apple tv 4k hdr washed out colours

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Level 1

72 points

apple tv 4k hdr washed out colours

Hi, I have a Apple TV 4k, tried it on both my samsung tvs (2016 and 2017) and the picture is washed out with muted colors in HDR mode except for the screensavers, which look great. The SDR mode looks way better with more brightness than HDR mode for all menus and content except the screensavers.

The screensavers all look great like I'm used to from other HDR-sources.

This must be some kind of bug? Please dont tell me to adjust the TV settings, I've turned all enhancements off and the fact that the screensavers look great tells me this is an issue with the Apple TV and not my Samsung TVs.

Posted on Sep 23, 2017 2:49 AM

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Answer 1

MortenTG Author

Level 1

72 points

Oct 23, 2017 11:09 PM in response to Jmetyo

HDR content (both HDR10 and DV) is delivered in a flat "log" picture profile with washed out colours and milky blacks. The TV is then supposed to add the required filter to make it look the way it's supposed to in HDR according to the metadata in the picture signal. There is clearly a problem with how Apple TV and Samsung TVs(as well as some Sony TVs I think) send and interpret the metadata so that HDR content does not get filtered correctly and ends up looking washed out. Adding dynamic contrast is just a poor fix that somewhat helps with the overall picture quality because the blacks are crushed and saturation is added, but it does NOT look the way it's supposed to in HDR. Especially the extra brightness of HDR will not be added this way. I have the same problem with Netflix in Tizen (samsung operating system) now, so this is not purely an Apple TV problem, it's a problem with how some tvs interpret HDR metadata.

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Answer 2

Feb 11, 2018 4:37 PM in response to MortenTG

For a while, it sort of worked well by setting ATV to SDR and on 11.2 setting to automatic match Dynamic range. That . way the menus looked ok and the content appeared to match its hdr when needed. however i recently discovered that some content that is supposed to come in hdr have this problem. I noticed this in WB content such as Inception, Dunkirk, etc.

I ended up adjusting the setting to SDR without matching the dynamic range . it is a total shame an a waste that we do not get proper hdr in this system.

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Answer 3

coaoac

Level 1

4 points

Sep 28, 2017 1:36 AM in response to MortenTG

Hi,

I have the same issue which has been driving me crazy. It is a problem with the apple tv software. The Apple TV menus were not adapted to HDR. It is unbelievable that Apple could let this happen... Let's hope they issue a fix soon!

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Answer 4

Oct 8, 2017 9:35 PM in response to MortenTG

This all has to do with the fact that apple tv picks a set output as SDR, HDR or Dolby. As most things are not encoded to work in HDR or Dolby so ATV upmixes it. But apple algorithms suck balls which causes Sh*tty quality. Should of just allowed for auto sensing of the content.

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Answer 5

G J Piper

Level 1

112 points

Feb 26, 2018 9:38 PM in response to MortenTG

I have a 2017 Samsung UN55MU630D 55" TV and I'm experiencing much the same issue as the rest here. I've got it looking fairly good with Netflix content (did Netflix adjust its app?) but the Apple TV Shows and Movies from my new Apple TV 4K have blacks that are completely too black. When I watch Apple-streamed Videos, I need to turn up the Brightness, the Backlight, and the Gamma all the way on the TV to get it looking almost correct ...almost ...still a little dark in the blacks, often showing little to no detail in the blacks compared to other sources.

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Answer 6

Mar 29, 2018 1:56 PM in response to MortenTG

Hi MortenTG - That washed out effect in menus is normal for HDR - SDR appears brighter

there, but switch back and forth to test and I think you'll find that color rendering's better

in HDR content. Good luck, Tom

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Answer 7

Jmetyo

Level 1

9 points

Oct 11, 2017 7:59 AM in response to Jmetyo

To clarify, this affects everything including the main screen and all content.

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Answer 8

Oct 19, 2017 9:31 AM in response to MortenTG

Same issue here using a 2015 LG OLED (EF9500). It supports HDR10 but not Dolby Vision. Just as the OP mentioned, everything SDR looks dark if HDR is enabled. However, the screen savers and iTunes movies with HDR look amazing. Hopefully they can figure this out soon. I too would like to see the ATV only enable HDR when the content support it, just like my Xbox One and the apps on my TV do.

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Answer 9

Oct 24, 2017 10:50 PM in response to Jmetyo

I have a Samsung 65 from 2014 with a SEK unit and the Apple TV worked right out the box in HDR 10@60Hz.

My tv setting: HDMI color on all 4 ports and all HDMI ports are 2.0 and it's on movie mode, warm 1

I also got the Belkin cable that Apple recommends just because...

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Answer 10

Oct 25, 2017 1:24 AM in response to Wallace Roe

Waw!

Thank you for the extensive insight. It sort of reassures me there is nothing wrong with Sony's A1 Oled TV. But the issue here is apple's choice of image processing. I can think of one hick-up that could solve the image due to the fixed output choice of the Apple TV (either HDR10 OR DV)

The A1's Dolby Vision yet needs to be activated through firmware upgrade, curious when Sony is FINALLY ready with this.

When the update with DV support happens, it might solve the Apple TV output signal for the A1 and give proper image in fixed DV output.

I think apple does great work and I have no problem with buying into a closed system, if it WORKS! But there should be a way to select either HDR10 or DV from the Apple TV manually, if I'm missing that setting please tell me where to find it.

Regards

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Answer 11

Oct 8, 2017 6:06 PM in response to MortenTG

I'm having the same issues, matter of fact when I exit ATV 4K the picture on my Samsung UHD TV is really dark. I've checked the video setting on both the ATV and Samsung but that doesn't appear to be the issue. I shut the TV off and waited about a minute and when I turned it back on the TV wasn't as dark. I agree I believe there is a software issue with the ATV 4K and hopefully a fix is coming, the sooner the better.

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Answer 12

phalch

Level 1

8 points

Oct 11, 2017 4:06 AM in response to MortenTG

I have the same issue with a Sony 4k beamer.

However the Samsung 4k player works perfectly well in HDR with the Sony beamer.

Apple does seem to have an issue when customers reports malfunctions of their devices!

Phalch

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Answer 13

Mar 29, 2018 4:15 PM in response to Tom Meade1

I should add that the Samsung in this case is the 8500 series supporting

what may be another level of HDR, the content is Amazon Video 4K - but

actually there's hardly any viewable difference between HDR and SDR.

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Answer 14

MortenTG Author

Level 1

72 points

Oct 19, 2017 12:42 PM in response to Aaron Smith9

I think now that TVs not supporting Dolby Vision is the problem. Seems that Apple TV is outputting in Dolby Vision for TVs that only support HDR10. If you pay close attention you can see brightness fluxing up and down in certain scenes (Netflixs Mindhunter is one example). This is consistent with the extra layer of metadata that Dolby Vision supports, but HDR10 does not. The fluxing is in other words caused by HDR10 TVs not knowing how to interpret the Dolby Vision signal. I now also have this problem with the native Netflix app in Tizen on my Samsung TV, washed out and fluxing brightness. The Amazon app still works and HDR-shows are displayed correctly withe the "An HDR movie is playing" mesage from Samsung displaying on HDR shows.

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Answer 15

Sep 28, 2017 10:36 AM in response to MortenTG

Same here with Samsung 2016 uhd hdr tv. Far to dark! All sdr content is dark. Please make a auto hdr mode, normal mode sdr > auto hdr with the right software.

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