HDR issues (greyed out colors) with OLED

dgaapple wrote:

Hey thanks for your response.

I‘m not sure I‘m following. Are you suggesting I set it to Dolby Vision at all times?

Yep! At least while playing media via the Apple TV 4K. That's Apple's default for your device for good reason.

Wouldn‘t an HDR10 movie (non Dolby Vision) then basically be regraded digitally to DV?

I don't know what you mean by "regraded" but Dolby Vision is basically HDR10 plus more stuff. Think of it as 'backward compatible'. At any rate, your iPhone-calibrated ATV4K has no problem mapping the color of most any video you're likely to watch to the best your Dolby Vision TV does very nicely - especially your top-of-the-line LG OLED!

I say set it up right the way and give it a chance. You can later switch to WebOS apps, watch the same stuff and pick your favorite. My guess is you won't really see much difference - they'll both look good, but the ATV4K does better than most TVs.

That can’t be in the directors intent.

They want you to enjoy the movie in basically the right colors (what HDR10 and beyond's all about).

Have a little faith that the video scientists and engineers at Apple have spent more time thinking about this than the video specialists on YouTube who realized years ago that Apple TV devices look just fine without all their calibration fees, etc.

Maybe I wasn’t clear:

Again when I have it set to DV and play a HDR 10 movie the output switches to HDR but then the movie is too dim.

I obviously wasn't clear. Again, stop doing that and getting bad results. Accept the benefits of the priciest media player device on the market! Turn Match Content back to OFF (the default). Dial in the best Dolby Vision you can between the ATV4K and the TV, and enjoy watching your awesome setup.

Given your very bright panel, I would be shocked if any HDR10 (or greater) content looked too dim with things setup the way Apple suggests. Adjust video and audio settings on Apple TV – Apple Support (UK).

OR, take the bad advice that so many give... then adjust your TV instead to deal with each color or motion curveball that'll come along, as it comes along, by turning on the match content options. I found the following in the ref guide link above... note the simple statement I put in bold:

• Turn on dynamic range matching: To watch content in its original dynamic range, select Match Content, then turn on Match Dynamic Range.
• Turn on frame rate matching: Apple TV automatically plays video in the best available format supported by your TV, which includes resolution, dynamic range and frame rate. To watch content in its original frame rate instead, select Match Content, then turn on Match Frame Rate.

IOW, if you don't like what you're seeing with match content on, adjust your TV directly to deal with the video streams you're asking the ATV4K to pass along "as is".

dgaapple wrote:

Hey thanks for your response.

I‘m not sure I‘m following. Are you suggesting I set it to Dolby Vision at all times?

Yep! At least while playing media via the Apple TV 4K. That's Apple's default for your device for good reason.

Wouldn‘t an HDR10 movie (non Dolby Vision) then basically be regraded digitally to DV?

I don't know what you mean by "regraded" but Dolby Vision is basically HDR10 plus more stuff. Think of it as 'backward compatible'. At any rate, your iPhone-calibrated ATV4K has no problem mapping the color of most any video you're likely to watch to the best your Dolby Vision TV does very nicely - especially your top-of-the-line LG OLED!

I say set it up the right way and give it a chance. You can later switch to WebOS apps, watch the same stuff and pick your favorite. My guess is you won't really see much difference - they'll both look good, but the ATV4K does better than most TVs internal chips do.

That can’t be in the directors intent.

Studios want you to enjoy the movie in basically the right colors so they used HDR10... maybe they just didn't think Dolby Vision was ready at the time. You can bet that Dolby and Apple and LG will use that HDR10 info for all it's worth.

Have a little faith that the video scientists and engineers at Apple have spent more time thinking about this than the video specialists on YouTube who realized years ago that Apple TV devices look just fine without all their calibration fees, etc.

Maybe I wasn’t clear:

Again when I have it set to DV and play a HDR 10 movie the output switches to HDR but then the movie is too dim.

I obviously wasn't clear. Again, stop doing that and getting bad results. Accept the benefits of the priciest media player device on the market! Turn Match Content back to OFF (the default). Dial in the best Dolby Vision you can between the ATV4K and the TV, and enjoy watching your awesome setup.

Given your very bright panel, I would be shocked if any HDR10 (or greater) content looked too dim with things setup the way Apple suggests. Adjust video and audio settings on Apple TV – Apple Support (UK).

OR, take the bad advice that so many give... then adjust your TV instead to deal with each color or motion curveball that'll come along, as it comes along, by turning on the match content options. I found the following in the ref guide link above... note the simple statement I put in bold:

• Turn on dynamic range matching: To watch content in its original dynamic range, select Match Content, then turn on Match Dynamic Range.
• Turn on frame rate matching: Apple TV automatically plays video in the best available format supported by your TV, which includes resolution, dynamic range and frame rate. To watch content in its original frame rate instead, select Match Content, then turn on Match Frame Rate.

IOW, if you don't like what you're seeing with match content on, adjust your TV directly to deal with the video streams you're asking the ATV4K to pass along "as is".

I recently bought a MacBook 16 inch M2 pro

The rest of this thread is about the Apple TV 4K box, not about Macs, so that brings new other variables into the issue that might turn out to point to quite a different cause.

… when using HDR external video from the HDMI socket to My 55 inch LG OLED when I activate HDR, the screen on the OLED looks grey and washed out even with no image displayed …

Have you reviewed: Play HDR video on Mac - Apple Support ?

What is the exact model TV? Are all HDMI ports of the same spec? HDMI 1.4/​2.0/​2.1? Is the port in use configured for 4K HDR, if such is needed for your model TV?

Is other equipment involved in the setup? Adapters? HDMI devices?

What spec cable(s) did you use? Rated for 5/​10/​18/​48 Gbps? What length?

Are your colorspace settings for HDMI matching on both devices? E.g. YCbCr vs. RGB, or RGB High vs RGB Low.

… of course all the Apple apologies and will come on here and say that it's something else it's always something else it's never Apple …

If user A has a different experience than user B, with both using the same base equipment, then it is warranted to examine the details of the setup for smaller differences. If the laptop is capable and the TV screen is capable, then logically any difference has to be about the connection and/​or settings.

I don't think I'll keep this MacBook for much longer. It's the most disappointing purchase I've ever made in Laptop.

I don’t think you purchased a laptop mainly to watch HDR content on a TV. It is nice to have it supported, but it is tangential to the purchase of the device. A TV-connectable Apple TV 4K streaming device is just 5% of the cost of a MacBook Pro M2 Pro 16".

h.ziehm wrote:

Hi bgmeek,

good stuff, any recommendations for LG settings for ATV running in DV per default? I guess switching off all AI options is probably a good idea, but anything else?

Sadly, there's not a whole lot for us electronics geeks to mess with on a good Dolby Vision set (picture-wise)🤨. Dolby Vision is designed to be "factory-supplied TV calibration". The manufacturers try to do all the testing and adjustment of built-in settings so that everything looks consistently correct. Dolby, meanwhile, certifies the TV models and collects royalties knowing that the cheaper sets, heck - most sets, lack the brightness to render the studio's ideal, but they do get most colors right and the 'proprietary standard' seems to have taken off.

I recently upgraded from a cheaper UHD LG (HDR10 only) to a pristine LG CX OLED that I picked up used. After doing a factory reset on the LG and plugging in the ATV4K (and doing an ATV4K video reset), the two devices grokked each other automatically - the LG perked up to notify me it was turning on HDMI deep color on the HDMI port as soon as the ATV4K discovered that 4K Dolby Vision should be used for 'video output'.

The TV had defaulted to its Dolby Vision IQ "Cinema Home" picture setting, which looked great. I switched to the DV "Game" picture mode anyway on the assumption that fast accurate rendering of the ATV4K's output with minimal video processing by the TV is what I'm after with the ATV4K. I really couldn't see much difference between the colors of the TV's DV 'Cinema Home' and 'Game' picture modes, but the other modes do show slight color/tonal differences... just pick your favorite. The ATV4K's Video Settings options are simplified when Dolby Vision output is enabled: the options to "test" HDR and Gamma compatibility, as well as the 'Calibrate with iPhone' process are unnecessary and removed when connected to a Dolby Vision TV.

Now I'm certainly impressed with the next-level video quality I'm seeing on the OLED. I watched Peter Jackson's extended cut of Return of the King - a pre-Dolby Vision production in UHD HDR. All the dark orc action and the bright contrasts of sunlight and the White Rider looked right to me. Also, I watched an episode of the 'old' (SDR 1080p) TV show Grimm... Wow. The ATV4K's scaling and color transforms to 4K Dolby Vision looked as good as can be expected. Actual modern content in Dolby Vision also looks fine, of course😏.

Those suggestions to set default video to SDR and Match Content ON are outdated and rather elitist to begin with.

It's sort of like the joke: "Doctor, it hurts when I do this! [guy moves his arm in a bizarre fashion]". Doc says "Don't do that."

Seriously, you've got an amazing TV! Let the Apple TV 4K device show off the TV's best mode of output. See my response in this thread: Is it possible to achieve Judder-Free vie… - Apple Community. I also geek out on the misguided notion that messing with Match Content defaults is a good thing here: Apple TV Screen goes black intermittently… - Apple Community

I recently bought a MacBook 16 inch M2 pro I've used Windows computers before this and I've never been so disappointed in the purchase of a laptop in all my life when using HDR external video from the HDMI socket to My 55 inch LG OLED when I activate HDR, the screen on the OLED looks grey and washed out even with no image displayed, but that's using a jet black background on the same as the other monitor which is built into the Laptop one looks black and one looks washed out and grey, there should be no image displayed on the OLED when there's no picture on there it's an oled, there is something wrong with the way that the MacBook is rendering the picture to the output of the HDMI, of course all the Apple apologies and will come on here and say that it's something else it's always something else it's never Apple, I don't think I'll keep this MacBook for much longer. It's the most disappointing purchase I've ever made in Laptop.

Hi bgmeek,

good stuff, any recommendations for LG settings for ATV running in DV per default? I guess switching off all AI options is probably a good idea, but anything else?

thanks and best regards

Hauke

Thanks, I'm using the same setting on my LG OLED G3, with AI Brightness enabled for Dolby Vision IQ.