Description
I occasionally encounter an issue where the Aerial screensaver displays a video as a completely static image instead of playing the animation.
The issue appears to be completely intermittent. It does not seem to be related to any particular video, and I have not found a reliable way to reproduce it.
It can also happen when I manually start the screensaver using Aerial's Screensaver button.
Environment
- Aerial: 4.1.0
- macOS: macOS 27.0 (26A428)
- Model: MacBook Pro (M1 Max, 32 GB)
- Display: Built-in display only
- External displays: None
Aerial configuration
I use Aerial only as a screensaver.
For the desktop wallpaper, I use a photo album from the Photos app, with the image changing once per hour. I have therefore disabled the option that uses Aerial's animations as the desktop wallpaper.
For the screensaver, I have several custom animation videos registered and configured them to shuffle every few seconds.
The problem can occur when switching between these videos. There does not appear to be a specific video that causes the problem; it seems to happen randomly.
Custom videos
I converted my custom videos using HandBrake to reduce their file sizes.
The videos are downscaled to 1080p. I do not upscale any source videos; only sources with a resolution higher than 1080p are reduced.
My HandBrake settings are approximately:
- Resolution: 1080p (downscaling only)
- Filter: LapSharp, Light
- Tune: Animation
- Video Encoder: H.265- 10bit (VideoToolbox)
- Hardware encoding: Apple VideoToolbox
The resulting files are usually around 3 MB, and even the longer animations are generally no more than 10 MB.
I am not sure whether the HEVC encoding, the VideoToolbox hardware encoder, or any of these encoding settings could be related to the issue, so I am including the details in case they are relevant.
Expected behavior
The selected Aerial video should start playing normally as an animation.
Actual behavior
Occasionally, the video is displayed as a still image. It appears to be a frame of the video, but playback does not start.
The issue is intermittent and can disappear when the screensaver is started again.
Reproduction
Unfortunately, I do not currently have a reliable reproduction procedure.
The issue:
- Does not appear to be associated with a particular video.
- Happens only occasionally.
- Can occur during normal screensaver operation when videos are shuffled.
- Can also occur when manually launching the screensaver using Aerial's Screensaver button.
I have not yet been able to determine whether the issue is caused by Aerial, macOS, the HEVC files themselves, or some interaction between them.
Could you please let me know whether there is anything in this configuration that could explain the behavior, or whether there is any diagnostic information or logging that would be useful for investigating it?
Thank you for your work on Aerial.
Description
I occasionally encounter an issue where the Aerial screensaver displays a video as a completely static image instead of playing the animation.
The issue appears to be completely intermittent. It does not seem to be related to any particular video, and I have not found a reliable way to reproduce it.
It can also happen when I manually start the screensaver using Aerial's Screensaver button.
Environment
Aerial configuration
I use Aerial only as a screensaver.
For the desktop wallpaper, I use a photo album from the Photos app, with the image changing once per hour. I have therefore disabled the option that uses Aerial's animations as the desktop wallpaper.
For the screensaver, I have several custom animation videos registered and configured them to shuffle every few seconds.
The problem can occur when switching between these videos. There does not appear to be a specific video that causes the problem; it seems to happen randomly.
Custom videos
I converted my custom videos using HandBrake to reduce their file sizes.
The videos are downscaled to 1080p. I do not upscale any source videos; only sources with a resolution higher than 1080p are reduced.
My HandBrake settings are approximately:
The resulting files are usually around 3 MB, and even the longer animations are generally no more than 10 MB.
I am not sure whether the HEVC encoding, the VideoToolbox hardware encoder, or any of these encoding settings could be related to the issue, so I am including the details in case they are relevant.
Expected behavior
The selected Aerial video should start playing normally as an animation.
Actual behavior
Occasionally, the video is displayed as a still image. It appears to be a frame of the video, but playback does not start.
The issue is intermittent and can disappear when the screensaver is started again.
Reproduction
Unfortunately, I do not currently have a reliable reproduction procedure.
The issue:
I have not yet been able to determine whether the issue is caused by Aerial, macOS, the HEVC files themselves, or some interaction between them.
Could you please let me know whether there is anything in this configuration that could explain the behavior, or whether there is any diagnostic information or logging that would be useful for investigating it?
Thank you for your work on Aerial.