AppleTV audio cuts out and pops on Dolby Atmos audio content

I just had this start happening with my new Apple TV. My old "last year model" Apple TV was fine and worked flawlessly even on iOS 16. I got the new 2022 APPLE TV 4K with Ethernet and now this problem started happening. If I pause the music, even the sound effects have the distorted crackling sound. They sound like light sabers when clicking through the menus.

I think this is a hardware issue.

I have noticed dropping Atmos on Apple TV for at least a year. Watching Jurassic Park Dominion from iTunes now and thought to use Roku to watch it but thought I would try on Apple TV to see if it is still a problem on my setup. Sad to read it is still happening for others.

I don’t understand this either. I wonder if this is a hardware chip level issue or just not on their radar when compared to the masses. I wish we could see their open issues documents.

I will live with my Apple TV 4K but will likely avoid purchasing a new model due to this issue and their failure to even acknowledge what we are experiencing. The Apple TV really is a black box.

Yep that didn’t fix it - also none of the recommendations in this thread have fixed it for me. I’m probably just going to return the Apple tv - this issue makes the Apple tv unusable in my opinion. Maybe I’ll look into the nvida shield again.

Anyone out there utilize a set of Apple Homepods or Sonos style speakers for a Dolby atoms experience that doesn’t require HDMI? Any issues like most here are seeing via HDMI connected sound systems?

Definitely agree this is an elusive issue involving multiple hardware vendors. I think the part that frustrated users is having performance issues with expensive gear, and no communication with their customers. It is a black box and deeply frustrating when a 1-2 trillion dollar company has no customer facing appreciation or ownership of this customer experience. With their resources, it seems like there is no reason they could not get to the bottom of this if they really wanted too.

The audio dropouts between the Apple TV 4K 2nd Gen and both our sets of AirPods Pro is maddening. Disabling Atmos to 5.1 or all the way down to Stereo, doesn't help. Neither does any other setting on the box, logically related or not. Head Tracking (stupid feature) is turned off. Personalized Spatial Audio is on one of the sets of AirPods Pro and off the other. Turning it off doesn't help. The Apple TV 4K is on the latest TVOS and always has been. The two sets of AirPods Pro have the latest firmware. I've tried removing them and repairing them multiple times. We sit line of sight from the AirPods Pro to the box, maybe 8 feet. The AirPods Pro work perfectly with our iPhones and iPads.

So I picked up a couple different sets of $50 Anker Bluetooth earbuds from Target. Both work perfectly with the Apple TV 4k for days on end. No audio dropouts. Apple should be embarrassed.

That is an issue that is specific to your environment, not a problem with the Apple TV. I promise you ATV4K passes through Atmos just fine to a compatible receiver. It is the random Atmos audio drop-outs that are the issue.

Here's my scenario.

Watching a show on Hulu that has any form of multichannel audio >2.0 (not necessarily Atmos) then when the show goes to a commercial with audio that probably is just 2.0 or even mono, the first few seconds of the commercial's audio does not play. It kicks in after 2~3 seconds. Then when it switches back to the programs multichannel audio, again there is a brief delay.

Because if you read what @per118 is describing, it is not the issue we're dealing with, aka Atmos audio drop-outs. He's having difficulty getting the AppleTV to properly output in the codec of his choice and his receiver getting "multi-channel", which I assume is multichannel PCM. For all we know he could have a defective DSP. An old Pioneer Elite receiver I had did the same thing.

Hi All - been reading all these posts - I have the same issue. Bought ATV2022 4K 2022 - no issue with Lg tV and Sonos Arc.

I moved the older ATV4K 1st generation 2017 to my bedroom with a Sonos Beam Generation 2, Sonos Ones surround and Sonos Mini Sub - and when play trailers or content in the Apple TV+ app I get a loud pop and Apple TV & Sonos blanks and reappears / reconnects and strangle Sonos Boost goes into “updating” mode every time - different days

At first I thought older ATV4k 2017 doesn’t support Atmos but clearly it must as it’s appears as an option under sound settings and is selected and shows atmos output in Sonos - but pops are loud and worrisome

so much confusing info on these threads / perhaps I need to disconnect earc (supported by Beam ) or change cables, change chroma or video settings away from 4K Dolby?

or any info or tips from Apple?

Well, update on the Apple TV 4K unit I sent in to Apple for them to attempt ‘fixing’ this audio issue. Worked for a couple weeks and then bricked itself. Just keeps loading the apple logo boot up screen and then shuts down again. This may have been a step back haha

Update: Since my last post when the audio dropouts came back about five days after the reset solved them, they magically disappeared after a few days. It's been nearly a month without dropouts. No idea why, which to me, means they could come back. Hard to have confidence in the system like this.

This is so annoying, the sound cuts are making the game worthless.

Reading this thread from 2022 and is the problem still not solved by apple ?

fix:

changed the audio setting from stereo to mono at my mac and the issue is gone.

I have a similar problem, but it's ONLY Apple Music that displays the symptoms when playing Atmos content. After a period of time (sometimes as short as five minutes or us to 30+ minutes), the sounds suddenly starts crackling and popping and the only way to fix it is to stop playback, switch to another input on the AVR, then back and restart the music (which always fixes it).

Movies or TV shows are just fine / rock solid from the same AppleTV and receiver.