Can’t get Apple TV into 4K HDR

Yamaha A860 - The receiver needs to be set to 4K - Mode 1. It's under Advance Settings for the Receiver. Take a look at the manual, it's buried pretty deep.

Instructions:

1. Turn the Unit Off

2. Hold Down the Straight button and Power Button

3. Release

4. Use the left program button on the receiver (not the remote)

5. Select 4K (Mode is probably 2)

6. Press Straight button to change to Mode 1

7. Press Power (unit will power off)

8. Power Back on and Enjoy

I’m not running through a receiver but I am having issues. My Apple TV 4k is connected direct to the tv but sometimes when I turn it on it has reset itself to 720p SDR and will not come out of the setting as it says there’s a problem with my cable?? I have to keep resetting my whole system and when it comes back it is back to 4K. I’ve Even started leaving it powered on all the time to try and stop it.

I have same tv and denon x2300. No HDR when going through receiver, only when straight to tv. I tried all possible options and it just won’t work, I’m returning mine this weekend. I posted details on the other HDR not working thread.

I have the exact same equipment - Apple TV 4k, RX-860, and KS8000 TV. I called apple and they said they haven't heard of this problem and it must be my Yamaha. Although my Nvidia Shield works perfectly for 4k. I guess this is what i get for venturing out of android into apple. I hope this gets fixed and someone fesses up that it's indeed a problem. I did change the HDR to HDR 24hz and played around and it works, but as soon as i go back to another source, Directv or Nvidia, the TV display goes off and i need to shutdown and restart. I have HQ cables and latest FW on Yam, Sam, and Apple.

Oh well. kind of frustrated.

Unfortunately for me I’m using a 50ft cable I just purchased that’s installed in my attic. It ran well for HDR on my PS4 Pro so no reason to think the A4k wouldn’t. It was hard enough to find a cable that would give me 60hz no way I’m spending $100s on a cable and another install fee. I returned my unit for an exchange just in case. If the next one doesn’t work then I’ll return it and wait for it the updates. It ***** because I really wanted this to connect with my avr for atmos since atmos does not work with ARC from tvs.

Something weird is definitely going on with these units. I received my replacement unit and hooked it up to the amazon high speed cable and back to my receiver connected to the ks8000. At first no signal so i went to tv and turned off UHD color, then signal comes on. Went through setup and it would fail each time with my phone so i skipped it. Got to HDR and turned on and let it sit there and got a black screen. After awhile i turned on UHD color to see if anything happened and nothing, so i switched back to UHD off and then i see a screen that says HDR is enabled and press ok to continue. But i can not press anything. Its as if the remote is locked. I reboot and do it again, this time as soon as i hit "turn on HDR" i went through tv menus to turn on UHD color. A second or so later the screen pops on saying its enabled. You only have 10 secs to do this and you have to turn on first before going through the samsung menus. It didnt work when i tried the tv first.

Now when i go to the HDR settings, 60hz doesnt work but 30hz does. I couldnt see any real difference between 30hz and 1080P 60hz while watching John Wick 2. But using the other apps like PSVue looked terribly pixelated in both versions. When i went to apple support it notes that 1080P 60hz will still allow for HDR10 and DV modes. Not sure how that works but ok. Then i switched UHD color on and off and the settings still worked, so i thought i was good.

"In these cases, Apple recommends lowering resolution to 1080p at 60Hz (50Hz in Europe) instead, and letting your television upscale to 4K. You will still be able to use HDR10 and Dolby Vision at these resolutions."

After the unit awoke from sleep, it would not display with UHD color on, just remained a black screen. Very annoying. So I turned UHD color off and the screen returned. I went to settings and it was still displaying HDR 30hz. I didnt want to keep turning that on and off for when i use my PS4 Pro so i left it on and reconnected my ATV4. I then went to watch John Wick 2 again and the info still displays it as 4K instead of HD. When i play it, it looks the same as with the A4K.

Aaron, thanks so much for taking the time to provide your fix - I was also having this same issue, in connection with the RX-A860 and your recommended protocol got HDR up and running immediately. You saved me a lot of time and effort, so thanks again!

I have a Samsung KS8000 with the Apple TV 4k connected directly to the TV and optical audio to the sound bar. Had issues getting Netflix to play in HDR, never had “HDR” or “Dolby Vision” logos next to the shows. Recently changed the settings from Movie to Standard (with UHD color active), and now HDR shows on Netflix play correctly. Also HDR movies through iTunes look significantly better, and the home screen is usable. It was dull whenever the Apple TV was set to 4k HDR in Movie mode.

AaronGApple:

Followed these steps as they were outlined at yamaha.com, however even after selecting HDR in Apple TV4k settings I get a black screen that never comes back on until I restart the Apple TV4k. Upon getting picture back the option to switch to HDR is still there but I cannot click it to try again unless I "reset display settings." Is my Apple TV4k actually switching to HDR output? How can I verify what I'm viewing? Hope you can help. Thanks!

After following these steps, I can switch to 4K HDR up to 30Hz. 50 and 60Hz is still a no-go. I verified my cables by connecting the Apple TV directly to my TV; I can then switch to 50 and 60Hz without a problem. I would love to find out more about this.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8080587

I had the same problem. In my case the HDMI cable didn't have sufficient data throughput. Problem was resolved when I replaced the HDMI cable with a better, higher bandwidth HDMI cable.