Black, blank screen appears constantly during program changes

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Level 1

49 points

Black, blank screen appears constantly during program changes

Recently, when we are watching a program via Apple TV--seems like it happens on every channel--when I use the remote and make a transition in the programming--say, from one show to another--the screen goes completely black with no audio for a second or so.

Instead of program A / program B, we get program A / black screen / program B. It seems to happen in various apps. We see it a lot while navigating YouTube TV. I have two Apple TV 4K boxes on two TV's and I see the same thing on both of them.

I am wondering if there could have been a bug causing this in the last Apple TV update. We did not see this until recently. Anybody else seeing this?

Apple TV 4K, tvOS 16

Posted on Apr 11, 2023 6:48 PM

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Answer 1

ASTRO24

Community Specialist

Apr 13, 2023 3:58 PM in response to gdmedia

Hi gdmedia,

Thanks for posting in Apple Support Communities.

We understand your Apple TV is going black momentarily when changing channels. There was an update for tvOS released yesterday. Make sure this has been installed for the latest performance fixes.

If you turn on Match Dynamic Range or Match Frame Rate, Apple TV automatically determines which dynamic ranges or frame rates your TV supports. You might experience a black or flickering screen as your TV switches between formats when playback starts or stops.

Find this information and continue with the steps in If your Apple TV doesn't turn on or shows a black screen - Apple Support if this continues.

Regards.

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Answer 2

gdmedia Author

Level 1

49 points

Apr 14, 2023 5:57 AM in response to ASTRO24

Thank you! I think you may have found it. I looked at those settings on our main TV Apple TV (ATV) and, sure enough, they were ON. I changed them to OFF. And I did not see the constant black screens last night, after making that change. FWIW, I also noticed that the screen brightened up considerably when I turned the settings OFF.

Also, I decided that perhaps my second ATV box, on another set, was not producing those black screens like the main box was. And that was probably true, because I found those settings were OFF on that ATV box.

Of course, it's possible the firmware update may have fixed something.

Not sure about this, but also seems if I use the PAUSE button on the remote to pause and to restart the video after moving in the timeline, instead of pressing the center of the SELECT button, those transitions work more smoothly.

We'll see, but at this point seems like a fix. Thanks much.

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Answer 3

karina184

Community Specialist

Apr 14, 2023 8:43 AM in response to gdmedia

Hi cpfromnj,

Happy to hear that you were able to get that resolved! Thanks for letting us know what might have done it.

Have a great week.

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Black, blank screen appears constantly during program changes

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