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Picture in picture makes it so hard to focus

Ghost31

Ghost31

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jun 9, 2015
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I like this feature a lot. I do. But I noticed whenever I have Hulu or something playing while I'm doing ANYTHING else (browsing, reading, writing, whatever) I lose focus and can't enjoy whatever I'm watching. I watched a couple episodes of some show in pip and didn't like it. Moved on. Saw the show again later on when I was actually paying attention and the show was one of my favorites ever. I'm worried I'll half ass a lot of these shows and movies and miss out on things I would have really liked. So for right now, I'm using pip less.

Anybody else feel like this? Maybe I'm crazy
 
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I'd never use it because I can't see the point.

It sort-of made sense 15-20 years ago, on TV. You'd change channels in commercial breaks but keep the main program visible so you could "see" when the ads were over.

I don't know. Maybe it's a comment on the poor quality of video entertainment these days?
 
There are two times when I use PiP: when I want to lookup more information about what I'm watching, or when I've seen what I'm watching before enough that I don't have to pay attention to it to know what's going on. In the former instance, if I'm watching a movie or TV show and think I recognize an actor I might go to iMDB or Wikipedia to see if it's them. I also enjoy reading about movies/TV shows that I watch (production info, anecdotes, etc.) and sometimes will do that while I'm watching something.

In the latter instances, if it's something I've seen a ton of times (like episodes of Star Trek, for instance) I don't have to pay that much attention to follow the story and can tune it out a bit while I work on other things but still have it as background noise. I used to do that a lot when I was in school and would do work at Starbucks while my wife was working a dog rescue event in the parking lot. I knew all the major beats of the story so I didn't have to pay attention to it to go along with it.
 
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I agree if I'm watching a video, it generally demands my attention. However, it is definitely useful in certain instances. I think it's nice to have the option to just open email or a web browser and have the video shrink into the corner so it keeps playing. I don't think I'd ever use PiP for a long period of time, but for quick web or email checks while a show is playing, or to play brief news stories that don't need demand the full screen it's a nice feature to have.
 
Ghost31 said:
I like this feature a lot. I do. But I noticed whenever I have Hulu or something playing while I'm doing ANYTHING else (browsing, reading, writing, whatever) I lose focus and can't enjoy whatever I'm watching. I watched a couple episodes of some show in pip and didn't like it. Moved on. Saw the show again later on when I was actually paying attention and the show was one of my favorites ever. I'm worried I'll half ass a lot of these shows and movies and miss out on things I would have really liked. So for right now, I'm using pip less.

Anybody else feel like this? Maybe I'm crazy
Click to expand...

is it working for u properly on Hulu? mine seems to close it on every commercial break and between commercials and i have to resume it in full screen from before the commercial break again
 
I think PIP is nice to have. When I get important email with attachment and I need to call my friend via FaceTime to discuss about email attachment.
 
I use PiP whenever I quickly need to do something that takes a short time, or when I play some silly game that doesn't demand attention, like Crossy Road or something.
 
bushido said:
is it working for u properly on Hulu? mine seems to close it on every commercial break and between commercials and i have to resume it in full screen from before the commercial break again
Click to expand...
I had that problem before the last update. Looks like the new update fixed it for me.
 
First time I used it was watching some Coldplay music videos on the Youtube webstie, this worked pretty well for that. Other than that, distractin
 
I like the PIP mode. I use it mostly for video podcasts and can have them playing while updating apps, playing a game, etc. I do find it doesn't work as well if I need to read text though at the same time since I end up focusing on either the text or the video....and when that happens, there is no rewind 30 second button in PIP mode....so I find that lacking. It is great for video podcasts though.
 
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