AppleTV audio cuts out and pops on Dolby Atmos audio content

Hi, I am also continuing to experience this issue. Purchased Apple TV 4K in feb. Experiencing sound drop out on atmos soundtracks when viewing Netflix. Unwatchable. Last couple of weeks noticed there doesn’t seem to be atmos content when accessing Netflix via Apple TV. Up until now hadn’t noticed any issues when viewing Amazon Prime however experienced couple of dropouts when viewing The Rings of Power last Friday. Not as bad as Netflix though.

Whilst deactivating atmos might stop the drop outs, this kind of defeats the object. If you’ve invested in an atmos enabled system, it’s reasonable to expect atmos enabled content if that’s what you’ve paid for. Wasn’t aware that this issue might be resolved by switching to Wi-Fi but again defeats the object when you’ve invested in cat 6 infrastructure throughout the house.

I decided to wait as long as possible to update to 16 so as to enable any glitches to be ironed out but at the very least it would be helpful if Apple could at least acknowledge an issue. I have seen no reference to this in any tvOS 16 reviews.

Hi guys, mine is same. Was working fine 2 weeks ago and now have the popping and broken speech. Finally illuminated all components TV Sound a bar apps and worked out an Apple issue and just found this forum. Good replace hdmi cables etc……. I changed to stereo and yes solved problem but now sub standard sound through an expensive sound bar. Hopefully Apple fix soon and release an update.

I still get it. I experienced it last night, in fact. Usually the content starts out ok, but eventually maybe after several minutes or sometimes maybe after 30 minutes, the audio will start to cut out and crackle/pop, and then I have to stop the show/movie and start it over again for it to stop.

Same. Audio drops briefly, incessantly. Seems to happen during transitions. We are often missing the first two words a character says. Infuriating. And been going on for a long time now.

Sony 4K TV. Apple TV 4K 2022. Rated 8K HDMI cables. Cat 6e hard-wired Ethernet.

I’m updating now to beta 16.2 to see if it fixes it.

I’ve been having the same issue with a new TV (LG C1) and the sonos arc. It was driving me crazy because I thought it was the new TV and soundbar but I’m glad to see it is just the Apple TV. I really hope that apple releases a new software update to fix this.

I’ve had the same issue at least a year (audio dropping). I called Apple and their suggestion worked on a while. Just reset video… will see. I’m abouts to return because a boat anchor would work better.

I am also experiencing this issue. I now only use ATV4K (I have a 2nd and 3rd gen) for Apple Music, as there is no Apple Music app for any set top box other than ATV. I would use a different music service, but I generally like Apple Music and they currently have the most "spatial audio" content.

I am experiencing dropouts in Apple Music (most of which I seek out and listen to in Atmos), and yesterday I noticed it also happened on stereo content. I have a Shield Pro 2019 and several other HDMI sources and none of them have this audio dropout issue.

I lowered my video settings to 4K SDR @ 30hz - which had no impact.

I've turned off CEC/ARC - which had no impact.

I've tried multiple HDMI cables from 1.4 to 2.1 high speed - no impact.

This issue has persisted across multiple generations of ATV4K.

I’ve had the exact same problem with a 5.12 set up.. I’ve run it off just Dolby Atmos I’ve running on the surroundsound I used to think it was just Amazon until I’ve noticed it does it on every single app I’ve got no solution there’s been an update as of this morning January 18, 2023 and still no solution extremely frustrating I don’t know if I’m gonna try to just bypass running my AppleTV to my sound bar, perhaps running it to the TV and then running an optical cable to my sound bar might fix the issue, but it probably won’t but this is definitely an apple problem and I’ve noticed various bugs a month after I purchased a new 2022 4K Apple TV such a problem like the system volume kicking over to Bluetooth or no plus minus when adjusting volume on the remote so it looks like whatever they’re doing it’s only getting worse

Without going into excruciating detail, the quality of your cables is not the issue here, and I would still bet my bottom dollar that this is an HDMI problem. In fact, many times 8K cables are an exacerbating factor in HDMI issues. It all has to do with the HDMI technology and signaling. This issue is intermittent. I'm glad you're not experiencing it right now and will cross my fingers that it doesn't return for you.

In my case, for example, the Apple TV connected to the TV, every time I play something in digital Dolby, it takes 4 seconds to get the audio. But if I connect the Apple TV to the denon bar, the sound is instantaneous but with several cuts in the first 10 seconds then it continues without loss.

Without a soundbar, it only fails perfectly when I connect the soundbar to the TV. With a 4k fire tv it works perfectly no matter how you connect it.

Best regards.

Unfortunately, that is incorrect. The audio IS being passed through. The ATV4K is not decoding the Atmos stream, it is passing it through to the receiver/pre-pro/soundbar/TV that is doing the decoding. The issue is most likely somewhere in the HDMI chain.

Apple TV translates the audio signal to something that my receiver reads as "multi channel", normally the receiver can read the audio format. I also use an old Popcorn Hour V-ten, this passes audio through to receiver and it decodes it to the correct format, as in my case it cant read "Dolby Atmos" I get "Dolby 5.1+" works great! If you choose Auto in Apple TV everything get to be "multi channel" or if you choose, it is translated to Dolby 5.1 or stereo. If am going to try Nvidia Shield soon. I been an Apple fan to for many decades but I am tired of Apple.

The problem is also Audio cracks and drop outs in Apple TV when you option to Auto, it is possible that Apple TV passes through Atmos, I don't know as I cant use it but everything else Surround is NOT pass through, Dolby Digital, Dolby True HD and DTS Master Audio for example is rendered as Multi Channel PCM. My environment works just fine with everything else as I explained to you.

That's not the Apple TV, that is your receiver switching between codecs. I have a very high end pre-pro and it does the exact same thing, regardless of source. Trinnov users have complained about the same thing on other forums. It's just the nature of the beast at the present time.

I’ve bought and returned 1 Apple TV4K, and am trying a second one. Both running tvOS 16, and on both the sound cuts out for 1-2 seconds every 5 seconds… Completely unusable.

Changed the cable, tried different inputs, a myriad of settings. Sometimes it will work for a few minutes, but the issue always returns. Certainly seems to be a software issue, because no other device has this issue, but I haven’t had any Apple TV long enough to know for sure. I don’t think I’ll find out, because I’ll probably be returning this one too.