Apple TV 4K
Audio & Video Setup

This keeps your Apple TV home screen in SDR so it doesn't force your TV into HDR mode all the time. When you play HDR or Dolby Vision content, the ATV4K will switch automatically. You'll see a brief black screen, which means it's working correctly. If you have an older 1080p TV, choose 1080p instead. The 60Hz part keeps menus and navigation feeling smooth.

This only shows up if you chose YCbCr above (3rd Gen). It controls how much color information gets sent to your TV. 4:4:4 means full color detail with no compression and the most accurate picture.

When enabled, your ATV4K automatically switches between SDR, HDR, and Dolby Vision depending on what you're watching. Without this, your TV might display SDR content in HDR mode (which looks washed out) or the other way around.

This makes the ATV4K output the actual frame rate of your content (24fps for movies, 50/60fps for sports, etc.). Without it, movies can look stuttery or "juddery" because the TV is trying to convert frame rates on its own.

Make sure "Change Format" is turned off. This keeps your audio as uncompressed LPCM, which is the highest quality the ATV4K can output. If you have an Atmos-capable soundbar or receiver, also set "Atmos Available" to on. If you don't have Atmos gear, go to Immersive Audio and turn it off.

New in tvOS 26.4. When enabled, the Apple TV holds a constant Dolby MAT connection to your receiver or soundbar. All non-Atmos audio is packaged as 7.1.4 LPCM at 16 bit / 48 kHz with silent objects wrapped inside a Dolby MAT container, so the downstream system always sees what looks like an Atmos stream. This comes with both upsides and downsides and isn't a set-and-forget toggle — the observations below are from testing with a 7.2.4 AVR setup, a 3.0 AVR setup, and a 3.1.2 soundbar.

Lets the Apple TV handle audio routing on its own. No need to touch this.

This is a personal preference, but turning it off preserves the original dynamic range of your movies and shows. Quiet parts stay quiet, loud parts hit properly.

Many TVs have this set to "Auto" by default, but Auto frequently gets it wrong. You'll end up with crushed blacks (dark scenes become a black blob) or a washed-out, grayish picture. The "Full" option is only meant for when you're using your TV as a PC monitor. All streaming content and Blu-rays use the limited color range, so set your TV to match.

Your TV might call this "Enhanced Plus", "HDMI Deep Color", "Input Signal Plus", or something else entirely. This tells your TV to accept the full HDR and Dolby Vision signal from the ATV4K. Without it, you can lose black detail, get washed-out images, or HDR might not work at all. Important: if you have a soundbar or AV receiver in between, check if those devices have their own HDMI signal settings and set them to Enhanced too.

Since you turned on "Match Frame Rate" on the ATV4K, the Apple TV is already sending the correct frame rate to your TV. If your TV also tries to do its own frame rate conversion, the two will conflict and you'll get stuttering or dropped frames. Turn off your TV's version. Every brand calls it something different: Sony calls it CineMotion, LG calls it Real Cinema. Check your TV's motion or picture settings.

This tells the Fusion player to buffer the stream ahead of time. Instead of loading each chunk right when you need it, the ATV4K downloads content in advance, which prevents stuttering and buffering interruptions during playback.