The Apple Support Community will permanently close on November 20, 2026. Starting today, the site will no longer accept new posts and is available in a read-only state.
You can continue to find trusted guidance and support on the official Apple Support site.
We want to thank the community members who have contributed their time and expertise to help others with their Apple products.
The Apple Support Community will permanently close on November 20, 2026. Starting today, the site will no longer accept new posts and is available in a read-only state.
You can continue to find trusted guidance and support on the official Apple Support site.
We want to thank the community members who have contributed their time and expertise to help others with their Apple products.
I live in a rural area with metered internet. HD and 4K video are using up all my data. I would like to limit the data and watch in a lower quality to save data. How do I force standard definition on Apple TV 4th gen?
You can set a lower resolution in Settings, e.g. 720p or 480p.
Keep monitoring though, to verify if apps adapt their streams to the new setting.
My TV is designed for PAL countries, so SD would be 576p SDR 50Hz for my region, instead of 480p SDR 60Hz. But it is presented as 16:9 widescreen.
Check your TV settings, if there is a setting that might cause SD content to be reshaped in a different (4:3) aspect ratio.
Thank you for your reply. I have tried this but unlike older versions of Apple TV, the new OS changes the aspect ratio when you choose 480p. 480p on Apple TV 3rd and earlier you could change to 480p and still watch widescreen. Have you tried it?
How do I limit data usage on Apple TV?
