Richard's Tech Reviews

Language selection for HIDIVE on Apple TV

For shows with multiple audio tracks, HIDIVE doesn't provide the ability to switch between languages on the fly in Apple TV.  If you pull down the audio display, it will just say Language: Unknown.

To set the language, you have to do it in your profile.

Account -> Profile Settings -> Language

Previously:
January 3, 2023  Fixing HIDIVE spinning loading on Apple TV

Siri for search and nothing else on Apple TV

I had assumed you could use Siri for full control on Apple TV.  Push the button on the remote, say what you want, and then use your voice to navigate every on-screen prompt.

You can't.

You can use Siri to search for "iTunes" (Apple TV store) movies and television.  And that's it. It's basically solely a workflow for finding iTunes content.
It doesn't even seem to use the deep cross-application search that the Apple TV itself can do.

It definitely can't search into Netflix.

The lack of additional voice control commands makes for a really clunky modal switch where you search using Siri but then have to do all the Buy or Rent steps using the clickpad on the remote.

Apple claims it can recognize onscreen labels but this functionality is super flaky.  If they're across the top of the screen maybe.  If they're buttons, usually not.

This is extra annoying because Apple has at least three workflows for buy or rent, including two vertically stacked Buy | Rent buttons, a single Buy or Rent button that takes you to horizontally scrolling Buy or Rent buttons, and horizontally listed Buy or Rent buttons (in the iTunes apps).  And then multiple steps after that to actually rent and play.

Once you have a search result on screen, you should be able to say "Buy and play this movie" or "Rent and play this show".  But you can't.

You get ridiculous results, like if you say "Rent", it will search for and find the movie "Rent" rather than renting whatever is on screen, and if you say "Wednesday", it will search for and find a movie called "Wednesday", even if you have Netflix with the TV show.

Even if they just added a voice control clarification like "Label", you could say something like "Label: Rent".  But you can't.

You also should at least be able to use qualifiers, like "Wednesday on Netflix".  But you can't.

Apple Support - Use Siri on your Apple TV

About the only useful additional Siri feature is "what did they just say?" / "what did he say?", which will rewind ~30 seconds, turn on Closed Captions, replay the scene and turn off closed captions.

You could in theory also use Siri to control playback but I don't see why you would.  Turning closed captioning on and off might be useful, although I don't know how good it is about selecting audio and captions languages, if it can do that at all.

You might also in theory use Siri to "type" a search query whenever you have a text search box, but that's mode switching again since you'll have to navigate to the search box using the remote clickpad anyway.

It's basically like a fragment of a feature, rather than full voice control.

In-browser Firefox profile management

If you're used to looking up a command line in order to access the Firefox Profile Manager, there's actually a built-in configuration interface, just use

about:profiles

In addition to letting you Create a New Profile, it also offers a function that is not obvious in other interfaces: you can launch a separate Firefox instance with a different profile, using "Launch profile in new browser".

Google Chrome makes this really easy to do in its interface, but I've used Firefox for years and never knew it was possible to have more than one browser profile running at a time.

Unlike Chrome there is no built-in visual to distinguish which profile you're using. In order to tell which browser window is which, you may want to use something basic like Firefox Color, or something more elaborate like a Theme.

Each Firefox profile is a completely separate application instance; you will have e.g. two separate Firefox icons in your dock or taskbar.

Note that you may have to do some management of the default profile as I believe it will make any new profile the default.  You can select the default profile within the browser profiles interface.

Digital Zoom in Camera app on Windows 10

You can zoom in and out (widen and narrow the field of view) in the Camera application for Windows 10 by holding down the CTRL key and rolling your mouse wheel up or down.  This is an undocumented feature.  This is a "sticky" setting; it will persist between Windows sessions, and will apply instantly to other applications using the camera such as MS Teams.

There are some applications that may reset it, for example you may find that running the (unfortunately-named) Zoom video conferencing application resets the digital zoom level.

In particular, any time you fully exit and relaunch Camera, it will reset the digital zoom level (this includes within the same Windows session).  That is, the setting is only sticky as long as you keep the Camera application closed once you've found the zoom level you like.

Microsoft says definitively that the Windows 10 application does not provide digital zoom:

In Windows 10 the Camera app doesn't include digital zoom

This is simply not true.

Similarly other support sites may refer to clicking on an icon in the Camera application in order to zoom in or out; this is also not true.

Others may suggest installing third-party applications or legacy Windows applications, which is usually not an option in a business setting where you don't have administrative control to install unauthorized applications.

MS Teams does offer access to camera settings including digital zoom, but that access is only available depending on the version of Teams, the version of your driver, and the brand and model of your camera.  In any case, the camera settings available in Teams are not sticky (it won't remember the settings), so you have to go back in to settings again in order to set the level you want, every time you start Windows and Teams.

The camera settings are not available during a video conference session; the devices menu is different depending whether you are in a video conference or not.

When not in a conference, select the three dots menu ⋯ at the very top right of the Teams window, in the menu bar next to your profile icon.  Select Settings, then in the popup window select Devices in the list on the left, then scroll down to Camera.  If camera settings control is available, there will be a clickable "Open camera settings" link.  As a reminder, these settings are not sticky; Teams will reset all the camera settings back to the defaults every time you open it and/or restart Windows.

Also, if you want to view the Camera adjustments live while using Teams, you'll have to start Teams first.  If you start the Camera application first, it will grab exclusive access to the image/video stream from your webcam.

Versions used:

• Windows 10 Enterprise 21H2
• Camera 2021.105.10.0
• MS Teams 1.5.00.33362 (64-bit)

For many video conferences you may want a tighter zoom in on your face rather than a wide view of your entire room background, so being able to set and keep a level of zoom using the Camera application first ensures that you have the right settings for Teams and other videoconference software.

Note for older versions of Camera

Older version of Camera (e.g. 2018.826.98.0) also have digital zoom, but you don't need to hold down the control key, just roll the middle mouse scroll wheel up and down.  You may experience unexpected behaviour, in particular, the Camera app may be able to set a much higher level of digital zoom than it actually displays.  That is, if you keep rolling the wheel for greater and greater zoom, the image on screen may stay the same, but when you switch to MS Teams you may find you are super zoomed in.  Just do a single step at a time (a single scroll wheel step) and then check in MS Teams if it is the level you want.

Older versions of Camera may also not be able to share the camera with Teams, so you will have to run Camera first, and then Teams, without being able to see live changes.

Depending on the combination of the version of camera and the version of the OS, the settings may not be sticky.  Camera 2018.826.98.0 zoom settings were not sticky for me.

Fixing HIDIVE spinning loading on Apple TV

On my Apple TV 4K, when I play a show on HIDIVE, it shows Loading and then a circular spinner and then… it just spins forever.

Thanks to Reddit for this fix: while the spinner is spinning, press pause and then play again on the remote, and it will play fine.

HIDIVE really needs to fix this playback bug.