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Level 1

17 points

Strobe effect with HDR on Apple TV

Since the update to tvOS 12.3, I’ve seen a consistent “strobe” effect when watching HDR content on my Apple TV 4K. I’ve seen a few older posts describing this, but there didn’t seem to be a solution, so I’m posting a new question. It’s a sometimes subtle, sometimes not so subtle flickering of the darkest parts of the image, and I’ve tried everything I can do to fix it: I set the ATV to different frame rates, toggled match content settings, set chroma to 4:2:0, used different HDMI cables (including a new one purchased today), nothing makes a difference. I thought I would try downgrading the software to 12.2 but apparently that’s not an option on the 4K...

I’m using a TCL Roku TV and I’ve tried the same content directly through the apps on the TV, and everything looks fine. The only thing I can assume at this point is that it could be a hardware issue with the ATV, but the problem only started with the 12.3 update for me. I would just bypass the ATV, but some of my HDR movies (in this case, Harry Potter) are only in HDR on the Apple TV and not anywhere else (Vudu, Movies Anywhere, etc). Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?

Apple TV 4K, tvOS 12

Posted on May 25, 2019 8:04 PM

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40 replies

bspickelmier Author

Level 1

17 points

Jun 22, 2019 5:31 PM in response to Ewoud84

Ewoud84, I think you hit the nail on the head because I too have the flickering effect in the Movies app when I pause or use the scrubbing bar or any of the other HUD stuff. Very weird. Probably a simple fix though, as long as Apple recognizes the problem!

Ewoud84

Level 1

4 points

Jun 23, 2019 1:32 AM in response to bspickelmier

Yes. Should be a simple fix you’d think.

One thing that might be a problem is that it’s not limited to just Apple apps. I’ve seen the flickering occur when watching Dolby Vision Netflix (from App Store) streams as well. Again when the subtitles come up in dark scenes.

Only in the new AppleTV app is the flickering consistent and not related to subtitles.

bspickelmier Author

Level 1

17 points

Jun 25, 2019 1:30 PM in response to TheJesusFish

Awesome! I know we are not supposed to talk about features and such with the public betas, but has anyone come across any real game breaking bugs with this first release of the public beta? I would like to try it if it is relatively stable

Jul 23, 2019 9:46 AM in response to bspickelmier

Ill be testing this evening and report if this still is a problem on 12.4. Hoping it’s gone. American sniper was complete garbage and during stranger things i just could not keep my eyes of the shadows 😒 very annoying on my oled c9.

Jul 23, 2019 1:37 PM in response to bspickelmier

I have very positive news! I think the Dolby vision and hdr problem has been resolved. The very troublesome scene in American Sniper where Kyle is watching tv with his brother in the first 10 min or so is completely clean of shadow flickering. Even when set to cinema home on my LG and that mode really destroyed the image on ATV 4K.

i think apple fixed the bug! I’d love to hear from you guys if you’re seeing the same results?

bspickelmier Author

Level 1

17 points

Jul 24, 2019 5:07 AM in response to UltimateVenom

I think the problem is solved! I noticed some kind of similar issue during one short scene at the very end of Hunger Games: Catching Fire, but it was the first time I noticed it during the whole move and it was only in one part of the screen... the whole movie is very dark so I’m gonna chalk it up to compression artifacts instead, if the problem were still there I think the whole movie would have been awful. I’ll wait to hear back from a few more people before I mark it solved though.

Jul 24, 2019 8:38 AM in response to bspickelmier

It happens in very specific cases I think. Because the scene in American sniper is not even that dark. I think it had something to do with met data that contains exactly the same information as the subtitles at the same time or something.

The scene in American sniper has a lot of subtitles coming in rapidly after each other. That’s probably why it is so awful to watch. The rest of the movie I didn’t noticed the problem a lot. Only if I really searched for it.

im quit confident that it’s fixed.

Aug 25, 2019 5:39 AM in response to bspickelmier

I’m just thankful there’s a workaround and there’s nothing wrong with my TV lol I literally just got a 4K TV and all of my media is basically through Apple. At least it appears to be fixed in TVOS 13. I’ll just continue with the workaround for now

Jun 2, 2019 6:22 PM in response to bspickelmier

A workaround until they fix this: if you use the Movies app (the one with the iTunes Store), there is no flickering.

bspickelmier Author

Level 1

17 points

Jun 2, 2019 6:46 PM in response to TheJesusFish

Oh I didn’t even think to try that! I’ll report back if it works for me, thanks for the tip!

sky4ever

Level 1

8 points

Jun 4, 2019 1:22 AM in response to bspickelmier

Yup same problem and same work around. But I heard Apple is phasing out Itune... so I really hope when the next OS comes we won’t get stuck again.

Jun 9, 2019 7:16 AM in response to bspickelmier

Same for me! Here’s hoping this will be quickly resolved by Apple. I posted the problem reddit which is what led me to this thread.

bspickelmier Author

Level 1

17 points

Jun 9, 2019 7:46 AM in response to mister_willy

Watched a whole movie through the iTunes app and it worked great. Will be interesting to see what happens with the OS 13 release though

Welderuk

Level 1

4 points

Jun 12, 2019 3:28 PM in response to mister_willy

Did you get any comments on your question with a solution can you give me link to reddit

bspickelmier Author

Level 1

17 points

Jun 12, 2019 4:46 PM in response to mister_willy

Definitely works for me after testing with multiple movies!

Strobe effect with HDR on Apple TV