SPOTLIGHT Apple TV4k TIPS, TRICKS and TRAPS

[LuvMyQuad]

When playing the Apple box yesterday, I was comparing selections from George Harrison's ATMP stream to the blueray (more on that at a later time). So I was switching between sources, quite a bit. Every time I switched away from the Apple TV input, the Apple box must sense it and it pauses playback. Not something I expected. And yes, I have turned off the CEC for all my devices.

Even weirder is this strange oscillating effect I got a couple times when resuming playback. It is especially noticeable with vocals. Like the vocal volume is increasing and decreasing every half second or so. Its quite annoying. It has happened before as well with other tracks, but it isnt a constant thing. To stop it, I just stop playback. Play something else in a stereo format for a few seconds, then come back to it, and its gone. Sometimes just pausing and restarting playback stops it, and sometimes not.

Anyone else ever have this oscillating issue?

 

[Ephi82]

When playing the Apple box yesterday, I was comparing selections from George Harrison's ATMP stream to the blueray (more on that at a later time). So I was switching between sources, quite a bit. Every time I switched away from the Apple TV input, the Apple box must sense it and it pauses playback. Not something I expected. And yes, I have turned off the CEC for all my devices.

Even weirder is this strange oscillating effect I got a couple times when resuming playback. It is especially noticeable with vocals. Like the vocal volume is increasing and decreasing every half second or so. Its quite annoying. It has happened before as well with other tracks, but it isnt a constant thing. To stop it, I just stop playback. Play something else in a stereo format for a few seconds, then come back to it, and its gone. Sometimes just pausing and restarting playback stops it, and sometimes not.

Anyone else ever have this oscillating issue?

Don’t know if this is your problem, but the Apple Music app has something called “Sound Check”. Is for headphone users and it dramatically reduces dynamic range and loudness to protect ears. It really does weird stuff when playing back. Turn it OFF ! Second thing to check is the audio quality setting. If you don’t have a limit on your data, set if for lossless or hi res lossless for best sound quality.

 

[Ephi82]

No not a delay. Once a track is done, the next tracks intro is partially missing. Just like with the start of the first track, you need to wait a few seconds into the next track then hit the back button to start it over. The intro will then be intact.

I’m lovin APPLE TV and APPLE Music but this kind of thing is frustrating. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve noticed a return of this bug….frustrating.

 

[Cheezmo]

Don’t know if this is your problem, but the Apple Music app has something called “Sound Check”. Is for headphone users and it dramatically reduces dynamic range and loudness to protect ears. It really does weird stuff when playing back. Turn it OFF ! Second thing to check is the audio quality setting. If you don’t have a limit on your data, set if for lossless or hi res lossless for best sound quality.

Do you have a source for this? I've never heard anyone say that Sound Check reduces dynamic range. Everything I've read says it is simply a volume adjustment based on a computed value similar to ReplayGain.

Maybe you are thinking of the "Reduce Loud Sounds" feature, which is described as "Your iPhone can analyze headphone audio and reduce any sound that is over a set decibel level". But even that doesn't necessarily imply compression, just a volume adjustment.

 

[Ephi82]

Do you have a source for this? I've never heard anyone say that Sound Check reduces dynamic range. Everything I've read says it is simply a volume adjustment based on a computed value similar to ReplayGain.

Maybe you are thinking of the "Reduce Loud Sounds" feature, which is described as "Your iPhone can analyze headphone audio and reduce any sound that is over a set decibel level". But even that doesn't necessarily imply compression, just a volume adjustment.

Sound Check via Apple

Sound Check doesn't go in and modify your music files on a molecular level, so to speak. All your music is still the same.

Instead, the iPhone scans the song to see how loud it is, and stores that information in what is called its "ID3 tag."

When Sound Check is on, your phone automatically reads and adjusts the playback volume based on how loud the ID3 tag says the song normally is. Conversely, when Sound Check is off, the ID3 data is ignored, and no volume adjustments are made.


my comment: When this is on when I listen, dynamically mixed materials starts out normal for a second, and the the algorithm kicks in and dramatically reduces the volume of the playback. I may not have used the term “ dynamic range” appropriately, as this seems to me more of an automated volume reduction, but one of the great pleasures in listening to dynamic recordings is the ability to turn them up without listener fatigue. One can choose to keep this feature on, but for my ears, I think it sounds crappy.

 

[Cheezmo]

When this is on when I listen, dynamically mixed materials starts out normal for a second, and the the algorithm kicks in and dramatically reduces the volume of the playback. I may not have used the term “ dynamic range” appropriately, as this seems to me more of an automated volume reduction, but one of the great pleasures in listening to dynamic recordings is the ability to turn them up without listener fatigue.

Dynamic Range is a trigger for some folks so you have to be careful how you use the term!

Volume adjustment is all it is. Thanks for clarifying.

 

[marcb]

Do you have a source for this? I've never heard anyone say that Sound Check reduces dynamic range. Everything I've read says it is simply a volume adjustment based on a computed value similar to ReplayGain.

Maybe you are thinking of the "Reduce Loud Sounds" feature, which is described as "Your iPhone can analyze headphone audio and reduce any sound that is over a set decibel level". But even that doesn't necessarily imply compression, just a volume adjustment.

FWIW, I tried Sound Check a few months ago. It sure didn’t sound to me like it only changed the overall amplitude of tracks. My recollection is I heard something other than just an automated volume knob.

But maybe I was smoking banana peels that day or something. I guess I need to try it again because, among several things, when a bonus stereo track plays in an otherwise surround album, the difference is often significant.

 

[Cheezmo]

But maybe I was smoking banana peels that day or something. I guess I need to try it again because, among several things, when a bonus stereo track plays in an otherwise surround album, the difference is often significant.

Supposedly when you play an album Sound Check does not adjust the tracks individually so it may not help with that. It really only should help when shuffling.

 

[Ephi82]

Supposedly when you play an album Sound Check does not adjust the tracks individually so it may not help with that. It really only should help when shuffling.

Cheez, why don’t you try it? The sq is better and there are no weird artifacts. It affects it for all types of playback not just shuffle.

 

[Cheezmo]

Cheez, why don’t you try it? The sq is better and there are no weird artifacts. It affects it for all types of playback not just shuffle.

I use Sound Check all the time (AppleTV, HomePod mini and iPhone).

 

[marcb]

Supposedly when you play an album Sound Check does not adjust the tracks individually so it may not help with that. It really only should help when shuffling.

I rarely - if ever - shuffle.

I tried it with a surround album with some stereo tracks - and there was no doubt in my mind at the time it was doing something else to the tracks other than just riding the gain at the beginning of each track.

But I’m willing to give it another shot because, in theory, it could be a helpful tool.

Edit: Actually the more I think about it, even if it works only as a volume knob for each track, for the way I listen to music, it just substitutes one problem for a different problem. For instance, I don’t want to be listening to an album (or even a playlist of some sort) and have the volume of a ballad be normalized to the same average volume as a heavy tune.

 

[Cheezmo]

I never liked Apple's method of determining sound volume so never felt Sound Check worked very well until I used a 3rd party application (iVolume) to set the iTunes volume normalization level. That doesn't work with streaming of course, but I saw somewhere (the dynamic range day stream?) that Apple is changing its algorithms to more of the industry standard (R128?) so it might be improving but maybe not on all devices yet.

 

[Ephi82]

I use Sound Check all the time (AppleTV, HomePod mini and iPhone).

Ha, I meant, don’t use it!

 

[LeperLord]

If i change the order of songs or add songs while playing the entire thing crashes and clears out my queue.

Very aggravating, esp if i have put together a great queue that may have taken an hour, and more than 1 hour

i have wasted too many hours on the phone with Apple who cannot fix this

Anyone else here? Advice?

 

[Cheezmo]

If i change the order of songs or add songs while playing the entire thing crashes and clears out my queue.

Very aggravating, esp if i have put together a great queue that may have taken an hour, and more than 1 hour

i have wasted too many hours on the phone with Apple who cannot fix this

Anyone else here? Advice?

Make a playlist. Relax, listen to it, don't mess with it while you listen to it.

 

[Ephi82]

Does anyone else think that Apple TV is a wildly changeable and weird acting piece of kit? I have had two issues that are constant, yet changeable. 1) truncation of the first second of track playbacks and 2) the Apple TV turning itself back on uncommanded.

I have followed each and every bit of advice on these issues, and no matter what, they go away, and then come back, without apparent cause or reason or solution.

The track truncation was fixed with a sw upgrade a couple of months ago, but it is now back with a vengeance on Apple Music on Apple TV, IPhone and my IPAD. WHAT IS GOING ON?

As far as the Apple tv turning itself back on, I have done numerous things to correct, and it’s fine for a while, only to return after a while? If I hard restart the unit, or do a sw update, it seemingly cures it, only to return? What?

 

[perzon57]

Does anyone else think that Apple TV is a wildly changeable and weird acting piece of kit? I have had two issues that are constant, yet changeable. 1) truncation of the first second of track playbacks and 2) the Apple TV turning itself back on uncommanded.

I have followed each and every bit of advice on these issues, and no matter what, they go away, and then come back, without apparent cause or reason or solution.

The track truncation was fixed with a sw upgrade a couple of months ago, but it is now back with a vengeance on Apple Music on Apple TV, IPhone and my IPAD. WHAT IS GOING ON?

As far as the Apple tv turning itself back on, I have done numerous things to correct, and it’s fine for a while, only to return after a while? If I hard restart the unit, or do a sw update, it seemingly cures it, only to return? What?

I have none of these problems with my ATV4K.

 

[Cheezmo]

Pretty sure the AppleTV doesn't truncate the first second of track playback. Many AVRs do when switching modes (bit rate, PCM to Atmos, etc.) so it is not really under their control, they could pad tracks with silence in the mode, but people would complain gapless doesn't work, etc. I'm not sure there is a good solution.

My AppleTV never turns on by itself because I never turn it "off". There is really no such thing, it just disables the output, so what is the point.

 

[GOS]

My Apple TV/Apple Music, does truncate each song....when I advance manually to next song. Every single time. If I just let it play, uninterrupted, it doesn't.

 

[Cheezmo]

My Apple TV/Apple Music, does truncate each song....when I advance manually to next song. Every single time. If I just let it play, uninterrupted, it doesn't.

Listen with bluetooth headphones directly from the AppleTV (not through the AVR). If it does it then, the AppleTV is doing it otherwise the AVR is doing it (not to say the AppleTV isn't interrupting the datastream in a way that could cause the AVR to do it).

I'm really not trying to say it isn't Apple's fault, it is just that the technical aspects of why it is happening are likely an interaction between the AppleTV and some AVRs.