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Apple Releases tvOS 14.5 With New Color Balance Feature, Expanded Controller Support

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Apple today released tvOS 14.5, the fifth update to the tvOS 14 operating system that was released in September 2020. tvOS 14.5 comes three months after the release of tvOS 14.4.

tvOS-14.5-Feature.jpg

tvOS 14.5, which is a free update, can be downloaded over the air through the Settings app on the Apple TV by going to System > Software Update. Apple TV owners who have automatic software updates enabled will be upgraded to tvOS 14.5 automatically.

With the introduction of the second-generation Apple TV 4K, Apple announced a new Color Balance feature, which also happens to be available for existing Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD models. Available by opening up the Settings app on Apple TV, selecting Video and Audio, and clicking on "Color Balance" in the Calibration section, the new feature uses the iPhone's front facing camera to match the color shown on the Apple TV with industry standard specifications used by cinematographers.

apple-tv-color-balance-1.jpg

With this data, Apple TV tailors video output to deliver more accurate colors and improved contrast with no need to adjust television settings. Color balance is available on all Apple TV models that run tvOS, and it can be used with tvOS 14.5 and iOS 14.5. Note that it does not work when Dolby Vision is enabled, and an iPhone with Face ID is required.

The tvOS 14.5 update adds support for the latest PlayStation 5 DualSense and Xbox Series X controllers, which can be used to play games from the tvOS App Store and Apple Arcade.

play-station-dualsense-controller.jpeg

Other new features include frame rate options of 29.97Hz and 59.94Hz instead of 30Hz/60Hz, an optional "Type to Siri" Accessibility feature that can be enabled, which mirrors the Type to Siri feature on iOS devices, a new option for choosing "Other Wireless Speakers" as the Default Audio Output, and tweaks to the Podcasts app to bring it in line with the changes introduced in iOS 14.5.

The release of tvOS will see Apple begin enforcing its new App Tracking Transparency rules, with developers now required to ask for and receive a user's permission to access their random advertising identifier (known as the IDFA) to track user activity across apps and websites for ad customization purposes.

Going forward, when an app wants to access a person's advertising identifier on tvOS, users will have a prompt with options to "Allow Tracking" or "Ask App Not to Track." Selecting "Ask App Not to Track" will prevent the app's developer from accessing the user's IDFA, and developers will also have to respect the user's tracking preference and refrain from using other invasive cross-app tracking methods.

With the update, customers in Austria, Ireland and New Zealand will also be able to use the Siri remote with their voice thanks to expanded access.

The main tvOS 14 update released in September brought expanded Picture in Picture support, new HomeKit integration with HomeKit Secure Video cameras, support for multiple Apple Arcade profiles, and more, with details available in our tvOS 14 roundup.

Article Link: Apple Releases tvOS 14.5 With New Color Balance Feature, Expanded Controller Support
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/04/26/apple-releases-tvos-14-5/
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so what's the better controller to get for playing games on Apple TV? or are they all pretty much the same?
 
0-3 with this feature, said it couldn’t be done. 11 Pro & 2017 LG OLED.

Edit: Apparently this is expected behavior. TV is not compatible/wouldn’t benefit
 
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btrach144 said:
That's because it already has a color graded Dolby Vision profile.

This feature really only works for non-DV televisions (basically only Samsung) or older 4k TVs (first 3-4 generations of 4k TVs).
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Well I’ll be. Guess I should have read up on it more. Thank you for the info!
 
Same as in the Apple Presentation it basically turns the color temperature up a bunch.

There is a nice before and after comparison after you did the calibration so you get a chance to decide if you want to keep the new balance. I am trying it out, arguing with myself if I like this better than the cooler color.
 
DrRadon said:
Same as in the Apple Presentation it basically turns the color temperature up a bunch.

There is a nice before and after comparison after you did the calibration so you get a chance to decide if you want to keep the new balance. I am trying it out, arguing with myself if I like this better than the cooler color.
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Warmer color is more correct as the target is D65 rec 709
 
breather said:
I’m excited to try the Color Balance feature.

Update.
I tried it and it made the colors a bit warmer.
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Same here. I tried it while I had it set to 4K SDR. Made it warmer. Tried switching to HDR, and it wouldn’t let me color balance it. Oh well.
 
On my 1080p Sony calibration turned up the color slightly, I have the beach flyover to compare so that was weird, but it looked a bit warmer and more saturated.
 
twennywonn said:
This is only true if you run the home screen in 4k dolby and if you do just stop.
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I'm going to trust Doby and Sony and their ability to properly work with the software on the Apple TV to calibrate, rather than a nice parlor trick Apple created. I've tried the Apple solution and it's not great. Better than nothing but that's about it.
 
Macintosh IIvx said:
I'm going to trust Doby and Sony and their ability to properly work with the software on the Apple TV to calibrate, rather than a nice parlor trick Apple created. I've tried the Apple solution and it's not great. Better than nothing but that's about it.
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You should only be running DV when you’re watching content that is actually DV. Anything else is just the ATV doing it’s own conversion to DV with likely inaccurate results. That’s why you set the ATV to “match content” so it’s not doing fake HDR and allow it to set the appropriate dynamic range for the source material. Folks with DV on all the time should stop doing that (if they want a good, accurate picture) and run the new color balance feature in an SDR mode.
 
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I just ran the new iOS 14.5 / tvOS 14.5 color calibration on my Sony Bravia XBR49X800H 2020 4K TV.

I used the Cinema color setting option because most experts say that is the option which Sony claims is the closest to the best out of the box calibration. In other words, it is supposed to be the most color accurate. The ATV color calibration feature appears to have made a very slight change by making the picture a tiny bit warmer. Other than that I cannot see any obvious changes. However, the Sony Bravia TVs do have a reputation for really accurate color calibration out of the box. It will be interesting to see if this makes a big difference with a TV that has poor color calibration.

BTW, the ATV color calibration showed me the attached beach scene to illustrate the before and after differences. However, that is perhaps the absolute worst scene to use as the sandy beach has almost no frigging color in it! Apple really needs to think through what they are doing. I snapped the attached photo of my TV using my iPad Air 2020 and made no color adjustments to it. Comparing the photo to my TV set after the color calibration it does appear that the sand on the left is slightly warmer in color. Apple really should use a better image though that will well illustrate any changes.

I’m happy with the colors on my TV after the calibration, but they are nearly the same as prior to it so the improvement was very slight in my case. Hopefully it can really improve those TVs that need a lot of adjustment. Second attached photo is a better view of my colors after calibrartion, taken with my iPad Air 2020.
 

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anthony13 said:
Really? I have 4K dolby vision as well, but not the best tv, and was hoping this might be like getting a professional color calibration.
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You cannot calibrate with the Dolby Vision option selected, but you can switch to another option and calibrate using it. The calibration won’t have any effect on Dolby Vision, but it does have an effect on the other options when you select them.
 
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vipergts2207 said:
You should only be running DV when you’re watching content that is actually DV. Anything else is just the ATV doing it’s own conversion to DV with likely inaccurate results. That’s why you set the ATV to “match content” so it’s not doing fake HDR and allow it to set the appropriate dynamic range for the source material. Folks with DV on all the time should stop doing that (if they want a good, accurate picture) and run the new color balance feature in an SDR mode.
Click to expand...
Which is why Apple didn't make it the default, right? They thought the average users was going to know they should make all these changes in order to get the optimal performance.
 
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