AlanW
Guru
- Location
- Not to sure?
So last week I purchased a Apple TV box for the sole intention of running Zwift, I also purchased at the same time a 1 metre High Speed, 4K compatible HDMI lead from Amazon.
Ran the set up for a week plugged into a Sony 24" TV and it was just wonderful and I did this while awaiting my new larger TV to arrive.
The new TV arrived, in this case a a 32" HD Toshiba TV, set it all up and again it all worked as it should. But it just didn't give me the wow factor that I was expecting, so I contacted the shop and asked if I could exchange it for a LG 43" 4K TV, which they said I could, no problem.
On Saturday afternoon the new TV arrived, so once again I set it all up and plugged the Apple TV in and while the TV recognised that something was plugged in to the HDMI port, an error message suggested that the Apple TV was not switched on, which it was?
Tried all three HDMI ports and exactly the same error message each time? So at this point I suspect that the Apple TV has failed. Unplug the Apple TV and try it back in the original Sony 24" TV, and it worked first time?
So now I suspect that it must be the new TV that has faulty HDMI ports? Tried all the three HDMI ports once again on the new TV and still no joy. A quick search on Google about LG TVs and Apple TV boxes revealed a number of possible solutions, but all of which required you to access the menu on the Apple TV screen, which I couldn't access!
So back to the Sony TV and plugged in the Apple TV and opened up the menu and did some suggested amendments to the set up. Back to the new TV and tried all three HDMI ports....nope!
So after two hours, I ring the shop and seek advice, after another 30 minutes of various fault finding tasks which still revealed no joy, they suggested returning the TV and the Apple TV. (The Apple TV wasn't purchased from them)
Back in the shop we go, the Apple TV was plugged into a same make, same spec TV, and we get the exact same error message. So we now know that its not the TV.
Plugged the Apple TV into a Sony 4K TV, and yep, same error message, then we tried it in a non 4K Samsung TV and hey presto it worked? Needless to say much head scratching followed by what was now a group of four of us, me and three guys from the store.
One guy then asked how old the HDMI cable was, I said it was a week old and purchased at the same time as the Apple TV. I said that it was advertised as being High Speed and 4k compatible, so I therefore had no reason to doubt it.
He very politely asked me if we could try one of the shops (expensive) HDMI cables, and as all other options had failed, I agreed and said lets go for it. At this stage feeling smug that it wouldn't make any difference, as we have all read that expensive HDMI cable are nothing short of being a rip of right?
Wrong!!!
Plugged it all in and the Apple TV menu fired up instantly. Just to double check that it wasn't a fluke, we then tested all the other TVs that had originally refused to work with the Amazon (cheap) HDMI cable, and with the new (expensive!) HDMI cable every single TV worked with the Apple TV.
So while the Amazon HDMI cable worked perfectly fine with HD TVs, it clearly wasn't compatible with a 4K TV. And while I could have purchased another High Speed, 4K compatible cable from Amazon a lot cheaper, given how good the shop had been it only seemed right to but it from them. So three hours of my life gone and £35 lighter, my Apple TV and the 43" 4K TV are up and running.
In fact Zwift is so amazing on a big screen in 4K I might never ride outside again....lol
Ran the set up for a week plugged into a Sony 24" TV and it was just wonderful and I did this while awaiting my new larger TV to arrive.
The new TV arrived, in this case a a 32" HD Toshiba TV, set it all up and again it all worked as it should. But it just didn't give me the wow factor that I was expecting, so I contacted the shop and asked if I could exchange it for a LG 43" 4K TV, which they said I could, no problem.
On Saturday afternoon the new TV arrived, so once again I set it all up and plugged the Apple TV in and while the TV recognised that something was plugged in to the HDMI port, an error message suggested that the Apple TV was not switched on, which it was?
Tried all three HDMI ports and exactly the same error message each time? So at this point I suspect that the Apple TV has failed. Unplug the Apple TV and try it back in the original Sony 24" TV, and it worked first time?
So now I suspect that it must be the new TV that has faulty HDMI ports? Tried all the three HDMI ports once again on the new TV and still no joy. A quick search on Google about LG TVs and Apple TV boxes revealed a number of possible solutions, but all of which required you to access the menu on the Apple TV screen, which I couldn't access!
So back to the Sony TV and plugged in the Apple TV and opened up the menu and did some suggested amendments to the set up. Back to the new TV and tried all three HDMI ports....nope!
So after two hours, I ring the shop and seek advice, after another 30 minutes of various fault finding tasks which still revealed no joy, they suggested returning the TV and the Apple TV. (The Apple TV wasn't purchased from them)
Back in the shop we go, the Apple TV was plugged into a same make, same spec TV, and we get the exact same error message. So we now know that its not the TV.
Plugged the Apple TV into a Sony 4K TV, and yep, same error message, then we tried it in a non 4K Samsung TV and hey presto it worked? Needless to say much head scratching followed by what was now a group of four of us, me and three guys from the store.
One guy then asked how old the HDMI cable was, I said it was a week old and purchased at the same time as the Apple TV. I said that it was advertised as being High Speed and 4k compatible, so I therefore had no reason to doubt it.
He very politely asked me if we could try one of the shops (expensive) HDMI cables, and as all other options had failed, I agreed and said lets go for it. At this stage feeling smug that it wouldn't make any difference, as we have all read that expensive HDMI cable are nothing short of being a rip of right?
Wrong!!!
Plugged it all in and the Apple TV menu fired up instantly. Just to double check that it wasn't a fluke, we then tested all the other TVs that had originally refused to work with the Amazon (cheap) HDMI cable, and with the new (expensive!) HDMI cable every single TV worked with the Apple TV.
So while the Amazon HDMI cable worked perfectly fine with HD TVs, it clearly wasn't compatible with a 4K TV. And while I could have purchased another High Speed, 4K compatible cable from Amazon a lot cheaper, given how good the shop had been it only seemed right to but it from them. So three hours of my life gone and £35 lighter, my Apple TV and the 43" 4K TV are up and running.
In fact Zwift is so amazing on a big screen in 4K I might never ride outside again....lol