Bought a smart OLED TV, glad I also got an AppleTV. Otherwise...

[iBug2]

I tried watching movies with HDMI from my Macbook Pro M1Max. It's choppy. I think it has to do with screen mirroring. If I use native resolution, it's better. With scaled resolution to match the TV's 16:9 aspect ratio, it's even worse. Even a simple youtube feed stutters. It has nothing to do with the bitrate of what I watch.

Airplay is the same, and it's worse quality than HDMI cable anyway.

So the only solution to watch my movies in the TV is Apple TV really. I use media sharing and import movies to TV library. Then they play perfectly fine through Apple TV.


So I wonder if Apple deliberately gimps HDMI output so people don't have a decent experience and buy Apple TV's.

Anyway, now I need to change container from mkv to mp4 for all the movies in my hard drive so I can add them to the library.

If I could get VLC on AppleTV to work with local network I could watch them as .mkv directly but it did not see my SBM share on my Macbook Pro.

Infuse actually works but it's expensive.

 

[neutrino23]

Hmmm…
Since you have a new computer you could go to Apple support on line and ask them.

It has been a while but I think when I used to use an HDMI cable on my laptop. I set the TV as a second monitor, not as a mirror.

I’m pretty sure Apple doesn’t deliberately decrease the capability of the HDMI port.

How old is the TV? Have you tried a different HDMI cable.

You are able to Airplay directly to the TV? Cool.

 

[gigatoaster]

You should check Infuse Pro to read your mkv files. Great app for your Apple TV

 

[400]

What spec is the HDMI cable and what spec is the video you are trying to watch. Has all the post processing been disabled on the TV (not sure what is on them today but mine had quite a few options enabled out the box that were terrible)

HDMI Cables - Different Cable Types

HDMI cable overview with the different HDMI cable types, their port capabilities, and how to tell the HDMI connector types apart. HDMI 2.1b

www.hdmi.org

 

[iBug2]

What spec is the HDMI cable and what spec is the video you are trying to watch. Has all the post processing been disabled on the TV (not sure what is on them today but mine had quite a few options enabled out the box that were terrible)

HDMI Cables - Different Cable Types

HDMI cable overview with the different HDMI cable types, their port capabilities, and how to tell the HDMI connector types apart. HDMI 2.1b

www.hdmi.org

cable is HDMI 2.0. Should be able to support 4K 60hz. And the same cable works perfectly fine when I use it between Apple TV and the LG TV. It carries Dolby Vision signal at 4K with no issues.

 

[iBug2]

Hmmm…
Since you have a new computer you could go to Apple support on line and ask them.

It has been a while but I think when I used to use an HDMI cable on my laptop. I set the TV as a second monitor, not as a mirror.

I’m pretty sure Apple doesn’t deliberately decrease the capability of the HDMI port.

How old is the TV? Have you tried a different HDMI cable.

You are able to Airplay directly to the TV? Cool.

The TV is 2021 model LG Oled. When I set up the TV as second monitor, it had the same issues.

EDIT: Thanks a lot, as second monitor, if I make the app full screen, the choppy video did disappear. So it's something to do with being full screen or not, but it has to be a second monitor. Full screen mirroring does not work either.

I'll keep testing obviously but so far it seems the video is playing fine this way.


EDIT 2:

Ok, it's as good as it gets, BUT any 23.98 fps movie still stutters because the refresh rate of the output does not match the frame rate. I watched an 60 fps Dolby Vision HDR video, it was perfectly fine this way.

But then I put some regular movie and every now and then I can see the small stuttering.

This does not occur on the main screen of the macbook pro. Nor does it occur if you play the same movie through Apple TV or Airplay.

So it has something to do with the refresh rate of the separate display. I tried 24 Hz but that was even worse. I'm keeping it at 60 for now.

 

[400]

cable is HDMI 2.0. Should be able to support 4K 60hz. And the same cable works perfectly fine when I use it between Apple TV and the LG TV. It carries Dolby Vision signal at 4K with no issues.

Strictly speaking it is certified for High Speed or Premium High Speed not called 2.0 etc. (it is a mess with the labelling) but if you have it working else where then at least it rules it out.

 

[iBug2]

Strictly speaking it is certified for High Speed or Premium High Speed not called 2.0 etc. (it is a mess with the labelling) but if you have it working else where then at least it rules it out.

Yeah it's not the cable, and I doubt it's strictly about Mac either. When I google it, there are tons of posts about choppy HDMI playback from computers to TV's, even with windows computers. I don't know if it's a software issue or limitations of hardware, in this case the HDMI out.