Netflix Dolby Atmos problems with new Apple TV 4k

Same problem here, but the audio drops out with every streaming channel when set to Dolby Atmos, It is unwatchable and is only solved when switching to 5.1 surround, Then no dropouts at all. This is unacceptable and I really hope apple pulls their finger out and finally acknowledges that this is a serious issue that many users are experiencing.

I watched a movie on Netflix over the weekend that was shown in 4K, DV and Dolby Atmos. I was getting dropouts every 5 minutes or so. So I would rewind the movie 10 seconds and then hit play and the sound would then work where it had dropped out. This went on for about 20 minutes. Not sure why I didn't give up then. But after about 20 minutes, the dropouts stopped completely during the remaining 90 minutes of the movie. I didn't try anything else on Netflix over the weekend.

I watched the fist 3 episodes of The Boys on Amazon with Dolby Atmos without a single problem

I purchased a Roku Ultra for $69 on Amazon and so far it's working flawlessly with HDR and Atmos on everything I can test. The only think I miss from the Apple TV are my pictures but at least now I can watch content without worrying that it's going to mess up. As a bonus it also supports passing the audio stream directly to the receiver/processor.

Well I didn't have this issue after the last update. But I hadn't really watched any Apple TV + shows, but now I'm watching For All Mankind and I get the same issues, I skip the advert at the beginning and the sound goes... sort it out Apple, it's embarrassing your £199 device plays all other media apart from your own with sound!

Not sure if it has already been posted, but in another forum (Martin Logan owners) some users have mentioned that switching the connection to wifi from hard wired ethernet helped. It didn't completely eliminate the Atmos dropouts, but it helped reduce the number of occurrences. Figured I'd mention it here to see if anyone here has tested it or not. Otherwise, this needs to be fixed by Apple. It only happens with my Gen 2 ATV4K. I have already replaced it once and the same issue. My Gen 1 ATV 4K works flawlessly.

I've been dealing with this and have had a ticket open with Apple support since last year; wanted to give my most recent update. As described by everyone here, get dropouts/pops with Atmos content on gen2 4k units, and confirmed it was the Apple TV at fault.

Apple already provided me a replacement, which didn't work. Got bumped to level 2 support who allegedly talked with Apple engineers who suggested a new cable (at this point I had replaced everything in my signal chain already, including cables). But, okay whatever, I'll jump through your hoops to move the ticket forward. They were supposed to send me a Belkin cable to try. After waiting forever on this cable I just went and bought 2 cables myself (cables never did arrive from Apple) and unsurprisingly, the new cables were no help.

Despite me pinging my support ticket every few weeks for updates, Apple support stopped responding around the fourth week of January. Fast forward to this week when I had the time and patience to call into Apple support to ask WTF was going on. Got got escalated to level 2 supervisor. They have offered to "repair" my device and have sent a box to ship it. She couldn't confirm what would actually be repaired, nor if the repair would actually solve the issue, but this is what she said she discussed with her colleagues as a resolution. I suspect it to be BS and just something to appease an obviously annoyed customer.

Has anyone else sent their unit for "repair"? If this does indeed fix the problem, Apple is going to have a big bill on their hands, and a lot of PO'ed customers. I'm not at all confident sending it in will resolve anything.

This is what has been a temporary work around for me. When the sound drops, I use the rewind button for the 10 second rewind and replay the section. It plays fine. If the sound drops again, I do the same thing again. Most of the time, after a couple of rewinds, the show will play the rest of the way without a dropout. I did this for Spiderhead. Had a couple of dropouts, did the rewind thing and then it played the rest of the movie without incident.

This still needs to be fixed by someone, however.

I’ve posted on this topic string somewhere previously. I wanted to report back to the community with some additional proof that the AppleTV 4k (new version) along with the latest tvOS is the issue with Dolby Atmos playback. Most of us already know this, but my case offers further evidence.

my setup: hard line +300Mbps internet connection to my ATV, a certified hdmi cable (48gbps) from ATV to a Denon AVR x4700h, and then sound to a 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos speaker setup.

streaming through AppleTV gives me issues on DA content across the board (AppleTV+, Disney+, Apple Music, Netflix). Like most others with the issue, Netflix is the worst.

I recently got a 4k ultra HD blu ray player with built in Netflix app (Panasonic DP-UB820). I can stream all Netflix content through the Panasonic into my Denon and absolutely zero sound issues. None!

The Panasonic is on the same hard wired internet connection and using the same type of hdmi cable. It’s set for bitstream sound output to my receiver.

So, the AppleTV 4k and current tvOS combination is the difference. It just doesn’t work right.

like others have said, hopefully 16 will work properly.

Interesting development. While watching The Umbrella Academy on Netflix this weekend, I noticed that on the show's main screen with all the info, it listed Dolby Vision and 5.1 only. No Atmos was listed. I looked at another show that I know has Dolby Vision and it also had 5.1 for the sound. I have not turned off Dolby Atmos in my ATV 4K settings, so I wonder if Netflix has turned off Atmos for some shows. The DV looked great and the 5.1 sounded fine. I will check again tonight but found this interesting.

I noticed this months ago, where some shows that should be or were advertised as DA were only playing in 5.1. I too wondered if this was intentionally done to avoid complaints of dropouts, but other shows, such as Stranger Things, do play in DA. Perhaps Netflix is weighing complaints of dropouts against complaints for not offering DA. But I also wouldn't rule out incompetence, especially where the DA dropouts are concerned.

The situation I saw wasn't the show info card saying the show as in Dolby Atmos but it only played in Dolby Surround. The info card actually said Dolby Vision for video and 5.1 for audio. And yesterday was the first time I have ever seen this. As I said, I will check to make sure I did not turn off Dolby Atmos in the ATV settings because if I did, this may be the reason the info card only shows 5.1 audio.

So I just got another ATV 4K (2021) brand new that works flawlessly with 4K & Dolby Atmos because it’s on 14.7. Question should I upgrade it or leave it alone? If I don’t upgrade it how do I get rid of the annoying Apple notification to stop popping up to upgrade, when auto upgrade is turned off?

Thanks in advance.

I checked some of those "Atmos" shows that didn't play in Atmos, and it turns out the English stream was 5.1, and it was only the native language stream that was in Atmos. In other words, Netflix advertises Atmos if any one of the audio streams is available in Atmos. This mostly affects foreign produced shows.

Good questions. I too got a replacement Gen 2 that was on 14.7. The dropouts were far less frequent in 14.x than 15.x. However, I caved to Apple's constant nag screens to update (I have a Gen 1 as a backup), and of course the dropouts were a lot more frequent in 15.x.

If you chose to update to 15.x, there are several things you can do to significantly mitigate or perhaps eliminate the dropouts. You can switch from Ethernet to WiFi, and if you you are far enough from the TV screen that 4K isn't discernable from 1080p (as many are), you can switch to 1080p (you still get HDR). My recent posts have more details.

I have 15.5.1 and check every night for an update. Not willing to give up 4K and switching to WiFi from Ethernet did reduce the frequency of the dropouts/echos, but not enough. The only thing I found works is to restart the box before watching Atmos content, and that usually gives me an hour or two. I did that before the 1:15 second-to-last "Stranger Things" episode tonight and had just one of those chopping dropouts; pressing the back button let me get through the scene.

It's such a shame that this kind of work-around necessary and Apple seems either uninterested or incapable of fixing it.