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Apple TV Shows & Movies So Dark

I started watching Silo on Apple TV and it is so dark it is basically unwatchable, I can’t see what is going on. My IPhone 12 battery is full power, I have the brightness turned all the way up, night shift, True Tone, and auto brightness all turned off. I can watch other streaming shows and movies on Netflix/Disney fine but it Apple TV is way darker to the point I can’t see really anything in parts where it is darker. (Underground in Silo) not sure there’s anything to do but to make whoever aware that might makes some changes in the future if that’s possible. Thanks for your time, I appreciate it.



Windows, Windows 6

Posted on May 9, 2023 9:38 AM

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Posted on Jul 11, 2023 1:54 PM

I don’t think this is a configuration or hardware issue or an example of some snooty director designing their content to only look correct on a $20,000 TV. I think it’s a bug in the Apple TV app.


I’ve noticed the same thing (on an AppleTV 4K), but only after the show has been playing for a few minutes. It starts out fine, but gradually becomes unwatchable. If you exit to the menu or enter Picture-in-Picture mode and then go back to the show, it looks perfectly fine for several more minutes.


Of course this is no way to watch a show, but at least there’s a chance it will get fixed one day. Poor artistic choices tend to stick around forever.

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Question marked as Best reply

Jul 11, 2023 1:54 PM in response to Sooch23

I don’t think this is a configuration or hardware issue or an example of some snooty director designing their content to only look correct on a $20,000 TV. I think it’s a bug in the Apple TV app.


I’ve noticed the same thing (on an AppleTV 4K), but only after the show has been playing for a few minutes. It starts out fine, but gradually becomes unwatchable. If you exit to the menu or enter Picture-in-Picture mode and then go back to the show, it looks perfectly fine for several more minutes.


Of course this is no way to watch a show, but at least there’s a chance it will get fixed one day. Poor artistic choices tend to stick around forever.

May 19, 2023 8:15 AM in response to Sooch23

Yes, it is graded down in post-production to become what I will call totally underexposed. This is intentional and IMO a big mistake, the show becomes unwatchable. I have seen two episodes on a high-end projector on a 120" screen in a dark home cinema, and even then I have to adjust and save a special maximum brightness setting on the projector just for Silo. On my computer it also looks washed out, low contrast and very dark. So unless they remaster the remaining episodes to proper dynamic range with decent brightness and good contrast, I will call it quits for this show.

May 19, 2023 12:27 PM in response to Sooch23

You may be suffering from a setup issue between your ATV4K and your TV around HDR, DolbyVision, gamma values and screen calibration. I've seen certain content mastered for DolbyVision appear way too dark on my cheaper LG TV that supports 4K HDR10 but not DolbyVision.


Proper setup usually works well on the ATV4K, but I've had to temporarily switch the ATV4K's video output to 4K SDR to watch certain episodes of the Willow series on Disney+ (for example). It's a bit complex, so I'll wait to hear details about your hardware and how it's setup before getting into it.

Jun 21, 2023 4:10 PM in response to Sooch23

Silo is color graded for HDR, and is much better on a calibrated HDR screen, like on an iPad Pro or iPhone Pro. Generally Apple tone-maps HDR content to SDR displays. For most displays this works fine. But if your display is not properly calibrated, anything of low brightness will often look too dark. Unfortunately, since Silo's color grading is very dark, any uncalibrated or poorly calibrated screens are going to struggle.

Aug 14, 2023 10:56 AM in response to Sooch23

Invasion on Apple TV is so dark I can't tell what's happening. I'm not readjusting my television since it's just a few shows which to me are unwatchable. This is as bad as the shows that play the music so loud you can't hear the dialog. I guess they make it so dark so you can imagine the scene instead of Apple spending money on special effects. The scenes with the family staying with the couple in the farmhouse are absolutely impossible so I've stopped watching here.

Aug 14, 2023 11:59 AM in response to sfmitch2023

The Apple TV+ content is NOT filmed dark. Rather, there is some problem with the native app on both my desktop (Macbook pro) and iphone. I viewed playback via the Apple TV app side-by-side with streaming the identical content via Chrome. The Chrome playback is perfect but the Apple TV app playback is very dark. There is something called a "pause overlay" which on some apps and some streaming, presents the pause/ff/reverse options, and at the same time darkens the screen until the cursor is moved away. Then, after a few seconds, the overlay goes away and the screen returns to normal brightness. Apparently, the Apple tv app seems to present all content as if it were in the pause overlay brightness mode. This is an app bug somewhere, but have not idea how to fix it. I ditched the app and instead only live steam the same thing through Chrome. Hope this helps. Eric

Jan 14, 2024 11:36 PM in response to Sooch23

Had the same problem with movies being too dark on the Apple TV app. I switched to watching in a web browser on my iPhone and MacBook, worked fine there. But yeah, still dark on the Apple TV box. Spent a bit of time on this site with different tips and found out HDR on the Apple TV was the issue. They've got like 10 different things to try, might help you too: https://pointerclicker.com/why-are-apple-tv-movies-so-dark/

Apple TV Shows & Movies So Dark

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