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Apple TV 4K colors issue

M

Miltz

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 6, 2013
887
506
I’ve been wanting an Apple TV 4K for years. I finally picked one up at $104 and I’m like a pig in you know what…

That ended quickly as I’ve spent the last 3 hours trying to get my screen colors to look normal. I’m coming from an Amazon fire Stick 4K and the Apple TV 4K looks awful. I tried to calibrate the screen using multiple settings on my TV and nothing is working. It seems nuts that that $25 fire stick works out of the box and the Apple looks terrible.

Please help me out so I can enjoy my new toy. If not I’ll just get a new fire stick and call it a day. So much for plug and play :(
 
If I remember correctly it comes with HDR enabled out of the box which looks gross. Set your display to 4K SDR then set it to match frame rate and dynamic range.
 
So you calibrate set to SDR and then change it back to HDR?
 
What settings do you recommend? You said no HDR? But my tv is HDR. Also does the cable matter?
 
Set things to your taste, but I suggest the following:

Settings —> Video and Audio —> Format —> either 4K SDR or 4K HDR

Select SDR or HDR per your tastes. Turning on Match Dynamic Range (see below) will automatically turn on SDR whenever SDR content is streamed and it will automatically turn on HDR whenever HDR content is streamed.

Settings —> Video and Audio —> Chroma —> 4:2:2

Settings —> Video and Audio —> Match Content —> set Match Dynamic Range to On

Settings —> Video and Audio —> Match Content —> set Match Frame Rate to On

Note that changing color settings directly on your TV will also alter what you ultimately see. I have a Fire TV Cube 2nd gen and an Apple TV 4K 2017 and they both display similar colors on my TV.
 
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After all the above adjustments have been done, you can also use the tvOS calibration feature (if you have an iPhone).
Just keep in mind, that this process will not calibrate your screen, but your appleTV.
So you will not see that effect on other inputs. Also, if your set has been miscalibrated, then you will be adding opposite miscalibration to appleTV video output. But the end result should look ok on your display device.
www.imore.com

How to calibrate the color on your Apple TV with your iPhone

Stop messing around with those clunky settings menus on your TV and let your iPhone and Apple TV calibrate the color for you. Here's how!
www.imore.com www.imore.com
 
priitv8 said:
After all the above adjustments have been done, you can also use the tvOS calibration feature (if you have an iPhone).
Just keep in mind, that this process will not calibrate your screen, but your appleTV.
So you will not see that effect on other inputs. Also, if your set has been miscalibrated, then you will be adding opposite miscalibration to appleTV video output. But the end result should look ok on your display device.
www.imore.com

How to calibrate the color on your Apple TV with your iPhone

Stop messing around with those clunky settings menus on your TV and let your iPhone and Apple TV calibrate the color for you. Here's how!
www.imore.com www.imore.com
Click to expand...
This is what my post is about, did you read it? This feature won’t work for me.
 
In what way is it looking awful?

Recommended settings is to set to 4KSDR and then just make sure Match Dynamic Range and Match Frame Rate are enabled and it’ll automatically output HDR or Dolby Vision and the correct frame rate as and when required.
 
-Gonzo- said:
In what way is it looking awful?

Recommended settings is to set to 4KSDR and then just make sure Match Dynamic Range and Match Frame Rate are enabled and it’ll automatically output HDR or Dolby Vision and the correct frame rate as and when required.
Click to expand...
Did you read any of the other posts? Literally the first response.
 
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Apart from the recommended settings as per all the above. Have you enabled HDR on your input? That also needs to be done on some TV sets.

I would also recommend looking up the recommended settings for your tv on Rtings or AVSForum. And then applying that to SDR and HDR modes (you cannot change DV settings). Sometimes you need to do this for every input.
 
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