topic Re: Sony A1 (OLED) and Apple TV 4K issues in Android TV

Sony A1 (OLED) and Apple TV 4K issues

Pavel_Pr — Fri, 27 Apr 2018 22:40:18 GMT

Hello!

I am the owner of a "65 A1 TV and an Apple TV 4K and am experiencing some issues. I hoped that someone would have a tip for me, or let me know that I am not alone in this.

When woken after being on standby for a certain period (could be one hour or more), the TV will not detect any signal over the HDMI port (HDMI 2) to which the Apple TV 4K is connected. The screen would flash slightly, in what appears to be an attempt at establishing a handshake, but that attempt will ultimately fail.

When the above occurs, the HDMI input in question becomes unstable even when connected with other devices (for instance, connecting a PS4 Pro will result in unstable image). Subsequently, the only way to regain proper connectivity on that particular HDMI port is to power cycle the TV itself (not the Apple TV). After the TV is power cycled, everything works properly again. By power cycling, I mean soft-restart ("About" -> "Restart") as well.

Playing with CEC-related settings on the Apple TV appears to significantly affect the incidence of this issue, but will not eliminate it outright. Moreover, disabling Enhanced HDMI on the TV eliminates this issue, but at the cost of HDR support – which is significant.

Both devices are updated to their latest respective software releases. There appears to be some state corruption that is occurring during standby (applicable to Enhanced HDMI mode), which clears after the TV is power cycled.

Did anyone experience anything similar?

Thanks!

P.S. Could anyone explain what exactly happens with the HDMI ports or controllers during a power cycle or a soft-restart?

Re: Sony A1 (OLED) and Apple TV 4K issues

Osprey-One — Sat, 28 Apr 2018 15:34:58 GMT

HI there, Im having probs too - I cant seem to get Dolby vision support - have you managed this wiht the apple 4k, i bought a new suitable HDMI cable, allowed the enhanced option for the external input on the HDMI but getting flickering intermittently on the tv, also the colours looked slightly washed out - not what i expetced at all . Any ideas?

Re: Sony A1 (OLED) and Apple TV 4K issues

dutchice — Sat, 28 Apr 2018 16:36:08 GMT

@Pavel_Prwrote:
Moreover, disabling Enhanced HDMI on the TV eliminates this issue, but at the cost of HDR support – which is significant.

Let me try to help you both. Based on what you explain, I expect that you do not have the issue occuring when using HDMI 1 & 4, can you confirm this? Could it be possible for you to purchase a CERTIFIED HDMI (https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=15429) cable since the bandwidth that the ATV 4K produces (4K + DolbyVision HDR + DolbyAtmos) is fairly close to the limit of what HDMI 2.0 can process. It is very unlikely that either your A1 or the ATV 4K are at fault here. So let's start ruling out the problem by the weakest link.

Edit: This other HDMI cable (http://www.belkin.com/uk/p/P-AV10175/) despite not being a CERTIFIED cable has been reported by many ATV 4K users to be 100% bullet proof. It is also what Apple is pushing on their store. Its only downside is the considerable higher price and the lack of certification of course.

Re: Sony A1 (OLED) and Apple TV 4K issues

Osprey-One — Sat, 28 Apr 2018 20:58:10 GMT

HI, thanks for help, im using HDMI 2 and the Belkin HDMI cable, apple tv in dolby vision and the tv struggles, switch back to SDR and its great - picture fab. on dolby vision and it keeps resettig wiht the TV flicking up the resolution in top left every few seconds. Though had to use HDMI and turn on the enhanced HDMI setting? tried but no improvement.

No problems wiht any other settings or HDMI settings, its only trying to use dolby vision thats a problem.

Appreciate any help!

Re: Sony A1 (OLED) and Apple TV 4K issues

dutchice — Sat, 28 Apr 2018 21:17:51 GMT

A couple of things to verify:

Have you done any cable management to the HDMI cable? Binding it around with all other type of cables? If yes, undo that and let the cable run as free and away as possible from all other cables specially mains.

Enhanced HDMI should be on as you mentioned. But for the sake of testing, could you disconnect also all other devices from all HDMI inputs on the TV? Then use HDMI 3 instead of HDMI 2.

Lastly power cycle the TV by pressing and holding the remote control power button for 6 secs.

Could you also post what are the video signal settings you have at the moment on your ATV 4K? Maybe others can chip in and advice on what they should be on. As I am not very familiar with Apple products.

Mention also how are you testing the Dolby Vision signal? By playing back a DV Netflix/Apple iTunes title?

Re: Sony A1 (OLED) and Apple TV 4K issues

dutchice — Sat, 28 Apr 2018 21:30:34 GMT

Also make sure you follow tips 1, 12 & 13 from this video: https://youtu.be/ZaFhC1UOtNE

Re: Sony A1 (OLED) and Apple TV 4K issues

Pavel_Pr — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 05:30:06 GMT

Hi!

Thanks for writing back. I tried multiple cables, one of them even being a premium Audioquest one. You are right about the Apple TV being connected to HDMI 2.

Thing is that in my case, I can watch the Apple TV for hours and hours, with the picuture being perfect thoughout. This issue would only manifest after a protracted period of standby, and after power-cycling the TV (not the Apple TV), it would temporarily resolve (until the next protracted standby, that is). I am therefore confident that a cable-related root cause can be safely ruled out.

Thanks!

Re: Sony A1 (OLED) and Apple TV 4K issues

dutchice — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 16:19:56 GMT

Hi Pavel,

There is no correlation between the brand of a cable and it's certification. As long as you are not using a certified HDMI cable it will make troubleshooting very hard or else a waist of time. That is the reason why the suggestion is to use either a certified cable or one that is widely known by users of the exact same devices as yours, to be working fine. I believe the HDMI cable that came inside the box of your PS4 is one that is certified. May I ask you to first follow the steps below carefully, then answer a few questions?

Verify the Enhaced HDMI setting to be ON and the Bravia Sync function to be OFF.
Configure the ATV 4K as instructed by tip 1, 12 & 13 from the previous post video.
Disconnect the TV from the mains then disconnect all cables (optical, network, aerials, SAT, HDMI, audio, USB, cable provider CAM, everything) except the certified HDMI cable connnecting the ATV 4K and the TV on HDMI input 2.
Power-cycle the ATV 4K then plug-in your TV to the mains.
Test some 4K HDR playback. Then put the TV in standby mode.

Now please answer the following questions:

Does the problem exhibit itself if you turn the TV back on in less than 1 minute?
Does the problem exhibit itself if you turn the TV back on in 1 - 60 minutes?
Does the problem exhibit itself if you turn the TV back on in over 1 hour?

If the problem does occur at any of the 3 questions above, keep everything the same, except this time swap the HDMI cable from HDMI input 2 to HDMI input 3. Then power cycle BOTH devices, test playback and answer the 3 questions once again for this case.

If the problem does occur also for HDMI input 3 at any of the 3 questions above, then there is one last option remaining. You must do a Factory Data Reset on the TV and the equivalent on the ATV 4K (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202118) then test for the issue again on both HDMI input 2 & 3.

If at any of the steps you notice the issue is resoved, then start plugging your devices back one at a time after retesting for the issue. Let's hope that you can find the culprit here. Otherwise if after all the steps including the reset of both devices you keep having the issue. Then please contact SONY Customer Support, provide them a link to all the steps you have taken on this post. And request a repair service under warranty. You most probably will need a logic board replacement. But a technician can easily test that on-site for you.

Post back your results, we look forward to hear from you.

Re: Sony A1 (OLED) and Apple TV 4K issues

ianwhitehouse — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 19:10:54 GMT

Hi Pavel,

did you manage to get to get to the bottom of this issue?

i think I’m experiencing the same thing. I get sporadic issues with the signalling when running in 4K Dolby Vision mode with Apple TV.

It cannot be the cable as I am able to run in this mode for extended periods of time, even days but then at some point static and or flashing starts to occur following a period on standby. Sometimes this can be cured by a power cycle but other times it cannot.

Re: Sony A1 (OLED) and Apple TV 4K issues

Cinja1099 — Mon, 03 Sep 2018 00:03:43 GMT

Same issue here. Thought I was insane. Has anyone figured this out yet?

Re: Sony A1 (OLED) and Apple TV 4K issues

ianwhitehouse — Mon, 03 Sep 2018 22:01:37 GMT

i don’t have a solution but I do now have more clarity.

Previously the only 4K source I had was the Apple TV but I now also have an Xbox One X.

I had followed the recommendations above and connected the ATV to hdmi 3 and have seemingly not seen this issue.

I have now had the Xbox connected to HDMI 2 with a different cable (that came with the machine) for just over a week and have already seen this issue once. I have not seen this with the TV since it has been connected to HDMI 3.

That pretty much leaves HDMI two as the only common factor and if multiple people are experiencing this I would guess it’s a product defect.

Theres one last thing for me to check as I had been running the ATV defaulted to Dolby Vision for everything on HDMI 2 but have been running it in 4K SDR for the UI but with auto switching bases on the input signal as recommended by HDTVTEST.

I will try running it with Dolby Vision for everything on HDMI 3 from now on to see if I see the problem there and confirm if I see the issue.

If if you could do the same that would help.

Re: Sony A1 (OLED) and Apple TV 4K issues

jwm007 — Tue, 04 Sep 2018 16:15:27 GMT

Can I extend this discussion since I have a KD49XF9005BU tv and the recommended soundbar HTXF900. Adding the Apple tv 4K has caused chaos. I have lost the soundbar from the list of sources, no sound when using YouTube or Netflix or returning to the tv. I turned off tv control and hdmi control of the remote but I got no joy. However the Apple Tv still appeared in the Bravia sync settings. To rectify the lack of sound I had to turn off the tv and bring it back on which gave me sound. I have a sky hd box where I have turned off hdmi control and it doesn't appear and it works Sometimes when I tried to use the Apple tv I got continual refreshes of the screen and even no signal. The Apple tv was attached to HDMI 2 and I have turned on the enhanced ports. To rectify this I had to power off the TV and bring it back on.

In desperation I have removed the apple tv from the tv and all the sound issues have gone away so far -that was 3 days ago. Next week I intend the reinstall the Apple tv 4k and remove the soundbar but from what I am hearing I will get no joy. It does sound a bit silly if the only solution is to attach the apple tv 4k to ports 1 or 4. The tv supports HDR and in a ridiculous fashion Dolby Vision.

Re: Sony A1 (OLED) and Apple TV 4K issues

MsSinkro — Tue, 11 Sep 2018 15:54:23 GMT

hello,

i have the same issue on the HDMI 2 (both

on ATV and PS4 Pro)

no problems on the HDMI 3 so far with my blu-ray DISC (UBP X700)

have you tried to contact sony’s support ? What did they tell you ?

Re: Sony A1 (OLED) and Apple TV 4K issues

Pavel_Pr — Tue, 11 Sep 2018 16:32:36 GMT

Hello everyone,

After trying almost everything, I called Sony's service. The technician ended up ordering the replacement of the TV's logic board, and now the issue is gone and the HDMI 2 port is working properly every time.

Re: Sony A1 (OLED) and Apple TV 4K issues

dutchice — Tue, 11 Sep 2018 16:39:07 GMT

Thank you Pavel for taking time and sharing your solution. We greatly appreciate it since it helps many other in situations just like yourself.

Cheers,
Dutchice

Re: Sony A1 (OLED) and Apple TV 4K issues

MsSinkro — Tue, 11 Sep 2018 16:42:30 GMT

What did you say to explain the problem ?

Did you join video files ?

Re: Sony A1 (OLED) and Apple TV 4K issues

Pavel_Pr — Tue, 11 Sep 2018 17:09:20 GMT

I described the problem identically to the way in which I described it here. And yes, when the technician visited I did show him video footage of this happening.

Re: Sony A1 (OLED) and Apple TV 4K issues

ianwhitehouse — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 10:36:36 GMT

I echo the thanks Pavel_pr.

as an update from me; I haven’t seen the same issue on hdmi 3 yet even with the ATV set to the same configuration as on HDMI2 adding further support to a hardware fault.

I’ll monitor for another week or so and then it’s technition time. I’m not tolerating faulty sockets on a £4K TV!

Re: Sony A1 (OLED) and Apple TV 4K issues

jwm007 — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 12:14:15 GMT

HDMI 3 is not an option for me since its the arc port and I have a soundbar attached to it. I am not convinced the issue is related to a faulty port since this is the second tv with the same issues. The cable I am using is the recomended Belkin. I have contacted Apple and they have raised a case for me. How long it will take them I

don't know. It has been put to me that this 2018 tv could be incompatible with their 2017 apple tv 4k.

Re: Sony A1 (OLED) and Apple TV 4K issues

nickp66 — Wed, 20 Mar 2019 17:08:19 GMT

Hi All

I just added an Apple tv 4k to my XF90 4K Tv & matching soundbar. Now Getting the same problem as everybody else mentions. After powering on the tv thru apple tv hdmi control, the screen flashes on and off several times with the sound bar and tv speakers activating and dectivating. I can only use HDMI 2 for same reason as above as HDMI 3 is the ARC port for the soundbar. Has anybody made any progress, I really hope it isnt a hardware issue ? Never had this problem with my ROKU 4k Roku streaming stick plugged into hdmi 2 but did get lip sync problems instead :(.

Nick