Apple TV SDR setup

[Jutsch80 9]

There has been a lot of talk about issues with HDR content on AppleTV but my question is for a setup with an AppleTV 4K and a TV both in SDR mode, mainly since HDR doesn’t really make a difference on my LCD TV with what feels like 5 dimming zones. 
 

3 Questions

1. Are there any direct play restrictions for SDR content on the AppleTV app and which player (afaik there’s 2) should be used?

2. When the source material is HDR, which setting (on client and server side) is best to transcode it to SDR automatically while still keep SDR content to always play directly?

3. if deciding for Infuse instead, is possible to convert HDR to SDR on the server side or is it then all direct play?

 

thanks in advance 

[Luke 42077]

Quote

1. Are there any direct play restrictions for SDR content on the AppleTV app and which player (afaik there’s 2) should be used?

Hi, generally no. I would leave the player set to Auto for the best experience.

Quote

2. When the source material is HDR, which setting (on client and server side) is best to transcode it to SDR automatically while still keep SDR content to always play directly?

3. if deciding for Infuse instead, is possible to convert HDR to SDR on the server side or is it then all direct play?

Generally it is all direct play. Does your TV support HDR ?

[Jutsch80 9]

On 11/17/2025 at 5:19 PM, Luke said:

Does your TV support HDR ?

In theory it does but it has almost no advantage to SDR since it’s an LCD with only a handful of dimming zones. Especially at night HDR is mostly annoying to me because for that time I have a rather dimmed picture setting and HDR pushes the brightness up as much as it can. 

Thats why one thing I’d appreciate the most would be an option to just do tone mapping while keeping resolution and bitrate in the transcode. 
 

A but I noticed with the tvOS app is tho, that while it does frame rate matching, the playback often falls out of sync with the signal after pausing a video. If that is a persistent issue I have no choice than using Infuse anyway and the whole transcoding topic is irrelevant then

Edited November 20, 2025 by Jutsch80

[Luke 42077]

Hi we do have tone mapping in the app via software, although there might not cases of it not getting used.

[Luke 42077]

Can we please look at an example?

[Jutsch80 9]

On 11/21/2025 at 12:39 AM, Luke said:

Can we please look at an example?

Hard to replicate. Especially since I moved to Infuse permanently now. There is still a weird issue with audio sync but I’m going to address that in a separate thread (maybe one already exists, I’ll see) 

[Luke 42077]

OK, can you please give it another try? Thanks !