Apple TV 4K Problem

Hi, I have both Apple TV 4K and the previous model Apple TV 4. I noticed on ATV 4K that when I start a stream or switch channel from HDHomeRun, the video won't show up on my TV after 4 to 5 seconds. But on my older ATV 4, the video shows up almost instantly, or less than a second. Why is this slower on a newer and faster ATV 4k? I have updated both to the latest version, still no improvement. Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks much.

Are both using the same kind of network connection (wifi vs ethernet)?

Yes. Both on same Ethernet network. No wifi

Maybe one TV is switching into SDR mode when the player starts? The TV can black out for a few seconds when that happens.

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I did some testing on SDR/HDR after your reply. The TV screen didn't black out. Probably not an SDR issue. In fact, if I change channel, the picture would freeze for 4 to 5 seconds, and the spinning wheels keep spinning until the new channel video shows up. Below pictures are my 3 attempts changing different channels. Could it be transcoding problem on ATV 4K? Just want to understand why my older ATV 4 doesn't experience this slowness issue?

image image image

BTW, I have HDHomeRun Quattro

I'm not sure. I have a 4K ATV and I don't have this issue.

You can try running a speed test to the TV to see what it reports: Frequently Asked Questions

Please see the below photo. I think the speed 249Mb/s with 6ms latency is not bad, it should be able to handle 1 stream.

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What about speedtest to the DVR? http://x.x.x.x:8089/speedtest

856Mb/s with 0.69ms latency

image

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Interesting. The above test was done on my Mac. The result is different on my iPhone. I guess this is a direct speedtest from my iPhone to the DVR.

image

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Your Wi-Fi is slower than your Ethernet, which is expected.

The speeds seem fine so I'm not sure why tuning is slower. Is playing back recordings slower too?

Do you have tuner sharing on or off?

Playing DVR recording is perfectly fine, very fast. No, I don't have tuner sharing on.

You can try it with tuner sharing on to see if there is any difference.

Submit diagnostics from the app after it is slow to tune and I'll check if there is any obvious issue.

Ok. I finally know what the problem is. It's my bad. My ATV 4K's tuner priority had HDHomeRun Extend as the 1st priority. My older ATV4 has the Quattro as the 1st priority. I changed the tuner priority to Quattro, now ATV 4K can tune into the channel almost instantly. Sorry about that.

Regardless, thanks so much for your help anyway!

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Glad you figured it out. So the Extend takes 4-5 seconds to tune? Weird.

Extend transcodes right? That is probably the reason for the time difference.

I have 2 extends, but I don’t transcode and I don’t have this problem.