Originally published at: How to Use Color Balance in tvOS 14.5 - TidBITS
Calibration is the secret to optimizing your TV’s picture quality, but it’s an obscure and finicky process. The new Color Balance feature in tvOS 14.5 makes it easy, though it won’t affect brightness, contrast, or sharpness.
1 Like
You no longer need DVDs, as there are apps for the purpose, like THX tune-up, but you don’t need those apps anymore either.
I’m sorry, but I don’t entirely agree with that. As you mention in the article, the color balance feature only works for content played via an Apple TV device, and only for color, it does nothing for anything else displayed on your TV. I think it is far better to adjust your TV setting via an app like THX tune-up so you can view all content properly.
Now if Apple would make this work for iPads and Macs…
1 Like
The hardcore AV people will always use the apps/Blu-rays (I’m not quite sure what the gold standard is now, it used to be Avia and then Disney), but everyday Apple TV users don’t need to do all of that. And most people never bothered, because it’s a lengthy and fussy process.
OK, so I’ve installed iPhone & aTV OSs 14.5 and tried out the color calibration feature on my 55" Samsung LCD. It thinks my original setup (based on some online recommendations I came across six years ago) is a little too red, and after living with the results for a while and watching a bunch of content using the apps on the aTV, I agree.
What I’d like to know now is what my new settings are so I could transfer them to the TV.
1 Like
As far as I can tell, there is no way to view or transfer those settings. However, Color Balance should give you a better sense of how your TV picture should look.
Yup, and as I said I do like the results. The drawback, of course, is that it can only be applied to the output of the aTV—not, for example, to what we see from our Blu-ray players. Since calibrating a TV by eye is IMO a fool’s errand, it really would be useful to know what the new settings are. Perhaps in some future software update Apple will decide to tell us.
1 Like
I ran the calibration just now and the difference is hilariously slight. Which means that my eyeball-based calibration on the TV we bought just a few weeks ago must have been superb 
1 Like
This isn’t too unusual. MacRumors posted a video showing the calibration process. On the TV they used, the differences were so slight that I couldn’t see the difference on YouTube (seen through the author’s video camera).
On the other hand, some of the comments to the video showed that it worked wonders on some people’s TVs.
I’ll have to give it a try someday, but right now nobody here has a compatible iPhone, so that’s just something to try out in the future. 
1 Like
Alas, we have a projection TV. Does this calibration process cope with that situation?
Yeah, the change was pretty subtle on my TV as well. It seems like out-of-the-box calibration is a lot better than it used to be.
Judging from the before and after beach shot provided (is anyone seeing another one?) my differences looked slight too, at first. But the more content I watched the more significant it became. That’s the trouble with doing it by eye. I sure wish I knew what it did . . .
I ran this on the Apple TV that I use about 90% of the time on Sunday. (That Apple TV was still on 14.3, so I had to manually update the device first.) It found that my TV’s settings were a little too yellow (but it was noticeably different). Yes, it was the beach shot. After watching for a while, I haven’t decided if I will keep it or just turn off the calibration - I think I prefer it the old way.
(Just as an aside, I generally just let the Apple TVs update themselves, but I am a bit surprised that it never updated to 14.4, since it was more than three months after 14.4 was released. I wonder how often the Apple TV auto-update checks for new versions, and also wonder why it wouldn’t be updated more than, say, two weeks after a new update?)
Since I watch the Apple TV about 95% of the time on that TV, I really don’t need to know what setting I would need to change for the TV - if I watch another source, it’s only for something that I can’t get on Apple TV, and lately that’s been just live sports (which is almost always on Apple TV somehow for me), and color accuracy isn’t really all that critical. (Well, especially since I am thinking about turning off the calibration.)
I have three Apple TVs in the house. I just checked the second one - it is still on 14.0.2. It also has automatic updates turned on. 14.2 came out November 5, so this one is now six months out of date. (I’ll manually update it later today.)
The standard advice for calibration is to live with it for a few days to see how you like it and then switch back. Usually, you’ll find that the uncalibrated setting looks weird after you get used to the calibration.
1 Like
Sorry, this slipped past me. I honestly don’t know! I would try it and see what happens.
OK, guys, set aside 20 minutes, grab a cup of coffee, and watch this, just posted by -Gonzo- on MacRumours.
Glenn,
Congratulations on having a good eye.
Unfortunately, I will never have the eye, time or patience to emulate your experience.
I think this is a good example of Apple simplifying the process for hitting color balance on the mark.
From what I’ve read, Steve Jobs always believed terribly complex processes should be accessible to the general user.
For those interested, I read this in Issac Jacobson’s biography “Steve Jobs”, which so far seems to be a pretty accurate picture of Steve’s intentions.
Agreed, as far as the calibration app is concerned, anyway. 
And it can give your older or lower-end TV a new lease on life.
I see that TCL has joined Apple & Samsung in providing a calibration app of their own called iPQ, the difference being that it, like the Samsung app, calibrates the TV itself and works with only current models of the same brand.
I have one of the brand new AppleTVs. My setting is 4K Dolby Vision. Does your HDR-off recommendation apply also to Dolby Vision? I did also enable Match Source, as you suggested - will those settings work OK together? As far as Calibration is concerned, I find Color Balance turned off with a note “Not Required”.