Sony A1 (OLED) and Apple TV 4K issues

[Pavel_Pr]

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?

[ianwhitehouse]

Hi

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. 

[jwm007]

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.

[MsSinkro]

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 ?

[Pavel_Pr]

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.

[dutchice]

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

[MsSinkro]

What did you say to explain the problem ?

Did you join video files ?

[Pavel_Pr]

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.

[ianwhitehouse]

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!

[jwm007]

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.

[nickp66]

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