Apple TV Plus content no longer plays in Dolby Vision

Don't believe everything you read: based on my observations of the Disney show in question, it's most definitely HDR. I'm not sure what went wrong with that person's analysis but the show was graded with Dolby Vision and looks great on an OLED display; HDR isn't always about blinding "look at me" light sources!

Meanwhile, this week's episodes look to be playing in HDR10 again - except, not surprisingly, "Morning Wars", which continues to play in Dolby Vision in Australia.

One thing I've observed which may or may not be related; I notice Apple has started adding credit screens for foreign-language dubs at the end of a show's credits. But "Morning Wars" has no such screen (not surprising, I guess, since the only country that gets it is an English-speaking one).

Could it be that adding those credits at the end (probably as a separate, linked stream) be causing the HDR flag to be sent incorrectly? The actual video streams still have Dolby Vision listed as their stream type, and still seem to play correctly in Dolby Vision if you force it on as the default video output.

But that's all we can do in the absence of any word from Apple - guess and speculate. Hopefully this press coverage might start to get the word through to the TV+ people, who don't seem to have noticed the problem after four weeks of it happening...

Don't believe everything you read: based on my observations of the Disney show in question, it's most definitely HDR. I'm not sure what went wrong with that person's analysis but the show was graded with Dolby Vision and looks great on an OLED display; HDR isn't always about blinding "look at me" light sources!

Meanwhile, this week's episodes look to be playing in HDR10 again - except, not surprisingly, "Morning Wars", which continues to play in Dolby Vision in Australia.

One thing I've observed which may or may not be related; I notice Apple has started adding credit screens for foreign-language dubs at the end of a show's credits. But "Morning Wars" has no such screen (not surprising, I guess, since the only country that gets it is an English-speaking one).

Could it be that adding those credits at the end (probably as a separate, linked stream) be causing the HDR flag to be sent incorrectly? The actual video streams still have Dolby Vision listed as their stream type, and still seem to play correctly in Dolby Vision if you force it on as the default video output.

But that's all we can do in the absence of any word from Apple - guess and speculate. Hopefully this press coverage might start to get the word through to the TV+ people, who don't seem to have noticed the problem after four weeks of it happening...

I confirm that the dolby vision quality of the programs has been corrected now has the perfect range and perfect blacks on oled in a dark room! good apple, it was enough to communicate it.

before, when the dolby vision still worked especially on the intro of "see", I had a black level too high, now it's perfect. apple has solved everything, but I repeat, he could communicate it, even the level 3 assistance could give an answer !!

Yes, it finally appears to be fixed. I'm certainly happy about that. What saddens me it that what I'll remember about this is my disappoint in the way it was handled, leaving so many folks frustrated from the lack of communication. I don't think any company helps themselves by leaving their customers in the dark.

So after nearly a month of multiple threads on these forums reporting the problem, as well as various discussion over on Reddit, all it takes is one media article and Apple has this fixed literally within hours.

First of all, it does show that this was likely a simple server config error all along - not a downgrading of the video encodes themselves, but instead, just a silly mistake that got past unnoticed.

But the real issue is that Apple had multiple discussions of an ongoing problem on their own discussion forum, and multiple reports to support agents from people around the world, yet completely ignored all of it - or was completely oblovious to it - until "the media" picked it up.

Thanks to all who kept this discussion alive until someone with a platform noticed it :)

This. I was going to post something similar.

Clearly it was an issue that took no time to rectify but it’s ridiculous that despite all of the complaints and discussions with support staff nothing was getting passed up the chain. This is a rhetorical question, but how many complaints about something, from people all around the world, have to be made before someone decides that there’s actually an issue and that it’s not isolated to a handful of people?

Ilboss84 wrote:

finally it came back all working dolby vision, even on the new show truth to bhe told. ---- 8.30 pm Italian time.

Still not working here via AirPlay 2, neither HDR nor Dolby Vision.

FireTV 4K however plays the shows again with HDR at least.

Slightly different but similar issue.

Stream Apple TV+ straight to my LG C9 TV using my iPhone 11 Pro, both 4K and Dolby Vision are not working (only plays in HD with no HDR whatsoever). This applies to all content on Apple TV+.

Trailers for those shows work fine with 4K and Dolby Vision. So does YouTube and movies rented via the TV app. I’m pretty sure this is a issue on the Apple TV+ side not my hardware.

This. Absolutely my opinion too.

Dolby Vision is back in its full glory on Apple TV+ and let me tell you I really missed it. Even rewatched the last 2 Episodes of “SEE” which I had to watch in standard HDR while it took Apple ages to fox this mess. The difference in Quality and Visuals is huge - especially if you have a tasty OLED at home - it looks absolutely amazing! Compared to Netflix the Bitrate is much higher and watching DV shows like “See” is like watching an OLED Dolby HDR Demonstration Video or a high quality UHD-Bluray.

Dolby Vision combined with Atmos is the future and if there weren’t so many people out there buying inferior TV’s like Samsung without any kind of Dolby support then it would be an absolute no-brainer that HDR10 and HDR10+ support should be removed from the market except maybe for low-budget TV’s that just need to carry the words “HDR” on the side of the box...

Anyway - so glad they fixed it. It’s the only reason I subscribed to AppleTV.

"Dolby Vision combined with Atmos is the future and if there weren’t so

many people out there buying inferior TV’s like Samsung without any kind

of Dolby support then it would be an absolute no-brainer that HDR10 and

HDR10+ support should be removed from the market except maybe for

low-budget TV’s that just need to carry the words “HDR” on the side of

the box..."

Or high-budget projectors, as no projector does DolbyVision, which requires a sealed system with known output characteristics, which is not possible when the projection screen is supplied by the user, and can vary widely in performance.

I'm very happy with HDR10 on my JVC true 4K projector, which throws an image 11 feet wide by nearly six feet tall in my basement theater, and probably costs several times as much as your TV. Oh, and it does frame-by-frame (or scene-by-scene, at the user's choice) dynamic tone mapping, which is DolbyVision's main claim to fame. (And I've got 7 ear level speakers, two sub-woofers, and four ceiling-mounted Atmos / DTS:X speakers.)

When it comes to tech, there is no "one size fits all" solution, so saying that "what I've got is the only thing that should be sold" is rediculous.

judefromhawthorn wrote:

Yeah just checked and 4K and Dolby Vision starts working for my LG C9 as well. Location Melbourne Australia.

Same here, didn't work yesterday but it does today (E.U.)

UHD + Dolby Vision is working again via AirPlay 2! Yay!

But still no comment from Apple.

I have LG OLED C9 and am getting HDR and also Dolby Vision, however, the picture keeps cutting in and out every 10-15 minutes or so. Only last a few seconds, but obviously is very annoying and have no idea why it is happening. TV is new, replaced an older LG OLED EF9500, but never had issue with signal cutting in and out like this.

Any suggestions, or ideas?

I had all these similar issues, finally just bought the box in 4k and everything is great. Its quite a great piece of hardware! Now have atmos and dv with chroma 4:2:2. looks fantastic and the gui for films purchased is amazing not to mention the extras included.

My LG OLED frequently goes black with Apple TV 4K, and I have to switch to another input and back to get the picture back. (I believe it usually occurs when the picture is switching from non-HDR to HDR or vice versa.) What you're experiencing sounds a little different because it only lasts a few seconds and then comes back.

If you haven't already, I'd try replacing the HDMI cable with a Premium Certified high-speed cable and/or try another input.

I will try another input. HDMI cables are high speed, 18gb.

House was new construct, so I had wires all put behind walls and PVC tunnel to pull new cables/wires thru when needed. I thought 18gb would be good enough, but maybe have to go to 48gb??