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Just discovering that Color Balance isn’t needed for TVs with Dolby Vision enabled. This would explain the hardly perceptible difference for me. I’ve seen some examples from others where the difference is drastic and very much warranted.
 
It does not work for me. I select Color Balancing, my phone prompts and I tap Continue. It then sits and spins on Perparing for a minute or 2 followed by an exclamation point.

I have help my phone up on the TV, an inch from the TV, a ruler length from the TV.

I can't get it to work.

AppleTV 4K1

Edit:

Figured it out. iCould account between my phone and the aTV4k had to be the same. Once I changed the aTV4k iCloud account to match ... color balance kicked off. It took maybe 10 seconds.
 
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I tried on my AppleTV 4k with no success and on my Apple TV HD also with no success. Both times it started but it stops at "Preparing..." on my iPhone. Any suggestions? Here is what I have:

Phone Xs Max

First TV: Older (maybe 10 years old or so) 32' Sony 720 hooked directly to an AppleTV 4k with sound out to a pair of Home Pods.

Second TV: Panasonic 55" plasma tv hooked to a Denon Receiver then to an Apple TV HD

Same error on both.
 
I tried on my AppleTV 4k with no success and on my Apple TV HD also with no success. Both times it started but it stops at "Preparing..." on my iPhone. Any suggestions? Here is what I have:

Phone Xs Max

First TV: Older (maybe 10 years old or so) 32' Sony 720 hooked directly to an AppleTV 4k with sound out to a pair of Home Pods.

Second TV: Panasonic 55" plasma tv hooked to a Denon Receiver then to an Apple TV HD

Same error on both.
It’s a weird thing but you have to sign out of iCloud on your phone and then back in. It fixed this problem for me.
 
I did this with the the 1080p Apple TV box on my LG OLED. I don't have the Apple TV 4K box because I use other devices for 4K (like the LG's built in apps).

It did calibrate mine, and it looks marginally different, not much. I must have had it pretty close to begin with.

I think it's cool feature though.
 
Is it possible to calibrate a projector by holding a phone off-axis and pointing at the screen for the calibration image?
 
Is it possible to calibrate a projector by holding a phone off-axis and pointing at the screen for the calibration image?

Could you place the phone is the area that is outlined, obviously the shadow of the phone will block the image; but now, just turn the phone around so it is facing the projector? In theory the colors are now painted in the area where the phone is.

Something to try ...
 
Could you place the phone is the area that is outlined, obviously the shadow of the phone will block the image; but now, just turn the phone around so it is facing the projector? In theory the colors are now painted in the area where the phone is.

Something to try ...
I don't think this would work since the reflection from the screen changes the color and contrast of the image. There are many shades of white and each may affect the image differently. Some screens are really white and some screens are actually a gray color.
 
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I don't think this would work since the reflection from the screen changes the color and contrast of the image. There are many shades of white and each may affect the image differently. Some screens are really white and some screens are actually a gray color.

Ah, yes ... good point. The reflecting screen is going to contribute to the final color.
 
Someone asked this on AVSforums.com on the AppleTV thread there and got a response of how to do it. Something about using a diffuser to get it to work out.
 
I'm a headshot photographer, and I use a Vizio 4K to display images when the clients and I review the stuff we've captured. I use AirPlay from my Mac mini to the TV directly.

I have always desired to have the screen calibrated closer to what I'm seeing on my non-4K calibrated monitor so the blacks and grays look more realistic to what the final images will look like.

If I were to attach an Apple TV 4K to the TV and AirPlay directly to the ATV itself, might this calibration process help bring it more in line with what I am seeing?
 
I like how he had to put his TV in Standard mode just to get the calibration to take.
Well I guess that what happens when you can afford a high end TV that’s also been professionally calibrated before.
If the ATV reports back that calibration isn’t required then that’s a win.
 
Just discovering that Color Balance isn’t needed for TVs with Dolby Vision enabled. This would explain the hardly perceptible difference for me. I’ve seen some examples from others where the difference is drastic and very much warranted.
It's not that TVs with Dolby Vision are accurate. Some are, but for most TVs, far from it.

Calibrating Dolby Vision requires calibration tool (e.g., Apple TV Color Balance, Calman) to access to TV's Dolby Vision reference target or tap into AutoCal feature built-in to some TV models. Software like Calman ($145 for consumer version that requires using spectrometer) can calibrate Dolby Vision mode. Or you can pay $250 or so for ISF-certified technician to calibrate your TV.

SDR and non-Dolby Vision HDR (e.g., HDR10, HLG) use standard colorspace (typically DCI-P3) that should look identical across devices when calibrated.
 
Pretty much what I thought. It's not very accurate and in most cases, makes the image worse.

Thanks for sharing. Vincent Teoh is one of the most respected calibrators and I was looking forward to his take.

General takeaway is that for high-end LCDs Vicent tested (one with LED backlighting and one with quantum dot quantum layer), Apple TV's Color Balance emphasized blue tint, sometimes less accurate than standard "most accurate" settings on the TV.

OLED is more neutral and accurate, but again, nowhere near as accurate as professional calibration.

Vincent recommends Apple to add display profiles (e.g., LCD with white LED, LCD quantum LED, WOLED) to compensate for different display technology.
 
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Thanks for sharing. Vincent Teoh is one of the most respected calibrators and I was looking forward to his take.

General takeaway is that for high-end LCDs Vicent tested (one with LED backlighting and one with quantum dot quantum layer), Apple TV's Color Balance emphasized blue tint, sometimes less accurate than standard "most accurate" settings on the TV.

OLED is more neutral and accurate, but again, nowhere near as accurate as professional calibration.

Vincent recommends Apple to add display profiles (e.g., LCD with white LED, LCD quantum LED, WOLED) to compensate for different display technology.
One thing I did notice was that it seemed he was holding the phone right up against the screen rather than an inch away so have wondered if that makes any sort of difference to his results.


So it’s basically useless. No surprise there.
Well no he didn’t say that at all.
From what I took from it was that it does make some improvements however it’s in no way a replacement for a proper calibration.
The vast majority of users probably won’t have a top of the range tv or just can’t justify the cost of an expert calibration so in most cases the calibration tool will provide some improvements for those people.
 
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So it’s basically useless. No surprise there.
Vincent tested Color Balance only on high-end TVs, which tend to be more accurate out of the box. Aside from the blue bias, which I read is improved on iOS and tvOS 14.6, Color Balance is still an improvement, just not as much as properly calibrated counterpart.
 
I would hire a professional to take care of this problem. It's pretty normal for things like these to happen from time to time. Don't be scared, because your TV is working just fine. You can even do it by yourself if you're going to watch some tutorials on this matter. The best option would be to hire someone who knows what's doing, like www.isfcalibration.org or anyone else. Thankfully, this procedure is going to last for a long time and you'll not have to do this every year. I would love to see the results of this procedure, so make sure to keep us updated
 
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