Sync and watching together

Screens in the house that are on the same channel play the same moment. The kitchen does not hear the goal before the living room. They share the one tune of that channel. Sync does not take a second tuner, and a rewind does not tune the station again. Everyone is reading the same buffer.

Whole-Home Sync

Sync is on unless you turn it off.

On iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV the switch is in Settings, and its name is Whole-Home Sync. The line under it is "Every screen on the same channel shows the same moment, so nobody hears the next room cheer first."

On the web, the player shows a Synced pill. With other screens on that channel it shows how many. Open it for the switch "Sync with other screens." The heading of that panel is Whole-Home Sync.

Each device aims at the room's moment. Settings, Live delay, is how far behind live a channel starts on that device. Lowest is about 6 seconds, Balanced is 16, and Stable is 20. Apple devices play at Balanced or Stable.

Pause for every screen

On the web, the same panel offers Watch together. While nobody has joined, the line is "Watch together: pause and rewind for every screen that joins." and the button is "Watch together." When someone has already joined, the line names them and the button is "Join." After you join, the heading is Watching together, and the line is "Pause, rewind, and Live move every screen watching together." The panel lists the screens. Leave drops you out and leaves the others where they are.

A screen that has not joined keeps its own pause. Pausing it leaves Whole-Home Sync. Playing again stays off the room until you come back. On the web, the Live control does that. On iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV the button is "Back in sync."

Watch together on Home

Home, Sports, and the guide use the words Watch together for something else: opening two or more channels in multiview. On Home and Sports the button is there when two or more games are on. On the guide it puts the show beside the channel already playing.

That is Multiview. It is not the pause-for-everyone control.

Away from home

The apps do not open the server to the internet. Tailscale, or another VPN that only your devices can join, is how you watch away. The apps do not find the server over it, so enter the Tailscale address. Away from home is the setup, and why port 8477 stays off the public internet.