Netflix Dolby Atmos problems with new Apple TV 4k

"They are having me try WIFI only for now as well."

That is interesting. I have never seen mention of Apple support recommending WiFi. Could Apple's engineers actually be investigating the Atmos problem, or reading their own forum? Better late than never.

I just tried to lodge a complaint with Netflix with little success. The support person had me play lots of content, as if I can replicate the fault at will (as if that was going to happen).

Within seconds of the chat concluding, I lost sound to the Witcher, typical.

So, I don't know how to approach Netflix. Unless I try again and find somebody a bit more willing to listen. Certainly the person I did speak to had no interest in this thread.

Going through the motions, doing what is asked of me by Apple.

I haven’t had issue with anything other than Netflix content. I watched Apple TV+ all afternoon without issue.

Should that change, I will inform Apple support accordingly.

All I can tell you is, I watched the Essex Serpent and the new Attenborough program on dinosaurs without issue this afternoon at the behest of the Apple rep.

Tried the Witcher and Stranger Things when chatting to Netflix and they requested I report both programs via their website. At least that gave me the opportunity to share the link to this thread because their rep wasn’t interested.

Update:

Apple support call escalated a message to engineering a few days ago.

Return call today from Apple support.

Apples engineering's position: "It's Netflix's problem"

Yikes!

Time to start firing this story off to every tech Youtuber and every tech blogger.

Ive helped fight Apple before - the only thing that gets these problems fixed is bad press.

FlexGate, MBP keyboards, etc.

Im only speaking from experience bro-cha-cha. I don't have Disney or Paramount - so I can't experience it - and most people complaining about "Disney" or "Paramount" aren't listing specific shows/episodes.

However Im now echoing that its other apps/programs as well (Disney/Paramount) to Apple and about 10 tech blogs I emailed today.

Time to start making lots of noise.

I also have a call into Dolby waiting for a response - going to push for Apple certification for the Apple TV to be removed (figure that ought to get someones attention).

Ok, so i do understand what is discussed in this thread and its workarounds. I have made no changes. I removed ethernet from one device (and its working. The other is working with ethernet). I will not change 4k to 1080p as that is just a BS fix and a nonsensical workaround. As I’ve said before, currently my setup is working correctly so what is your point?

At that distance you can’t tell the difference between 1080p and 4K. In fact, you are only just within range to see any benefit from 1080p over 720p. I know what I am taking about, as I have a similar situation in our family room where I am 16’ from a 85’ 4K TV, which we only use for casual viewing. In my home theater I sit 7’ from a 75” TV, so 4K does make a difference. There are lots of TV viewing distance calculators available online. I suggest you take a look.

I am at a complete loss why you would call this “a BS fix and a nonsensical workaround.“ When I suggested this workaround, and in follow up posts, I was very clear that it was best for those whose seating distance was too far to benefit from 4K, such as yourself and, I suspect, the majority of viewers.

I was only trying trying offer several effective workarounds that I found during my troubleshooting. Personally, I don’t use either of them, as my workaround is to use my ATV4K Gen 1 (or Roku Ultra or Sony TV apps). If I didn’t have other streaming options, I would switch to WiFi, as at 7’ from my 75” TV, I benefit from 4k. If I were 10’ or more from my TV, I would force 1080p and use a wired connection. Note that the WiFi option isn’t completely free of dropouts, while the 1080p option should be, based on my limited testing with DtS.

"At that distance you can’t tell the difference between 1080p and 4K. In fact"

You can but it depends on how picky you are and your eyesight. The source totally matter too as most streaming is a step down. My 1080 blu-rays look as good or better then cable for sure and most streaming. 4k streaming is a joke for the most part it's somewhere closer to what 1080 should be. Even if you have 4k blu-rays a lot of movies and shows are not shot in native 4k and so on. It more about the bandwidth and maybe better compression that a 4k stream may have.

The main thing is at most any in a home distance I can totally tell when something like Prime is toggling between 480/720 then 1080 and then 4k as the connection settles. It's not doing that as much and never seems to happen on Netflix but it was a good way to see the difference.

The TV viewing distance calculators are based on someone with 20/20 being able to distinguish details that are 1/60th of a degree apart. They are based on the eye's physiology and math. I have no reason to question them, since they are consistent with personal experience.

We are only talking about streaming on the ATV4K and 1080p versus 4K resolution. Of course Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray offer better quality than streaming, largely due to bandwidth, as you stated, but 4K Blu-ray also benefits from wider color gamut and HDR, so the difference goes beyond just resolution and compression.

Refreshing to come across an informed post.

If I were too far to benefit from 4K, as I'd wager the majority here are, I would rather watch virtually identical image quality and enjoy Atmos without dropouts, than turn off Atmos or deal with the dropouts.

If folks don't understand the science behind the TV viewing distance calculators, that's fine. I am not trying to convince anyone -- I am just trying to offer some sound advice that some will and have benefited from.

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.

I'm on 15.6 and watched The Sea Beast on Netflix all the way through with no drop outs at all. I did notice that an update to the Netflix app was applied on Sunday (I believe). There was a little blue dot under the icon. Whether that has anything to do with no drop outs, who knows.

BTW, if you are running a 4K set up, The Sea Beast is a demo worthy film. Utterly gorgeous film...superb animation, very colorful and just looked beautiful on my Sony A80J. I enjoyed the story as well. But I highly recommended just to see the fantastic presentation.

I purchased an ATV4k to replace a Roku when it was on sale and am having these problems also. I didn't notice it until I watched a couple of things on Netflix and I wound up watching on the internal app of my TV. I couldn't figure out what was going on and came across this thread.

I had thought about keeping it since some people seem to be reporting improvement with tvOS16, but I think it's going back. I'll follow the thread and if this actually gets ironed out in the final O\tvOS release, I'll consider picking one up again down the road. I like the ATV generally, but the Roku worked great and this seems to be more trouble than it's worth for little benefit.

It's a shame that this problem has been reported and going on for as long as it has.