How to use automatic frame rate and dynamic range switching on Apple TV

tvOS 11.2 allows your Apple TV 4K to automatically switch video display modes to match the dynamic range and / or native frame rate of a video. 4th generation model owners can only use frame rate matching as long as they are running tvOS 11.3 or later software.

Buy by default, Apple TV 4K applies the video modes with the highest refresh rates. If your TV supports HDR10 at a 60Hz refresh rate and Dolby Vision at 30Hz, the HDR10 will be selected to Dolby Vision, although the latter looks better.

You may have noticed that rendering everything in 4K HDR produces poor results when viewing non-4K content. Wouldn’t it be great if Apple TV could automatically switch from video mode to your television based on the content you watch?

With tvOS 11.2 and later, you can.

You can set your Apple TV 4K to automatically switch video display modes to match the native frame rate and dynamic range of content being watched instead of going full capacity on your television.

For example, the device will use HDR10 at 60Hz when viewing HDR content and will switch to Dolby Vision at 30Hz when viewing content that supports Dolby Vision.

Here’s how to use these content matching options to tvOS.

How to use content matching on Apple TV

By default, tvOS uses the selected display format to play content without disturbance.

To set Apple TV to switch display modes automatically, matching the dynamic range and frame rate of the video, do the following:

1) Open the file setting to your Apple TV.

2) Select section Video and audio.

3) Select subsection Match the content.

4) Activate the following options:

• Matches the dynamic range-Only available on Apple TV 4K, this setting forces the device to match its video display mode to the dynamic range of the video being played.
• Match frame rate-Available on both 4th generation Apple TV and 4K Apple TV, this forces the device to adjust its screen refresh rate to the original frame rate of the content. Applies to content dominated at different frame rates, for example content based on 24fps movies or other international content.

With Match Frame Rate enabled, Apple TV will match the frame rate of video content encoded at 60, 50, 30, 25, and 24 FPS.

The frame rates correspond to the appropriate refresh rates in your region (ie 29.97 FPS for NTSC). Videos encoded at 25 FPS / 30 FPS are doubled in frames to be displayed at 50Hz / 60Hz, which match their original appearance while retaining a smooth user interface.

When Match Dynamic Range is on, Apple TV 4K automatically switches the display output to SDR when using an application that has not yet been optimized for HDR.

AVKit-compatible applications already do this automatically. Older applications with support for the AVKit framework may need to be updated to enable the tvOS content matching features.

Your Apple TV can automatically match the frame rate and dynamic range of a video

If you have a blank screen or flickering when the Apple TV matches the brackets, this is your TV that adapts to the signal. tvOS may attempt to automatically determine the dynamic ranges and frame rate that your TV supports. If you cannot determine which display formats are available, you will need to test manually.

Start by selecting one of the video modes listed below the file Unverified formats none. A short screen test will be performed and it will be verified that the selected mode is displayed correctly on the TV. Once verified, your Apple TV can switch to this video mode when necessary.

Have problems with the selected video mode?

If so, set your Apple TV to use the display mode supported by your TV by choosing the Reset video settings option a Settings → Video and audio.