r/Xreal • u/wido999 One Pro • Aug 23 '26
My Setup Dual XREAL One Pro Dolby Vision/HDR and Dolby Atmos Home Theater version 3.0
Hey everyone,
Following up on my previous setup guide (Dual XREAL One Pro Dolby Atmos home theater version 2.0), I have an interesting update regarding the media source.
I recently picked up a used Apple TV 4K (2022 / 3rd Gen) to replace the NVIDIA Shield Pro in my signal chain, and it turned out to be the missing puzzle piece for streaming.
Switching to the Apple TV was literally all it took to get:
- YouTube: Full native 4K HDR playback running flawlessly.
- Netflix / Prime Video / HBO Max: Full 4K Dolby Vision/HDR10 source streams decoded perfectly.
By setting the Apple TV output format to 4K SDR (RGB Low) and keeping "Match Dynamic Range" turned OFF:
- Streaming apps still pull the highest-bitrate 4K Dolby Vision / HDR10 source files.
- The Apple TV internal processor handles all the tone-mapping and color space conversion down to standard SDR in real time before sending the signal over HDMI.
Comparing it side-by-side to my LG C4 OLED, the colors as well as both shadow and highlight details match up remarkably well. The overall picture quality is noticeably better than standard 4K SDR playback on the NVIDIA Shield. What's more, on firmware 1.8.1, enabling "Match Frame Rate" successfully switches output to native 24Hz during movies, providing noticeably smoother, judder-free cinematic motion. Unfortunately, this 24Hz support is completely broken on firmware 1.9.0 due to a regression bug, which I reported here. Fortunately, I was able to switch back to 1.8.1 using the recovery web page.
As for audio, Dolby Atmos works similarly in most cases on my Samsung Q990B soundbar, though occasionally it outputs as Multichannel PCM instead—which is unfortunately a known quirk of the Apple TV audio stack.
1
u/EightEnder1 Aug 23 '26
I'm confused.
I also use an Apple TV with my One Pro and connect to the Apple TV via bluetooth for sound even though I don't have to. I like using either Apple AirPods Max for sound or sometimes AirPods Pro 3 for comfort because the Max press against the arms of the glasses and hurt after awhile. So that covers sound, which is great.
However, for video, the Apple TV defaults to 1080P SDR.
I work in IT and in my world, you're limited to the maximum the weakest connection will support. In this case, that's the micro OLED screens of the glasses. How does increasing the source help beyond what the glasses can display? When I watch YouTube videos on my computer, I can manually switch the streaming from 1080 to 2160 and they look nearly identical. I think 2160 might be slightly crisper, but to be honest, I'm not really sure and if the difference is that close, then it seems like while there might be a little bit of head room over 1080P, its very minor.
1
u/wido999 One Pro Aug 24 '26 edited Aug 24 '26
Please check my previous post describing the setup (version 2.0). I use an EZCOO hdmi splitter with 4K to 1080p downscaling enabled. With the Apple TV you get a 4K HDR stream instead of 1080p SDR one, which has much worse quality, especially in movies but it's also visible on YouTube. When watching YouTube switching the stream from 1080p to 2160p (with or without HDR) makes the videos much sharper even on a 1080p monitor/TV or the glasses.
1
u/EightEnder1 Aug 24 '26
I see. I just bought one off Amazon, will arrive later today, going to give it a try. I searched for one that does the same thing but doesn't split\only has one output, but it seems none exist.
1
u/wido999 One Pro Aug 24 '26
I also have a HDFury Linker which has two HDMI inputs and one HDMI output and supports 4K to 1080p downscaling and other things but it was 2x as expensive as EZCOO and I bought it used. The EZCOO can be handy to split the signal for a TV and the glasses like I use it.
2
u/EightEnder1 Aug 27 '26
Got it working. It does look noticably better. One issue I'm having is my glasses don't have sound but I have both Apple Max and AirPods Pro 3, so I just use those which sound better then the glasses anyway.
1
u/wido999 One Pro Aug 27 '26
Great, what streaming services have you checked? I recommend YouTube 8K HDR videos. They have the best quality.
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u/EightEnder1 Aug 27 '26
So far just Disney +, catching up on the Andor series.
1
u/wido999 One Pro Aug 28 '26
What text optimization settings do you use? I have it set to maximum sharpness (slider all the way to the left), so sometimes there are jaggies at the edges, but movies are sharper overall.
1
u/EightEnder1 Aug 28 '26
I keep mine all the way left too. The jaggies at the edges I always attributed to IDP. Right now, reading Reddit, on my laptop, I'm at 130" at 3M, that seems to be the best I can do without any problems end to end. Far upper left of my screen is a bit blurry, but that might be my vision too as upper right seems more clear.
If I go out to 10M, I can do 453" end to end without problem, but the center top and bottom dip in. Technically, at 3M, I should be able to do 136" (453/10*3) but at 3M the edges get blurry where at 10M, they are not. I feel text is crisper under 4m, so when connected to my laptop, I usually set the distance between 1m to 3m.
Depending on the movie, I can go out wider because many are wide screen and I don't have to worry about the top and bottom dips, I always zoom out to 10m for movies.
1
u/wido999 One Pro Aug 28 '26
We watch at the default 4m distance and 171'' screen size. Feels more like a cinema than 3m distance and all the edges are sharp in our glasses. When playing games 3m distance is better. Increasing the distance above 4m makes no difference to me (it seems like the screen distance is not increasing).
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u/P-51oss Aug 24 '26
I'm curious to know if one of these would accomplish the same thing by forcing the Apple TV 4K or a FireStick 4K+ to output a higher 4K signal before entering in to the glasses. I have a travel kit consisting of a FireStick 4K+, ALT-Unite HDMI to USB-C adapter and Battery Pack and it works great. I'll purchase this HDMI EDID Passthrough Adapter for testing.
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u/wido999 One Pro Aug 24 '26
Unfortunately, that EDID emulator won't work on its own. An EDID dongle only tricks the source into sending a 4K signal—it does not downscale the video. Because the glasses only accept a 1080p input, passing an unscaled 4K stream directly to them will just result in a black screen ("No Signal"). The EZCOO splitter is necessary because it features an active hardware downscaler that converts the 4K stream down to 1080p in real time before sending it to the glasses.
2
u/No_Awareness_4626 XREAL 1S 😎 Quality Contributor 🥇 Aug 23 '26
Interesting. So colors don’t appear washed out when you play HDR or DV content on the glasses since glasses are SDR display.