Netflix Dolby Atmos problems with new Apple TV 4k

Agree. I will turn off Dolby Atmos sound before I watch a 1080P show over a 4K show if I have a choice.

I have 15.6 running on mine. I had to walk my wife through how to turn DA off in the settings bc Severence on ATV+ kept doing the helicopter/choppy thing this weekend.

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I also now have seen the issue a few times when using e-ARC, though not nearly as often as when the Apple TV4k is directly attached to my Denon avr6700H hdmi ports. It’s always during Dolby Atmos though.

I assume they will fix it eventually but it does suck that I don’t have these issues on my much cheaper Roku or when using the LG built in apps.

So after swapping out my Apple TV 4K with a new one, the problem remains the same;

Got it last night within the first few minutes of "The Silent Sea" on Netflix (which is a Dolby Vision/Dolby Atmos show)...sounded like static coming from the speakers.

So when i talk to Apple again on my case i will tell them its definitely not a hardware issue.

After replacing my 2021AppleTV 4K with a new one didnt help, I called Apple Support back to update my case and to let them know that I am still getting the same audio drops, static, etc., ...more or less proving it isnt a hardware issue.

They had me upload logs from the Apple TV 4K and I provided exact times when it happened, so they can hopefully see something in the logs that can tell them what's going on.

So when i go into the "Video and Audio/Audio/Audio Output" page under Settings on the Apple TV, it seems to alternate between "Default Audio Output=TV Speakers" and "Default Audio Output=Receiver Speakers"

There seems to be no way to change this setting on the Apple TV...it just figures it out automatically somehow. But why would it ever change? I mean the Apple TV is connected directly to my Denon and obviously all the speakers are connected to the Denon. Why would the Apple TV think it was going to send output to my TV Speakers on one day and to the Receiver the next?

Seems like it is confused as to what it's hooked up to. Is it trying to figure out the speaker layout/connections so it can know what type of Atmos metadata to send out of the HDMI connection. And since it is doing the decoding/uncompression instead of the Denon (due to no passthrough option), does the Apple TV need to know how many speakers i have hooked up (e.g. 5.1, 7.1, number of height speakers, etc.)? if its getting confused then who knows what garbage it is sending out to my Denon receiver :-(

ZimFromIRK wrote:

Just pass through the audio. What's the benefit in the ATV doing it -- other than to work with TVs that can't do the decoding themselves?

This is really the biggest flaw of the ATV. I keep a 2015 Nvidia Shield around just because of HDMI passthrough on Plex.

I bought the newest version of the ATV just to watch DV + Atmos content, which hasn't been the flawless experience I was hoping it to be. Although to be fair, since the last update and forcing a restart of the ATV, I haven't experienced the issue of Atmos audio shutting down for like 10 seconds every 15-20 mins.

The argument about the Apple TV not passing through audio to the AVR has been raging since the introduction of the Apple TV. People apparently want to see their AVR’s display showing the encoding and are confused when all it says is “multi-in” or “PCM". Why Apple does this is anyone’s guess. Could be licensing, could be engineering, could be a reason we don’t know about. As I said, this argument has been around for many years now and Apple hasn’t budged.

There are two avenues to pursue in my opinion:

1. Keep sending feedback.
2. Get rid of your Apple TV and buy something else.

Some more bad news all.

Running 15.3 Beta 3 and the issue is still occurring :(

A bit of positive news though is that it seems to occur less frequent and when it does, for a shorter period.

I have the ATV behind a remote power switch so I do a cold boot every day I start watching.

I've also provided feedback via apple.com/feedback. The Beta program requests to give feedback via some assistent app which needs to be installed on a Beta iOS!? I don't use an iPhone so not an option. Why not install the assistent app on the ATV for all Beta installations?

Netflix told you it’s probably the Apple TV?

Yeah I just switched to the Shield …I guess time will tell if I ever buy another Apple TV lol…I was driving myself crazy trying to troubleshoot the problem…finally decided to return the Apple to Best Buy and use the $$ to buy a Shield instead so I could stop the obsessive behavior of trying to fix the audio issues on the Apple TV 4K and start streaming again :-)

I am returning my Shield this weekend for this reason. I just installed a new set of issues with the frame rate as you said. If all else fails I will re install my old Apple TV 4K and put the new one where Atmos isn't needed. I am on a support chat with Apple right now, if enough of us escalate this maybe it will get fixed!

Confirmed. Problem still exists in 15.4.

It now mutes regularly for half a second for a while (typically with a lot of audio it seems)

But, when it starts to stutter, it stutters BIG. For quite some time.

The AV receiver display changed quickly to I think pcm, then back to Atmos during that half a second.

This was tested with Netflix "drive to survive". The race part at end of season 1 - episode 2

Definitely not only Denon. My Onkyo does it and I picked up a Denon and that does it as well. The Denon is better, but it’s still there. I am still waiting to hear back from the engineers at Apple. My ticket is still open. It sounds like they know there is an issue.

Yes that’s the decision I made. I returned my ATV and bought a Shield. I was tired of downloading every TVOS update hoping Atmos would work only to have my hopes dashed each time, not to mention all the expensive HDMI cables I bought and the neve ending calls/emails with Apple support…

Yes it is possible to extract logs and send them to Apple; open a support case and they will show you how to do it and also how to upload the logs to them so they can examine them.

i sent several set of logs to them while they were troubleshooting my case but they weren’t able to see anything that helped them identify the cause of the Atmos problems I was having.