Here is the 30-second fix

I honestly believe that the Apple TV streaming box is the best overall streaming solution on the market today. It offers the best image quality, in my opinion, and when it comes to the user experience and privacy it’s the least worst of the bunch.

That said, there are a few things an Apple TV does by default that can wreak havoc on some content, but the good news is that you can usually fix it in about 30 seconds.

The hidden Apple TV feature quietly ruining your movies

The default video output mode for an Apple TV locks you into a single video output mode. This is sensible from Apple’s point of view, because it eliminates your TV as a variable. The downside of this is that every type of content—movies, TV shows, apps—is converted to the same format.

So a 24fps movie might be converted to match your 60Hz display, or an SDR movie gets tone-mapped to HDR. While the results are consistent, it can lead to artifacts. Motion judder in panning shots, a feeling of incorrect pacing, blown-out highlights. You might also see weird color shifts, crushed blacks, or an image that seems flat and lifeless.

It might not bother most people (after all, look at people who leave motion smoothing on), but if you do feel something’s off when watching your Apple TV, you can do something about it.

Related

Apple’s Best Streaming Device Isn’t the Apple TV, It’s the Mac Mini

It’s hard to justify an Apple TV 4K when you see what the Mac mini can do.

The quick settings fix that instantly restores movie quality

Assuming your TV is up to the task, we want to set our Apple TVs to pass on content without converting it first. The key to this is a set of settings under Settings > Video and Audio > Match Content.

Credit: Sydney Louw Butler/How-To Geek

Here, you’ll find toggles for “Match Dynamic Range” and “Match Frame Rate”. Turn them both on and while you’re at it, check that your output format is correct. For a modern TV, it should be “4K 60Hz SDR” or at least that’s the common advice you’ll see online.

Related

Don’t Ignore Your TV’s Sharpness Setting

Is your TV’s sharpness setting ruining your favorite shows?

What about HDR and Dolby Vision?

Credit: Dolby

It’s worth briefly unpacking why the 4K SDR + Match Content combo has been an almost universal suggestion from AV enthusiasts on forums. It’s not a hard rule, and I’m not telling you to do it, but there is a good reason for it.

The output format you specify is the default format that your Apple TV will use, but that doesn’t mean it can’t go beyond that. I’ve tested this myself. Even with the TV set to 4K SDR, it will switch to Dolby Vision when you start playing DV content, and it will switch to HDR when you play HDR content. This switching happens because you’ve activated the Match Content settings, and it’s the switching that can cause some annoying issues.

For example, on my old Samsung QLED TV, if the default output was set to 4K HDR, and I started an SDR YouTube video, the screen would go black for a few seconds every time the switch happened. Some TVs, like my new LG OLED, switch quickly and gracefully. Which might make this a non-issue for you.

However, by choosing 4K SDR on a 4K TV, you’ll minimize how often the TV has to switch modes because most of the content you watch will be SDR. If you set it to Dolby Vision or HDR as the output combined with the Match Content setting, then every piece of content you watch that isn’t DV or HDR will trigger a mode switch.

Related

My Favorite Apple TV Feature Has Nothing to Do With Streaming

I could get lost in this for hours.

What to expect after correcting Apple TV’s output

After you’ve made these changes, you might see your TV briefly blank when watching content that differs from the default output, but the results are usually worth this minor inconvenience. Assuming that your TV can correctly handle 24fps content (movies) you should now see perfectly-paced motion without “pulldown judder” unless it’s baked into the stream, of course. Likewise, SDR content should now look as intended, and colors should be as correct as your TV can make them.

This is, of course, just one part of the solution. I suggest running your TV in “Filmmaker mode” to remove any unnecessary conversion on the TV side of the HDMI cable. If both your TV and Apple TV refrain from messing with the content, you should be getting the best of all worlds.

Brand

Apple

Operating System

tvOS

Resolution

4K

Ports

HDMI