VortX 0.3.14 Beta 2 is a fix beta on top of Beta 1, built from your testing and the issues you filed. The headline is Dolby Vision and Atmos on Apple TV: on about half of Dolby Vision titles the packaging step stalled for fifteen to twenty seconds and then dropped to HDR10, taking Atmos with it, and that stall is fixed. It also lands the Mac design corrections (the Home hero, the top navigation, and the whole player), makes Apple TV smooth and full color again, and clears a batch of smaller iPhone and tvOS bugs.
Honest note up front: the Dolby Vision and Atmos work was root-caused from a real device log and verified by build and code review, but there is no Dolby Vision hardware on the bench it was fixed on, so it needs your Apple TV and the exact titles that were failing to confirm. If any still drop to HDR10, the diagnostic log now records the precise stage each title dies at. In-place update, nothing resets.
Fixed in Beta 2
- Dolby Vision and Atmos on Apple TV. On about half of Dolby Vision titles the direct player's packaging step stalled before the first frame, waited fifteen to twenty seconds, and then fell back to tone-mapped HDR10, which also dropped Atmos to plain audio. The stall is fixed at its root: a fragment was being cut before the file's header finished writing, which aborted the header on the Atmos DDP and TrueHD releases, so the title never started and timed out to HDR10. Those titles now start in true Dolby Vision with their Atmos intact, and the ones that already worked are unchanged. Apple TV especially, plus iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
- Dolby Vision plays as Dolby Vision on Mac and iPhone. A Dolby Vision title that the engine picker showed as the direct player was quietly rendering through the other engine as tone-mapped HDR10; it now routes to the real Dolby Vision path, and the engine label matches what is actually on screen. Mac, iPhone, iPad.
- Mac fullscreen keeps its color. Entering fullscreen on an HDR or Dolby Vision title no longer washes the picture out; the display's extended color range is now held through the transition and on the way back. Mac.
- The Mac layout, corrected. The Home hero is back to about two-thirds of the window with Continue Watching and your rails visible below it, and the artwork runs to the very top with the search and navigation sitting together at the top instead of the nav pill floating halfway down the hero. The player lost the grey bar and dead back control at the top of fullscreen and the soft halos behind its round buttons, its top-row buttons read crisply, and the volume slider is colored again. The who's-watching selected profile is no longer clipped, episode and season pages have proper full heroes, and cast members are tappable. Mac.
- Apple TV is smooth again, at full color. The new glass was re-compositing a live blur on every focusable row each time focus moved, which dragged the interface and dulled the artwork behind it; focusable rows, chips, and badges now use a fast opaque warm surface while the static bars keep the real glass. Play from start works, and the source you picked is remembered and marked Played when you come back to a title. Apple TV.
- iPhone downloads that finish while locked now save. A download that reached 100 percent while your phone was locked could not write the file and dead-ended; it now waits and finishes saving the moment you unlock, keeping its progress instead of restarting from scratch. And the player's bottom control labels no longer break mid-word on the narrower iPhone width. iPhone, iPad.
- Decade catalog shelves show their cover art. The daily cover route is live again, so each decade shelf wears art picked from the titles inside it. Apple TV, iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
- Trakt sign-in troubleshooting. Trakt connect now records the exact step and HTTP status when it fails, so a stuck sign-in can be pinned straight from the diagnostic log instead of a silent "did not work." Apple TV, iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Please test
This is a fix beta, verified by build and code review; real-hardware reports are what close it. If anything is off, export the diagnostic log (Settings; on iPhone, iPad, and Mac you can save it straight to Files) and open an issue.
- Dolby Vision and Atmos on Apple TV, the main event. Match Dynamic Range ON, play the 4K Dolby Vision titles that were dropping to HDR10 (the Atmos DDP and TrueHD releases especially), and confirm the TV reads DOLBY VISION and your receiver reads Atmos within a second or two rather than a long wait. If any still drop, export the log and send it; the new [dv] lines say exactly where it stalled.
- The Mac look. Home hero about two-thirds with rails below, search and nav together at the very top, no black bar, no floating nav; the player with no grey bar, no button halos, a colored volume slider, and color that holds in fullscreen.
- Apple TV feel. Scroll a long source list and a chip screen: it should be smooth and the posters full color, not laggy or dulled. Play from start should begin at 0:00, and returning to a title should show your last source marked Played.
- iPhone download. Start a large download, lock the phone until it finishes, and confirm it saves on unlock instead of a "couldn't save" error.
- Trakt, still owed: try connecting Trakt; if it fails, export the log so the new diagnostics can pin the exact step.
Install
Mac (.dmg, easiest, never expires). Download VortX-macOS-v0.3.14-beta.2-ci.dmg, drag VortX into Applications, then clear Apple's one-time quarantine: open it once, click Done, then System Settings > Privacy & Security > Open Anyway (or run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/VortX.app). Full guide: Install on Mac.
iPhone, iPad, Apple TV (sideload the IPA). The IPAs are unsigned, because VortX is open-source and distributed outside the App Store with no Apple Developer ID yet, so you re-sign them yourself with Sideloadly, AltStore / SideStore, or Signulous. No jailbreak. Full guide: Installing on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV.
Each asset lists a SHA-256 checksum (SHA256SUMS-ci.txt) so you can confirm your download matches what the public GitHub Actions workflow built from this code.