Turn on Match Content
Open the Apple TV’s video settings
On the Apple TV itself, open Settings, then Video and Audio.Turn on Match Content
Under Match Content, turn on Match Dynamic Range and Match Frame Rate.Leave the menus in SDR
Set Format to 4K SDR. With Match Dynamic Range on, the TV switches into Dolby Vision or HDR for each title that has it and back to SDR afterwards, so the menus keep their normal brightness.
Without Match Frame Rate, a 24 frames-per-second film is shown through pulldown at 60 Hz and pans judder. Spectati has no switch of its own for this: it asks, and tvOS decides based on these two settings.
HDR and surround need a subscription
The free tier direct-plays your 4K remuxes with no transcoding, in SDR. HDR and surround sound are what a subscription adds. On the free tier, Dolby Vision and HDR are tone-mapped to SDR on the Apple TV, and the audio stays stereo where the file has a stereo track.
Which Dolby Vision files play
Profiles 5, 8.1 and 8.4 play as Dolby Vision. Profile 7, the dual-layer format on UHD Blu-ray remuxes, is converted to 8.1 as it plays. HDR10+ passes its dynamic metadata to the TV, and HDR10 and HLG play as themselves.
On a TV without Dolby Vision, a Profile 8 file plays its HDR10 or HLG base layer and Profile 5 is tone-mapped. Profile 8.2 and AV1 Profile 10.2 have no Dolby Vision path on Apple devices and play their base layer.
What reaches the receiver
Dolby Atmos in Dolby Digital Plus reaches the receiver untouched, TrueHD and DTS play as 5.1 Dolby Digital Plus, and TrueHD Atmos and DTS:X keep their height channels on AirPods, HomePods and Atmos receivers.
tvOS cannot send TrueHD or DTS out as a bitstream, so Spectati decodes them. Atmos carried in Dolby Digital Plus, which is how most streaming releases ship it, arrives with its objects intact. DTS and TrueHD on Apple TV compares how other players handle the same tracks.
Spectati renders the objects in a TrueHD Atmos or DTS:X track into speaker channels and plays them as Apple Spatial Audio. By default it does this on every Mac and wherever the output reports Spatial Audio or Dolby Atmos: AirPods, HomePods, and Atmos receivers and soundbars, which Apple TV sends it to as Dolby Atmos. To render for a room you know, set Speakers in Settings to 5.1.2, 5.1.4, 7.1.2, 7.1.4 or 9.1.6. It works on films and shows from every source, comes with a subscription, and replaces the lossless track with a high-bitrate lossy encode.
On live channels, Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital Plus go to the receiver as they are, and anything else plays as PCM.
Checking it worked
Start a Dolby Vision title. The TV should show its own Dolby Vision indicator, and the receiver should read Dolby Atmos or Dolby Digital Plus. A TrueHD or DTS track without Atmos or DTS:X reads as 5.1 Dolby Digital Plus on the receiver, which is expected.
If the TV stays in SDR, go back to Match Dynamic Range. If it switches but the picture looks washed out, check that the TV input’s enhanced HDMI or deep colour setting is on for the port the Apple TV uses.
