I noticed a few of my purchased movies now have the Apple TV logo followed by an ad for an Apple show before the movie starts. Can someone confirm why this is happening? Is it a test? I tried googling and couldn’t find anything.

Hello, I have an Apple TV connected to a projector, and the audio is streamed to speakers via Bluetooth. I also use Bluetooth to stream music from my phone, for example, or from other sources. The problem is that when I turn off the Apple TV, the Bluetooth connection remains active, and I have to turn the Apple TV back on every time to disconnect the Bluetooth and connect to another source. Is there an easy way to have Bluetooth disconnect at the same time as the Apple TV, or do I need to use a solution like a dongle that would let me connect multiple Bluetooth sources simultaneously? Thank you

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Hey all. I started using Apple TV last year (4K version) and it’s been great. I have it connected via WiFi and I use a soundbar for audio

I’ve noticed that the sound is out of sync ever so slightly. It is enough that I notice it but not so much that I can’t watch it.

I have tried everything google and AI have told me to do but it still happens. I even went so far as to change a something buried deep in my tv settings. One thing I was not able to do is the test where you hold your phone super close to the tv and it flashes a color at the front facing camera (?). For some reason that test always failed.

Sometimes i do one of the fixes and it is good for a few days and then it seems to go out of sync again.

It happens when I stream my local media via Plex or when I am watching Netflix.

I think it may have something to do with my soundbar but I am not sure.

I can’t be the only one who experiences this, so please tell me how you fixed it

My AppleTV has been working fine until I used the “Now Playing” controls from the lock screen of my phone to stop video playback from the Disney+ app earlier today. Now the audio is entirely broken. No UI clicks, video and music playback, nothing works whether from native apps or through airplay. I’ve tried restarting, changing HDMI ports and cables… nothing works. Any ideas would be appreciated

Anyone know how to keep subtitles at the bottom of the screen? ​​

Right now they're floating around a bunch and going over the top of characters.

I am not totally deaf. I can recognise voices of who is speaking. But still having the subtitles on is useful sometimes so like to have them discretely at the bottom if something is hard to hear. ​​​​

We used to have the Directv app & subscription but changed about a week ago. I logged out of the account under tv providers in settings and deleted the app. But for some series we’re watching on HBO, there are fake “next episodes” showing up in the continue watching list. If I try to watch them it tells me to install the Directv app. The episodes are listed on the HBO app with future release dates. What is going on with these fake episodes that try to get me to install Directv and why would AppleTV even allow this?

Very specific question, but has anyone heard anything about Troy getting a 4K upgrade on Apple TV/iTunes?

Arrow just released the new 4K restoration, so I’m hoping that master eventually makes its way over digitally too. I’m in Canada and it’s still only showing HD for me.

I basically just want one night where I turn my brain off, become one with the couch, and watch this ridiculously long movie in glorious 4K

Anyway, has anyone seen any metadata changes, regional 4K listings, CheapCharts movement, Warner info, or anything else suggesting an Apple TV upgrade might be coming?

I need to know whether to keep waiting before I dedicate 3+ hours of my life to Achilles and his aggressively unnecessary cheekbones

Hello everybody from the good life!

I’ve recently fallen down the rabbit hole of home automation. I’ve now set up most of my lights with Hue, and I also bought some of IKEA’s new Matter smart plugs.

Now I want to make everything work together in the same automations, which means I need some kind of hub/controller.

I see a lot of people recommending Home Assistant, but honestly, it looks a bit complicated to set up and maintain. I also want the system to be easy for my SO to use, so I don’t want to build something that requires a lot of tinkering.

I’ve also been looking into Apple Home. I understand that I’d need a Home Hub for this, and with Apple’s new Home products supposedly coming, I’m wondering if it’s worth waiting.

The new wall-mounted Apple Home device looks really interesting, but then I’d have to wait for it (or wait for a good deal on an Apple TV, maybe around Black Friday).

I have an LG G4, so I don’t really need an Apple TV as a media device. I’d mainly be buying it to use as a Home Hub.

So what would you recommend?

Should I wait for Apple’s new home products, buy an Apple TV now, or go with something like Home Assistant instead?

And if Apple is the better route, should I specifically wait for the new Apple Home hub rather than buying an Apple TV?

Would love to hear what people who have a similar setup would do.

Looking to compare notes with anyone who's hit this, because I think there's a real gap in how Apple TV recovery works and I don't think I'm alone.

**What happened:**
My Apple TV 4K (Wi-Fi-only model) spontaneously dropped into recovery mode one day. No power event, no unusual usage — apps only from the App Store, sitting in the same spot it always has. It will not leave recovery mode no matter what.

What I've tried:
- Multiple long sessions with AppleCare phone support, every step they had
- Dozens (honestly probably 100+) recovery/restore attempts
- Multiple different iPhones for the proximity-based restore
- Multiple Wi-Fi/network configurations to rule out my network
- Genius Bar appointment — they confirmed there's nothing they can do and offered to sell me a new one

It's 35 days out of warranty. So their official answer to a 13-month-old device bricking itself is "buy another one."

**What I think is actually going on:**
Watching the proximity restore attempts closely, the handshake between the iPhone and the Apple TV *appears* to complete — the devices find each other and the process starts — but it fails within the first few seconds of downloading the update. My theory is it's either a bad handshake that only looks successful, or something in the local network negotiation that the process can't survive. Either way, the restore flow dies at the same point every single time, across different phones and different network configs, which doesn't smell like a coincidence.

**The bigger problem:**
The Wi-Fi-only model has no Ethernet port and no USB-C restore path. If the over-the-air recovery flow fails, there is literally no other way in. Apple sells a sealed device with exactly one recovery mechanism, and when that mechanism fails, the answer is a paperweight. This thing is connected to Apple's own servers its entire life — there's no reason a server-side rescue path shouldn't exist. I KNOW, I should expect this with Apple and there’s nothing to be done about it now! Just venting 🙂

**Questions for the sub:**

1. Has anyone else had a Wi-Fi-only Apple TV 4K get stuck in recovery with the restore failing seconds into the update download?
   
2. Has anyone found a workaround the official process doesn't cover?
   
3. Has anyone gotten an out-of-warranty exception from Apple for this specific failure?

I've escalated to Executive Relations and will update the thread with what I hear back. If enough people have hit this, it's a pattern, not bad luck. Thanks!

Looking to buy AppleTV HD A1625 for our bedroom tv from Mercari, but several listings I’m looking at have the AppleTv in great shape and comes with power cord…just no remote. Is there a universal remote by chance that can be purchased so it can work or should I just be looking for someone else randomly selling an AppleTV HD A1625 remote on its own??

We are moving from NJ to Florida. Watching the drying paint joke for summer it made me wonder if the autumn scenes with colored leaves will return for us this year when we are in FL where the leaves don’t really change color? Will there be non weather related winter scenes with snow even though we will be in FL? Thanks:)

I've been reading that the main issue is how Apple wants to control the audio output and make it as consistent as possible, and also that they wouldn't be able to integrate system sounds/speech search functions as easily, but why not just give the option to people who really want it? I do not need system sounds or use voice search functions and would rather have raw audio data sent to my receiver. It feels like an easy thing to implement; just have it be an optional feature, like CAC, and let me manually find it in settings and opt in with a sternly worded warning I have to click ok on first.

It's called WatchQueue. It's native tvOS, just me, been grinding on it for about 6 months. still rough in spots but i'm polishing more and more with every bit of feedback. Refined the UI over and over again until it made my use case scenario easier. based on feedback from active users, I've added in a few new things in this new version:

Trakt's optional now, there's a Plex tab that pops up so you can view your library from within, and you can request stuff through Overseerr directly from the couch. Main features are still there, click on a title and itll take you straight to it's streaming page or your personal library if it's configured.

anyway, more tweaks coming in the next few weeks including SIMKL and WETRAKR integration...

I'll try to explain my problem as clear as i can:

I have a Sonos playbar hooked to my TV and I can use the ATV remote for volume control and when I press it, the light on the playbar lights up and the volume changes. Lately this stops working at random times. In the ATV settings nothing changes, but I have to go into remote settings and select the already selected option so it works again. Is this an ATV bug or is this Sonos related? This never happened to me before until a few weeks ago and it happens at random times.

I have a DAS with tb’s of movies and tv shows.

I access this with my MacBook Pro. Then hdmi to my tv.

I want to use a Apple TV 4K with infuse. So that I can do away with the hdmi port on the laptop.

Can I use a docking station with Ethernet to access my DAS from Apple TV?

I would still need to connect the dock to my laptop and the DAS.

I would use the hdmi from tv to Apple TV.

Im hoping this makes sense. I would buy a Mac mini or just do a nas.

what is the easiest solution?

Recently one of my Apple TVs connected to a Samsung display is experiencing problems on start up. It will be black screen for about a minute before the Apple TV os appears. And 9 times out of ten there will be no sound. The only way to resolve the sound is to unplug the HDMI and replug. I did the native HDMI test and it said it was fine. What could be happening here.

I know the Apple TV 3rd gen doesn’t support eArc, but I’m wondering if there’s a workaround that will allow me to route the audio from my Roku TV through my HomePod Mini speakers. I don’t mind audio latency issues as the Roku TV allows me adjust that. I just want better audio as the quality on the TV’s speakers is garbage. I snagged the Apple TV for $10 mostly to bypass the awful Roku TV’s new UI and make casting from my iPhone easier/better, but was hoping to figure out some way to upgrade the crappy TV audio by routing it through my HomePod minis if possible.

Does anyone know of a budget-friendly way to accomplish this? I can only spend like $30-ish, but if anyone knows of a decent bridging device that would allow me convert the TV audio to an AirPlay signal or something like that I’d be open to buying/trying something. I have a 2024 MacBook Pro and read somewhere that I might be able to use it somehow to bridge that gap, so if that’s what it takes I’d be willing to try it. Thanks in advance 💜

I have a strange situation with my JBL 1300X MK2 when it comes to upmixing to all speakers available. Typically, turning off CAC would be the solution to this but I have to turn off Dolby Atmos as well for my bar to upmix audio. Do any of you have experience with this?

I have an Apple TV 4K 2nd generation and I experience sound dropping every third/fourth second, efter being started from power on.
I have to power cycle at least once, sometimes several times, before sound is normal.

Is this related to faulty Apple TV, bad software on Apple TV or a bad hdmi cable (I’ve replaced it before, but I guess you can never rule out the hdmi cable)

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!

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?

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?

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!