movie collection in iTunes (Apple TV) all working. I decided to do a clean install, Format the NMVe drive APFS this time and go from there.

At the end of the installation, on the reboot before I installed Clover to the EFI partition, I made sure all the partitions were present in the clover boot menu. Done the final setup, reach the desktop, install clover and reboot to insure the installation was ok.

So far, so good. My next step was to log into iCloud, App Store and finally Apple TV. Whilst there I tried a few of my movies, and they all played. The next step I tried Streaming. I chose 'The Morning Show', and, by some quirk of fate, it started to play in all its glory!!!!

I am not trying to say, the message with the missing 'Preboot' partition had anything to do with it, I am not that knowledgeable or clever ,but whatever was previously stopping me from streaming in Apple TV, maybe was corrected when I did a clean install.

To end this saga, I've got a free year's Apple TV subscription and will be streaming the cr4p out of it when there is nothing decent on on the goggle box.

 

[dyplose]

Problem solved:

• Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H
• [bios settings => intel display DISABLED]
• RX580 sapphire pulse
• Catalina (10.15.1)
• Clover r5098 (no intel inject)
• Latest kexts = [ Lilu, whatever green, FakePCI,...]
• SMBIOS iMacPro 1,1

I previously had a 19.1 definition but the video previews did not even work. I shifted to 1.1 and I could see the previews but not the actual movies. I realized that the problem was with my Apple ID which did not connect either for TV or Music. The thing is that it worked when I connected with my daughter's account from the family sharing scheme. So I created a new shared icloud account and voilà. I needed to use an ipad to create the new account, added it as a new family member in icloud and suddenly, both Music and TV were connected and worked.
I hope this can help.
Cheers

 

[remington]

Same here.. Just blank screen with control overlays. Tried both of my graphics devices... RX 580 and iGPU Intel HD 530. It works fine on my MacBook Pro.

 

[GregP9999]

Same issue here. Digital copy movies from the iTunes store worked fine on Mojave, but play with a black screen in Catalina. The audio plays fine - just no picture. No issues with my own ripped movies.

I'm using SMBIOS 17,1 with the HD530 using a headless platform ID. I haven't bothered with different Shiki arguments so far. I'm guessing that one of the patches that Shiki applies for Skylake boards is no longer valid.

 

[remington]

I changed my system definition from iMac17,1 to iMacPro1,1 and it worked. I'm not sure why it works with 1,1 but not 17,1.

 

[tecnicasopr]

OK here is an update on the streaming Apple TV debate - I decided to dabble and see if I could get it to work, each time I tried, I got the endless spinning wheel. So I decided to refresh the system from the 'Recovery Partition'. After a while a message came up that the recovery couldn't continue as the PreBoot partition was missing!!! (HUH!!!).

How that came about I haven't a clue and yet the system was working flawless or so I thought - I mean iMsg, F/Time, my movie collection in iTunes (Apple TV) all working. I decided to do a clean install, Format the NMVe drive APFS this time and go from there.

At the end of the installation, on the reboot before I installed Clover to the EFI partition, I made sure all the partitions were present in the clover boot menu. Done the final setup, reach the desktop, install clover and reboot to insure the installation was ok.

So far so good, my next step log on to iCloud, App Store and finally Apple TV, whilst there I tried a few of my movies and they all played. The next step I tried Streaming and chose 'The Morning Show' and by some quirk of fate, it started to play in all its glory!!!!

I am not trying to say, the message with the missing 'Preboot' partition had anything to do with it, I am not that knowledgeable or clever but whatever was previously stopping me from streaming in Apple TV, maybe was corrected when I did a clean install.

To end this saga, I've got a free year's Apple TV subscription and will be streaming the cr4p out of it when there is nothing decent on on the goggle box.

How can I get a free year subsciption?

 

[esafeddie]

How can I get a free year subsciption?

Ok - when you first open the Apple TV app it offers you the choice to try it free for a year and then I think it's £4.99 a month here in the UK but you must remember to cancel a month before the year ends if you don't want to keep it. I think it's a very clever move by Apple to make this offer and quite a good one at that. just think of the millions of potential customers because it's not just on Macs but across all their devices!!!!

 

[scottkendall]

Looks like it works for me on my Vega system but I run iMac Pro SM without Igpu that's really the best for DRM content. I would advise you all to chance your SM to iMac Pro 1,1 and disable your Igpu. I am lazy otherwise I would go check and see if it works fine on the other hack.