Apple TV 4K HDR Issue

[YoussefGobran]

I have an Apple TV 4K connected to an HDR 10 compatible Phillips Roku UHD 4K TV with the Belkin high speed 4K HDMI cable from the Apple Store. All of the HDMI ports on the TV are compatible with HDMI 2.0 as well.

However, when I enable 4K HDR in my Apple TV “Video & Audio” settings, the image becomes quite washed out and very pale. This affects the menu in the Apple TV as well as 4K HDR content from Apple TV+.

When playing the same content from the Apple TV+ app installed on my Roku rather than directly from the Apple TV, HDR works fine. Also, when running the Apple TV at 4K SDR with the “Match Content” setting enabled, the menu looks normal, with vivid colors, but HDR content becomes washed out as well.

I am currently running the latest non-beta version of tvOS, 13.4.

Any help or thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[niteflyr]

Try setting it to 4K SDR with Match Content>Range and Framerate 'on'. The menu looks fine and then when you play HDR content it will auto switch. This seems to work the best for me.

Edit: I see you tried that. My bad.

 

[Bfarmer38119]

You might have to pull the cable on the apple tv while watching and reattach to get the picture corrected. No guarantee but that's what I have to do. You may have to do this often.

I have an LG tv. Other owners have experienced troubles and that was their advice to others. Obviously it is an HDMI issue that was introduced in an ATV upgrade. Everything worked fine a couple of months ago.

Apple has never acknowledged my bug reports in feedback.

May not work but give it a try.

 

[YoussefGobran]

Thanks for the response @niteflyr, ya at first I read that the Apple TV menu wasn't HDR compatible and thought, "That's not a very Apple thing to do." But with my issue it seems as though the whole interface is affected, menus, HDR content, and non HDR content. Restore, Update, Beta, ReRestore, nothing helped. I wish I had the resources to narrow down which component is at fault but with 1 of each, it's not very possible.

@Bfarmer38119 it was too good to be true. As soon as I read your post I tried it but alas still the same thing. Thinking back, should've been more skeptical since a restore didn't fix the issue either.

I'm almost certain the issue isn't with the cable since it was purchased new for this Apple TV. I know the TV can play HDR. I also know that the issue is most likely not Apple TV software since it's been restored multiple times. So I guess it's either a faulty Apple TV or there is an issue between the HDR encoding that the Apple TV does and how the Phillips TV decodes it. I will check if I can borrow a friend's Apple TV 4K to figure it out.

Thanks again guys.
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Obviously it is an HDMI issue that was introduced in an ATV upgrade. Everything worked fine a couple of months ago.

What's tragic is that I acquired my full set up with the UHD TV, the 4K ATV, and the high-speed HDMI the day before the update when this all started happening. Really looking forward to able to watch HDR content again.

 

[waw74]

on my LG tv, you have to enable HDR per input port in the television's settings.

----did a quick test
I have my aTV in 4k SDR with rate and range matching.
turned off "deep color" on that port.

HDR movies played just fine, but in SDR (no HDR indication on screen, and muted colors in video)
I use Plex - it was indicating that it was direct playing the file, so the aTV was sending HDR, but it wasn't making it to my screen.
when I tried to switch the aTV default to 4k HDR, the TV popped up a notice about the deep color setting, and asked if I wanted to enable it.

 

[mattfro]

Perhaps not related to this, but is there a way to limit to use hdr10 only? My LG tv supports both dolby vision and hdr10. But my philips hue hdmi box only supports hdr10 and hdr10+. Even if I haven't activated dolby vision, still netflix for example uses dolby vision and then my hue lights dont work.

 

[FarmerBob]

Was just watching Westworld on HBONOW through the ATV4K. I have long since started using those settings and tonight I noticed the same washed out picture and as usual, I turned off the HDR and instantly the picture became gorgeous.

I've read many posts where they have said and done the same things. I turn it off often.

 

[waw74]

Was just watching Westworld on HBONOW through the ATV4K. I have long since started using those settings and tonight I noticed the same washed out picture and as usual, I turned off the HDR and instantly the picture became gorgeous.

I've read many posts where they have said and done the same things. I turn it off often.

You had HDR on all the time, that's bad. (none of HBO's stuff is HDR)
With that setting, the aTV will "upscale" standard video to HDR, and gives typically less than optimal performance since it's just guessing.
with the following, you'll never touch it again.


Turn on range matching.
That will change the output of the aTV to match the video you're watching (SDR, HDR, or DoblyVision).
Depending on you TV, it can cause a bit of a blink or delay (under a couple seconds) when you first stop or start something, but it's worth it, as you always get the optimal picture.

While you're there, Turn on rate matching,
This will cause the frame rate being output to be adjusted to match the video.
Why does that matter?
If the frame rates don't match, the aTV will have to play certain frames twice.
if your movie is 24fps and the aTV is outputting 30fps, it has to make up 6 frames every second.
so it will go 1 2 3 4 4 5 6 7 8 8 9
it can also adjust the playing speed of the video to help.
Certain shots, like those with wide and long slow moment, will appear to shake as the movement will appear to stop for a fraction of a second while the double frame happens (the term for this is judder)
(if you want more info look up "pull down")


Its your choice if you want to leave the aTV default mode in HDR or SDR
I prefer SDR, since the menus and such are a bit bright and sometimes washed out for me, plus the display has to work just a bit harder to make HDR
plus most of the video I watch is SDR.
make sure you pick a 4k option though, as resolution never automatically changes