Apple TV 4k and Dolby vision; only 8 bit coming through

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Apple TV 4k and Dolby vision; only 8 bit coming through

Hi!

When I activate Dolby Vision on my Apple TV 4K, most images are fantastic in movies, but some parts of the movies, in very dark photos, get a strange almost burned out, veiled and dulled look. A clear image problem in small parts of the movies (movies supporting 4K Dolby vision, purchased from iTunes; example: John Wick Parabellum.

I have great HDMI cables and the correct settings in the tv as far as I can judge. The tv itself indicates that it is in Dolby vision mode through a pop up when the movie starts.

I have been trying to understand the cause to find a fix.

From a status view in the tv, I can see that the video stream is 8 bit only, not the 10 bit I expected. I have tried changing all settings in the Apple TV to almost anything but the result is always the same: veiled burned out sections in the same scenes. 100% reproducibility.

The only way I find to get it to work is to switch to HDR (disabling Dolby vision). This makes other colors look more dull but the entire movie is watchable and in 10 bit color.

Is anyone else experiencing the same thing? And is anyone else getting Dolby Vision to work properly? If so, what settings do you use?

Thanks!

jonas

Posted on Oct 8, 2019 10:46 AM

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Answer 1

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Tv-fan63

Level 1

17 points

Dec 17, 2019 12:59 PM in response to JOFaHa

I`ve a Philips 65OLED854 and in combination with the Apple TV4K still only 8Bit RGB when I play a Dolby Vision content.

I think the problem is a Philips problem, because when i play a DV disc on a Pana DP_UB450 player i have the same problem, only 8 Bit RGB. If a play an HDR10+ disc, for example Alita the info from the OLED seems correct: 12 Bit BT2020 YCbCR 4:4:4.

I`m still in contact with Philips still the finish the problem….

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Answer 2

JOFaHa Author

Level 1

13 points

Oct 8, 2019 12:18 PM in response to JOFaHa

[UPDATE]

Seems like the phenomenon is not new. I have a Philips tv. Others have reported the same thing with LG OLED TVs.

The descriptions are spot on for my problem as well. Extra dark scenes become washed out and grey. Apparently a fault in apples implementation of Dolby vision for Apple TV.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnarcher/2017/12/05/something-weirds-going-on-with-dolby-vision-on-the-apple-tv-4k/

https://www.reddit.com/r/appletv/comments/7ntt5f/apple_tv_4k_issues_with_dolby_vision_on_lg_oled/

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Answer 3

Oct 14, 2019 12:41 PM in response to JOFaHa

The exact same thing has started happening with certain titles for me. Worrying. I bought a new 8k capable cable and it made no difference.

Crimes of Grindelwald, John Wick 3, Zombieland are the only ones I’ve noticed like this so far.

It’s not constant. It changes from shot to shot. It may be an encoding issue.

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Answer 4

JOFaHa Author

Level 1

13 points

Oct 17, 2019 1:45 AM in response to MiguelSUPERSanchez

As far as I can tell, Dolby seem to acknowledge the problem as a part of their HDMI-implementation. They claim to have submitted a fix that needs to be used by the TV-makers in order to work/be distributed.

So far Philips' response is "Apple TV does not support DolbyVision" which is not only wrong but also an indicator of how far from a solution they are.

But as far as I can tell, the problem is not in the Apple TV itself (as I wrongly wrote) but in the DolbyVision HDMI implementation on the receiving end in TV-sets.

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Answer 5

Nov 26, 2019 3:41 AM in response to JOFaHa

I have a Philips PUS7403/12 an Apple TV 4K. I am experiencing the same issues in dark scenes, and severe color banding especially light and dark sky’s. Info from tv: Dolby vision, RGB and 8 bits. Are there any known way of fixing this?

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Answer 6

JOFaHa Author

Level 1

13 points

Dec 6, 2019 11:58 AM in response to JOFaHa

All is now resolved for Philips TV users.

I spent a long time and many rounds of repeating the same message over and over to Philips support: “Dolby has a fix. You need to implement it and provide a firmware upgrade.” After weeks of denial and responses of the type “have you tried turning it off and on again”, - followed by more urges by me to get their support staff to try to talk to the developers to add the fix Dolby claims to have made - they provided an over the air firmware upgrade for all users that solves the issue.

Surprise. Denials, deflections, blaming Apple, misunderstanding their own features, not knowing anything about the actual topics they write about and then suddenly supplying a working fix. Unexpected.

I have no idea if what I did contributed to the fix or if they had it in the works all along and are just bad at being in touch with each other. In any case: for the Philips tv users out there: use the tv’s built in upgrade method. Boom. Done.

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Answer 7

JOFaHa Author

Level 1

13 points

Dec 7, 2019 12:22 PM in response to JOFaHa

Wrong of me, problem is not solved. Some of the scenes in movies are working, but other scenes still display the artifacts. So problem remains.

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Apple TV 4k and Dolby vision; only 8 bit coming through

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