Apple TV 4K 3rd generation eARC sound issues, no problems with Apple TV 4K 2nd generation

LOL, I accidentally upgraded my 2nd Gen 4K on our el-cheapo $95 40" no-name bedroom TV (no sound bar) to 17.2 last night now half the stuff has no sound. Even worse than my LG G2. Apple really blew it on this firmware. I had to disable EVERY audio setting to get sound on everything,

Sorry, maybe I'm missing something with this $99 rigmarole and switching this or that you are going through.

FWIW, it happens on my cheap bedroom 40" Vizio (ATV 2nd gen) with internal speaker as well as my LG G2 with Sonos Arc (ATV 3rd gen).

SIMPLY turning off eArc in your TV settings ONLY (it is under ADVANCED SOUND SETTINGS on my G2 IIRC), and leaving default "auto" settings on on BOTH the LG & the Vizio in my case resolves it 100%. With that said I hear (and see) zero difference in the sound from my Sonos ARC with G2 eArc on or off IN TV SETTINGS or from the plain old internal TV speakers in the bedroom Vizio.

If you want to switch the LG setting on & off depending on what you are watching because (maybe to you) it sounds better, that's fine but what you are doing with all your hardware and splitting HDMI **AND** the toggling the settings ANYWAY seems very over reactive. :D

It is very possible I am missing something here but that's what's working for me. It's also possible my 76 year old ears can't tell the difference with the LG eArc setting off or on but the difference can't be very much. Until (or if) they fix this "bug" just leaving both TV's eArc setting off is painless. :D

Summary:

As of iOS (tvOS) 17, Apple TV 4K Gen 3 and LG TVs do not work together with Dolby Atmos / Dolby 5.1

Apple messed it up with iOS 17. LG and Apple TV no longer work well together, Apple and LG used to work together well until iOS 17.

Sounds interesting. Also just got new G2 update. Will try the TVOS beta.

I’d appreciate it if can you test 1 thing. Download Peacock if you don’t already have it and try streaming an episode from an early season of Chicago PD and lmk if you get sound with your “fixed” config. Also, do you have eArc on the LG set to AUTO? Turning that off was the previous band-aid fix that ALWAYS has worked for me and how I have left it. Never seemed to make a sound quality difference whether set to AUTO or OFF. My test has always been Chicago PD on Peacock.. I think Peacock has a free tier but not sure how or if that affects their default audio.

thanks

Definitely not a cable or bandwidth issue. The cable is a top rated, high bandwidth, eARC compatible cable. 4K video works perfectly fine 100% of the time but not audio. ALL, or most all the problem shows are NOT in 4K. Showtime, HBO, Peacock all have this audio problem on SOME SHOWS. It's definitely an audio issue with certain types of audio on the ATV 4K THIRD GEN. Watching the same streaming app on a Firestick 4K, and on the TV's apps itself are all fine. Using a ATV 4K SECOND GEN it's perfectly fine. Started when I upgraded to the 3rd gen and moved the 2nd gen into a bedroom. Many others have reported the same issue happening on the 3rd gen but not 2nd gen. FWIW this started happening with TVOS 16.

I seemed to have fixed this issue for me (I have an LG G3 TV, Apple TV 4k 3rd gen, Firestick 4K Max and LG GX soundbar) by connecting the ATV directly to the HDMI in on the LG GX soundbar. I can enable e-Arc on all, can switch between ATV and other inputs and get Atmos , 5.1 etc through all. Got to admit it's a bit beyond me these days but i was in to all this stuff a while ago but until this i was contemplating getting rid of the ATV just to simplify things. 100% it is an issue (and an annoying issue) with the ATV but just wanted to pass on my findings cos it works for me.

I found this (not sure if i can post links so will post the text on anaother thread:

'The recommended configuration for connecting an Apple TV to a sound bar is outlined at Set up Dolby Atmos or surround sound on Apple TV with a sound bar or AV receiver:

1. "Make sure that you connect your Apple TV 4K directly to the HDMI input on your sound bar or AV receiver with an HDMI cable. Most televisions don't support Dolby Atmos pass-through to sound bars and receivers.*
2. Plug one end of an HDMI cable into the HDMI output on your sound bar or AV receiver. Then plug the other end of the HDMI cable into the HDMI input on your television"

and:

"Apple TV 4K uses a high bandwidth form of Dolby Atmos that doesn’t work over ARC connections."

If your sound bar does not offer input HDMI, you may need to consult with your TV manufacturer to determine if it supports Dolby Atmost pass-through and if so how to configure that in the TV itself.'

hope that helps someone.

After turning off eArc support, I can control volume through apple tv remote. I can turn on/off the tv using apple tv remote and I can still hear dolby atmos and other sounds.

when I changed this on my TV to pass through it did not disable Dolby Vision or Atmos for me. I have my Apple TV HDMI plugged directly into my TV and my soundbar plugged in via eARC to my TV.

Check the HDMI cable going to your Sonos soundbar. You may not have the bandwidth needed especially if this is only happening when watching 4K content

Too long, even if you’ve had success previously. Anything over 3 feet is inviting trouble. Avoid.

Same issue here been frustrating for the last week trying to figure this out. Reset my Sonos system and nothing, finally swapping the settings to 5.1 and no atmos got me back to where I can at least watch content again without having my right surround blasting dialogue at me. Really hoping they figure this out soon.

Same problem with the latest .2 b3ta but it does seem to have improved just a bit. Get no sound when watching Paramount Plus (unless I switch off (AUTO,ATMOS) to 5.1 only. Some app seem to be better though. It does seem to be somewhat intermittent. It worked in Paramount PLus as it is supposed to then after a day or 2 no sound again. Using eArc & a SONOS ARC soundbar on an LG g2. Didn't have any problems on my GEN 2 Apple TV just the new GEN 3. Moved the GEN 2 to the bedroom TV. My GEN3 is the ethernet version.

The issue of this topic is not “hearing” ATMOS, ATMOS works fine. The problem is when audio is set to AUTO,ATMOS some ATV apps play NO AUDIO if the app or the streamed video is NOT ATMOS so AUTO/ATMOS has to be set off (or whatever the setting is called) and then turned back on

eARC allows you to turn ALL DEVICES on/off with one button. I have 4 devices and with eARC off makes for more button pushes. It’s not just the TV and ATV.

Turning off eARC is just a bandaid on a bug that needs to be fixed. If I only had a TV and ATV to control maybe I could live with the annoying ATV remote.

Sine this bug didn’t exist in my GEN 2 ATV 4K but does on the GEN 3 4K it is an obvious bug and needs to be fixed.

Well, my main two reasons for using the AppleTV in the first place are:

Apple's stance on user privacy is much better than most companies, LG and especially any bargain TVs sell and use our data in ways I don't appreciate.

I have lots of HomeKit Thread enabled devices, so my AppleTVs are hubs in my HomeKit ecosystem.

Also, honorable mentions, it is nice to have the same interface and controller in all of my rooms and devices, and have easy airplay streaming, etc etc.

But this problem is silly. It worked fine up until os17.

And it works fine in many apps. Like I never have a problem in the AppleTV+ app itself.

What that leads me to believe is that in os17 Apple changed something in a framework that requires apps to tweak something - but not all apps have made the tweak. Or maybe Apple changed something and some apps were using an undocumented method or whatever and the change Apple made broke that. You get the idea.

Something changed from Apple in os17 that made several apps kind of lose track of the sound in some way, and the app developers have not fixed it or even know about it.

Very weird. I have the LG G2 and a Sonos ARC which has only 1 HDMI input. Simply turning eARC off on the LG fixes everything and causes no other negative issues. Same problem on 2nd and 3rd gen ATV. All started with TVOS 17 and continues thru the just released version of 17.3 Sonos connected to HDMI 2 which is labeled as eArc on the G2.

If I do what you said (passthru, bitstream eARC enabled or any other audio setting on the LG) I lose ATMOS and Dolby. I can tell because ATV+ app puts "ATMOS thru SOUNDBAR" or "DOLBY DIGITAL" or both on the upper right corner of the app screen. If I set it up as you did that's gone.

So for me, eARC OFF on LG G2 (as well ason our cheap Vizio with no soundbar in the B/R) and everything else as "factory default" on both of our ATV boxes (2nd & 3rd gen, or is it 1st and 2nd? Lost track but it is the newest and previous) worj 100%. Turning eARC off on the G2 has no negative effects to anything including sound and shuttting off other devices. Gotta be TVOS 17.x.