Observio 20.1

Observio 20.1

A big stability and polish release. The headline fix is the iPhone playback freeze on the Native engine, alongside a major overhaul of watch‑progress/resume, media‑server reliability, the program guide, and loading indicators throughout the app.

Playback

• Fixed the periodic video freeze on iPhone. On the Native engine, live channels could freeze for about a second every few minutes while audio kept playing. This was a chain of issues in the streaming buffer and reconnect logic — all addressed. The engine now also recovers automatically when a server drops the connection instead of freezing silently.
• The Native engine works again over plain‑HTTP on iOS 26, so interlaced sports and other channels get the higher‑quality Metal deinterlacer instead of falling back.
• Smoother playback under load: the app now sheds expensive image‑processing when the device gets hot, so a long session is less likely to stutter.
• Fixed several smaller player bugs (volume‑slider drag accidentally moving the window, catch‑up start timing, engine selection for HTTP channels).

Watch progress & resume

• Resume actually works now. Watch progress is saved during playback across movies and series, on IPTV providers and Emby/Plex/Jellyfin alike — previously progress was recorded inconsistently and often lost.
• Continue Watching is sorted by most recently watched, and the "Start from Beginning" button now starts immediately instead of needing a second tap.
• Fixed watch‑progress routing when you have more than one media server connected, and Plex now reports progress mid‑playback.

Media servers (Emby / Plex / Jellyfin)

• Fixed Jellyfin libraries incorrectly opening the Emby view.
• Fixed Emby/Jellyfin library refreshes arriving out of order and occasionally dropping content.
• Per‑library sync failures are now surfaced instead of silently swallowed.

Movies & series artwork

• More accurate posters, using release‑year matching so same‑named titles no longer collide.
• Posters now show a loading shimmer while they fetch, and the VOD tab shows a progress bar during first‑time artwork setup — no more wondering whether it's stuck.

Program guide (EPG)

• Much lighter on the device. Large guides no longer hog CPU or contend with playback, and a guide source that repeatedly fails now backs off instead of retrying endlessly every launch. Guide refreshes pause while you're watching.
• EPG settings now show each source's status, including when auto‑retry is paused.

Interface & loading

• Loading indicators throughout. Channel counts, provider lists, libraries, and the home screen now show a clear loading state on launch instead of appearing blank or empty.
• Full Dynamic Type support pass — the app respects your text‑size setting across the guide, lists, VOD grid, and player.
• iPad gets a proper split‑view browse layout.
• Downloads can be cancelled, and batch downloads are capped so they don't overwhelm the connection.

Privacy & security

• Credentials embedded in stream URLs are now redacted everywhere they used to appear in logs.

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Requires macOS 14 or later. Universal build (Apple Silicon + Intel).