Can't enable HDR (4K ATV, Samsung TV/Yamaha receiver)

[iMas70]

I have my 4K ATV connected to a Yamaha RX-A1080 receiver. That connects to a Samsung UN75MU9000FXZA TV. I receive a message that says the TV has been switched back to the previous format and I may need to choose "Ultra" or "Deep" color settings or a different HDMI input. I didn't see any settings like that on the TV. I'm using a cable that is supposed to be optimized for 4K 60FPA. Is there a setting I'm missing? The format I'm using now is 4K SDR.

Thanks!

 

[musicman0725]

I have my 4K ATV connected to a Yamaha RX-A1080 receiver. That connects to a Samsung UN75MU9000FXZA TV. I receive a message that says the TV has been switched back to the previous format and I may need to choose "Ultra" or "Deep" color settings or a different HDMI input. I didn't see any settings like that on the TV. I'm using a cable that is supposed to be optimized for 4K 60FPA. Is there a setting I'm missing? The format I'm using now is 4K SDR.

Thanks!

On Samsung the setting you want to have enabled is called HDMI UHD color. Turn it on for the input your receiver is connected to (should be on for any 4K input). Also, check the manual for your Yamaha as it may also have a similar setting. On my Sony and Denon receivers there is a 4K enhanced signal format setting that needed to be turned on. If your receiver doesn’t support 4K HDR passthrough, you’ll want to connect the ATV4K directly to your TV.

Also for the ATV4K make sure the video output is set to 4K SDR and under Match content, both range and frame rate are enabled. This will switch to HDR whenever the format is detected.

 

[Audit13]

Connect the Apple TV directly to the TV. If you still can't get HDR to work, change the cable.

I've been using Amazon Basics 4k 2 metre cables for years with no issues.

 

[iMas70]

Aside from possibly fixing this issue, is there any benefit to having it connected to the TV or receiver? Is one the better option? I think the picture looks great but know it can be better. Having the surround sound work properly is important to me.

 

[Audit13]

Using ARC to pass audio from the TV to receiver will be no different than passing audio from the Apple TV to the receiver.

The Apple TV always decodes the audio to PCM, multichannel or stereo, and streaming services only have DD, DD+, or DD+ with Atmos. These three formats can be passed over ARC.

 

[iMas70]

That worked! Thank you!

 

[musicman0725]

Aside from possibly fixing this issue, is there any benefit to having it connected to the TV or receiver? Is one the better option? I think the picture looks great but know it can be better. Having the surround sound work properly is important to me.

It looks like your receiver supports Dolby Atmos and passthrough of 4K HDR10, Dolby Vision, etc. The problem with connecting directly to the TV is that the ATV4K outputs audio as PCM and sends Atmos as metadata (Dolby MAT v2.0) alongside what has been transcoded into PCM by the ATV4K. Generally, this will not be supported when you connect directly to a TV w/ standard ARC as it cannot pass more than 2.0 channel PCM. Some TVs will convert this back to Dolby Digital or DD+ so that standard ARC can pass multichannel audio back to the receiver. However, since your TV is from 2017 and probably doesn't support Atmos, if you want the best quality sound and video, you will want to go through your receiver.

By default Yamaha is already configured to pass full bandwidth HDMI 2.0:

Selecting the HDMI 4K signal format (4K MODE)

manual.yamaha.com

Only thing is that Samsung may not auto-detect this, which is why I recommended making sure full bandwidth is enabled on your Samsung for the port that you are using (HDMI UHD Color). I actually turn the setting on for all ports on my TVs since I haven't experienced issues with it enabled.

Samsung MU7000 Calibration Settings

www.rtings.com

If you are still having issues, you'll want to make sure that you are using HDMI premium certified cables which you can get for pretty cheap on Amazon.