No signal from Apple TV 4k unless I unplug power

For those of you needing to pull the plug and then plug it back in to have your TV see a signal, note that you can hold both the Menu button and the Home (TV) button on your atv4k Remote for about 6 seconds and it will cause your atv4k to cycle power off and bak on. This will only save you a trip to your physical plug to get the signal.

On the other hand, even though I am convinced that in future Apple will find a software fix for this issue, I actually exchanged my apt4k at the nearest Apple Store because I was within the return period. When I connected the new atv4k to my TV i have seen no sign of the problem.

One has to realize that the Customer has no way to actually totally Restore an atv4k. In other words, you cannot actually reload the Operating System or Clear the atv4k completely and start from scratch. You can only Reset the atv4k which is not the same. Consequently if this issue is truly a software issue where some corruption or other flaw occurred in manufacturing you can't really do anything to resolve or mitigate this. On the other hand if this is a Hardware issue, which it probably is not, you can't do anything about that either. I have no idea if the Apple Store or an Authorized Apple Service Provider has the capability currently to totally Restore the atv4k in the field as yet.

My feeling is that if your connected atv4k is showing a great picture when the signal is viewable on your TV, your HDR appears to be working correctly, and your sound is correct then the wakeup signal issue is probably not your cable or your Settings on either Device (i.e., the atv4k or your tv).

Hi,

I experienced the exact same problem with my Apple TV 4K that I bought two days ago. I also tried to update the Apple TV to ios 12 beta, but nothing changed. However, simce I updated the firmware on my Samsung tv the problem seems to have disappeared and the Apple TV now finds the Hdmi signal. Have you tried to update the firmware on your tv?

Hi. I think Apple TV stops sending video when it loses the HDCP connection. So, when you switch the TV input back to Apple TV, it doesn't automatically reconnect. Have you tried tapping the Home button on the remote (upper right, with TV icon)? That works for me on Apple TV 4.

Hi,

I experienced the exact same problem with my Apple TV 4K that I bought two days ago. I also tried to update the Apple TV to ios 12 beta, but nothing changed. However, simce I updated the firmware on my Samsung tv the problem seems to have disappeared and the Apple TV now finds the Hdmi signal. Have you tried to update the firmware on your tv?

Had the exact same issue. Thanks for the tip of holding the menu and home button!

I resolved this by changing the port hdmi2 to hdmi1 on my tv, restarting the Apple TV, and going into settings -video settings reset .

Had to reenable Dolby Vision after and click on the “test my cable” as well. Everything worked for now... report more tomorrow... cheers

I have updated both my devices as well. I did however help the situation by adjusting my power on times via Harmony. I make sure that the TV comes on first with a nice 5+ sec delay, then the AVR. This does seem to have helped let things settle down and keep the ATV happy.

I have the Belkin cable and it did not help. Enabling the "Enhance 4K HDMI signal Format" setting and signing up for Beta updates has helped the need to unplug the device, however I still run into the "no video" problem while playing videos in apps after waking from sleep. This requires a reboot, but at least you don't have to unplug it. I agree with you on the interface...and it's a silly thing, but we like the screensaver that scrolls through my photo stream. We paid a pretty hefty premium to not deal with issues like this.

Post update...update. My ATV no longer flashes as it did before and I have not had to yank the power since updating to TVOS 11.3 (not sure if this is beta software or not as I signed up for those as well). One small issue remains...video playback doesn't work for any app after a sleep/wake cycle. Where the ATV would flash and the power would have to be pulled before now only requires a reboot via the remote. This is still very annoying, but one step closer to being fixed. At least I don't have to get off of the couch to fix it.

I have a Sony 940e TV. I am kind of a Home Theater enthusiast, expert, etc. I posted previously. The expensive high speed cable that Apple sells and recommend to resolve the problem (after I called support) didn't resolve the problem, though I'm not necessarily experiencing the intermittent HDMI problem. It seems that in addition to a HDMI problem there is a HDCP problem when trying to play most copyrighted content. Restarting the Apple TV seems to resolve it. I did develop a workaround, which was to put an inexpensive HDMI 4K high speed switch in between the Apple TV 4K and my Sony 4K TV. At the end of my viewing session, my Harmony Elite remote powers everything down (except the AppleTV which doesn't power down) including the HDMI switch. I believe when I restart the system, and the HDMI switch and the TV power up, this resets the buggy Apple TV HDMI port / state and things work well. This saves me a little time so I don't have to back out of what I was viewing and restart the AppleTV to get it to play content such as Netflix. Its a cludge but it makes this combo work better. It's not without problems and occasionally I still have to restart the AppleTV as it seems to get kind of stuck when going back to it's home screen with digital noise blanking out the top half of the image. However this is somewhat rare and turning the HDMI switch off and on seems to resolve this. I'm hoping that Apple can get it together and get this to work, unless it is just an inherent hardware problem with the AppleTV components, which I'm beginning to think it might be or Apple would have resolved it in firmware already. I'm pretty sure that Apple has reproduced this problem as it seems to be a widespread problem. I'd like to hear somebody in this thread say that they don't have the problem we are having, that would are refreshing.

Atv signal cutting out intermittently, I have it connected to a LG tv. It seems to only happen when the original signal is not a 4K signal, direct tv now for example with a show on ABC. ABC doesn’t broadcast in 4K so the signal Atv sends out is being up converted. The problem does not occur when watching amazon with a program that’s HDR. If I change the Atv format from any of the 4K options to the 1080p Dolby Vision, the problem goes away. Having to manu switch it back a forth is a bit of a pain, but it works.

Have you updated to latest firmware? (TVOS)

Latest version should fix many problems..

Yes. UpToDate as of yesterday, both the TV and Apple TV

@txfeinbergs - well I guess it's good to know I'm not alone (and good to know you have an LG - so I'm thinking this is something the ATV is causing). Misery loves company I guess!! So when you wake up your system, what do you typically get on the TV when it happens? So far I can get any of the following:

- flashing screen right away upon wake

- flashing screen but only after playing something - either SDR or HDR doesn't matter

- complete snow white screen (can't see any ATV screens)

I am in the process of switching cables again. The past day and a half I had a combo of Monoprice premium from ATV to Denon and Amazon Basics from Denon to Sony X930E. That was actually kind of stable. However, I just ordered two of the Belkin cables from the Apple Store (pricey, but worth it if they work). Just installed them this afternoon. I actually powered everything down when installing them (TV/AVR/ATV) - and then powered up the TV and AVR first and then the ATV. Of course right away the screen was flashing - not a good start. I pulled the TV power and everything came back stable. I was able to do SDR, HDR and Dolby Vision. Time will tell now if they made a difference.

Really not understanding why the ATV has become so unstable where the Roku seems to be stable again. I'll reply back with any results.

I either get the TV screen saver itself (because it thinks there is no signal), a screen of white snow (which is pretty strange for a digital signal), or just a blank black screen. Don't worry about the cables as I replaced all my cables with top of the line cables and that did nothing for this issue (although it did completely eliminate some data errors as seen by white sparkles on a dark screen) (and also greatly improved my Roku Ultimate experience by eliminating pesky HDCP errors and audio drop outs) (I will admit my cables hadn't been upgraded in years and were a mesh-mash of crap)

If you want some REALLY good cables for a cheap price: these work great and support 18 Gbps. (Amazon.com: HDMI Cable 6ft (2-Pack) - Atevon High Speed HDMI 2.0 Cable 18Gbps [Supports 4K HDR, 3D, 2160P, 1080P, Ethern…) My entire setup is now using these.

FYI, if you haven't, also make sure you update the firmware in your AVR to whatever is the latest.

My apple TV 4k cuts out as well. I already returned one and new one does the same. Plays fine for anywhere from a few minutes to and half hour but eventually cuts out and my TV indicates no signal. Sometime holding top two buttons on remove works and it restarts (though from front menu) other times I have to unplug. Apple TV 1 was working fine! with my set up. Must be the 4k HDR stuff. Have been on hold with apple for almost an hour! First call cut out after 30 minutes. HomePod launch must be going well......