LG C9 and Dolby Vision / Deep Color Won’t Work!

[macduke]

I just went from a 2009 LG 42” to a 2019 LG C9 65” (my Chiefs are in the Super Bowl!) and I’m confused as hell. I can’t for the life of me get Dolby Vision working.

It just loses signal completely, or sometimes it flickers like crazy. Sometimes the LG suggests I turn on HDMI Ultra HD Deep Color when it switches and that makes the Apple TV go away until I change it back. I even tried restoring my TV to default settings and then plug in the Apple TV. The Apple TV keeps prompting me to try Dolby Vision but it won’t work! I thought maybe it was my HDMI cable, so I went and bought an HDMI 2.1 since the TV can use that and it didn’t help and the cable passed the high speed test. I can’t get chroma past 4:2:0 either which seems weird. From what I can tell researching the deep color seems to like 4:2:2?

Please help! I’ve been searching around the web and YouTube for hours over multiple days. I’m usually tech savvy enough to figure this stuff out but I must be getting old because this is way too complicated for me. Hope I’m just overlooking something simple!

 

[jole26]

Can you try a different UHD source to rule out the Apple box?

 

[tomp66]

oh dear this has been a thing for a while my lg b7 55 with latest f/w and atv 4 latest os. still no dolby vision. either directly or via pioneer vsx933 av hd i using latest cables variety of flavours. haven’t tried the v expensive bulking one apple sell i store some claim success with that. i’m sceptical. dolbyvision works fine on lg internal app via netflix - what other way to test hdmi and atv to tule them out? i think it’s apple and lg f/w and os not playing nice .... await the lg roll out of apple tv app ....

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

Guys I would SERIOUSLY recommend the proper Belkin Apple HDMI 8K lead.
It's £29 - that's not expensive for a £1500+ TV is it? It's the ONLY connection between the TV and the ATV. Is £29 really really expensive on a decent set up? God no. Maybe £150 for a lead is expensive but £29?????? It's like buying Ferrari and going to QuikFit for cheap skinny tyres!
We have the B7 and ALWAYS use the Apple leads and guess what? We've never had a single problem with either the TV or Apple TV.
I always buy the Apple lead - chances are, it's the one that Apple use for their testing, reliability & performance measures. Plus, for an attention to detail guy like me, it matches the design of all other Apple leads inc' the main lead

Seriously, get the Apple recommended one and it'll last for years and years.

 

[QuentinWilson]

I have a 65" C9 and DV works for me no problem with the ATV (or any other device). I can also set chroma to 4:4:4 without issue. Is your ATV directly plugged into the TV or is there something in-between like an AV receiver that might cause problems? If it's connected directly then it does sound like a cable issue. I know you already tried that, but I would still suggest trying a different high quality 48Gbps one no longer than 2m, because all signs seem to point to that.

If you do get it working, you actually do not want to accept the "try Dolby Vision" prompt by the ATV. You want to set Format to 4K SDR and Match Content to Range & Frame Rate. That way the ATV menus won't be displayed in weird colours and it will automatically switch to DV if it detects it.

 

[Strelok]

oh dear this has been a thing for a while my lg b7 55 with latest f/w and atv 4 latest os. still no dolby vision. either directly or via pioneer vsx933 av hd i using latest cables variety of flavours. haven’t tried the v expensive bulking one apple sell i store some claim success with that. i’m sceptical. dolbyvision works fine on lg internal app via netflix - what other way to test hdmi and atv to tule them out? i think it’s apple and lg f/w and os not playing nice .... await the lg roll out of apple tv app ....

AT4 for as in non-4K Apple TV? Doesn’t support HDR IIRC.

 

[QuentinWilson]

Guys I would SERIOUSLY recommend the proper Belkin Apple HDMI 8K lead.
It's £29 - that's not expensive for a £1500+ TV is it? It's the ONLY connection between the TV and the ATV. Is £29 really really expensive on a decent set up? God no. Maybe £150 for a lead is expensive but £29?????? It's like buying Ferrari and going to QuikFit for cheap skinny tyres!
We have the B7 and ALWAYS use the Apple leads and guess what? We've never had a single problem with either the TV or Apple TV.
I always buy the Apple lead - chances are, it's the one that Apple use for their testing, reliability & performance measures. Plus, for an attention to detail guy like me, it matches the design of all other Apple leads inc' the main lead

Seriously, get the Apple recommended one and it'll last for years and years.

Sounds about right price-wise. For DV you really want the 8K 48Gbps ones and those are a bit pricey. I haven't personally tested this Belkin cable, but if Apple recommends them...
For the record, the cable I'm using is this one. I have 4 of them and the ATV4K and UHD BD player do 4K DV without any issues. Seems to be unavailable outside of Europe though and I assume OP lives in the USA.

 

[gnomeisland]

My C8 and Apple TV work great with Dolby Vision but I did have to swap all my HDMI cables. My guess would be cables. It seems some cheap/mid-range cables can't really handle the throughput and because most people are not using Dolby Vision they get away with claiming it.

Plugging in another DV source into the same port with the same cable would eliminate the TV which would help in figuring out he problem too.

 

[bluespark]

-- Make sure your Apple TV is the 4K model. It probably is, but you said "4."
-- Make sure the particular HDMI port on your TV supports 2.1. I believe with LG OLED TVs, only two out of the four HDMI ports do. The issue might simply be the port to which you are connecting.
-- If that doesn't work, spring for a genuine Belkin high-speed 2.1 cable. (Belkin isn't the only brand name that uses their cable, so you still have options.) I know yours is a 2.1, but the problems you describe sound like connection issues.

 

[priitv8]

-- Make sure the particular HDMI port on your TV supports 2.1. I believe with LG OLED TVs, only two out of the four HDMI ports do. The issue might simply be the port to which you are connecting.

HDMI 2.1 can not be the issue.
My 2016 telly has only HDMI 2.0a and both Dolby Vision and deep colour work properly.
HDMI 1.4 won’t cut it though, that is true.

 

[tomp66]

I have a 65" C9 and DV works for me no problem with the ATV (or any other device). I can also set chroma to 4:4:4 without issue. Is your ATV directly plugged into the TV or is there something in-between like an AV receiver that might cause problems? If it's connected directly then it does sound like a cable issue. I know you already tried that, but I would still suggest trying a different high quality 48Gbps one no longer than 2m, because all signs seem to point to that.

If you do get it working, you actually do not want to accept the "try Dolby Vision" prompt by the ATV. You want to set Format to 4K SDR and Match Content to Range & Frame Rate. That way the ATV menus won't be displayed in weird colours and it will automatically switch to DV if it detects it.

yep good thinking 4k sdr ( and hdr actually) with match content and frame rate and bang that gives me dolby vision without issue direct to lg. (will test via vsx 933 at some point too) - dolby audio remains a smidge off. std 5.1 fine. will pony up for bell in as peeps on here are convinced it’s worth a go. will try

 

[Audit13]

I use an Amazon Basics 4k cable between my ATV 4k and LG c7 with no issues at all.

 

[Strelok]

Sounds about right price-wise. For DV you really want the 8K 48Gbps ones and those are a bit pricey. I haven't personally tested this Belkin cable, but if Apple recommends them...
For the record, the cable I'm using is this one. I have 4 of them and the ATV4K and UHD BD player do 4K DV without any issues. Seems to be unavailable outside of Europe though and I assume OP lives in the USA.

Those cables will do nothing for HDMI 2.0 or lower, the only reason an HDMI cable wouldn’t work with 2.0 is if it is super low quality.

 

[wannabeastar30]

I just went from a 2009 LG 42” to a 2019 LG C9 65” (my Chiefs are in the Super Bowl!) and I’m confused as hell. I can’t for the life of me get Dolby Vision working.

It just loses signal completely, or sometimes it flickers like crazy. Sometimes the LG suggests I turn on HDMI Ultra HD Deep Color when it switches and that makes the Apple TV go away until I change it back. I even tried restoring my TV to default settings and then plug in the Apple TV. The Apple TV keeps prompting me to try Dolby Vision but it won’t work! I thought maybe it was my HDMI cable, so I went and bought an HDMI 2.1 since the TV can use that and it didn’t help and the cable passed the high speed test. I can’t get chroma past 4:2:0 either which seems weird. From what I can tell researching the deep color seems to like 4:2:2?

Please help! I’ve been searching around the web and YouTube for hours over multiple days. I’m usually tech savvy enough to figure this stuff out but I must be getting old because this is way too complicated for me. Hope I’m just overlooking something simple!

I bought a B9 this past weekend and have the exact same issue. With a little troubleshooting though, it appears to be the cables. I plug my ATV4K into wall, then into TV. When I plugged it directly into the TV, worked like a charm....so, issue is in wall cable. Easy replacement and then move on with my life....hrmmm, haven't tried it directly from Dolby Atmos bar to TV....let me test and I'll respond with my results. Thanks.

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

Those cables will do nothing for HDMI 2.0 or lower, the only reason an HDMI cable wouldn’t work with 2.0 is if it is super low quality.

That's not quite true. Dolby Vision on the Apple TV 4K requires a HDMI 2.1 approved lead. If you read back to MacRumours way back to Sept/Oct 2017 you'll see the major problems people had with basic leads.

WHY???? do people buy cheap or basic leads when it's the most important connection between the Apple TV and the TV itself. Surely people understand that a slightly more expensive, good brand of cable will usually have a better plug, cable even better environment credentials / B Corp / decent staff wages / working environment OR is that not important to some people because it does not effect them???
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I use an Amazon Basics 4k cable between my ATV 4k and LG c7 with no issues at all.

Ewwwwwwww Amazon trash. Come on man, you've spent £2000 on a TV and you're using a cheap £5 cable. Why would you do that??? That's like putting on a TOM FORD suit without bothering to cleanse your body for a week. Ewwwwwww not cool!

 

[Strelok]

That's not quite true. Dolby Vision on the Apple TV 4K requires a HDMI 2.1 approved lead. If you read back to MacRumours way back to Sept/Oct 2017 you'll see the major problems people had with basic leads.

WHY???? do people buy cheap or basic leads when it's the most important connection between the Apple TV and the TV itself. Surely people understand that a slightly more expensive, good brand of cable will usually have a better plug, cable even better environment credentials / B Corp / decent staff wages / working environment OR is that not important to some people because it does not effect them???
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Ewwwwwwww Amazon trash. Come on man, you've spent £2000 on a TV and you're using a cheap £5 cable. Why would you do that??? That's like putting on a TOM FORD suit without bothering to cleanse your body for a week. Ewwwwwww not cool!

Not true, nowhere does Apple mention anything about HDMI 2.1, which isn't even supported by the Apple TV itself. https://www.cnet.com/news/you-dont-need-new-hdmi-cables-for-dolby-vision-hdr/
A cable either works or it doesn't, and that Amazon "trash" performs exactly the same as your "premium" cable in any current content. HDMI 2.1 is different, but that only matters for 8K or high frame rate 4K, neither of which are relevant to current HDR content.

 

[Audit13]

Ewwwwwwww Amazon trash. Come on man, you've spent £2000 on a TV and you're using a cheap £5 cable. Why would you do that??? That's like putting on a TOM FORD suit without bothering to cleanse your body for a week. Ewwwwwww not cool!

Sorry, I don't buy into the idea that a cable will magically make things better. It either works or it doesn't. In my case, I have never had any issues with the Amazon cables between my Anthem receiver and C7, Apple TV 4K and Anthem receiver, HTPC and Anthem for playing full 4k rips from a disc, and a Sony x800 and Anthem.

I have no problems enabling deep colour on all HDMI inputs using the Amazon cables.

 

[macduke]

Never responded back to this because nothing ever worked. Still having the issue. 2020 has been kinda crazy for me personally (well, it has been for everyone) but now that it’s cold again and I have more spare time I’m trying to figure this out.

I have no receiver. It’s plugged in directly. In addition to that cable I mentioned earlier, I’ve now also tried the cables from my Xbox Series X and PS5. I’ve tried the PS5 hooked up with this same cable and it supports everything. Apple TV still won’t work. I’ve tried resetting the video as well as in a search someone said that tricks it into attaching to the ultra deep color signal. No dice.

What was weird is that it connected at first to Dolby Vision 4K60 no problem. Then it started blinking every few seconds. They got more frequent lasting longer in duration until it just wouldn’t connect at all any more. Could it be a faulty Apple TV 4K? I was also able to get it to connect Dolby Vision 4K30 stable. Makes you think it’s the cables, right? But I’ve tried three including next generation console cables. All directly connected to various inputs on the TV, all of which have the same capabilities but I tried switching inputs just in case. Am I out of troubleshooting options? Maybe reset the Apple TV entirely?

 

[Audit13]

Never responded back to this because nothing ever worked. Still having the issue. 2020 has been kinda crazy for me personally (well, it has been for everyone) but now that it’s cold again and I have more spare time I’m trying to figure this out.

I have no receiver. It’s plugged in directly. In addition to that cable I mentioned earlier, I’ve now also tried the cables from my Xbox Series X and PS5. I’ve tried the PS5 hooked up with this same cable and it supports everything. Apple TV still won’t work. I’ve tried resetting the video as well as in a search someone said that tricks it into attaching to the ultra deep color signal. No dice.

What was weird is that it connected at first to Dolby Vision 4K60 no problem. Then it started blinking every few seconds. They got more frequent lasting longer in duration until it just wouldn’t connect at all any more. Could it be a faulty Apple TV 4K? I was also able to get it to connect Dolby Vision 4K30 stable. Makes you think it’s the cables, right? But I’ve tried three including next generation console cables. All directly connected to various inputs on the TV, all of which have the same capabilities but I tried switching inputs just in case. Am I out of troubleshooting options? Maybe reset the Apple TV entirely?

Blinking picture is an indication of a bad HDMI cable. I had the same problem. I switched to Amazon basics 4k cables and no problem for two years.