HDR/Dolby Vision not activating on TV when playing HDR File - Apple TV

[jon_ 27]

2 hours ago, Geordie said:

I’m not entirely sure I understand but Apple’s native AVPlayer does an excellent job tone mapping when required. 

If any format conversion is needed - eg. playing an HDR mkv file using the Apple native player, then the server will change the container to HLS, but also tonemap it down to non-HDR as part of the process, even if the client supports HDR. 

[Geordie 11]

1 hour ago, jon_ said:

If any format conversion is needed - eg. playing an HDR mkv file using the Apple native player, then the server will change the container to HLS, but also tonemap it down to non-HDR as part of the process, even if the client supports HDR. 

Well that definitely shouldn't happen because AVPlayer is capable of tone mapping on the fly when required. Apple's iOS/tvOS EDR tone mapping is top notch.

I couldn't reproduce this behaviour on my system with the native player on Emby because all the H264/HDR10 files I have wouldn't play in mkv or even mp4 .

It just says no compatible streams found which I suspect is due to Emby's device profiles preventing playback, not actual platform limitations.

 

Interestingly though from my testing today: HDR/Dolby Vision seems to be partially broken on tvOS 26. 

QuickTime player on my MacBook correctly detects videos as HDR10/DV with both mp4 and HLS.

When I AirPlay them from macOS QuickTime player to tvOS 26, it gets tone mapped to SDR. Before tvOS 26, the TV would switch to HDR/Dolby Vision.

Even air playing home videos shot on my iPhone 15 in Dolby Vision (mov files) still plays as SDR when air played from the iPhone. This again wasn't the case before iOS/tvOS 26.

I wonder if this is what you're experiencing.

 

Looks like I'm not alone in this: https://www.reddit.com/r/appletv/comments/1nj4ib7/tvos_26_4k_60_fps_dolby_vision_video_playback/

 

[jon_ 27]

14 hours ago, Geordie said:

I wonder if this is what you're experiencing.

No, this is not what I am experiencing. 

Play an incompatible HDR file such an an mkv file via Emby, and the Emby server will convert the file to an HLS container (due to AppleTV not not being able to direct play mkv). 

During this process, the *emby server* will also tonemap the file to SDR:

If instead of doing this, the server remuxed the file (by doing whatever equivalent of ffmpeg -i source.mkv -c copy -tag:v hvc1 -strict unofficial output.mp4 is required), rather than transcoding it, then AppleTV would be able to playback HDR content properly. 

 

[vdatanet 1617]

3 minutes ago, jon_ said:

Play an incompatible HDR file such an an mkv file via Emby, and the Emby server will convert the file to an HLS container (due to AppleTV not not being able to direct play mkv). 

HLS streams using HEVC on Apple devices must be delivered in fragmented MP4 (fMP4) containers rather than MPEG-2 TS. In addition, each fMP4 segment carrying HEVC video needs to be properly identified with the vtag:hvc1 (or equivalently the hvc1 four-character code) so that Apple’s playback stack can correctly recognize and decode the HEVC video track. Failure to use fMP4 containers or to tag the segments with vtag:hvc1 may result in playback incompatibility on Apple platforms. By the way, I have been pointing this out for quite a few years on multiple occasions, and it has consistently been ignored. As of today, in order to play HEVC MKV content in Emby on Apple devices, we can only either use the MPV-based player or remux the MKV to MP4 with the appropriate hvc1 tag, preferably the MPV player since native HEVC MP4 playback often suffers from buffering issues.

Therefore, when using Emby it is not possible to simply remux HEVC for delivery over MPEG-2 TS, and the video must be transcoded in order to be distributed using MPEG-2 TS.

[jon_ 27]

2 minutes ago, vdatanet said:

Therefore, when using Emby it is not possible to simply remux HEVC for delivery over MPEG-2 TS, and the video must be transcoded in order to be distributed using MPEG-2 TS.

I think we are both saying the same thing here - currently how Emby handles mkv files server side when used with AppleTV is not "optimal", but could be made "much better" with some changes to how such files are remuxed on the fly... 

[Geordie 11]

20 hours ago, jon_ said:

No, this is not what I am experiencing. 

Play an incompatible HDR file such an an mkv file via Emby, and the Emby server will convert the file to an HLS container (due to AppleTV not not being able to direct play mkv). 

During this process, the *emby server* will also tonemap the file to SDR:

If instead of doing this, the server remuxed the file (by doing whatever equivalent of ffmpeg -i source.mkv -c copy -tag:v hvc1 -strict unofficial output.mp4 is required), rather than transcoding it, then AppleTV would be able to playback HDR content properly. 

 

You don't need to worry too much about that. Once Emby starts to remux instead of transcode, any tone mapping will be done by Apple's AVPlayer instead. With a correctly built HLS manifest, AVPlayer will NOT tone map if the hardware supports HDR. 

[jon_ 27]

2 hours ago, Geordie said:

You don't need to worry too much about that. Once Emby starts to remux instead of transcode, any tone mapping will be done by Apple's AVPlayer instead. With a correctly built HLS manifest, AVPlayer will NOT tone map if the hardware supports HDR. 

Yes - this is the point I am making. The problem is with the Emby server, not the client / hardware...

[Geordie 11]

3 hours ago, jon_ said:

Yes - this is the point I am making. The problem is with the Emby server, not the client / hardware...

It’s all linked actually. The Emby app on the Apple TV controls the server. 

If it tells the server that it can’t yet handle HEVC or HDR, the server will respond by transcoding and tone mapping. 

This is controlled by something called a “device profile” (a list of what formats the device supports).

The server will probably need to be updated to remux differently but also the player’s device profile will need to be updated to reflect that it’s now able to accept unaltered HEVC/HDR.

Here’s hoping the devs update this so it works more like Jellyfin and to a lesser extent like Plex.

[WhiteStig 2]

On 11/19/2025 at 3:30 PM, Luke said:

@WhiteStigthis would be a sign that the Apple TV doesn't support it natively, no?

I don’t think so. I played the same file on plex and it worked without transcoding. 

[Deihmos 169]

7 minutes ago, WhiteStig said:

I don’t think so. I played the same file on plex and it worked without transcoding. 

Did you enable the old video player in the settings? If not, the player is mpv.

If you have a mac, you can use subler to get the right format. If not, you can use ffmpeg with the correct settings. 

[WhiteStig 2]

3 minutes ago, Deihmos said:

Did you enable the old video player in the settings? If not, the player is mpv.

If you have a mac, you can use subler to get the right format. If not, you can use ffmpeg with the correct settings. 

You mean native? Below is what I posted before.  Luke had said the containers were more flexible now so I expected it to work without additional subler and ffmpeg processes  

Not exactly. I'm seeing a bit of the opposite behavior in practice.  The native player is failing to direct play and converting it.
Stream
MP4 (78 mbps)
HLS (116 mbps)
Converting video to compatible codec
Recovering from playback error

The MPV player is not transcoding the MKV according to the server but it still feels like it has the "green tint" or just in general darker than it should be in some scenes.

[Deihmos 169]

42 minutes ago, WhiteStig said:

You mean native? Below is what I posted before.  Luke had said the containers were more flexible now so I expected it to work without additional subler and ffmpeg processes  

Not exactly. I'm seeing a bit of the opposite behavior in practice.  The native player is failing to direct play and converting it.
Stream
MP4 (78 mbps)
HLS (116 mbps)
Converting video to compatible codec
Recovering from playback error

The MPV player is not transcoding the MKV according to the server but it still feels like it has the "green tint" or just in general darker than it should be in some scenes.

Yes, native enables the AVPlayer, but since the app hasn’t been updated in almost a year, it doesn’t work very well.

The file should play without transcoding if compatible with the native player. Change remote or local playback from auto to the highest setting if you have not tried that before. 

Edited December 8, 2025 by Deihmos

[Luke 42077]

4 hours ago, Deihmos said:

Yes, native enables the AVPlayer, but since the app hasn’t been updated in almost a year, it doesn’t work very well.

The file should play without transcoding if compatible with the native player. Change remote or local playback from auto to the highest setting if you have not tried that before. 

Hi, what app hasn't been updated in almost a year? we have been releasing an update every 1-2 months all throughout this year.

[Deihmos 169]

5 minutes ago, Luke said:

Hi, what app hasn't been updated in almost a year? we have been releasing an update every 1-2 months all throughout this year.

I was referring to Plex. The poster mentioned the video played fine there, but the app doesn’t use AVPlayer unless you enable it. By default, it uses MPV unless you switch to the old video player. There is no auto setting like Emby.

Edited December 9, 2025 by Deihmos