Denon HDMI Issues with Apple TV 4K

[Jose Sifontes]

My Denon X-34000H has two HDMI outs. I would like to have one connected to my 4K Optoma projector and the other to an older Samsung 1080P flat screen. When I do that, it works, but the Apple TV defaults to 1080p, even when the flat screen is off and I am only using the Optoma. The only way (so far) to get the Apple TV to recognize 4K again is to disconnect the HDMI cable for the Samsung flat screen.

Any advice on how to handle this (other than the easy "buy a 4K flats screen" one :-) )?

 

[Tony V.]

Unfortunately this may be just how it works, The apple TV is seeing your Samsung TV and sets itself to that displays max supported resolution. Are you sure your Optima is not also dropping the resolution and then just up-scaling rather than playing true 4K? It could also be that your receiver is dropping the 4K output to 1080p as well.

 

[Jose Sifontes]

I have had this setup (projector plus TV on a 2-output receiver) for several years, but this is the 1st time that the two connected displays have different max resolutions (my previous Mitsubishi projector matched the TV's 1080p resolution, the Optoma UHD-50 goes to faux-4K). So you may be correct, and even while off the Samsung is sending info about what it can handle over the display data channel, and the Apple TV is just matching that as the lowest common denominator. The best solution may be to add an HDMI physical switch to control what display gets seen by the Apple TV when. Will test that later tonight. Thanks!

 

[Jose Sifontes]

To close the loop on this: I was able to fix this issue by setting up the Denon *not* to send the HDMI signal to both outputs simultaneously. I select what oour put I want to use from the menu. This way the projector gets 4K and the monitor 1080P, not resolution fights.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Hey @Jose Sifontes, glad you found a fix. I was going to suggest something similar!