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Hands-On With the Apple TV's New Color Balance Calibration Feature
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Default doesn't automatically mean best. I don't believe Match Content is on by default either, but anyone who wants an accurate picture would turn it on. Otherwise you're either missing out on HDR content if it's set to full-time SDR or you're watching a lot of fake HDR if it's set to full-time HDR/DV.
If Apple made any fixes we would have heard about it. They’re not going to bother making UI elements DV because DV is for video.
Pretty much what I do. Turns out, after a lot of trial and error, that our TV does frame rate matching natively so that is turned off in the Apple TV, to avoid lip sync issues. Other than that HDR\DV content plays like it should and SDR content looks good.
For those who are having difficulty getting this to work, your ATV must be located near your TV. I have mine located in a closet in another room with all of my AV gear. When I went to make it work, I could not get past the screen telling me to get near the TV. When I went to the closet with the ATV, I got the message on the iPhone to turn the phone around. I ran back to the TV but then it would default back to previous screen. So I figured that it is not the TV that the phone needs to be near, but the actual ATV which needs to be near your TV. So I unplugged everything and brought the ATV into the room with the TV. Plugged it into another HDMI port and followed the process and all worked fine. I then took the ATV and put it back in in the closet. I guess most people have their ATV close to their TV, but I know that not everyone does.
AFAIK Dolby Vision does not auto calibrate your TV, what do you mean it does a better job of adjusting content?
I’m thinking it’s for people who buy TVs and never fiddle with the settings because they don’t know where they are, they’re too complex, or maybe they’re just happy with their TV as it is. But this gives the colors a “pop” apparently, is Apple simple, and will seem like an upgrade. Clever gimmick.
Not working for me. Starts, but fails. I do have a clear screen protector on my iPhone. Could that be the issue? The screen of the iPhone faces the t.v. right???
There is so much misinformation about TV calibration and DV/HDR on this thread
No. For one thing the calibration will NOT work with Dolby Vision. Therefore it won’t do anything to change how Dolby Vision displays on your TV. As far as SDR and HDR, the calibration measures the color settings from one of the color profiles on your TV then uses that information to adjust the colors for both SDR and HDR.
Most TV's have completely separate calibration profiles for SDR and HDR though. What works for SDR won't be the same for HDR...
Worked for me. I have the HD ATV model and a 2018 55" LG TV. I had to hold the phone close to the TV -- I thought it was 1" like it said but it was more like 1/4" before it finally started the process. Went through all the calibration colors quickly and the end result looked good. It was a small tweak (I had my TV pretty well dialed in already) but I could see it in the beach photo they use for the sample; the sand had a blue/green tint before but now it's more golden. I wish they had more sample images to put up or allowed you to use your own stills or even a movie; I had Blade Runner 2049 all queued up just so I could see the difference.
Mine became marginally colder (really marginally). Preferred the original. Ran it a few times to check. That’s on a Samsung KS7000/KS8000 Quantum Dot. I did the test in SDR only. I use Match Settings so ATV switches ti frame rate and HDR when content is in that.
There’s a plethora of SDR content out there. It will also run this feature on HDR.
You can't watch any of your 3D Blu-rays with this improved color balance though, right? (because the Apple TV doesn't play Blu-rays)
I'm going to give this a try. I bet it will help my twelve (..?) year old plasma tv. Which to my eyes still looks great. Even though it has problems - only one working hdmi port, and the rare audio drop for an instant.
I reset the network settings on my iPhone and that seemed to fix this problem. Unfortunately the calibration always fails no matter what settings I try on my TV. It also has a hard time detecting it to start when I hold my phone close to the screen.
I had this same issue. Resetting network settings on my phone also worked for me.
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The same functionality should be introduced to MacOS for desktop monitors.
I tried half a dozen times holding the phone at various distances ranging from 1 inch to case edges against the screen, but it kept failing when it got to the white color. Finally, based on someone’s suggestion here, I held the phone about a quarter inch from the screen and braced it with my fingers against the screen and that worked. Seems like it has to be very close to the screen, but not directly up against it, and it has to be extremely steady. I also disabled auto brightness and auto local dimming during the calibration process in order to keep the image steady… not sure if that was required or not.
But, after all that, it told me that both of my TVs already have accurate color balance and don’t require calibration. I have a Sony X900F in Custom mode with color set to Expert 1, and I have a Vizio E55-E1 in Calibrated Dark mode with color set to Normal.
But, after all that, it told me that both of my TVs already have accurate color balance and don’t require calibration. I have a Sony X900F in Custom mode with color set to Expert 1, and I have a Vizio E55-E1 in Calibrated Dark mode with color set to Normal.