4K content fails to play on Apple TV 4K with Spectrum TV app

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4K content fails to play on Apple TV 4K with Spectrum TV app

I have an ATV 4k and when I try to watch a 4k channel on the Spectrum TV app (I know hahaha) I get an error message 4k failed to play, playing in HD or along those lines. I have my video settings set to 4k SDR and match range and frame rate turned on. For a while there was an issue with the Disney+ app not switching over to HDR or Dolby Vision, they finally put out an update that fixed it, wonder if the same sort of thing is going on with Spectrum app. Wasn't sure if anybody else was having the same issue. Thanks

Apple TV 4K, tvOS 26

Posted on Nov 15, 2025 1:10 PM

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JSein456

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Nov 22, 2025 10:30 AM in response to Patriot_64

I was just trying to see how this works myself... I've been curious, especially since the FOX sports app doesn't support any HDR broadcast at all on Apple TV.

It seems that if you have the Apple TV set up to display 4K SDR with range matching enabled the 4K stream will fail to play on Spectrum app.

If you enable the output to 4K HDR (with match range on or off -- doesn't seem to matter), then the stream will play correctly, and it will display in proper 4K HDR (not just fake HDR with just boosted contrast -- you can tell visually by the color and brightness of lights, and also the info banner will confirm the playback format). Give it a try and see if it works for you also.

Why is this happening? I can't really confirm, but I speculate that Spectrum is checking if the selected video output mode matches the stream, and if not, they return the error and play it in HD instead. Or maybe it has something to do with dynamic range switching support, like you said, or something else entirely. Whatever the case, hopefully they will push out an update at some point to improve how it works, but I suppose that will be contingent on getting enough feedback from people.

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