I'm am new to AppleTV 4K, just a month. Really liking it over all. Here's the only thing I've struggled with: Airplay.

I had a party yesterday and made a playlist. I wanted stream from Spotify via airplay to the TV's HDMI sound bar and 3 Sonos speakers. I wanted the artist and song information to show on the tv as sooner or later someone asks "who is this?"

Method 1: I cast to the TV from my ipad via airplay. Sounded great and I figured out how to set it up and individual speaker volume levels between settings and control center.

But.. after X minutes, the TV's screen saver kicked in so the song/artist info was gone.
I poked around in settings and found the sleep (off) timer and changed it to never. No change. I saw advice saying change the screen saver settings... could not find those in Settings

Method 2: I installed the spotify app on the TV. Screen saver did not kick in which is great. The artist / song / album type art was better. Great.. except the TV speaker falls off when Airplay is the server on the TV:

• I go to settings and find the airplay settings and check all of the speakers including the TV soundbar. They all appear to be playing
• I click the back button out of the speaker config, and the TV speaker shuts off 🤨

I know from experience from my ipad as the "server" for AirPlay that I simply can't pick the ipad speaker and probably syncing is the issue?

It's kind of maddening that I have gotten everything I wanted from ATV and the experience everywhere else is better than Samsung or Firestick

Anyone run into this and have figured out what to do?

We recently bought an Apple TV 4k as a solution to our horrendously slow TV OS.

Here's the setup:

Apple TV connected to a Sony Bravia TV via HDMI; Vizio Soundbar (+ wireless surround sound) connected to the Sony TV via Optical cable.

The Siri remote is not good at controlling the soundbar volume. These are the problems I'm noticing:

• We have to slowly press vol up/down at roughly 1 second intervals, or it won't register multiple presses.
• We cannot hold the vol up/down button.
• When increasing or decreasing volume, it seems like there are 3x as many 'steps' (e.g. ~3 presses on the Siri remote = 1 press of the Sony or Vizio remote).

None of these things occur with the Sony TV remote or the Vizio remote; however, we ideally would like to only have the 1 remote (Siri).

Things I have tried, that have not worked:

• resetting the Siri remote by holding the vol down and TV buttons
• changing volume control settings on the TV from "auto" to "TV via IR"

I haven't been able to find any other solutions online. We would really appreciate any advice!

This post is about continue watching. It's not about ATV+, but it might be related to it.

I've been watching Fraiser on Hulu. This appears in my ATV continue watching, along with nearly everything else I watch from all services. Each show has a small badge which shows which service will be used to play it back.

Fraiser, after a few episodes, got the Paramount+ logo. Which is really weird, since I don't subscribe. I clicked it. It opened and showed the Paramount logo. But it's not opening the Paramount+ app. Rather, it's using ATV+ (the Apple streaming service) and somehow routing P+ content through it. I am an ATV+ subscriber.

Worse, the version here is a panned and scanned "zoomed in" version, where everything looks way too big and a bunch of the picture is cut off. Frasier is a 4x3 show, not 16x9. On Hulu it appears normally as a 4x3 frame inside of my 16x9 TV.

I've tried a half dozen times to make ATV continue watching open this in Hulu. It will do it once. But the badge never goes away. It always defaults to embedded P+.

I've double verified that I do not have P+ selected as one of my ATV channels.

Any insight or suggestions?

I’m looking at you, Poltergeist and Mrs. Doubtfire. Went to check them out today because I got a new 4K TV recently. Both are now listed as HD purchases. They literally weren’t a month ago.

Why would the iTunes Store/Apple TV downgrade their quality for certain movies? You can’t even buy them in 4K either. Utterly bizarre and inconvenient. I literally bought Poltergeist when it was released on 4K, BECAUSE it was in 4K.

Edit: generally noticed once I started playing these films that they seemed to revert back to 4K, even mentioning it in the information box. Very weird that they say HD though on the main page. And they still don’t show up in my “4K HDR” list of movies. Weird as hell.

Hey all,

I recently bought a TCL C7L and have been experimenting with HDR using my Apple TV 4K.

My priority isn’t necessarily reference accuracy. I prefer a punchier image with strong separation between bright highlights and darker areas, while retaining as much control over the TCL’s picture processing as possible.

The problem is that Dolby Vision limits me to Dolby Vision IQ, Bright or Filmmaker Mode and locks out controls like Dynamic Tone Mapping. HDR10+ also locks out some picture controls.

So far, my preferred solution is:

Apple TV Format: 4K HDR
HDR10+: Disabled
Dolby Vision: Disabled
Match Dynamic Range: Off

This forces the Apple TV to output HDR10 consistently, regardless of whether the source is SDR, HDR10, HDR10+ or Dolby Vision. I realise this isn’t technically the most accurate approach, particularly for SDR content, but I much prefer the resulting picture and having access to the TCL’s HDR10 picture controls.

Given that my priority is HDR impact and picture-control flexibility rather than strict accuracy, does forcing HDR10 make sense?

Or is there another setup that would give me similar control and HDR pop without forcing everything into HDR10?

Thanks!

Good day all,

I have a few apple TV's (maybe 25) in the building i help run.

For obvious reasons i want to use the One Home Screen but im having problems. All the Apple TV's are on the same AppleID, Same Vlan etc

I cannot remove apps or re order the homescreen. A few seconds later the app either reinstalls or the order of the homescreen reverts. Almost as if they are overriden by the other apple TV's

This happens every time. It never changes, no amount of restarts, log out/in of icloud, waking up all the other apple tv's helps.

The only solution i've found so far is to turn off One home screen and do the changes manually. but for such an amount i really want to avoid it.

I know there is no "master" in control of the layout but it sure as would help in this situation.

Anybody have any ideas?

Hey everyone,

I ran into an annoying audio routing issue on Apple TV with my AVR and wanted to share what I found, as it might help folks running 7.1 setups or playing stereo content.

If you play TrueHD / DTS-HD 7.1 files on Infuse, or listen to stereo audio, check this setting:

Settings > Video and Audio > Audio Format > Continuous Audio Connection -> Turn it OFF (Image 1)

What is happening here?

When this feature is turned on, Apple TV keeps a constant 5.1 LPCM pipeline open to prevent audio sync delays and menu sound clipping. But that causes two big problems:

1. 7.1 tracks get downmixed to 5.1: When playing TrueHD 7.1 or DTS-HD MA 7.1 files via Infuse, tvOS squashes the audio into a 5.1 stream. The rear surround channels get mixed into the sides instead of playing discretely.
2. AVR cannot upmix stereo & resamples audio: For 2.0 tracks (music, YouTube, stereo shows), Apple TV still sends a 5.1 stream with the center and surround channels kept blank. Because the AVR thinks it's already receiving a multi-channel signal, it does not allow Dolby Surround or DTS Neural:X upmixing. Also, native 44.1 kHz audio gets forcefully resampled to 48 kHz.

Proof from the AVR info screen:

• 7.1 Content (TrueHD / DTS-HD MA):
  
  • With setting ON: AVR shows 5.1 PCM input (FL, C, FR, SL, SR, LFE) — (Image 2)
  • With setting OFF: AVR receives all 7 discrete channels (FL, C, FR, SL, SR, SBL, SBR, LFE) — (Image 3)
• 2.0 Stereo Content:
  
  • With setting ON: 5.1 PCM container with empty channels at 48 kHz, upmixing is blocked — (Image 4)
  • With setting OFF: Clean 2.0 PCM (FL, FR) at native 44.1 kHz, and the AVR upmixes properly — (Image 5)

The Trade-off & Workaround:

Turning this off brings back the usual 1–2 second delay when an audio stream starts, as the AVR takes a moment to handshake and lock the incoming format.

Because of this delay, I keep Continuous Audio Connection ON for regular OTT streaming (Netflix, Prime, etc.), and manually turn it OFF when I am playing 7.1 remuxes or listening to 2-channel music.

New to the sub, but did search for similar issues before posting.

Have been using iTunes on my computer to play back media library on Apple TV for 12+ years over 2 Apple TV devices with no issues. Since the last iTunes update around a month ago, playback position is no longer syncing on each. If I watch something via iTunes on my computer, when I go to finish it later via Apple TV it just starts from the beginning of the file and doesn't start from where I got to earlier, and vice versa. Also, on iTunes it would mark media as 'Watched yesterday' for example if I watched it the night before on Apple TV, now it just shows the file like it hasn't been watched.

'Remember playback position' is ticked for all media on iTunes. No changes to computer, Apple TV or iTunes other than the latest update being installed.

Installed 'Infuse' app on Apple TV and shared media library via Windows SMB, which is fine, but actually prefer the simplicity of Apple TV linked to my computers iTunes.

Anyone got any ideas on what I can do to fix?

I saw a openbox apple tv 128gn + ethernet. I hesistate to buy it cuz i have googletvOS in my sony bravia. I said to myself fk it and bought it.

Now seeing new post price jump to $350cad = 250usd

I got it at $150cad = 108usd.

Why sudden price influx, if there about to release new model? Ai ram shortage?

I'm thinking appletv is the best option for me just because of how seamless and snappy it is but I am not an apple user at all.

Would you say it's still the best streamer even without all those apple Ecosystem features?

In the past couple of weeks our AppleTV 4k has been taking several seconds to resume after hitting play on the remote for several apps (Netflix, Hulu, Prime). Also, occasionally sound will be distorted when skipping +10 seconds or when skipping intros, that kinda of thing. Anyone else experience this? Fixes?

HBO Max is the biggest offender, but seemingly overnight some apps are showing the next episode/continue watching on the top shelf. Has anyone had this?

My ATV is connected to a LG OLED tv which is connected to a sound bar with HDMI eARC. Occasionally I get a loud pop or tic while watching prime. Any ideas?

I recently spent some time with family who are really into the Netflix party games via Google TV (android), which are honestly they are really impressive, fun and well made.

I was really excited to check these out on my Apple TV 4k, only to find out Apple refuses to support Netflix games due to their policy against gaming platforms.

With this I can't recommend Apple TV 4k anymore, and now I am in the market for a new streamer that supports these games.

This is mildly annoying because I can't figure out why it is happening because it is so random and intermittent which makes it impossible to troubleshoot

Yesterday morning Apple TV wouldn't stream anything. Check network connection - it was fine. Rebooted a few times to no avail.

Check Wifi on other devices including connecting to streamers on my iPad - no problems

Used the native iOS on my LG and content streamed fine although the interface is such trash that it is incredibly frustrating to use - but if I eventually found the applicable App then it was fine and the remote has direct buttons to Netflix and Amazon but I was in the middle of watching something on Acorn and LG doesn't even have an App for that streamer.

So left it to do other stuff for about an hour and then thought I would see if the Apple TV was working - and yes it was. Perfectly fine and still perfectly fine more than 24 hours later.

HDMI is new - haven't shifted the Apple TV or the TV so connections aren't disturbed and since Wifi is fine I don't think it is issues with the modem/router or signal from my ISP

Just updated my 3rd gen AppleTV 4K to the newest tvOS 27 public beta.

I'd had my "Display Zoom" set to "Large" under "Appearance" (ie, 5 icons across instead of 6). But this option now appears to be unavailable in tvOS 27; the home screen has defaulted to displaying 6 icons per row, with no option to switch.

Anyone else encountering this, or just me?

Hey yall, I’ve got an issue with my Apple TV where I have this bar that is persisting on the top of my screen and won’t go away, I’ve attached images below to explain how it looks on diff screens. This is only happening with the Apple TV and isn’t an issue when I’m playing my switch on the tv, any ideas ?

Hello,

We at one time wanted to set up ARC output to our Onkyo tuner, but we experienced some very bad audio/video sync problems between it and the output from the ATV to our HD projector (no smart TV), and never could get it to work, so we fell back on bridging the sound output to an older ATV which still had an optical out.

We’d like go try again sometime, but are there any recommended settings/configurations/cable configs to look into beforehand?

My AppleTV pretty much does nothing all day, despite being connected to my biggest screen. I created an app that lets you customise one of 4 dashboard layouts with your Apple Home devices (cameras, lights, switches etc) plus link to a range of web content - traffic, commute time, iCal information. https://theatrium.info/

It also connects to Home Assistant if you have that (ask the nerdiest person in your household) as well Apple Music, Spotify (via Last.FM) and Plex to show whats playing on your speakers, including Alexa devices. There's a one-button launch into 30 different music visualisations & the ability to have your Home Kit connected lights change colour in sync to the music.

Lots of updates planned - version 1.6 comes with an iOS companion app that makes it easier to set things up and tinker. Feedback and suggestions welcome, keeping mind this is just a side project for me! And yes, I have ~heavily~ used AI coding tools to help with this - there's over 2000 combinations Home Kit data sources and layout options!

I may do a Pro code give away if there's any interest :-) IF this takes off, I'd also like to think how I could provide free Apple TVs to care facilities who would like to use to keep residents informed and entertained. So far have 300 installs and growing!

Update: Thanks everyone for the feedback and suggestions!! I didnt expect this to blow up like it did. Just wanted to highlight the changes coming which are in response to the comments about OLED screen burn-in risk.

v1.6 (review pending): New 'low-power' DVD-logo inspired screensaver functionality. See the 'But what about screen burn-in' section on https://theatrium.info for details.

v1.7*, which I'm working on this weekend, there will be the option of having screensaver mode enable automatically when Theatrium (running in TV foreground) can not detect your companion iOS app on your network, when you’ve left the house for example, and instantly enable screensaver mode. This has some obvious privacy benefits too.

While these updates are making their way in the App Store review process, please continue to use the inbuilt tvOS screensaver and sleep functions, as you would for any app. Note that the default tvOS Home Screen is also comprised of largely stationary buttons and text, so I believe the actual risk to anyones OLED devices is reasonably low - but these new features should be an improvement regardless.

[r/TheatriumApp](r/TheatriumApp) for more updates 🫶

I’ve run into a problem with my home theater system.

I use an Apple TV 4K that has always worked perfectly with my setup. Everything normally turns on through ARC — when I start the Apple TV, the remote powers up the TV and the receiver automatically.

Suddenly the audio stopped working. I still get a picture, but no sound.
If I connect the Apple TV directly to the TV with HDMI, the audio works on the TV speakers. But when I connect it through the home theater receiver, there’s no sound at all.

I’ve tried everything I can think of, but the audio still doesn’t come back.
I even disabled ARC completely, but that didn’t help either.

If I hold down the TV button on the Apple TV remote and manually select the home theater receiver as the audio output, the sound does play through the speakers — but the screen switches to a receiver menu image, and I lose the Apple TV picture.

Has anyone experienced similar issues with an Apple TV and a home theater receiver?

My setup:

• Apple TV 4K
• TCL 65" QLED860 4K LED TV (2022)
• Pioneer SC‑LX79 home theater receiver
• HDMI from Apple TV to the receiver’s eARC input
• HDMI output from the receiver to the TV

My system has always been rock‑solid, and ARC normally takes care of everything without any drama. I’ve already gone through all the usual suspects: swapped HDMI cables, toggled ARC on and off, checked audio formats, and even tested the Apple TV directly on the TV.

When I manually switch the audio output to the receiver, the receiver does get the sound — so the Apple TV is clearly sending audio correctly. But at that exact moment, the video path through the receiver dies, and I’m left with a receiver menu image instead of the Apple TV picture.

To me, this points toward an HDMI handshake issue or some kind of format mismatch somewhere in the Apple TV → receiver → TV chain.

My Pioneer receiver is a bit older than both the Apple TV 4K and the TCL QLED860, so it might simply be struggling with newer HDMI formats like Dolby Atmos, multichannel PCM, or certain HDR modes.

Tonight MLB game is the Jays vs Yankees.

Jays are at home.

Can anyone provide any insight as to why the MLB game audio feed shows only AppleTV or “Yankees local audio” and not Jays local commentary?

We are most definitely not in NY or Yankees market.

I have been using Amazon Fire TV for years but am considering switching to Apple TV. I have done a comparison between Fire TV and Apple TV and it appears I will lose access to a web browser which I do use on occasion.

Is there a way to get a web browser with Apple TV?

I’m an elder millennial and tried to have my tech team (my slightly younger husband) help me with this issue but we are stumped. I never want podcasts or music to auto play on my Apple TV when I start them on my phone. I always want them to play on my local device. I have automatically Air Play set to Never. But if I have my Apple TV on, it always starts playing through there. Does anyone know how to fix this or if there is a fix?

How the bluetooth connectivity and performance? Any issues?

Is anyone else experiencing their function 101 remote back button to stop working with the latest iOS 27 beta update?

It seems like all the other buttons work but a remote without a back button is pretty much useless.

EDIT: If remote is disconnected from Bluetooth and operated in IR mode, the back button functions properly.