Macdio on Apple TV: Siri Remote, Top Shelf and Transcripts

On Apple TV, Macdio opens on Now Playing and has tabs for recently played stations, podcasts, Discover, your library, saved tracks, stats and settings. Your favorites, lists, own stations and podcast subscriptions come from your iPhone, iPad or Mac through iCloud, Top Shelf puts them on the Home Screen, and podcast transcripts made on iPhone or Mac show up on the TV. Macdio for Apple TV needs tvOS 18.

To start listening from the Home Screen:

1. Move Macdio into the top row of the Apple TV Home Screen.
2. Highlight the Macdio icon. Top Shelf shows “Continue Listening”, your recent stations and “Favorites”.
3. Select a tile. The station or episode starts playing.

The tabs are “Now Playing”, “Recently Played”, “Podcasts”, “Discover”, “Library”, “Saved Tracks”, “Stats” and “Settings”. “Library” holds your favorites, your own stations and your lists, and its “Reorder” button sets the order of those sections. What you favorite on the TV syncs to your other devices too; see favorites, lists and sync.

For a station, Now Playing has “Lyrics”, “Favorite”, a heart that saves the song, “Sleep” and “List” (to “Add to List”). For a podcast episode it has “Skip back” and “Skip forward”, “Chapters”, “Transcript”, a star for the episode and “Sleep”. “Ambient” joins the row when Ambient Mode is on.

“Sleep” opens “Sleep Timer” with 15 minutes to 2 hours or the end of the track, “Cancel Timer”, and “Repeat Timer: On” or “Repeat Timer: Off”. More in sleep timer and Clock Mode.

• Play/Pause plays or pauses from anywhere in Macdio, the ambient screen included.
• Press and hold a station or an episode for its menu. An episode offers “Play” (or “Pause” or “Resume”), “Play Next”, “Add to Up Next” and “Star”. A station offers “Add to Favorites” or “Remove from Favorites” and “Add to List”.
• Menu (Back on the newer Siri Remote) closes the Transcript and Chapters panels and the station editor.

Macdio has no Siri voice phrases on Apple TV. Those work on iPhone, iPad and Mac (Siri radio).

1. Open Settings > “Display” and turn on “Ambient Mode”. It is off by default.
2. On Now Playing, press “Ambient”.

The ambient screen shows the artwork, the song and a clock, with the controls hidden. It says “Press any button to return”: Menu, a swipe or a click brings Now Playing back, while Play/Pause still plays and pauses without leaving it.

• “Continue Listening”: up to 6 episodes you left part way.
• Recent stations: up to 6, under “Recent Stations”. When you have no episode in progress, this row is called “Continue Listening” instead.
• “Favorites”: up to 10.
• “Popular Stations”: up to 10, on first launch before you have any of the above.
• A single “Macdio” tile when there is nothing else to show.

The “Podcasts” tab has “Search Podcasts”, “Browse” and “Reorder”. Follow a show with “Subscribe”, or follow it on your iPhone or Mac and it appears through iCloud. “Unsubscribe” asks first, because “Its episodes, downloads and transcripts go with it on every device.” Settings > “Podcasts” sets how many items “Continue Listening”, “Latest Episodes”, “Popular” and “Episodes per Show” list.

Episodes stream on the TV, which has no downloads and no speed button. An episode plays at the speed you set for that show on another device, or at 1.0x. See podcasts in Macdio.

Apple TV cannot make a transcript, but it shows the ones your other devices made. Transcribe an episode on your iPhone, iPad or Mac (it runs on that device and nothing is uploaded), and the text reaches the TV through iCloud. On Now Playing, press “Transcript”. Until one exists you see “No transcript yet. Make one on your iPhone or Mac; it syncs here.” A transcript the publisher ships in the feed shows as well.

“Chapters” lists the episode’s chapters and the songs found in it, including ones made on another device. More in podcast transcripts and highlights.

A browser on a computer does the typing for you:

1. Open Settings > “Edit on Computer” > “My Stations Editor” > “Open”.
2. Press “Start the Editor”.
3. On a computer on the same Wi-Fi, open the address shown under “Open this address”.
4. Type the 6 digit code shown under “Then enter this code”.
5. Add or change stations in the table, then click “Save” in the browser.
6. Press “Stop the Editor” when you are done.

Read this before you click “Save”. Save replaces your custom station list with the table in the page. A row you remove there is deleted on every device. If you changed stations on another device after opening the page, reload the page before editing. Keep the stream address in every row: a row whose address is empty or does not start with http:// or https:// is dropped on Save, and that station is deleted. Only stations you added yourself appear in the editor; stations from the directory are never changed. The editor also closes when you press Menu or leave Macdio. The full walkthrough is in edit stations on a computer.

Settings has the cards “Audio”, “Edit on Computer”, “Display”, “Podcasts”, “Sync & Data”, “Data Management” and “About”. “Audio” holds “Lyrics Scroll Sync”, “Auto Identify Songs” (off by default), “Live Pause”, “Safety Buffer”, “Love Songs in Apple Music” and “Auto-Play on Launch”. “Display” sets how many favorites, stations, lists and recent items show, plus “Ambient Mode”. “Sync & Data” has “Test iCloud Sync”. See customize Macdio.

• No Siri voice phrases and no Shortcuts actions on Apple TV.
• The TV cannot make transcripts, download episodes, mark moments, generate chapters or change podcast speed.
• No new episode notifications on the TV.
• Macdio’s game controller buttons work on iPhone, iPad and Mac, not on Apple TV.

Episodes you left part way under “Continue Listening”, your recent stations and your “Favorites”. On first launch it shows “Popular Stations”. Select a tile and it plays.

Turn on Settings > “Display” > “Ambient Mode”, then press “Ambient” on Now Playing. It shows artwork, the song and a clock. Press any button to return.

Yes. Press “Transcript” on Now Playing. The TV cannot make a transcript itself; make one on your iPhone, iPad or Mac and it arrives through iCloud.

Open Settings > “Edit on Computer” > “My Stations Editor” > “Open”, press “Start the Editor”, then open the address in a browser on a computer on the same Wi-Fi and type the code.

Not with voice phrases. Macdio’s Siri phrases work on iPhone, iPad and Mac. On the TV, use the remote.

The TV has to be signed in to the same iCloud account as your other devices. Run Settings > “Sync & Data” > “Test iCloud Sync” on the TV; it names the cause when something is wrong.

Get Macdio on the App Store, or read more about Macdio for Apple TV. One purchase covers every Apple device, with no subscription.