I’m a die-hard Apple TV fan, using a 4th-gen device for regular big-screen Netflix, YouTube or Plex binges. However during a recent viewing, something struck me as not-quite-right. YouTube’s wonderful 1080p60 content didn’t look quite so buttery smooth as on a phone or iPad.
Heading to the Video Settings menu, I found the culprit. The display was set to 1080p 50Hz - not at all suitable for YouTube’s 60fps content - and the certain cause of my screen judder. After a toggle to 1080p 60Hz, YouTube was once again silky smooth. But the switch came with a downside. The playback of 25fps content (most importantly, my iTunes purchase of Scandi-drama The Bridge) was now suffering the same stuttery side effects
Some more staggering around the Settings menus yielded the following find under “Settings”, “Video and Audio”:
Toggle this on to have the Apple TV detect the frame rate of your video content and match the screen sync accordingly. No more stutter! It even supports 24p for movies, and works with iTunes, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, iPlayer and Plex. YouTube is (as far as I can tell) not working, so for best results set your default resolution to 1080p 60Hz - which is the best match for most YouTube content. Examples below
24p Movie Content from iTunes
50Hz European Television Content from iTunes
60Hz Content from Netflix
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