Avoid Netflix AutoPlay Previews on the Apple TV with Reelgood and WatchAid

Originally published at: https://tidbits.com/2019/08/09/avoid-netflix-autoplay-previews-on-the-apple-tv-with-reelgood-and-watchaid/

If you dislike being in the Netflix Apple TV app because of the autoplay previews or just because it’s constantly pushing new shows on you that you don’t want to watch, Apple TV apps from Reelgood and WatchAid provide a front end to your queue. Neither is ideal, though.

You can also sometimes use Apple TV’s voice search to find a show and play it directly on Netflix. Sometimes, because Apple doesn’t seem to have a complete directory of everything Netflix has.

A mute button on the Apple TV remote (physical and/or ios app) would be appreciated, especially since tvOs apps like SBS (Australian TV station) dont allow ads to be skipped. Like Netflix they seem to turn up the volume for these segments/previews (OK - it is my imagination :slight_smile: j
Manually Turning the volume to zero during SBS ads is tedious. Worse still, volume control doesn’t seem to be available for my Homepods when browsing Netflix offerings
It is creepy how much control they (Netflix, SBS …) get away with. . I might look at creating a Siri Shortcut to try and take back control: “Hey Siri mute the tv” - the challenge will be “Hey Siri unmute the TV”!

Couldn’t find a way to ask Siri to mute the HomePods. There is “Set Volume” Siri shortcut in the Shortcuts.app (iOS) but it does not seem to work for Siri via the Homepods - only works for playing music on iPhone or iPad.

Just tested this. For me, “Hey Siri, mute” mutes the HomePod whether it’s playing Apple Music or audio from the Apple TV via AirPlay. “Hey Siri, unmute” brings the sound back.

It’s almost reason enough to play all audio from the Apple TV through the HomePod—for us, the problem is that the TV isn’t where we’d want the HomePod to be otherwise.

It is annoying that the Siri Remote doesn’t have a mute button or shortcut, and that Siri on the Apple TV doesn’t understand the mute command that the HomePods do.

I tried this some time ago without success. Maybe a recent update or my pronunciation was off :slight_smile:
Will try again…

“Siri mute” mostly works but sometimes Netflix seems to over-ride it but at a lower volume- strange.
“Siri unmute” does not work for me. Must be my Australian accent. “Siri turn volume on” works instead of unmute and restores the previous volume.

Adam:

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So I see! Exactly 1 year after I wrote about this… Not quick, but I’ll take it.