Poor Quality YouTube Video on 3rd Gen Apple TV

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Level 2

158 points

Poor Quality YouTube Video on 3rd Gen Apple TV

I have a 3rd Gen Apple TV (1469) and am experiencing poor quality video playback in the YouTube app. I would describe it as pixelation, digital noise or degradation - little green blocks that appear and disappear all over. After dealing with the apparently common issue of the Apple TV freezing and needing to be reset when attempting to pause a YouTube video after the 7.6 update for this model Apple TV, I downgraded my Apple TV back to firmware 7.5. I can pause again with no problems but am now having this quality issue. My bet is that it's on Google/YouTube's end, but I just wanted to see if anyone else has been having this issue.

Here's a picture of what happens:

Any solutions, suggestions or shared frustration is welcome!

Apple TV 3, 8

Posted on Oct 9, 2020 8:15 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 10, 2020 10:13 AM in response to Joseitalia

That's an opinion, and compares a completely different set of new variables. It's limited to Apple TV 3rd Generation and YouTube.

YouTube on ATV3, around the world, was working as of September 18th. Then Apple pushed the 7.6 update. Now YouTube is broken. Apple then pushed-out update 7.6.1 and nothing improved, except the AppleTV+ streaming service app.

Originally, every customer that purchased into the Apple TV experience received a completely working device. It's now broken, after recent global updates that Apple initiated. There is still no official direction for Apple customers on their resolution. The problem remains unfixed, unremovable, and publicly unaddressed by Apple.

The only guaranteed solution paths are to:

1) wait

2) buy something newer

3) go to a competitor

ATV Product Feedback: https://www.apple.com/feedback/appletv.html

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Answer 2

Wengro Author

Level 2

158 points

Oct 12, 2020 6:10 PM in response to ripchord

I saw this post in my email where there is a button which says "Correct Answer" - which it absolutely is.

I did not realize it would mark the post as "Solved."

The issue is NOT solved. Can I remove that "Solved" ? ? ?

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Answer 3

Oct 25, 2020 12:36 AM in response to Wengro

If this was a windows pc forum you would have heard immediately that you'll have to update your graphic cards drivers. In other words, YouTube is messing around with their video encoding settings and our old trustworthy 3rd gen Apple TV isn't liking it very much. We have the same issue in the household here and it is not on all videos but some popular youtube channels pop out as being the worst, making me think to believe YouTube is in the progress of testing these encoding changes.

I doubt you'll be in luck complaining to YouTube. They have stated before they are not keen on supporting old Apple Hardware.

We might have a little more luck with Apple, considering the fact they recently updated the software for the 3rd gen Apple TV and there is still a bug in the YouTube app where pausing a video restarts the device. But they could also just have thrown in the towel and gave up.

So far I can tolerate this but I do hope a new Apple TV is coming out relatively soon and if the problems still persist I will upgrade to the newer version.

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Answer 4

Wengro Author

Level 2

158 points

Oct 26, 2020 3:39 PM in response to Seraphiel07

Seraphiel07, I'm so glad you mentioned that. My gut feeling on the matter, as it began happening right around the time YouTube started messing with 4K and picture-in-picture features, was that they were causing it. It happens too randomly to be anything wrong with the device itself, and Apple is pretty good with their software updates for the most part.

I didn't hear much from the YouTube support forums (a couple of replies, neither of which were helpful in the least), and I didn't hear ANYTHING from the official YouTube support contact I sent over a month ago now. To be fair, I didn't expect much from them - years of using their software has prepared my hopes to remain low.

I too am just "tolerating" these issues for now and waiting to see what the new Apple TV device options are in the near future.

Thanks for your reply and insight - greatly appreciated!

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Answer 5

Oct 28, 2020 10:19 PM in response to Wengro

I'm experiencing the very same thing! Highly annoying. I've cleared the cash with no luck. My work around for now is to airplay from my iPad to the Apple TV, until I can dig a little deeper into the problem.

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Answer 6

Wengro Author

Level 2

158 points

Dec 10, 2020 4:25 PM in response to interfacechoir

I think a couple of issues are present here and they are getting confused. I don't believe the 7.6 update for the ATV3 caused the picture quality issue we are talking about in this thread, at least not for me, as I downgraded my ATV3 back to 7.5 a few days after the 7.6 update was released (and caused the "Pausing a YouTube video freezes my Apple TV" issue) and am still experiencing the picture qulaity degradation issue to this day. I believe THAT (the picture quality issue) is being caused by YouTube.

The pause/freeze issue that occurs with YouTube on tvOS 7.6 for ATV3 could be the fault of Apple, YouTube, or BOTH.

Is anyone experiencing the picture quality issue on tvOS 7.6? Or is it just on 7.5?

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Answer 7

ripchord

Level 1

19 points

Oct 10, 2020 1:08 AM in response to Wengro

It'd be okay if you live in Ireland and it's March 17th :)

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Answer 8

Oct 9, 2020 9:58 PM in response to Wengro

For Apple’s clarity on this issue, would you please delete this new thread and reincorporate back into the original thread?

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Answer 9

Oct 11, 2020 1:39 PM in response to Wengro

Nope, I had nothing that bad since downgrading to 7.5 to solve the YT pause issue. I’m in the UK.

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Answer 10

Wengro Author

Level 2

158 points

Oct 12, 2020 6:15 PM in response to Wengro

NOTE: THIS POST WAS ACCIDENTALLY MARKED AS SOLVED. IT IS NOT SOLVED!

I'll re-post the original post if necessary.

Sorry!!!

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Answer 11

Oct 13, 2020 4:37 AM in response to Wengro

To be sure to be sure - that has to count as one of the best ever solutions on this forum! ;)

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Answer 12

ripchord

Level 1

19 points

Oct 14, 2020 4:50 AM in response to hairy_kiwi

... and all I set out to do was inject a little humour into the thread :)

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Answer 13

Dec 10, 2020 9:29 AM in response to Wengro

Im experiencing the same problem, I don’t believe it’s an Apple problem because Netflix has no issues and the annoying green pixelation was happening a little before the software update.

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Poor Quality YouTube Video on 3rd Gen Apple TV

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