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

[Benjamin Nabulsi]

This might be the reason I’m not having the issue: Your TV is running Android TV version 8 and mine is running version 9.

I hope that’s the case, they are releasing it to my tv soon it seems, will manually download and install tonight https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/downloads/00017061


Honestly avoid updating if you don’t have issues, the line I have in the top of my screen happened after updating to 8, they did change local dimming setting.

note to myself, avoid Sony and android and use LG. Maybe Sony will use LG webOS and avoid this headache.

thanks for helping btw!

 

[Apple_Robert]

I did the color calibration on my 4K t.v. earlier, and the colors do look more lifelike, especially skin tone.

 

[EricNau]

anyone know if they've worked on the audio sync issue? I can never get the calibration to work in my A/V Setup.

FWIW if I try to ‘Wireless Audio Sync’ (which uses the iPhone to calibrate sound) I usually get an error too—but if I try a few times consecutively I can usually get it to work.

Reassuring I know

 

[Baritone_Guy]

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.

This. I found a UK based YouTube channel that explains all this. Match content is the way to go. By default I believe it is 30fps HDR for the Home Screen stuff and then let it switch to match as necessary. I clearly see it switch to Dolby Vision for DV content.

 

[mjs916]

I’ve got an Xbox one controller with a dodgy shoulder button. I’m wondering if this would be fine.

My Xbox One controller that came with the first Xbox One at launch doesn’t work with Apple TV so I guess as long as it isn’t that one. The controllers that released later on, near the launch of the Xbox One S should be compatible. To be sure it’s “Model 1708”.

 

[twennywonn]

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.

I don't think you understand. If you set your Apple TV to display Dolby Vision all the time then your are frequently seeing a blown out inaccurate picture. Set your Apple TV to 4k SDR and turn on match content. That way the Apple TV will display DV and HDR only when the film was shot that way. So if you have your Apple TV setup correctly you will be able to color calibrate. When dolby vision kicks in it will override these color settings like its supposed to.

 

[thill1278]

That is incorrect. There is a Format option named 4K Dolby Vision and a different option named 4K HDR. Both can be selected at various frame rates. The Format option named 4K Dolby Vision is not he same as selecting the video option at the top of the menu that is named Enable Dolby Vision. If you select the Enable Dolby Vision then you will force all video into Dolby Video. I’m using the Format option of 4K HDR and I’ve got Match Content set to match dynamic range and frame rate. It does NOT force everything into Dolby Video with those set. Obviously Apple made the menus confusing!

The attached image illustrates my settings. With these settings I am able to run the calibration without issue.

I'm not sure this is entirely correct. Enable Dolby Vision just sets the format to 4K Dolby Vision. You can still 'Enable Dolby Vision' and have match content on, which wouldn't force everything into Dolby Vision. So when I am watching an HD movie it switches the format to HD. I'm able to confirm this on my Sony A8H which shows the format of the video being watched - it would show as HD. I know I read some concern that not all content is tagged correctly in which case the content may not 'match' but in my experience I've never actually seen this happen. So I am totally content with having Dolby Vision 4k as my default (the home screen is much much brighter, also screensavers show as Dolby Vision) and match content on so it switches to the appropriate format when required.

 

[clcnyc]

Tried the color balance option, and nope. It made the colors so dull! Sticking with the Dynamic picture mode setting on my Samsung 4K tv.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Anyone having issues updating HomePod just keep getting this???

Damn probably busy servers today, did your install on HomePod complete? Mins is downloading.

 

[Craigwilliam]

I've ran the calibration tool twice today, I think my TV was already reasonably well balanced so it just resulted in a slightly warmer image. It's more apparent in the Menus than in the actual image but I think the results are good enough for me to opt for the "Calibrated" image. I am interested to see what the results might be if I were to plug into a cheaper and less accurate display but I don't know if I'll ever get around to doing that.
Air Playing my MacBook as a second display looks a bit dark compared to just plugging it directly to the display VIA HDMI but it's always been like that.

 

[mickhyperion]

This update fixes the issue that has existed for the last 6 months or so where music videos would not play full screen when played from a playlist on a Mac. Previously, the first video would play correctly, but each following video would drop into a much smaller preview sort of window. Thanks Apple.

 

[naticom]

Why can we use phone to calibrate color for ATV but not for a Mac's external display?

 

[WilliamG]

Still no mention of 23.976fps and 24fps after reporting on seven betas and the RC. I guess MR don't understand the importance of 24fps for a movie playback device.

Staggering, right? The ability to watch 24.000fps material FINALLY on Apple TV is the biggest news of this update. It’s still mind-boggling it took this long…

 

[dsabathi]

14.5 finaly brings Siri remote to Apple TV's in Austria. Looks like Apple had quite a hard time to train Siri to understand austrian german ;-)

 

[Craigwilliam]

Why can we use phone to calibrate color for ATV but not for a Mac's external display?

Because they wrote the software for ATV and not MacOS, They could possibly include it in the next version of Mac OS but Macs are calibrated on the production line so they may not feel the need to do so.

 

[vipergts2207]

Tried the color balance option, and nope. It made the colors so dull! Sticking with the Dynamic picture mode setting on my Samsung 4K tv.

Ah, the tan while you watch TV option.

 

[Boardiesboi]

Ok so I don’t know what Apple has done but the calibration on tvOS 14.5 definitely has improved the colour of the display. All colours look more vibrant and vivid. WOW

 

[RakEgg]

14.5 finaly brings Siri remote to Apple TV's in Austria. Looks like Apple had quite a hard time to train Siri to understand austrian german ;-)

I think the article writer meant ‘stryan as in Australian !!!

What’s it with you ignorant Yanks? How many bloody years do you need to learn we down here in the antipodes (pronounced - anty podees) are AUSTRALIAN not Austrian … good grief !

Anyway… ozzy, ozzy, ozzy, oi, oi, oi.

 

[w5jck]

Here is a link to a CNET article which does a great job of explaining the often confusing ATV 4K menus for setting up your ATV 4K to stream/play content the way you want it to. Yep, Apple made the system fairly complicated with their menu options without giving us much explanation. This article is about three years old now, but it is still a good source of information and does a good job of explaining what the various video options do.

Here are a few points made in the article:

To prevent always on HDR, go to Settings --> Video and Audio --> Match Content and turn both "Match Dynamic Range" and "Match Frame Rate" to On. (Note: Turning on "Match Frame Rate" is not required, but you will likely want to do it anyway.) This will result in the ATV 4K streaming the original video in the dynamic range (SDR or HDR) and frame rate it was created to use. This effectively turns off the auto conversion of everything to HDR.

Even if you turn off the auto conversion to HDR, the menus will still be shown in HDR by default. To ensure the menus and games are also shown in SDR for SDR content, go to Settings --> Video and Audio --> Format and choose the "4K SDR" option. (Note: This only works if Match Content is set to "Match Dynamic Range.")

Selecting the "4K HDR" option with Match Content set to "Match Dynamic Range" results in HDR content displaying in HDR and SDR content displaying in SDR. However, menus and games will display in HDR. (Note: Menus displayed in HDR can be extremely bright sometimes.)

Selecting the "4K SDR" option with Match Content set to "Match Dynamic Range" results in HDR content displaying in HDR and SDR content displaying in SDR. Additionally, menus and games will display in SDR when appropriate.

This stuff gets rather confusing and if you don't mess with it for a month or so it is really easy to forget how it works. So be sure to copy the info you need to a location where you can view it in the future.

 

[nikhoolio]

Trying this with an iPhone XR, Apple TV 4K (both on latest firmwares) and an LG 65EF9500, which doesn't have Dolby Vision btw. The Apple TV is set to match range and frame rate, with the home screen displaying 4K SDR. The phone and ATV are on the same wifi network, but after selecting Color Balance on the ATV, I can't get any notification to pop up on the phone. Held it by the ATV, by the LG, restarted both, removed phone case, etc, nothing. Anyone have any ideas as to what's going on?

 

[CKohkah]

This isn’t working on either of my TV’s. I get to the point where the phone is reading the colors and then it stops half way through and errors out.

Ive tried on both a LG 1080p tv with a 4th Gen Apple TV and also a 4K tv with an Apple TV 4K. I also tried both an iPhone 11 and 12. Same results.

can anyone help?

 

[George Dawes]

There is a new setting option under 'Settings -> Apps' that will let tvOS automatically remove apps that you are not using anymore, to free up space…

Wonder what they have planned in the future that requires more space ?