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Apple TV 4 TV flickering randomly

M

MrMister111

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jan 28, 2009
3,900
382
UK
I just got a 2nd Apple TV 4. It's updated, connected up fine but I get a flickering picture at random times on the home screen, apps, everywhere. The 1st Apple TV 4 is fine.

The TV is ok on freeview, PlayStation connected to it is fine. Only happened since I bought this Apple TV 4 and connected.

All the video settings are auto, picture is fine it just flickers randomly everywhere, watching iTunes movies, music, games, everything.

I've restarted TV, Apple TV, updated to v10.2.1, checked connections etc.
 
MrMister111 said:
I just got a 2nd Apple TV 4. It's updated, connected up fine but I get a flickering picture at random times on the home screen, apps, everywhere. The 1st Apple TV 4 is fine.

The TV is ok on freeview, PlayStation connected to it is fine. Only happened since I bought this Apple TV 4 and connected.

All the video settings are auto, picture is fine it just flickers randomly everywhere, watching iTunes movies, music, games, everything.

I've restarted TV, Apple TV, updated to v10.2.1, checked connections etc.
Click to expand...

Do you have a Nintendo Switch? I am experiencing flickering issues and I've discovered it's a known issue related to my Switch.
 
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i've been experiencing flickering and at the same time sometimes loss of sound. Sometimes when it flickers the TV loses sync, the entire picture goes black and shows the video mode (1080p60) in the to left corner. Other times part of the picture simply flickers and shows a grey area instead of what ever app is playing.

I put it down to an HDMI issue and have just replaced the cable (we'll see if that fixes it). I found that simply unplugging and replugging the HDMI cable fixed the issue for a few days, but then the problem would reappear. Not sure if this is the same problem as yours, but thought i'd share.

The problem came out of nowhere, ATV had been behaving perfectly for the last year, using the same cable and then suddenly this problem with nothing changed in my setup.
 
Only thing haven't changed. Worked on PlayStation so presumed would be ok. For length where aTV4 is it's perfect as well but have to try a long one first suppose.

This has happened straight away on this aTV4 as well, other one is fine. It's annoying enough now though to see it all the time watching videos
 
Colonel Badger said:
i've been experiencing flickering and at the same time sometimes loss of sound. Sometimes when it flickers the TV loses sync, the entire picture goes black and shows the video mode (1080p60) in the to left corner. Other times part of the picture simply flickers and shows a grey area instead of what ever app is playing.

I put it down to an HDMI issue and have just replaced the cable (we'll see if that fixes it). I found that simply unplugging and replugging the HDMI cable fixed the issue for a few days, but then the problem would reappear. Not sure if this is the same problem as yours, but thought i'd share.

The problem came out of nowhere, ATV had been behaving perfectly for the last year, using the same cable and then suddenly this problem with nothing changed in my setup.
Click to expand...
I am having the same problem as well. Is it the hardware starting to malfunction, an Apple software update?
 
msh said:
I am having the same problem as well. Is it the hardware starting to malfunction, an Apple software update?
Click to expand...

Worrying if yours was ok with same cables and now malfunctioning.

Give it a restart first, mine stopped for few mins then started again. New cable is incoming to try soon
 
MrMister111 said:
Worrying if yours was ok with same cables and now malfunctioning.

Give it a restart first, mine stopped for few mins then started again. New cable is incoming to try soon
Click to expand...
Yeah. Same cables. I use the restart function to clear the problem.
 
Along with testing a new cable, what about the HDMI port? If you plugged this new :apple:TV into an unused HDMI port on your TV, try using one of the other ports for a while to rule out an issue with the HDMI port. In other words, unplug something already connected to the TV (and working fine) and use it's port for a while to see if the flicker effect occurs there too. It could be that the cable is fine but the port has an issue. This simple test would rule that out.

Another test: take the new :apple:TV to a DIFFERENT HDTV and see if it will also flicker on that one. If you don't have another HDTV, take it to a friend's house. If it flickers on another TV, you narrow it down to either :apple:TV or the cable.
 
Mine is doing this too. Random loss of video and audio for about 3 seconds. Started after the most recent update.
 
HobeSoundDarryl said:
Along with testing a new cable, what about the HDMI port? If you plugged this new :apple:TV into an unused HDMI port on your TV, try using one of the other ports for a while to rule out an issue with the HDMI port. In other words, unplug something already connected to the TV (and working fine) and use it's port for a while to see if the flicker effect occurs there too. It could be that the cable is fine but the port has an issue. This simple test would rule that out.

Another test: take the new :apple:TV to a DIFFERENT HDTV and see if it will also flicker on that one. If you don't have another HDTV, take it to a friend's house. If it flickers on another TV, you narrow it down to either :apple:TV or the cable.
Click to expand...
I reseated the HDMI cable and all seems to be ok now. I really do wish the consumer electronics industry would adopt locking connectors.
 
Our AppleTV 4 has started flickering a few weeks ago but I haven't watched TV and don't know if it was related to updates.

10.2 came March 27.
10.2.1 came May 15.

From family members they are guessing it happened before May 15 but not as long ago as March 27... but she said maybe it happened after may 15 "but that feels too recent".

So in short, we have no idea when it happened. But it seems most likely to have begun in-between OS updates. Something like May 1st. If that's right, it would rule out OS updates.

We've since tried re-seating the HDMI cable with no success.

Now we're running a test (right now) with a different cable and it hasn't flickered for half an hour so far.

It may have been the cable, but it may also be something like overheating components after it has been running for a while.

How long ago did your Apple TVs start flickering?
 
I've changed my cable and so far so good. The cable is nothing special a basic one, although this Apple TV 4 doesn't get loads of use, the times I have it hasn't flickered now. Before was very noticeable.

My Apple TV 4 was brand new and started to flicker out of the box. It was on iOS 9.2 think, updated it and same. Then came the .1 update and same think. Then changed cable and so far so good
 
So far so good here too... We did buy cheap HDMI cables, but it was strange that they worked for a year and then suddenly stopped, without us having even moved the cables. I never knew HDMI cables could just suddenly "burn out without being touched" or whatever's happened.
 
I have an Apple TV 3rd gen that has developed white flickering across large parts of the picture. It comes and goes, and I was hoping to find some help here.

Restarting seems to help, which would make me think that the problem is with the Apple TV, but nobody else seems to have the same problem.

Guess I'll try a different HDMI cable.
 
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