VortX 0.3.11 (build 163, pre-release). The Dolby Vision root-cause fix. Dolby Vision showed as HDR10 for a real reason: the app was literally asking the Apple TV for the wrong picture mode, and a resume seek was quietly killing the true-Dolby-Vision lane on every replay. Both are fixed. Everything from builds 155 to 162 is included. In testing; this becomes the 0.3.12 release once verified on-device. In-place update, nothing resets.
New in build 163
- Dolby Vision now asks the Apple TV for real Dolby Vision, not HDR10. The display-mode request was built with a mode number from years-old tvOS data. On current tvOS that number means HDR10, so even a perfectly healthy true-Dolby-Vision session was literally asking the TV for HDR10. The request is now built through Apple's public API with a genuine Dolby Vision descriptor, and it fires before the video mounts, the order Apple requires. This also covers native Dolby Vision MP4 and HLS streams, which never asked the TV to switch at all. Match Dynamic Range must be on in tvOS Settings, Video and Audio, Match Content (it is off by default).
- Resuming a Dolby Vision title no longer silently drops it to HDR10 with plain sound. The true-Dolby-Vision lane rebuilds the movie on the fly and can only play it from the beginning for now, but a Continue Watching resume jumped to a position that did not exist yet, so no picture arrived and after twenty seconds the player fell back to the built-in player (HDR10 plus multichannel PCM). This happened on every second and later play of the same movie, which is why it looked like Dolby Vision never worked. A resumed Dolby Vision title now starts from the beginning with a short note, your resume point is kept safe, and native resume on this lane is a planned follow-up.
- The built-in player is honest about Dolby Vision now. It decodes and tone-maps the picture, so it no longer flips the TV into Dolby Vision mode over that output (that is the "fake Dolby Vision" other players are criticized for). It requests HDR10 and shows a short "Dolby Vision title, HDR10 output" note, so what the TV badges is what you are getting. True Dolby Vision plays through the dedicated lane in Apple's player, which now asks for the right mode.
- The silent ways Dolby Vision gets defeated now tell you. If Match Dynamic Range is off, the player shows the exact setting to turn on. If the Player engine override is Always libmpv, a Dolby Vision play says the override is disabling the true-Dolby-Vision lane. The engine route and any fallback reason always land in the exportable diagnostics log now, so a report can be traced.
- The real Dolby Atmos track wins on the true-Dolby-Vision lane. Within your language the lane now prefers the E-AC3 track that actually carries Dolby Atmos, read from the bitstream itself, ahead of raw channel count, so a bigger non-Atmos track can never shadow the Atmos bed (the only shape the Apple TV lights Atmos from). The Atmos signaling in the produced stream is verified and logged once per play.
An honest note on the ceiling that no Apple TV app escapes: tvOS has no lossless bitstream output, so a Dolby Vision file whose only Atmos track is TrueHD or DTS decodes to multichannel PCM in every app, including Infuse. Atmos lights from a streaming Dolby Digital Plus (E-AC3 + Atmos) track, which is what most 4K WEB-DLs carry.
Also in build 163 (from 155 to 162)
- The Dolby Vision MKV "can't play this file" fix, the multichannel audio bed pick, Dolby Vision with TrueHD/DTS converted for playback, community sources through your own debrid or TorBox, AllDebrid/Premiumize cache-check, VortX-account QR sign-in, add-on reorder, back-to-episode, back-to-top, the Mac crash and freeze fixes, exact-source Continue Watching, and the iPhone/iPad download fix.
See CHANGELOG.md for the complete list.
Please test (Apple TV + receiver)
- FIRST, set these on the Apple TV (without them no app, including Stremio or Infuse, can show Dolby Vision or Atmos): Settings, Video and Audio, Match Content, turn Match Dynamic Range ON. Settings, Video and Audio, Audio Format, keep Change Format OFF (Auto) and make sure Dolby Atmos is available/on. Connect the Apple TV to an Atmos-capable soundbar/receiver or an eARC TV.
- In VortX: Settings, Player engine = Auto (an Always libmpv override disables the Dolby Vision lane); keep the DV for MKV toggle ON.
- Then: play a 4K Dolby Vision movie with a Dolby Digital Plus / Atmos track, starting FRESH from the beginning (not a resume). The TV should read DOLBY VISION and the receiver should read Dolby Atmos. If anything still shows HDR10 or PCM, export diagnostics from VortX Settings and send the log; it now records the exact route and any fallback reason.
Install
Mac (.dmg). Download VortX-macOS-v0.3.11-b163-ci.dmg, drag VortX into Applications, then clear Apple's one-time quarantine: open it once, click Done, then System Settings > Privacy & Security > Open Anyway (or run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/VortX.app). Full guide: Install on Mac.
iPhone, iPad, Apple TV (sideload the IPA). The IPAs are unsigned; re-sign them yourself with Sideloadly, AltStore / SideStore, or Signulous. No jailbreak. Full guide: Installing on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV.
Each asset lists a SHA-256 checksum (SHA256SUMS-ci.txt).