Apple is giving its Apple TV 4K owners more control over video output.
The tech giant on Tuesday told The Verge that it will add the ability for users to automatically set their chosen video output settings in update tvOS 11.2. Apple stopped short of saying exactly when the software update would be released.
When the Apple TV 4K was released last month, some reviewers and users complained that it would automatically configure the frame rate and high dynamic range (HDR) setting. Frame rates are used to handle motion on the screen so there’s no judder to a picture, and high dynamic range provides a wider spectrum of color to create more vibrant visuals. The problem is that there are multiple refresh rates and high dynamic range settings, and Apple didn’t give users control over deciding which video metric—HDR or refresh rate—would take precedence.
“The Apple TV also automatically preferences refresh rate over any other setting: if your TV supports 60Hz HDR10 but only 30Hz Dolby Vision (like 2016 LG OLEDs), the Apple TV will pick HDR10, even though HDR10 looks worse than Dolby Vision,” The Verge reviewer Nilay Patel said at the time.
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In its software update, Apple is adding a function called “Match Content” that will let users choose the dynamic range and refresh rate they want. However, Apple (AAPL) told the tech news site that the feature will be turned off by default, so users will need to turn it on to get that control.
In most cases, users won’t want to make adjustments to color representation and refresh rate, which might have been part of the reason Apple used default settings. In a statement to The Verge, Apple said that it made the original choice to ensure video content was played as smoothly as possible.
