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Q: AppleTV 4 surround sound issue

i just acquired an AppleTV 4 to replace my AppleTV 3. Since I used to connect the optical audio out to my Yamaha surround sound receiver, I am forced to use only hdmi. That would not be a problem for two reasons:

 

1. All AppleTV content plays with the receiver showing PCM and not DTS or some other form of surround sound.

2. All my movies i encoded are strictly playing in stereo only. The DTS stream is seemingly not being passed through hdmi.

 

Routing hdmi to tv then optical from tv to receiver does not change anything.

 

How can I fix this?  Surely I should be getting DTS with a Yamaha rx- v1900 receiver?

Posted on Nov 1, 2015 1:32 AM

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Q: AppleTV 4 surround sound issue

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  • by pwnell,Solvedanswer

    pwnell pwnell Nov 1, 2015 9:11 AM in response to Steve Neal
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 1, 2015 9:11 AM in response to Steve Neal

    I changed the setting for Surround Sound to Dolby Surround (from Auto) and now everything is working - thank you so much!

  • by pwnell,

    pwnell pwnell Nov 1, 2015 9:45 AM in response to pwnell
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 1, 2015 9:45 AM in response to pwnell

    I apologize - I tried to mark Steve Neal's post as the answer but it only allowed me to mark it as Helpful.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Nov 1, 2015 10:57 AM in response to pwnell
    Level 9 (50,252 points)
    Desktops
    Nov 1, 2015 10:57 AM in response to pwnell

    You can only mark one post as the solution, and you marked your own post.

  • by bodosom,

    bodosom bodosom Nov 1, 2015 1:04 PM in response to pwnell
    Level 1 (24 points)
    Nov 1, 2015 1:04 PM in response to pwnell

    Hopefully someone with an HDMI analyzer can check this.  My AVR *always* reports PCM from my 4gen.  In AUTO it's 7.1 (3/4/.1) or 2.0 (2/0/.0) depending on source type.  In DOLBY SURROUND it's always 7.1 and in STEREO it's always 2.0.  I think the 4g box always sends PCM with varying channel counts.  Now if you were to take a naive look at my AVR status when the box is set to Dolby you might think it was Dolby Digital but that's simply the default "surround mode" label and Denon calls it Dolby Digital/DTS rather than "literal" or "untouched" as opposed to other mangling surround modes like "stadium", "club" or "multi-channel stereo".

     

    My AVR can decode DD, DD+, DTS, TrueHD, MA etc. so if the TV (4g) can produce a bitstream then the HDMI handshake is broken.

  • by pwnell,

    pwnell pwnell Nov 1, 2015 1:22 PM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 1, 2015 1:22 PM in response to Csound1

    Because I could not mark his.

  • by Volutin,

    Volutin Volutin Nov 3, 2015 3:26 AM in response to pwnell
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Notebooks
    Nov 3, 2015 3:26 AM in response to pwnell

    I had a very similar problem with Netflix and movies - with Surround Sound set to Auto, I only got background sound effects and music coming through: no dialogue. As soon as I switched Surround Sound from "Auto" to the "Dolby Surround" setting, the problem disappeared.

  • by bodosom,

    bodosom bodosom Nov 3, 2015 4:02 PM in response to Volutin
    Level 1 (24 points)
    Nov 3, 2015 4:02 PM in response to Volutin

    I don't have any TV specific audio trouble with Netflix.

  • by mechanic43,

    mechanic43 mechanic43 Nov 3, 2015 4:18 PM in response to pwnell
    Level 1 (86 points)
    Nov 3, 2015 4:18 PM in response to pwnell

    This issue is not solved for me, I have content that I encoded with both an AAC stereo audio  stream and an AC3 audio stream, the new apple tv in auto mode outputs  the aac stereo stream as prologix on my onkyo receiver into 7 channels.  But when I put my apple tv into dolby digital mode it outputs the same aac stream into dolby digital on my onkyo but uses the stereo stream and then only outputs into the front 3 channels.  this is maddening.

    I can hook up my old apple tv gen 3 and the dolby digital is working properly with 5.1 output.   Also on both new apple tvs I am have the audio play quiet for some reason, you can stop the movie and then start again and the audio plays at normal levels. this is definitely a bug that needs to be fixed, both of my gen 3 apple tvs do not have this behavior.

  • by Jon Walker,

    Jon Walker Jon Walker Nov 3, 2015 4:53 PM in response to mechanic43
    Level 6 (18,603 points)
    Nov 3, 2015 4:53 PM in response to mechanic43

    I have content that I encoded with both an AAC stereo audio  stream and an AC3 audio stream, the new apple tv in auto mode outputs  the aac stereo stream as prologix on my onkyo receiver into 7 channels.  But when I put my apple tv into dolby digital mode it outputs the same aac stream into dolby digital on my onkyo but uses the stereo stream and then only outputs into the front 3 channels.

    If you want to play the AAC stereo content in stereo, then try using the "Surround Sound > Stereo" setting with the AAC track selected to force output as stereo PCM. If you wish to "pass through" AC3 audio, try using the "Surround Sound > Dolby Surround" setting and manually selecting the AC3 track.

    SJAUG.png

  • by Discoslap,

    Discoslap Discoslap Nov 4, 2015 8:38 PM in response to Jon Walker
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 4, 2015 8:38 PM in response to Jon Walker

    this is messed up. I really hope you guys understand when you change the setting from auto surround to Dolby on the Apple TV settings THAT YOU ARE NOT getting done Dolby digital sound. You may hear faint noise in background and you reciever will say Dolby digital but if you are NOT getting Dolby digital surround.

     

    WHen hen you manually select Dolby on Apple TV the reciever says Dolby digital even when playing stereo context. Go check and the. You will realize I an right.

     

    IF you manually select Dolby surround on Apple TV stereo context shouldn't play. But it does. And the reciever still says Dolby digital and the if you check you will notice only your front left and right speakers are outputting sound. 

  • by jvulto,

    jvulto jvulto Nov 5, 2015 11:00 AM in response to Discoslap
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Nov 5, 2015 11:00 AM in response to Discoslap

    Same kind of problems here. 7.1 Decoded movies (Terminator Genesis and Netflix movies) show up at the receiver as 3/4/.1. So far so good. Front LR, Center, Surround LR do work. However, surround back speakers do not produce sound .

    When putting ATV to 'surround' instead of 'auto', receiver shows 3/2/.1 only, so 5.1 surround and NO 7.1.

    7.1 For me is the main reason to buy ATV

  • by bodosom,

    bodosom bodosom Nov 7, 2015 4:40 PM in response to jvulto
    Level 1 (24 points)
    Nov 7, 2015 4:40 PM in response to jvulto

    jvulto wrote:

    However, surround back speakers do not produce sound .

     

    Does the app Theater Test id your rear channels?

  • by jvulto,

    jvulto jvulto Nov 8, 2015 2:31 AM in response to bodosom
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Nov 8, 2015 2:31 AM in response to bodosom

    just installed the Home Theater test (thanks Bodosom).

    when having the surround setting set to 'auto' the receiver detects 7.1 PCM input 3/4/.1

    THe App detects 8 speakers, so far so good!

    THen however during the test all speaker signals are mixed up. Rear channels direct to subwoofer, left surround to center etcetera.

    the App hints to a problem of mixed signals. Workaround would be to set the Dolby Digital stting to 'ON'. However this setting does not exist in ATV 4.

    when setting the ATV to surround mode 'auto', the App only detects 5 speakers.

    HELP!

  • by mikealvey,

    mikealvey mikealvey Nov 8, 2015 3:43 AM in response to bodosom
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 8, 2015 3:43 AM in response to bodosom

    On auto setting theater test has my speakers all mapped wrong. On dolby digital they are mapped correctly. I know speakers are hooled up right. Ihave a pioneer elite sc-85 if that helps anyone. When I had roku dolby digital plus worked fine on netflix. Never get that anymore in apple tv 4

  • by jvulto,

    jvulto jvulto Nov 8, 2015 4:44 AM in response to mikealvey
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Nov 8, 2015 4:44 AM in response to mikealvey

    @Mike:  With Surround mode set to "Dolby" in stead of "auto" does your receiver also detect only 3/2/.1 instead of 3/4/.1?

    So far you describe the same issue as I seem to have.

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