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richard371

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Feb 1, 2008
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I have an LG OLED and even when I select dolby or HDR on my new 4K Apple TV I don't think any of the YouTube HDR vids are playing in HDR. I tried the Costa Rica and HDR jazz. Unlike the YouTube app on the iPhone, when I go to quality settings there is no HDR at all. The 40K60 works great but I don't think the app does HDR.
 
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A simple test:

Switch the GUI output of the ATV to 4K SDR BUT make sure to enable both "Match Content" features.

Then, if the YouTube app is actually producing an HDR signal for the ATV to send to the TV, you should see LG's little HDR logo in a corner.

If this doesn't happen then tough titties, I'm a premium YT subscriber and am disgusted by the technical quality of Google's YT apps, on iOS as well as tvOS and wish Apple wouldn't have caved in to Google by removing third-party YT watching apps from the App Store.

I on my end can confirm that on my unit of the ATV 4K 2021 the YT app isn't actually sending out an HDR signal and just wish lay persons would stop writing and talking about technical things with certainty they seemingly have no competence in. Mostly mean "reviewers" with that.
 
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Ive tried all this I get the logos on the tv with Netflix and HBO max. I just don't think Youtube on atv does HDR at all. Still looks great can only imagine it in true HDR.
 
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Yes, then you can also come to the conclusion that Google is f***ing you over ;)

Always keep in mind that Google is working very hard on making the viewing experience on non-Google devices worse than it could be to draw people away possibly into their own eco system.
 
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Videos do playback in HDR but because the YouTube app currently doesn’t support dynamic range matching you need to manually set the ATV to 4KHDR.
Only issue then is the SDR videos will have a fake HDR applied to them.
 
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Frame rate matching should not have anything to do with dynamic range (separate property and feature).

*Edit*, Hey there, quick editer.

Then how can you be sure that the YT app is actually playing HDR content and the ATV is not just "painting an HDR lipstick on an SDR pig"?
 
Videos do playback in HDR but because the YouTube app currently doesn’t support dynamic range matching you need to manually set the ATV to 4KHDR.
Only issue then is the SDR videos will have a fake HDR applied to them.
I tried HDR and when I go to quality settings it does not say HDR like on the iPhone app. Im certain its not playing in true HDR on the ATV.
 
I tried HDR and when I go to quality settings it does not say HDR like on the iPhone app. Im certain its not playing in true HDR on the ATV.
If you open up Stats For Nerds it shows what’s being displayed.
Not my image but this shows it’s HDR, for SDR the Color would be bt709/bt709
A14E6985-11AD-466D-8E3E-F647B4C03B5B.jpeg
 
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Im 100 percent certain the app does not do HDR. If it did it would show up in quality settings like on the iPhone. 4k60 still looks amazing on my oled.
 
The crux is HDR playback (output). I can watch an HDR video file on my old 2012 MBP but just because the file itself is okay doesn't mean the player can output that if other links in the viewing chain "kill" the HDR transmission.

"De-HDRing" a real HDR file and than applying some sort of "HDR" after the fact by the Apple TV GUI that can itself run and output in HDR doesn't have much to do with real HDR.

I hope I'm not coming off too mean, I'm still mad about my personal viewing disappointment with the Apple TV 4K 2021 in its current state.
 
Im 100 percent certain the app does not do HDR. If it did it would show up in quality settings like on the iPhone. 4k60 still looks amazing on my oled.
Yeah I guess so, just had a look on my iPhone and see what you mean.
Others seem to think they’re getting HDR so who knows.
 
Yeah I guess so, just had a look on my iPhone and see what you mean.
Others seem to think they’re getting HDR so who knows.
The are getting the fake HDR when they put the ATV in HDR mode. but if it makes them happy I should not rain on their parade.
 
but if it makes them happy I should not rain on their parade.
OF COURSE YOU SHOULD!

If you don't correct misconceptions then the race to the bottom of the barrel is even more accelerating. No one knows everything but everyone should be open to learning. If an uninformed person is spouting out factual nonsense then it's a good thing to correct them - maybe another person that would like to honestly know about something is looking at the first one and since no one seems to protest thinks that this is all good.

I hope that at some time in the not too distant future I can adjust my current point of view since this would mean the technological world is becoming a better place.
 
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OF COURSE YOU SHOULD!

If you don't correct misconceptions then the race to the bottom of the barrel is even more accelerating. No one knows everything but everyone should be open to learning. If an uninformed person is spouting out factual nonsense then it's a good thing to correct them - maybe another person that would like to honestly know about something is looking at the first one and since no one seems to protest thinks that this is all good.

I hope that at some time in the not too distant future I can adjust my current point of view since this means the technological world is becoming a better place.
Good point. The 4k60 still looks amazing can only imagine in HDR. Come on YouTube you allow it on the iPhone.
 
If you think YT 4K60 looks amazing and YT 4K60 HDR even more so then you should behold "the real deal" without compromises like a bitrate below a few hundred Mbit/s or chroma subsampling ;)
 
If you think YT 4K60 looks amazing and YT 4K60 HDR even more so then you should behold "the real deal" without compromises like a bitrate below a few hundred Mbit/s or chroma subsampling ;)
Thats up to to YouTube to make the app true HDR.
 
Vincent at HDTVTest seems to think you’re getting HDR

But then I have noticed that YouTube also reports movies as playing @24hz when the TV is still outputting @50hz or @60hz depending on what you’ve got it set to.
Maybe he’ll do another video looking into it a bit further as far as YouTube is concerned.
 
I guess the YouTube app is the main reason why everybody suggests to configure the AppleTV to SDR with match content on. Because if you switch it to HDR videos with dark parts in it will look horrible in YouTube.
 
I guess the YouTube app is the main reason why everybody suggests to configure the AppleTV to SDR with match content on. Because if you switch it to HDR videos with dark parts in it will look horrible in YouTube.
Pretty much, there’s probably other apps that may not support dynamic range and frame rate matching but id guess YouTube is going to be the most popular out of the ones that don’t.
It is odd that YouTube doesn’t support frame rate matching though as it used to on one of the previous versions of YouTube.
As for this whole HDR issue the new ATV4K must be doing something as if you compare that exact same video that Vincent used using the same settings then with the 1st gen there’s a difference in both Resolution and Color:
1st Gen: 2560x1440, bt709 / bt709
37978C38-B6F8-4859-8382-4AF8D36266D9.jpeg

2nd Gen:3840x2160, smpte2084(PQ) / bt2020
628FC543-653B-4DAF-B8FC-02BC7F81B301.jpeg
 
So if YouTube in tvOS doesn’t support hdr then kindly tell me what’s the point of the bloody £169 premium of Apple TV?! My web OS YouTube app plays HDR just fine. This is ridiculous.

In addition there’s the recommendation to run the sole tv in 4K HDR with content matching. If we do this then the beautiful screensavers are muted in SDR - the same screensavers we are told it’s worth upgrading to the 64GB model for.
The entire platform is an absolute mess and it’s about time somebody called it out.
 
If they add hdr to YouTube it would be nice. Hdr screensavers would be nice but defeat the purpose. Running an oled in hdr full time can cause burn in. It happened to me. LG did a one time replacement. Now I just do sdr 60 with matching on.
 
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As for this whole HDR issue the new ATV4K must be doing something as if you compare that exact same video that Vincent used using the same settings then with the 1st gen there’s a difference in both Resolution and Color:
1st Gen: 2560x1440, bt709 / bt709
The two screenshots are hilarious to me, I cannot verify the information shown since I do not have one but the one done with the ATV 4K 2017 shows that YT is not even sending an UHD ("4k") video file to the ATV to output - maybe an Apple SoC performance issue when having to decode VP9 in software*?

Again, I don't understand how this hasn't lead to a public "sh**storm" considerung what stupid things in the past actually did.

*I'm also pissed about the outdated A12 SoC in the ATV 4K 2021, not because of gaming stuff (not my cup of tea) but to have room for future features like maybe being able to decode UHD-HDR AV1 in software which is an intermediate destination coming pretty soon.

So if YouTube in tvOS doesn’t support hdr then kindly tell me what’s the point of the bloody £169 premium of Apple TV?! My web OS YouTube app plays HDR just fine. This is ridiculous.

In addition there’s the recommendation to run the sole tv in 4K HDR with content matching. If we do this then the beautiful screensavers are muted in SDR - the same screensavers we are told it’s worth upgrading to the 64GB model for.
The entire platform is an absolute mess and it’s about time somebody called it out.

It seems the ATV 4K 2017 isn't even able to decode 4K YouTube video files in real-time due to Google's video codec or Apple's SoC video codec feature set choice. The 2021 model on the other hand can at least do that so I guess you'll have to wait till 2025 to get HDR! 🤣
 
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