Sound of Netflix on Apple TV

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Sound of Netflix on Apple TV

Hi there! I have a question regarding the surround sound with Netflix through Apple TV. I'm using the latest version of Apple TV with 4K capability and I've noticed that with some films or series the indicator on my receiver doesn't light up telling me the sound isn't in Dolby digital. Strange, because when I watch a trailer of that same film or serie the sound is in fact in Dolby digital.

The Apple TV is connected to a Samsung QLed TV with a Belkin high speed HDMI cable. The TV I use is one of the newer models of Samsung with a "connect box", so the HDMI cable is plugged into that box. Now here's the thing I'm suprised about. When I watch that same film or serie using the Netflix app on my Samsung TV, the sound is always like it should be, in Dolby digital. For me, a person who likes good quality image AND sound, it's not what I expected when I bought my Apple TV.

In the meantime I've tweaked several times the settings on Apple TV as well as on my Samsung TV, but still this difference remaines.

Is there anyone who has noticed this also and perhaps has the solution to fix this problem?

Thanks for your reactions.

Apple TV 4K

Posted on Aug 15, 2019 1:54 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Caramba53 Author

Level 1

9 points

Aug 15, 2019 8:06 AM in response to Urquhart1244

This whole problem doesn't make sense to me.

Before I bought Apple TV all my devices were connected with HDMI cables to my TV. The sound went through toslink or coaxial cables to my receiver. It stayed this way even after buying a 4K TV, all my devices had 2 cables connected to them. Things started to go south after I got Apple TV, because it has no separate connection dedicated to sound only. All my devices are connected to the Samsung connect box and from this box there's 1 optical cable to my receiver. You've told me earlier that this optical cable does not support multichannel PCM, but I don't see any other way to get the sound from Apple TV via the connect box to my receiver since there is no other connection available on the Apple TV.

Using ARC between TV and receiver gives me other problems like unwanted switching on or off my TV.

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Answer 2

Aug 15, 2019 4:08 AM in response to Caramba53

Optical cable doesn’t support Multichannel PCM, then the TV will do some unknown audio processing of its own. So best to change the Audio Format on your Apple TV to Dolby Digital, to allow passthrough, if you hadn’t already done so.

Adjust video and audio settings on Apple TV - Apple TV User Guide - Apple Support

Settings﹥Video and Audio﹥Audio Format﹥Change Format﹥New Format﹥Dolby Digital 5.1

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Answer 3

Aug 15, 2019 2:13 AM in response to Caramba53

Apple TV has three audio formats available (four if you count Atmos):

Multichannel PCM (decoded to uncompressed from source) up to 7.1 channels;
Dolby Digital 5.1 (re-encoded/downmixed)
Stereo (re-encoded/downmixed)

Just because you don’t see the DD light up, doesn’t mean lesser audio per se.

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Answer 4

Caramba53 Author

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Aug 15, 2019 2:25 AM in response to Urquhart1244

Thanks Urquhart1244. I agree with your closing remark. However, with DD (or any of the other formats you've mentioned) the speech should come from the center speaker and not from all 5 speakers and that's what happening in this situation.

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Answer 5

Caramba53 Author

Level 1

9 points

Aug 15, 2019 4:55 AM in response to Urquhart1244

Thanks for your suggestions. No luck so far. Just a thought. Could it be that 4K content uses so much bandwith on the HDMI cable that there is lesser room for multichannel sound?

Do you think that buying a receiver with 4K HDMI connections could solve this problem?

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Answer 6

Aug 15, 2019 6:28 AM in response to Caramba53

No luck so far.

Bummer. I thought that would have been it.

Could it be that 4K content uses so much bandwith on the HDMI cable that there is lesser room for multichannel sound?

Not really, none of the possible video settings come so close to the limit. Audio bandwidth is less than 1% of the video bandwidth over HDMI.

Do you think that buying a receiver with 4K HDMI connections could solve this problem?

Yes, a new 4K AV receiver should certainly not have such issues. But your current setup should be fixable too.

Have you tried this:

HDMI connection between TV and receiver, both connected through the HDMI-ARC ports (instead of optical).

HDMI connection between Apple TV and TV, any other HDMI 2.0 port.

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Answer 7

Caramba53 Author

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9 points

Aug 15, 2019 6:57 AM in response to Urquhart1244

The moment I connect my Apple TV, the way you've suggested, is the image on the TV downgraded to plain HD. The cause (I guess) is my older receiver wich only supports HD picture but certainly no 4K. I might win back the soundquality, but lose the 4K picturequality. I think I know what I have to do now and your answers pushed me further in the direction of buying a new receiver. I've got one in mind already, it looks like a Denon AVR X3500 is a very good choice.

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Answer 8

Aug 15, 2019 7:44 AM in response to Caramba53

… the image on the TV downgraded to plain HD.

The receiver should only get the audio signal through the TV, and the TV should get the 4K image directly from the Apple TV. Your experience doesn’t make sense to me.

I hope it works better for you with the new equipment. It would be interesting to hear.

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Answer 9

Caramba53 Author

Level 1

9 points

Aug 19, 2019 8:05 AM in response to Caramba53

Last saturday I bought the Denon receiver. As expected, connecting everything went quick and, with the Belkin high speed HDMI cables I bought also, the sound AND all the images are as they should be. Thanks for your input in this matter.

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Answer 10

Aug 15, 2019 3:38 AM in response to Caramba53

Allow me to ask a few more details, to get a good understanding of the situation. How is your audio system connected? From the TV over HDMI, or over optical (Toslink), or other?

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Answer 11

Caramba53 Author

Level 1

9 points

Aug 15, 2019 3:52 AM in response to Urquhart1244

My receiver is a Sony STR DN1010. It has HDMI connections but not in 4K. Therefore the connection between the TV and the receiver is an optical cable.

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Sound of Netflix on Apple TV

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