troubleshoot – Apple TV Hacks

My Apple TV has video issues – The Apple TV video troubleshooting guide

Roshan — Thu, 07 May 2015 23:55:52 +0000

You are here probably because your Apple TV’s visual output to the television is not as expected. This can be due to a variety of reasons and manifests in different ways. So, before you take your Apple TV to an Apple Store for repair, try this guide to learn how you can fix some common video issues with it.

Case 1. My TV screen is completely black, frozen at a frame or is blurred

Step A. Check the television set, cables and peripherals

Verify if the TV’s source is set to your Apple TV HDMI connection. If not, refer your television manual and change it using your remote. If this is the first time you are firing up the Apple TV, check if your HDTV matches Apple’s minimum resolution requirements. Don’t worry, almost all of them do.
Inspect if the Apple TV power cable and HDMI cables are undamaged and properly inserted.
If you have cables going through home theater receivers, splitters, repeaters or switches, try bypassing them and connect directly to the television. If the video issue resolves now, the defect is in the peripheral used and you can get it corrected.
The HDMI cable you are using might be unidirectional. So try flipping the connection between Apple TV and television. If available, try using another HDMI cable also.

Step B. Troubleshoot the Apple TV

Verify if the Apple TV is getting power. Press any button on your Remote and see if a white light responds at the face of the Apple TV. If not, check the power cable and try using a different outlet.
If Apple TV is getting power, try rebooting it. You can do this easily with your remote by pressing and holding (Menu + Down) buttons for 6 seconds. Wait till Apple TV restarts and check if the issue is resolved.
Now let’s try changing the Apple TV output resolution. Press and hold (Menu + Up) buttons for 6 seconds. Apple TV will now start cycling between various resolutions for around 20 seconds each (image above). Whenever you see the display come up, just press the Play button to set it as the native resolution.

Case 2. My Television is displaying wrong or inverted colors

Step A. Check your television settings
Most HDTV have different picture modes like Dynamic, Vivid etc which can interfere with the true color of the output. Refer the television manual to change this mode to Natural using your TV remote.

Step B. Change Apple TV output settings
Go to Settings > Audio & Video > HDMI Output. You will see a menu: Auto, YCbCr, RGB High, RGB Low.

Use the arrow buttons to check out the options one by one. Give a few seconds after selecting an option for changes to get previewed.

Case 3. My TV shows a stretched film or it isn’t filling up the screen

Apple TV natively outputs content in 16:9 aspect ratio. So as long as you have a HDTV, you should be able to see contents in full screen. You can refer the user manual of your television to set your display to 16:9 if it isn’t already.

It is worth noting that when you’re AirPlay mirroring your iPhone or iPad screen, or while playing some movies in non-HD formats, it is normal to see black bars on top or sides of the TV display.

Case 4. I am getting an error “This content requires HDCP for playback”

“HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) is a form of digital copy protection that requires compatibility between your Apple TV and high-definition TV.” So this error might be due to problems with your HDMI cable or HDTV as Apple TV supports HDCP out of the box.

Step 1. First try putting your Apple TV to sleep. Go to Settings > Sleep Now
Wait for about 10 seconds and press the Select button to wake it up again.
Step 2. Check and install if your HDTV has a firmware update.
Step 3. Use a different HDMI cable like the Apple HDMI to HDMI cable.

More how-tos:

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The post My Apple TV has video issues – The Apple TV video troubleshooting guide appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

My Apple TV has no sound – The Apple TV audio troubleshooting guide

Roshan — Tue, 28 Apr 2015 17:54:38 +0000

If you are having trouble with Apple TV’s audio output, go through these basic fixes before you take it to the Apple Store for repair.

Case A. My Apple TV has no sound / the audio is stuck during playback

Step 1. Basic Apple TV audio troubleshooting

Check if the volume on your television or receiver is reduced or set to mute. Use the TV or Receiver remote and refer their manual to enable sound.
Check if the connection between your Apple TV to television/home theater is secure and they are connected to power.
Verify that the source on your audio receiver is set to the Apple TV input. Check the receiver’s or speaker’s manual to find out how to change the source.
If none of these helped, try rebooting your Apple TV. Just press and hold (Menu + Down) buttons on the Apple remote for 6 seconds and your Apple TV will restart.

Step B. Troubleshoot the Apple TV audio peripherals

This step is only for those users who have a third party home-theater set, audio receiver or speaker set up as the Apple TV sound output. In this case, you are probably using the optical audio output from the Apple TV.
Try disconnecting the optical digital audio port and connect the Apple TV directly to your television via HDMI only.
If the audio issue is now resolved, your audio peripheral or the optical audio cable is defective. Contact the corresponding product’s manufacturer for support.

Step C. Troubleshooting the Apple TV audio settings

On the Apple TV, Go to Settings > Audio & Video
Change the Audio Output setting from Auto to 16 bit.
Change the Dolby Digital from Auto/On to Off.

Case B. I cannot hear the sounds while navigating Apple TV menus

If Apple TV is playing the audio for all video content and music but not the sound effects while navigating the menus, this is just an issue of faulty audio Settings.

Go to Settings > Audio & Video > Sound Effects and turn it On.

Case C. During AirPlay, I can see the video but there’s no audio

1. Make sure the audio is not muted on your iPhone/iPad nor on your television set.

2. Check if your iPhone is on silent/vibrate mode. If so, toggle the side switch to turn it into ring mode.

More how-tos:

Be sure to follow Apple TV Hacks on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ for all the latest Apple TV-related news.

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How to use any third party remote to control your Apple TV

Roshan — Thu, 26 Mar 2015 17:59:43 +0000

It’s been too long since we started whining about the tiny Apple TV remote, on how it gets misplaced easily and how it is too small to be used comfortably. But did you know that you can use any of your existing remotes – like the one for your TV set, the one with your cable set-top box or any other third-party remote, to control your Apple TV?

Yes, basically all your remotes including the Apple Remote use infrared waves to communicate with their target device. And for the same reason, these devices can learn each others’ IR codes to be used among themselves. We are here to show you exactly how to do that, so that you can control all your media devices (including the Apple TV) with a single remote.

If are reading this because your Apple TV Remote isn’t workrng propery, you might want to check out our Apple Remote troubleshooting guide.

A. Which remote should I choose?

Any of your remotes will work with the Apple TV. Also, by doing this, you do not unpair the Apple TV Remote nor do you make the new remote unusable with its own device. So, choosing a remote is purely based on your needs.

If you are just looking for a larger and more handleable remote, you can get a new third party remote. But if you’re like me and are more concerned with the convenience part, chose your HDTV remote. Hence, I can just turn on the TV, choose Apple TV as my source and control the ATV, all via a single remote.

You can also use an old remote which is just lying around, or the remote that comes with the set-top box, DVD player, VCR or even a Wii U gamepad. I believe there are watches available with infrared blasters!

B. Setting up the new remote to use with the Apple TV

Unlike what it sounds like, the remote-learning process is pretty easy and takes only around a minute to do. Once set up, your dream of one-remote entertainment is true forever.

Note: This step requires you to use your original Apple TV remote. So if you are following this guide because you lost your Apple Remote, go through the next step (C) before continuing.

On the Apple TV
Go to Settings > General > Remote > Learn Remote. Select Start.

On the new remote
Standard remotes usually have two sets of navigation buttons. One set which controls the device it is supposed to and the other set, which we mysteriously wondered about before. Now is the time to use them.

Choose a set of buttons on the remote which doesn’t control any other major functions and those which you are less likely to use. If you bought a new third-party remote, you can of course select any set of buttons that makes sense.

Apple TV will guide you through the steps of learning each button. You’ll need to press and hold the navigation and selection buttons (6 in total) as you are directed, but this shouldn’t take long. You can name the configuration for easy identification and also set up additional play back controls if you like.

That is it. Your Apple TV can now be controlled with the new remote!

C. What if I lost my original Apple TV Remote?

Don’t worry, we do have a solution for that, too. Download the iOS Remote app from the App Store on your iPhone or iPad.

If you had enabled Home Sharing on your Apple TV before the remote got lost, you can just use the app directly over WiFi to configure your new third party remote.

But with Home Sharing turned off, you will need to connect the Apple TV to the router via an Ethernet cable, to use the app. After the set up is complete, you can switch back to WiFi and start using the new remote.

D. I want to make changes to the new remote’s configuration

Just head over to Settings > General > Remote > ‘new remote’s name’, to make changes to the configuration. Here you can rename, delete and change the initial buttons.

The best part is that you can even add separate buttons for Fast Forward, Rewind, Next Chapter and more. You will also be able to add more third-party remotes for the Apple TV.

E. Troubleshooting the third party remote learning process

“No Signal Received. Check Remote” error message
This might be because you took more than 20 seconds to press and hold the desired button. Try to do the actions quicker next time.

This might also be because the extra buttons on the remote might be locked by the manufacturer. You can consult the user manual of the remote to find out how to unlock and use them.

“Button Already Learnt” error message
Check if you are mistakenly using the same button twice. If not, this means that a remote which is already paired with Apple TV has a similar Infra red code as yours.

You can goto the Settings > General > Remote menu to unlearn other remotes to make your new one work. Else, you can of course use a different button.

Be sure to follow Apple TV Hacks on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ for all the latest Apple TV-related news.

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