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?

[rooobb]

@nickp66 it is not a theory...hdmi 2.0 is not capable to manage the bit stream needed to manage both 4k HDR  10/12 bit 50/60fps AND rgb or yuv 4:4:4. It is written  in the specification.  The only strange thing that was noted by others on ps4 pro console is that hdmi arc port seems to be able to manage more than the expected 18mbps so it sometimes works even with rgb on.

Give it a try and see if it solves the problem. I trust you won't be able to notice the compression (keeping in mind that movies do use yuv 4:2:0 chroma)

[dutchice]

Hi@nickp66,

I had the impression that my post was very clear as to the setup you must use. But since I repeatedly see you mentioning the flashing issue is not solved, I post again the workaround specific to your case in order to avoid the issue.

Use of your TV and Apple TV with a Sound Bar

Connect your Sound Bar to the HDMI 3 (ARC) input on the TV and connect the ATV using a so-called 'CEC-Killer' adapter to the HDMI 2 input on the TV. You must then control the TV and the ATV with their own dedicated remote controls.

Follow the setup as above and the settings detailed in the video link of my previous post and hopefully you should have no issues any longer.

Cheers,

Dutchice 

[nickp66]

ok, last post... on the flashing issue.

I have set up my apple tv and sony tv and soundbar exactly as described with the lindy CEC killer (thks @dutchice )

Initally the problem was still there, I think because the apple tv remote has infrared and was switching on the tv.  I went into apple tv setting and switched this off as well.  Now the flashing seems to be fixed.  I just need to turn on the tv first , then the apple tv.  When I click sleep  on Apple TV I no longer have message refering to other devices and must switch off tv as well with tv remote .  This is obviously a work around but i guess its the best solution under the circumstances. 

Thanks everybody for your patience, hopefully others will benefit from this post in the future.

[dutchice]

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

Cheers,
Dutchice