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aross99

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Dec 17, 2006
1,540
1
East Lansing, MI
My new Apple TV seems to be having some HDMI issues. Black backgrounds are Pink. I looked for the HDMI-High and HDMI-Low settings that the original Apple TV had, but they aren't there. I can force the settings on the TV, but then everything else I have is messed up.

Reset box to defaults brings back the black screen during the restore, and then it goes pink at the end. Turning everything off and on doesn't help.

I've seen this before, and those settings fixed the issue on the Original Apple TV.

Very frustrating. I guess I need to wait for a software update.

I guess they stripped a little too much out of the original...
 

aross99

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Dec 17, 2006
1,540
1
East Lansing, MI
Try a different hdmi cable and input on your tv.

I have been through all of that. This is definitely an issue with a lack of settings on the new Apple TV. Most decent HDMI devices have settings to allow you to specify the brightness levels to 0-255 or 16-235, as well as other color spaces (sorry if I don't have the exact terminology here). My original Apple TV had these, and the new one doesn't. I can pull the old Apple TV and plug in the new one to the same input and same cable the the pink screen shows up.

Rebooting the new Apple TV shows the black screens during the boot, and then goes pink again. I have already found one post on the Apple Support forum about the same issue...
 

rritterson

macrumors 6502
Jul 10, 2008
357
1
DC USA
I suspect either a bent/corroded pin on the connector or an HDMI handshake issue, unless you have a PAL tv and the aTV only supports NTSC or something.

On some earlier HDMI equipment, the order in which you turned the devices on made a difference. You might try reversing the order in which you are powering them on, to see if that helps.
 

ozthegweat

macrumors regular
Feb 20, 2007
247
229
Switzerland
Most decent HDMI devices have settings to allow you to specify the brightness levels to 0-255 or 16-235, as well as other color spaces (sorry if I don't have the exact terminology here).

So what range does the new Apple TV output? 0-255 or 16-235? That would be quite important, as I have set my PS3 to 0-255 and calibrated the TV accordingly...
 

davidwarren

macrumors 6502a
Aug 28, 2007
782
2
arg, I'm having a similar problem. One of my new atv2s worked fine yesterday, but today started with the pink/"staticy" areas and then after I turned everything off and back on, the tv only displays the top left corner of anything from the atv. It's like the atv is outputing a much higher resolution than the tv is displaying.
 

aross99

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Dec 17, 2006
1,540
1
East Lansing, MI
So what range does the new Apple TV output? 0-255 or 16-235? That would be quite important, as I have set my PS3 to 0-255 and calibrated the TV accordingly...

Actually I can only get to the "normal" screen when I set my TV input to YUY422. It shows up pink in 16-235 or 0-255 mode.

I have a similar issue. I have always used 0-255, until my uVerse STB was updated and now only runs in 16-235 mode. I switched all of my other devices to use that mode (including the original ATV) and everything was fine.

With the new ATV, it's pink in any mode but Auto (which doesn't work with other devices) or YUY422.

It looks like I may need to bypass my received and plug the ATV into the TV, and route the audio back to the receiver.

What a mess for a "superior" 2.0 product...
 

aross99

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Dec 17, 2006
1,540
1
East Lansing, MI
arg, I'm having a similar problem. One of my new atv2s worked fine yesterday, but today started with the pink/"staticy" areas and then after I turned everything off and back on, the tv only displays the top left corner of anything from the atv. It's like the atv is outputing a much higher resolution than the tv is displaying.

I couldn't find anyway to adjust the output resolution of the ATV2. I assume we are locked into 720p.

Check out your TV's settings for anything related to HDMI. This could be a per-input selection. Try changing them to see if it fixes your issue.

HDMI is a real problem sometimes. You can also try switching your TV to another input, and then back to the ATV (wait about 15 seconds in between changes), and see if it reconnects.

Also try turning your TV and/or ATV off and on. If you aren't sure your HDMI cable works, try swapping that too, but that could be a long shot.

Typical HDMI troubleshooting issues, but they might work for you...
 

davidwarren

macrumors 6502a
Aug 28, 2007
782
2
I used a new cable from monoprice and I haven't had any trouble since. I think it is more related to my tv- it's a westinghouse :)rolleyes:) that I got from a rick broada special on cnet for like $300 a while ago. Cheap, but works well... My other atv2's work great on a samsung and vizio.
 
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