Quick Access to Apple TV Dialogue Enhance Setting?

Channels Apple TV
#1

I've recently switched over to using Apple TV as the client for our main TV. One thing I have discovered is the Enhance Dialogue feature. This seems to work really well for those TV programmes with irritating and unnecessary background "music" which, at least here in the UK, seems to be most of them.

However, for music channels, or TV programs with decent music it isn't beneficial and we need to be able to switch Enhance Dialogue on and off depending on type of program.

So, to the question, is there a quick way to access the Apple TV Enhance Dialogue Options page directly from Channels?

At the moment I have to exit Channels to get to Apple TV Settings then select Audio/Video then Enhance Dialogue, then select on or off, then get back into Channels (which looses any live buffer I had)

Is there is a clever way to quickly toggle it on/off? I do have some IP control now for the Apple TV via pyatv running on my home automation system but haven't ever seen any shortcuts direct to get to specific Settings pages or toggle specific settings.

#2

You can launch the tv Settings app with atvremote, force it to quit and restart it to get it into a predictable state, then push buttons to select the option you want. It takes a bit of time and patience to write a script as the tv can't accept input at full speed so you need to add a bunch of delays until it works reliably.

For example, here's an atvremote script I use to change the audio output device on my tv using Settings. I run it via Shortcuts SSHing into a Mac from my phone.

#!/bin/zsh -efm

setopt nocheckjobs nohup

${0:h}/bin/atvremote \
      --id [...] \
      --companion-credentials [...] \
      launch_app=com.apple.TVSettings delay=1000 home home delay=700 up up home launch_app=com.apple.TVSettings delay=1500 down down down down down select delay=2000 down down down down select delay=1000 down down down select delay=1000 select delay=500 home home delay=700 left select >/dev/null 2>&1 &!
1 Like
#3

Thanks, that's interesting, I will have a look at what I can do along those lines.

I have just found the Accessibility Shortcut feature and thought that might be the perfect solution as a triple click of the back button pops up the chosen selection(s) menu while still in Channels. But, weirdly Dialogue Enhance only appears in the Audio and Video section and isn't in the Accessibility section so can't be chosen as a shortcut.