Setting Up HDR On Apple TV 4K (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Adkins]

I have aquired an awful lot of 4K movies in my iTunes digital library, but I've never set it up (nor my Samsung TV) for HDR. I attempted a couple of times to change the setting in both my display and ATV4K and it never looked right. It was usually either washed out or it looked too dark. I'm wondering if there aren't some other settings that need to be configured in the Samsung TV itself. It's not capable of Dolby Vision (unfortunately), only HDR10. Years ago, I used to consider myself pretty savvy with this kind of stuff, but I've never quite figured this one out.

My second question is if I were to get it looking right, will the ATV4K automatically adjust for non-HDR viewings or will I need to toggle that every time?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Cranston37+]

I have aquired an awful lot of 4K movies in my iTunes digital library, but I've never set it up (nor my Samsung TV) for HDR. I attempted a couple of times to change the setting in both my display and ATV4K and it never looked right. It was usually either washed out or it looked too dark. I'm wondering if there aren't some other settings that need to be configured in the Samsung TV itself. It's not capable of Dolby Vision (unfortunately), only HDR10. Years ago, I used to consider myself pretty savvy with this kind of stuff, but I've never quite figured this one out.

My second question is if I were to get it looking right, will the ATV4K automatically adjust for non-HDR viewings or will I need to toggle that every time?

Thanks in advance.

The settings you want on the ATV4K are:

Format: 4K SDR
HDMI Output: YCbCr
Chroma: 4:4:4
Match Dynamic Range: On
Match Frame Rate: On

The 4K SDR thing sounds counterintuitive but it WILL play HDR and it's what you want.

Not sure about settings on your Samsung, but one thing I always forget it to make sure the HDR is turned on for the specific input you are using. The default is usually off.

 

[Jeff Adkins]

The settings you want on the ATV4K are:

Format: 4K SDR
HDMI Output: YCbCr
Chroma: 4:4:4
Match Dynamic Range: On
Match Frame Rate: On

The 4K SDR thing sounds counterintuitive but it WILL play HDR and it's what you want.

Not sure about settings on your Samsung, but one thing I always forget it to make sure the HDR is turned on for the specific input you are using. The default is usually off.

Thank you! I will give this a shot!

 

[Robert Crawford]

Thank you! I will give this a shot!

Those settings should work for you.

 

[dpippel]

The settings you want on the ATV4K are:

Format: 4K SDR
HDMI Output: YCbCr
Chroma: 4:4:4
Match Dynamic Range: On
Match Frame Rate: On

The 4K SDR thing sounds counterintuitive but it WILL play HDR and it's what you want.

Not sure about settings on your Samsung, but one thing I always forget it to make sure the HDR is turned on for the specific input you are using. The default is usually off.

So Robert, you’re saying that with a 4K display capable of HDR10 (and in my case Dolby Vision), you set the ATV4K to output 4K SDR?

 

[Cranston37+]

So Robert, you’re saying that with a 4K display capable of HDR10 (and in my case Dolby Vision), you set the ATV4K to output 4K SDR?

You would be correct! But I'm not Robert so I'll let him fill you in more

 

[JohnRice]

=

So Robert, you’re saying that with a 4K display capable of HDR10 (and in my case Dolby Vision), you set the ATV4K to output 4K SDR?

That is correct. What Apple doesn't explain is the Output setting is how it displays the menus. There's really no reason to have the menus in HDR, and they don't tend to look very good anyway. The "Match Dynamic Range" setting allows the ATV to output HDR for the media itself, then it switches back to SDR for menus.

The Match Frame Rate setting is only valuable if your TV has 120Hz or higher scan rate, so it can switch to 24fps when that's available. If the TV has a 60Hz frame rate, it can't switch to 24fps.

 

[dpippel]

Ah yes! It’s been so long since I set mine up I’d forgotten about this little idiosyncrasy with the ATV4K.

 

[Robert Crawford]

So Robert, you’re saying that with a 4K display capable of HDR10 (and in my case Dolby Vision), you set the ATV4K to output 4K SDR?

That's correct as John and Cranston stated. Just reading this thread gives me flashbacks on the number of hours for several days that I spent last summer playing around with my ATV4K units in my office and main HT setups. I learned a lot, but, it could be frustrating and I really feel sorry for many people that probably still don't have their units properly set up.

 

[DaveF]

The Match Frame Rate setting is only valuable if your TV has 120Hz or higher scan rate, so it can switch to 24fps when that's available. If the TV has a 60Hz frame rate, it can't switch to 24fps.

AppleTV doesn’t actually “match frame rate”, it only interpolates?

Because a 120Hz display is not needed to match to 23.976 Hz blu-ray output. It’s only needed for simpler interpolation to 120Hz frame output. And even then that’s really for those that prefer the Soap Opera Effect over waiting on HDMI sync delays (a particular annoyance notably for JVC projectors).

 

[Johnny Angell]

AppleTV doesn’t actually “match frame rate”, it only interpolates?

Because a 120Hz display is not needed to match to 23.976 Hz blu-ray output. It’s only needed for simpler interpolation to 120Hz frame output. And even then that’s really for those that prefer the Soap Opera Effect over waiting on HDMI sync delays (a particular annoyance notably for JVC projectors).

Heavy sigh. Some days I miss adjusting the rabbit ears to get the best picture.

 

[DaveF]

???

That means 4k aTV does or doesn’t do frame rate matching?

I thought it did — pretty sure my HD model does. (For people with projectors with 10+ sec sync times, I understand using interpolation instead of syncing. I’d probably do the same. But otherwise, recommending soap opera effect on HTF seems like recommending pan and scan over OAR.)

 

[Cranston37+]

???

That means 4k aTV does or doesn’t do frame rate matching?

I thought it did — pretty sure my HD model does. (For people with projectors with 10+ sec sync times, I understand using interpolation instead of syncing. I’d probably do the same. But otherwise, recommending soap opera effect on HTF seems like recommending pan and scan over OAR.)

Yes, it does.

 

[DaveF]

But that doesn’t require a 120Hz display, right?

maybe “Match Frame Rate” means the opposite of what it says and should be set off, unless you’ve got a super long sync display...or prefer SOE?

 

[Sunith P]

Hi., Just went through the threads.. I have a problem, and hopefully it can be answered here..
My source is Apple TV 4K and connected into a Marantz SR6015, and I use Epson TW8300 as the projector.
(1) I am unable to see 'Dolby vision' as an option (with compatible inputs from Netflix etc). Is that anything to do with the projector ?
(2) I have made the changes suggested in the menu on Match Dynamic Content and Frame rate and made 4K SDR. Still, the HDR content looks very dull. I changed to Match Dynamic Content - Off, and it displays properly.
(3) I have also changed my HDMI cable from my ATV to the Marantz - new cable is 8K HDMI latest version all those stuff.. Still, I have to turn off match dynamic content to see HDR videos properly.

So, all forums suggest I should keep dynamic content ON, and I am doing the contrary to get a better picture.. What am I doing wrong ?

 

[dpippel]

(1) I am unable to see 'Dolby vision' as an option (with compatible inputs from Netflix etc). Is that anything to do with the projector ?

Projectors don't support Dolby Vision. Don't know if you've read this thread or not, but all of your ATV4K settings questions should be answered here:

Understanding HDR Settings on the AppleTV 4K

It's been four years since the first AppleTV 4K was introduced, and there's still a lot of confusion regarding its video "Format" setting as well as "Match Content". So, here's a quick explanation of how these settings work, since the way Apple has configured it doesn't necessarily make a lot...

www.hometheaterforum.com

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Hi., Just went through the threads.. I have a problem, and hopefully it can be answered here..
My source is Apple TV 4K and connected into a Marantz SR6015, and I use Epson TW8300 as the projector.
(1) I am unable to see 'Dolby vision' as an option (with compatible inputs from Netflix etc). Is that anything to do with the projector ?
(2) I have made the changes suggested in the menu on Match Dynamic Content and Frame rate and made 4K SDR. Still, the HDR content looks very dull. I changed to Match Dynamic Content - Off, and it displays properly.
(3) I have also changed my HDMI cable from my ATV to the Marantz - new cable is 8K HDMI latest version all those stuff.. Still, I have to turn off match dynamic content to see HDR videos properly.

So, all forums suggest I should keep dynamic content ON, and I am doing the contrary to get a better picture.. What am I doing wrong ?

Projectors don't do DV (as Doug noted above).

For HDR, you should probably use different settings (on your projector) than SDR or the image may well look substantially duller and/or not bright enough. Gamma should likely be a bit different, and "Contrast" probably needs to be higher/brighter... amongst other settings diffs.

Also, you might need to adjust the HDR slider on Epson PJs depending on specific content (as the mastering of HDR content are unfortunately all over the map) -- I assume your older(?) model has the same HDR slider in the menu/UI that you can quickly/easily get to w/ a button on the remote. For HDR content that look too dark, you'll probably need to lower the HDR slider setting... and vice versa for HDR content that look too bright and/or have noticeably blown highlights. You might find you usually only need switching between a couple different HDR slider values if the other settings (eg. contast, gamma, etc) are good -- that's the case for me for the most part w/ my 5050UB in my setup.

_Man_