Why am I unable to use Chroma 4.2.2 on my Apple TV A1842?
The requirement to use Chroma 4.2.2 is a "...a high-speed HDMI cable". This is the HDMI cable I have:
Isn't this cable "high-speed"? Or it because my Apple TV is too old?
Apple TV 4K, tvOS 18
Question marked as
- Apple TV will offer settings options based on what it detects on other equipment. It is not just the cable.
- All streaming video is encoded as 4:2:0 chroma, so 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 will not bring higher quality; it would only use more HDMI bandwidth.
- The only characteristic of an HDMI cable that matters is the bandwidth rating (here: 18 Gbps). (Other variants are: 5 Gbps, 10 Gbps, 48 Gbps.) The rest of the description is inferred as possible use, but not actually up to the cable.
- Some characteristics exclude other characteristics. I.e. 4K60Hz, Dolby Vision, 4:4:4 are all possible for HDMI 2.0/18 Gbps, but not all of these at the same time. All kinds of video properties have consequences in bandwidth use. Chroma could block other video property values (resolution, frame rate, dynamic range), in keeping the total bandwidth use below the maximum that the cables and ports allow for.
- The 18 Gbps rating is a bit misleading if you are going to do bandwidth calculations yourself, as only 14.40 Gbps of that is usable for AV data. Marketing-speak; use the highest numbers that can be defended as not technically lying. See the wiki.