Podcasts on Apple TV: chapters, transcript, speed and TRIM
Want to jump straight to the right chapter, or read along while you listen? On Apple TV, you open an episode right in the mosaic, start it at any chapter or any line of the transcript, choose the speed and shorten long pauses with TRIM. The player bar keeps controlling the episode while you read. The video shows you how in under two minutes.
You can listen to podcasts right in the mosaic of channelBar TV. One click on an episode, say in the column with your podcasts, opens it.
The episode at a glance
On the right are the channel and source, below them the date and length, then the title. Next come “Play”, the speed and TRIM, and at the very bottom the description. “Play” starts the episode where you last left off. You can choose the speed and TRIM before it starts.
Chapters
On the left, you page through the episode with the remote; the dots below show which page you’re on. One of the pages shows the chapters, each with its length. Move down to a chapter and click, and the episode starts right there.
The circle in front of each chapter shows where you are: chapters you’ve played are filled, the current one fills up as it plays, and to the right its remaining time counts down. The bar below every page shows how far along the whole episode is.
Transcript
If the episode has a transcript, it’s one page to the left of the chapters. The line that’s playing is highlighted, and the text follows along. Move to a line and click, and the episode jumps right there. While you move through the lines, the text stays put until you turn the page.
Speed and TRIM
Page to the right to get back to the text. Next to “Pause” sits the speed: one click, and you choose anything from 0.5× to 3×.
TRIM is on by default and shortens long pauses: every pause of a second or more is cut down to half a second. Next to it, you see how much time you’ve already saved. Click “TRIM” to switch it for this episode. Speed and TRIM apply to the episode you’re listening to.
The player bar
The Back button takes you to the mosaic, and the episode keeps playing. At the top, there’s now the player bar with title, chapter and progress. Click the picture to open the episode again.
On the right are the buttons: 15 seconds back, play or pause, “Stop” and 30 seconds forward. If the episode has chapters, the outer buttons take you from chapter to chapter; if you’re more than three seconds into a chapter, going back first takes you to its start.
The quickest way to pause is the Play/Pause button on the remote, in the mosaic and in the episode: one press pauses, another plays on. Done listening? “Stop” ends playback, and channelBar remembers the spot. The bar makes room, and the column buttons are back at the top.
Settings
The gear at the top right of the mosaic opens “Settings”. Under “Playback”, you find “Silence Trimming”: that’s TRIM for all podcasts that don’t have a setting of their own.
Under “Player Bar”, you choose what the bar shows: under “Display”, pick “Title”, “Chapters” or “Title + Chapter”; “Scrolling Text” lets long text scroll, and “Chapter Progress” shows with a small circle how far along the chapter is. Without chapters, the bar always shows the title.