---
title: "Player controls and gestures"
description: "Every control in the Dion player on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and Mac."
language: "en"
last_updated: "2026-07-28"
canonical_url: "https://getdion.app/support/playback/player-controls-and-gestures"
---

# Player controls and gestures

Dion uses its own playback engine with the same core player on every platform — the controls adapt to each one.

### iPhone & iPad

**On-screen controls** — tap once to show them: play/pause with 10-second skip buttons in the center, a scrubber with preview thumbnails, a zoom button and Picture in Picture at the top, and the settings (gear) menu with the AirPlay picker at the bottom.

**Gestures:**

- **Double-tap** the left or right side of the video to skip backward or forward. Repeated taps accumulate ("+10s", "+20s"…).
- Swipe up or down on the **right edge** for volume, on the **left edge** for brightness. Both can be turned off in **Settings → Player → Gestures**.
- With the controls hidden, tap the **center** of the screen to play or pause.

**With a keyboard attached:** Space plays/pauses, and the left/right arrow keys skip.

### Apple TV

Playback uses focus-based controls: swipe to reach the scrubber and the quick-action pills — **Skip Marker**, **Multiview**, **Audio**, and **Subtitles**. The Audio and Subtitles pills open track menus directly. Swipe down for the guide and chrome.

### Mac

The same control layout as iOS, driven by mouse and keyboard: hover over the scrubber for preview thumbnails, click the gear menu for audio, subtitles, and speed.

**Keyboard shortcuts:** Space plays/pauses, left/right arrows skip backward/forward. ⌘R refreshes content in the app.

## Skip intervals

The skip buttons and double-tap gestures use configurable intervals: **Settings → Player → Skip**, from 5 to 60 seconds in 5-second steps (default 10s).

## Playback speed

Choose **Speed** from the player's gear menu: 0.5×, 0.75×, 1×, 1.25×, 1.5×, or 2× for movies and shows. Live TV supports up to 1×.

## Streaming cache

**Settings → Player → Streaming Cache** controls how Dion buffers streams: **Auto** caches streamed video to disk for instant seeking, **Limited** keeps a smaller cache, and **Memory Only** uses RAM only.

## Media server streaming quality

When Plex, Jellyfin, or Emby is connected, **Settings → Player → Default Streaming Quality** controls the usual quality for media server playback. Lower settings let the server transcode video to use less bandwidth. You can temporarily choose a different quality from the player without changing the default.