Netflix Dolby Atmos problems with new Apple TV 4k

I never had these pops and clicks. I have these rithmic mute/unmute on all channels at once. Mostly first few times mute for 2 seconds, then fine, then mute 2 seconds for a while and then all channels start 'stuttering' all at once starting with a very fast rythm that gets a longer and longer period. Hard to explain.

I've had it with other apps as well. But, Netflix by far most frequent and most extreme of them all to a point it is unwatchable once it starts.

I also recently acquired a TV with Atmos and DV and there the apps have no issue. But unfortunately I'm sensitive to framerate mismatch, so yeah there's that. Android 12 can't arrive fast enough. Though, first see then believe... ATV also ticks all boxes but, in practice it really doesn't. Yet.

I will update if anything turns up, if anyone wants to reference my case number, probably the more that complain the better, it’s Case ID: 101629769644. I said I’d help in any way, using real low volume if any testing is involved. For me I can use the Netflix and Apple TV+ Apps in my TV, however, I prefer the picture and sound of the Apple TV. It worked fine for me from June 2021 until around October 2021 with s/w 14.1/2 so seems unlikely to be a hardware design issue?

I used the product support chat feature, which turned into a booked phone call back, within minutes of speaking to them they wanted to hand me over to a specialist… just waiting now…

Seems unlikely to be a hardware issue? I will share my thoughts on that.

First some background. I had a launch day preordered Gen 2 unit that had the Atmos problem. I went to the local Apple store and they decided to order a replacement unit. That was in December. The replacement came with tvOS 14.7. The Atmos problem was still there, but it was very rare. I eventually caved to all the update nag screens (is that really necessary, Apple?) and installed tvOS 15.2. The Atmos problem increased by more than an order of magnitude. However, I also have a Gen 1 ATV4K that works flawlessly, so I can wait for a fix. I joined the beta program and have both Gen 1 and Gen 2 devices connected to my Denon so I can monitor any progress in fixing the problem.

Since the Gen 1 unit works flawlessly while presumably running the same software, and because the Gen 2 unit worked much better with tvOS 14.x, it would appear that the Atmos problem is a combination of software and hardware. What I suspect is at the root of the problem is that the Gen 2 hardware changed in some subtle way that the software wasn’t optimized for. For example, let’s say tvOS 14.x was written asynchronously for some process(es), such that it was counting on an ATV4K with a known hardware speed. When Gen 2 came along, perhaps the higher hardware speed was borderline too fast such that that process could occasionally go out of sync, causing the Atmos problem. This hypothetical scenario would be easy to miss, but should be fixable with a software update. So, to summarize, I believe the problem isn’t likely a hardware design issue per se, but is hardware related and fixable in software. Again, just my speculation after living with and pondering the Atmos problem.

Reading all these posts, I just put my 1st gen ATV4k into living room connected to my Yamaha RX-A1080 and put the 2nd gen which is having the issues into den and it's connected to an old B&W soundbar so no Atmos there. Will see if using the 1st gen with Atmos solves the problem.

For a long time I thought it was the Netflix app and kept restarting the ATV, closing and reopening the Netflix app, and deleting and reinstalling the app numerous times 😡

Glad I finally found this thread

I would have just bought a second 1st gen ATV4k instead of 2nd gen if I had know there would be these issues.

Thanks for your time and effort on this img60, seems like a reasonable analysis…

… I watch several movies and other content a week, all in Dolby Atmos, and didn’t have any of the massive pops/clicks since swapping out a gen 1 to a gen 2 in June 2021. My first encounter was 21 October 202, according to my Netflix activity log, and I’m assuming it was after a s/w update - seem to remember 14.1/2 then into 15?

As mentioned, I can wait too, thanks to a new TV that plays Netflix well and feeds audio to my AVC…

… so there’s a few shows/films I’m starting to watch again. For me I watch as much Disney+ and quite a big Apple TV+ Apps as Netflix and, so far, all programmes have been great (best pictures and sound I’ve seen) in Dolby Atmos with no issues. I know others have had issues with these other Apps, but not me?

I just got off the phone with my advisor and they said they found an issue in the logs and it looked like more of a hardware problem rather than a software problem. They are having me send my apple tv in to them and they are going to test and replace it. Said it stemmed from HDMI somewhere in the chain (Port on ATV, HDMI cable itself, or the receiver). Seeing as I have tried 3 different cables and 3 different receivers, its narrowed down to pretty much only the ATV itself. Hopefully they can figure this out for everyone.

Based on the experience of other posters and myself, a replacement unit does not solve the problem. It is therefore a generic problem and not an isolated hardware issue. Apple should be able to test any Gen 2 unit. I have a Gen 1 unit that has no Atmos problems on the same AVR and HDMI cable with the same software, so I agree that isolates the problem to the Gen 2 unit.

However, the problem is far less frequent on tvOS 14.x, so software clearly plays a part in this problem. I have elaborated in other posts that I believe the problem is somewhere in the creation of the Dolby Atmos MAT 2.0 data stream that accompanies the 5.1 LPCM stream, which would explain why we only have issues with Atmos. Log files can be very difficult to interpret with respect to troubleshooting a problem like this one. Apple’s engineers need to take a step back and look at the big picture for relevant clues, rather than focusing on the log files.

it's disappointing that they are still telling people to swap out their ATV's with a replacement, and still looking at things like:

"...HDMI somewhere in the chain (Port on ATV, HDMI cable itself, or the receivera bad HDMI cable, etc."

I was also told back in December to bring in my ATV and try another one, and they then sent me a replacement HDMI cable when the new ATV did the same thing. It sounds like they are no closer to figuring this out :-(

With my Vrroom I had 3 sound dropouts after I enabled Dolby Vision with Dolby Atmos. After that, I changed my 0.25 m cable with a longer cable from another manufacturer, and the dropouts gone. I also moved my HDMI cable away from power cables and sources (First of all, make sure that the Apple TV power cable does not touch the HDMI cable.) . Almost 2 1/2 weeks without dropouts so far. I watched movies on Disney+ and Netflix and almost every day Ted Lasso on TV+

Here is a recommendation from HDFury:

"It seems there is distortion or surround channel cutting in and out, what could it be?

If anything weird is happening with your video or audio, your FIRST step should be to make sure the

HDMI cables between your source and the VRROOM and between the VRROOM and your TV/PJ are

known to be good at full speed (We recommend Zeskit, Kabeldirekt or Cable Matters from Amazon).

Even if you sent FRL5 video with Atmos over the cables and the VRROOM showed the full 1200MHz

speed, and even if they pass the built-in Apple TV 4K Dolby Vision tests, there may still be intermittent

errors, like distortion or surround channels cutting in and out. Many users finally determined the

problem to be caused by a 1-foot cable between VRROOM and their displays. Use only cables that are at

least 6 feet/2 meters and max 12 feet/4 meters for copper. We recommend using SONOS supplied cable

from VRROOM eARC output to SONOS Arc."

Maybe there's some truth in it?

In my case the issue seems to be software.

It only happens with Netflix. On the receiver it says "Atmos PCM".

When using other apps (Prime, Disney, etc) the receiver only says "Atmos" and there are no dropouts.

My Yamaha RX-A1080 always says 'Atmos/PCM' when playing Atmos content from any app (Netlifx, Disney+,etc)

As others have commented the sound issue seems to be with the 2nd gen 4kTV. I swapped it out for the 1st gen and have had no sound issues at all.

I too am experiencing the same audio drop outs after swapping out my AT4k Gen 1 for a Gen 2 about a week or so ago. I’ve noticed the dropouts in Netflix and Atmos audio content so far. I haven’t had my device long enough to try out much on Disney+ or Apple TV+ etc.

My Anthem Receiver will say “Dolby Atmos” on the display when the audio is working correctly and then says “No Signal” when the audio drops. If I pause what we’re watching and wait for the audio to come back (4 or 5 seconds), and then press play, the audio comes through okay again. My Gen 1 ATV4K didn’t have this problem using the same HDMI, Ethernet cables etc. Pretty much did a straight swap.

I just got off the phone with Apple support and a Sr. Advisor and they don’t have any fixes as of yet. Looking at his internal support database, he didn’t see anything specific to this issue. We need to keep this thread going to get more engineer attention for them to generate a fix.

As others have said, it’s such a pain that you upgrade to the latest and greatest and you get a worse experience.

Same issue here with 2nd Gen 4kTV (Netflix, Disney+, and Apple Music) connected to a Denon X4700H. Also have a Roku Ultra with zero issues with Dolby Atmos.

Purchased it mainly for Apple Music w/ Dolby Atmos and the dropouts are horrible. Had I know about this issue, I would have purchased the Gen 1.

I am in a unique position as I have many systems. So I have 16 ATV4K. All but 2 are Gen1. All of them are connected to an AV receiver.

I am having the dropout problem on only one system. Previously, this location had an ATV4K Gen1 and was having the dropouts on that one as well.

The affected system is running 7.2.2 and has a Denon AVR-X4400H receiver. Audio goes through HDMI. I have other systems that are running an Atmos speaker setup (only 2, all of the others are either 7.1 or 5.1) and none of them have audio dropouts. The other 2 systems that are running Atmos speakers have a Yamaha and Onkyo receiver.

The audio dropouts only affect the Netflix app.

Rebooting the ATV4K causes the dropouts to decrease significantly. I might get one dropout every 10 mins.

Well. Got the replacement ATV. Tested it and immediately had dropouts on atmos. Of course they closed my case when they sent the replacement so I had to call and reopen that. Tried watching heavy atmos content tonight and experienced my audio switching from atmos to Dolby digital during the cutout and not coming back until I restarted the show (drive to survive). Will get this sent to my new advisor. Also pointed them to this thread again noting how many pages and people are having this issue. I will keep at this.