Deet
Novice Member
Gosh. You wouldn't believe this but I'm quite a techie (work in the computing industry), am a prodigious reader before I buy and generally like to think I know what I'm doing. But I am well confused now.
My objective:
I have three devices (supposedly) capable of outputting 4K HDR:
a PS4 Pro
an Xbox One S
an Apple TV 4K
I also have Sky HD but have not bothered with their Q service (and probably won't).
I am a Netflix subscriber, generally watching that via the Apple TV
My objective is simple. I'd like to watch content at the best possible quality which means 4K HDR for the devices except Sky.
Until today:
I have a Sony STR-DN860 into which I had connected all devices (high speed HDMI). Then a single HDMI output from the DN860 into my TV which was a Samsung 4K enabled (but not HDR) TV. I got good 4K but obviously no HDR.
Today:
I have a 'significant' birthday so my better half asked me if I wanted a new HDR TV (partly I think because she wanted to recycle the Samsung to our daughter ). So after a reasonable amount of research I took delivery today of a Sony Bravia KD49XF9005BU.
It was a while before I figured out (I think) that the Sony DN860 won't support 4K HDR. No matter I thought, I will just have HDMI in to the TV for PS4, Xbox and Apple TV—after all, the TV has four HDMI slots. I can then use the ARC HDMI cable to push audio back to the DN860 (I wasn't sure this would work, but it appears to from early messing).
The issue:
Not all HDMI ports are born equal, even on the new TV. So I can get the PS4 in glorious HDR on HDMI2. I have enable 'enhanced HDMI' in the menus but try as I might I can't get Apple TV to think it has an HDR capable TV on HDMI 1 or 4 (I am using 3—which is the ARC one from the 860 to the TV to get the audio back from the TV to the receiver). I haven't yet tried swapping out the PS4 and Apple TV in the back of the telly because even though I reckon this would get the Apple TV working I then have the same issue with the PS4. And then I still have the Xbox to worry about.
So my question (which I have attempted to self-answer in a moment) is how do I get the three HDR devices all playing nicely with my receiver (I am happy with its sound and don't want to spend £00s on a new one if I can avoid it) and the new telly?
My best option at the moment, subject to what the clever people here might think, is to order a suitable HDMI 4K HDR splitter (something like https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B06WV5YJ6H/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) and have my inputs going into that, and that going just into HDMI 2 on the TV. I'd then use the existing ARC connection to feed audio back.
It's messier than I hoped for but it seems the splitter recognises whichever device is switched on and feeding it a signal so I won't have to mess around manually selecting inputs. But is this the best approach to do what I want?
Sorry, a long post. And this is from someone who thinks they know what they're doing!
Thanks.
David
My objective:
I have three devices (supposedly) capable of outputting 4K HDR:
a PS4 Pro
an Xbox One S
an Apple TV 4K
I also have Sky HD but have not bothered with their Q service (and probably won't).
I am a Netflix subscriber, generally watching that via the Apple TV
My objective is simple. I'd like to watch content at the best possible quality which means 4K HDR for the devices except Sky.
Until today:
I have a Sony STR-DN860 into which I had connected all devices (high speed HDMI). Then a single HDMI output from the DN860 into my TV which was a Samsung 4K enabled (but not HDR) TV. I got good 4K but obviously no HDR.
Today:
I have a 'significant' birthday so my better half asked me if I wanted a new HDR TV (partly I think because she wanted to recycle the Samsung to our daughter ). So after a reasonable amount of research I took delivery today of a Sony Bravia KD49XF9005BU.
It was a while before I figured out (I think) that the Sony DN860 won't support 4K HDR. No matter I thought, I will just have HDMI in to the TV for PS4, Xbox and Apple TV—after all, the TV has four HDMI slots. I can then use the ARC HDMI cable to push audio back to the DN860 (I wasn't sure this would work, but it appears to from early messing).
The issue:
Not all HDMI ports are born equal, even on the new TV. So I can get the PS4 in glorious HDR on HDMI2. I have enable 'enhanced HDMI' in the menus but try as I might I can't get Apple TV to think it has an HDR capable TV on HDMI 1 or 4 (I am using 3—which is the ARC one from the 860 to the TV to get the audio back from the TV to the receiver). I haven't yet tried swapping out the PS4 and Apple TV in the back of the telly because even though I reckon this would get the Apple TV working I then have the same issue with the PS4. And then I still have the Xbox to worry about.
So my question (which I have attempted to self-answer in a moment) is how do I get the three HDR devices all playing nicely with my receiver (I am happy with its sound and don't want to spend £00s on a new one if I can avoid it) and the new telly?
My best option at the moment, subject to what the clever people here might think, is to order a suitable HDMI 4K HDR splitter (something like https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B06WV5YJ6H/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) and have my inputs going into that, and that going just into HDMI 2 on the TV. I'd then use the existing ARC connection to feed audio back.
It's messier than I hoped for but it seems the splitter recognises whichever device is switched on and feeding it a signal so I won't have to mess around manually selecting inputs. But is this the best approach to do what I want?
Sorry, a long post. And this is from someone who thinks they know what they're doing!
Thanks.
David
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