Apple TV not working through Sony reciever

Question

Apple TV not working through Sony reciever

Hello, maybe someone has some experience with this that can help me. I have a new Apple TV. Works perfectly when hooked straight through the TV, but nothing. when hooked through the Receiver. I have a Sony STR-DG510. And the problem is the display just flashes UNLOCK and then I never see the ATV through to the TV. A DVD connected through the same HDMI cable will work, so I know it is with the receiver.

Sony support website says:
+The word UNLOCK may appear in the display if there is a problem receiving a digital audio signal. Follow the steps below to troubleshoot this issue.+

+1. Ensure the correct input is selected to receive the Audio/Video (A/V) from the appropriate source.+
+2. Ensure a digital cable is connected to appropriate DIGITAL jack.+
+3. Ensure the other end of the digital cable is properly connected to the A/V source.+
+4. Ensure the A/V source is set appropriately to output a digital signal.+

+NOTE: The A/V source may have a DTS setting that needs to be turned on, or a DPCM setting that needs to be set to Dolby Digital.+

Anyone have any ideas?

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.4.9), AppleTV and iPod Nano too

Posted on Oct 3, 2007 12:54 PM

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Answer 1

Alexcham

Level 1

0 points

Oct 3, 2007 11:39 PM in response to Stuart Greenwell

hello
Find on internet with google :

{quote}les deux entrées HDMI seront d'une utilité limitée. Il ne s'agit, en effet, que de deux prises HDMI version 1.1. Pas de compatibilité SACD donc, et un accès à la HD restreint à du 720p ou à du 1080i!{quote}

{quote}The two inputs HDMI will be of a limited utility. They are HDMI version 1.1. No compatibility SACD, and an access to the HD restricted with 720p or 1080i!{quote}

Your reciever can't deal with real HD and sound..... work with DVD
Try to separate sound and video, plug HDMI for video and optique or coaxiale for sound.

Hope work well.

Alex

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Answer 2

Oct 4, 2007 6:50 AM in response to Alexcham

Alexcham wrote:
{quote}The two inputs HDMI will be of a limited utility. They are HDMI version 1.1. No compatibility SACD, and an access to the HD restricted with 720p or 1080i!{quote}

Your reciever can't deal with real HD and sound..... work with DVD
Try to separate sound and video, plug HDMI for video and optique or coaxiale for sound.

Interesting, but not quite sure what this all means. The output from the ATV is 720p or 1080i anyway? And what I am watching isn't true HD content either. So I am not sure what you mean by "can't deal with real HD and sound". Maybe you can explain further? From the sounds of the Sony site it seems more like some sort of authentication issue then a video type issue.

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Answer 3

BanditoB

Level 1

82 points

Oct 4, 2007 12:36 PM in response to Stuart Greenwell

Hmm, not sure about this either, but let's take a stab at it.

If I understand correctly, you are connecting the Apple TV via an HDMI cable (for both audio and video) either directly to your HDTV or alternately to your Sony receiver. I am also going to assume that your Sony receiver is also connected via HDMI to your HDTV and is acting as a switch for multiple HDMI inputs or, at the very least, it can pass the HDMI input from your Apple TV through to your HDTV.

That being said, if you connect the Apple TV directly to the HDTV, then both audio and video work just fine; however, if the Apple TV is connected via the Sony, you get no audio or video, just the error message on the Sony. I'm also assuming that when you attached the DVD player, you attached it via HDMI through the Sony Receiver as well, and that it also worked just fine.

Have you changed any of the audio or video settings on the Apple TV? You may want to connect it directly to the HDTV and go through the options to get familiar with them.

I would then set the video output resolution to whatever best matches your HDTV, i.e. 720p Apple TV --> 720p HDTV, 1080i Apple TV --> 1080i/p HDTV. I'm still a bit new to the Apple TV, but if I remember correctly, it only outputs a stereo PCM audio stream and does not support Dolby Digital or DTS sound. Do check the audio settings on the Apple TV to ensure that it is set to output digital audio and that it is also set to send this via the HDMI interface.

Once you have it configured, reconnect it through the Sony receiver and see if that works. If that doesn't work, I'd power everything down and then power it all back up again starting with the Apple TV and your HDTV and then, lastly, your Sony receiver. This should rule out any handshaking issues between the devices.

If that still doesn't work, I'd check the audio settings on the Sony receiver. They normally will default to an automatic mode where the port will adapt to whatever signal it sees, be it PCM, Dolby Digital, or DTS. If it isn't set to auto detect, try it on Auto or change it to PCM and see if that gets things up and running.

As an aside, I'm not really sure why you wouldn't at least get a video signal through the Sony receiver, but setting the video output properly, as stated above, may clear that up. Then it's a matter of getting the audio sorted out. Regarding that (the audio), there are also two formats for PCM audio: 48KHz and 96KHz. If you are able to set these options on both the Apple TV and the Sony receiver, make sure that they match as well.

If you get he video to go through, then you can experiment with the audio settings to see if you can find a workable combination. Feel free to try different combinations of settings on both the Apple TV and Sony receiver. There's nothing that you can hurt by setting them to the 'wrong' thing.

Good luck!

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Answer 4

Oct 4, 2007 1:19 PM in response to BanditoB

BanditoB wrote:
If I understand correctly, you are connecting the Apple TV via an HDMI cable (for both audio and video) either directly to your HDTV or alternately to your Sony receiver. I am also going to assume that your Sony receiver is also connected via HDMI to your HDTV and is acting as a switch for multiple HDMI inputs or, at the very least, it can pass the HDMI input from your Apple TV through to your HDTV.

Excellent info, thank you! I will try this tonight and report back in with my findings...

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Answer 5

Oct 4, 2007 2:21 PM in response to Stuart Greenwell

I have the same arrangement - Apple TV & Pioneer DVD to Sony DRG510 Receiver to Westinghouse LCD HDTV.
I was confused by the same issue, especially the UNLOCK display. I did notice that when only HDMI was connected sound came through the TV speakers (from both ATV and DVD) but did not come through my Bose speakers connected to the Sony.
Only when I connected Optical input (for ATV) and Coax digital (for DVD) did I get sound through Bose speakers.

Message was edited by: Robert Barnett

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Answer 6

Oct 5, 2007 5:09 PM in response to Stuart Greenwell

So just to give you all an update. I tried all the settings I could find to try to make the ATV work with the Sony receiver. No go.

I called Sony for their thoughts. The guy worked with me a little and the conclusion he came to was that most likely the ATV didn't have a "repeater" where my Sony DVD player did, which is why it worked and the ATV didn't. Not sure what a "repeater" is, but I found this on Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMIrepeaterbit

Anyone know anything more technical and if the ATV has this or not?

This was interesting, since my HD Cable box doesn't work via HTML either. I get this strange error that my TV doesn't support HDCP. However, I doubt the problem is with the TV since both devices work when hooked directly to it. It is only the receiver that seems to be the problem.

I will try Roberts suggestion next, but I don't have a optical cable yet.

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Answer 7

BobbyBox

Level 1

10 points

Oct 7, 2007 4:35 PM in response to Stuart Greenwell

So is there any chance we can get apple to add this to the next software release?
I have the same problem with the Arcam Solo Movie 5.1 ...

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Answer 8

Oct 7, 2007 9:48 PM in response to BobbyBox

I am having similar problems with my ATV connected to one of the 2 HDMI inputs on My Philips DFR900. Indeed just connecting the ATV to one of the HDMI inputs disables the other one as well, even if the ATV is turn off at the power socket.

Does the current AppleTV work with any HDMI switcher? Such configurations are shown in the manual.

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