Apple TV 4K sound setting either DD5.1 or Atmos ??

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Apple TV 4K sound setting either DD5.1 or Atmos ??

What in the f...ing h*ll is this.. You can not be serious about not being able to have both Sound settings on per default.

As i can figure out is if you have Atmos set up on your ATV then you wont get DD. But if you disable it you can get it.

Seriously this makes me wanna return the device.

I do have an Atmos amplifier. But i sure as **** wont sit and change the sound settings every time i watch something when this freaking works in my Nvidia Shield..

Will this be changed in the future or will it stay like this?

Posted on Sep 11, 2020 1:22 PM

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Answer 1

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Urquhart1244

Level 10

146,184 points

Sep 11, 2020 8:38 PM in response to Wollabille

Keep the Audio Format on Auto. That will output in the best quality, i.e. decoded to PCM Multichannel (up to 7.1). The Dolby Digital 5.1 setting is only to be used as a fallback if the former is not compatible with other equipment. The Dolby Digital 5.1 setting is a re-encoding of the decoded PCM Multichannel anyway.

It is a very intentional feature. There are no indications that this will change.

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Answer 2

Wollabille Author

Level 1

7 points

Sep 13, 2020 10:04 AM in response to Urquhart1244

@Urquhart1244

I do not agree.

When choosing auto sound quality it should change to either of the formats it's supports. At least thats what i understand of Auto. But for some reason i only get sound out of my 2 front speakers = its only stereo its playing.

This guy explains it and shows it perfectly in this video. Although his TV OS is an older version and mine is uptodate. It shows exactly whats happening with mine as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-VnDQxtn_Q&t=87s

The difference in his and my setup is that i use a HDMI 2.1 to get sound through and he uses the splitter.

But as mentioned. If we change to 5.1 then it plays DD 5.1 fine!

And again my receiver works fine i get all the sound formats from DD+ to DTS and ATMOS on my Nvidia Shield.

So if this is working as intended then its a **** feature.

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Answer 3

Wollabille Author

Level 1

7 points

Sep 11, 2020 11:56 PM in response to Urquhart1244

But the thing is it does not Play the intended sound if i play something from lets say netflix or prime!

If i find something that has DD as the sound it just plays as multichannel on my receiver. But if i change it from auto in the settings to DD. Then it works.

My device works fine. Since i have a NUC with Kodi connected and a Nvidia Shield. These two devices can play all sound formats and are changing accordingly of whats being played.

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Answer 4

Urquhart1244

Level 10

146,184 points

Sep 12, 2020 4:58 AM in response to Wollabille

If i find something that has DD as the sound it just plays as multichannel on my receiver.

Works as intended. This is a lossless format conversion, i.e. same quality. It also allows the Apple TV some audio manipulation, like sound overlays and a Reduce Loud Sounds feature.

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Answer 5

Wollabille Author

Level 1

7 points

Sep 14, 2020 1:19 AM in response to Wollabille

Several people have posts about this issues amongst others this here

https://www.reddit.com/r/hometheater/comments/ecqmcb/problem_with_dolby_digital_on_apple_tv_4k/

Yeah it does not have passthrough that i can live with.

But what i can't fathom is that the device is supporting DD and DD+ and im fine that it doesnt support DTS etc.

But when you set the sound to Auto and it clearly in Netflix, Prime or HBO clearly shows 5.1 it never changes to that. Only to stereo.

Here is where its faulty and there should be a fix for this.

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Answer 6

Urquhart1244

Level 10

146,184 points

Sep 14, 2020 4:23 AM in response to Wollabille

Audio Format: Auto will require a HDMI connection to your receiver. PCM Multichannel is not compatible with other connection types, including optical and wireless for the connection to your receiver. Also, the receiver should be compatible with PCM Multichannel for such use.

Additionally, for Atmos, a direct connection between the Apple TV and AV receiver is recommended, as ARC connections do not have the bandwidth for the high bandwidth form (Dolby MAT) that Apple TV uses.

Play audio in Dolby Atmos or surround sound on your Apple TV - Apple Support

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-VnDQxtn_Q

Victor Mendez uses an HDMI Audio Extractor (not an HDMI splitter as he keeps calling it) that may cause some the issues that he experiences, for his wish to be able to use either the TV or receiver without the other. He uses the optical connection to his receiver, which is not HDMI and not capable of PCM Multichannel, which then reverts back to PCM stereo as common denominator. He talks about the Auto setting as passthrough, which it isn’t. ‘Auto’ decodes any compatible audio stream into PCM Multichannel (up to 7.1). He doesn’t detail his connections, setup, and receiver capabilities enough for evaluation. But I don’t want to go into discussing his situation any further, as for this discussion, only your setup matters.

If you are using an optical cable to your receiver, than you are not getting Atmos sound anyway. If using this, you get any sound from an Atmos source, then maybe one of your other devices is converting to DD 5.1 instead?

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Apple TV 4K sound setting either DD5.1 or Atmos ??

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