Apple Broke Dolby Digital 5.1 Output on Apple TV 4K

Don't have this problem on a 2nd & 3rd gen Apple TV 4Ks running tvOS 17.5.1 through an AVR and 5.1 speaker system. Indicators for 5.1 playback light up on the AVR and sound is going to the correct speakers.

So apparently not affecting other setups?

I fully agree with your post. When I bought the Apple TV 4k it was (I believe) on tvOS 17.2. Since 17.3, dolby digital has stopped working. Even though you select dolby digital in the settings, it just doesn't work. I've tested my setup with my Xbox and then it just works. Hopefully they will fix this soon!

I am having the same issue with my setup as well. After a recent update I can’t get Dolby atmos through my Sonos system. No apps play Dolby now, I only get stereo. The only thing I can get to play Dolby is apple music.Everything worked until the last update.

The Apple TV is connected to my tv and the Sonos system is connected to hdmi arc. Regardless I think it’s something in the coding of the Apple TV software because everything has worked fine for over a year until the update.

On my 4k Rotel preamp, while I don’t see DTS or Dolby anymore, multi-channel content is detected, but shows up now as Multichannel PCM.

This is as intended. The output is one of Dolby Atmos MAT (when not from TrueHD sources), Multichannel PCM (Auto), Dolby Digital 5.1 (custom), Stereo (custom). The Apple TV box never supported DTS, although select apps may do their own conversion.

5.1 does not work anymore, if I put automatic and dolby atmos in audio settings and dolby atoms is available is showing 5.1, but if movie has only 5.1 the audio show only Stereo PCM.

My setup is ATV 4k 1st gen TVOS 18 LG 55 Evo, SONOS system. This is really annoying. Please Apple fix it.

Hi all, I just noticed that Dolby Digital 5.1 output has been broken in one of the latest tvOS updates. I used to be able to output DD5.1 without a problem (my AVR displayed Dolby Digital on the LCD screen and I was able to hear multichannel from all the apps). Now it doesn't work anymore no matter what I do (and I've tried everything). Interestingly, when I use this video https://youtu.be/21bPE0BJdOA my AVR displays Dolby Digital and I can hear all the channels fine. But every other app I tried doesn't work anymore which is VERY annoying. Hoping Apple will be able to fix this issue (not resolved in tvOS 18.0 which I installed yesterday).

It's getting weirder. In my case, Dolby does not work in any application except the Youtube application, where Dolby sound is emitted even from materials that do not have surround sound.

Apple TV 4K 2017 connected directly to Polk MagniFi 2. Soundbar connected to the TV via HDMI-ARC.

Audio output set to AUTO (but changing this setting doesn’t change anything).

Apple TV to AVR 5.1 Dolby decoding no longer available, just 2.1 PCM since the 18 iOS software update. I’m a United Kingdom customer, for what it’s worth. Apple Tech support, please do your thing…I’ve got movies to watch.

I spoke to Apple Rep a couple of days ago on the phone here in the Netherlands. Explained the problem (he was not aware of it). I pointed him to this topic in de Apple Discussions Group. He said he would make a note but advised to write feedback here: Feedback - Apple TV - Apple which I immediately did last week but Apple has not come back to me until now. (23rd sep)

I took the 2015's Apple TV back to the other apartment where i normally sleep, so i can test that only tomorrow, but, i checked the 2017 and 2022 versions. Neithers can plays back 5.1 audio on the tested contents, which was the trailer for "The Family Plan" and for the "Kingsman: The Secret Service".

But according to the previous checks, the 2015's version will plays back it with 5.1 audio (i will get back tomorrow).

In the past, I never tried to play anything with 5.1 audio from the Apple's own services, so I did not know if it was worked in the past or not.

Edit: Are you sure that the trailers has any 5.1 audio?

Thank you so much. We should indeed continue to send feedback to Apple on this. The number of Apple TV 4K 1st gen, 2nd, gen and 3rd gen users who seem to be affected by this extremely annoying bug is simply too large for Apple to ignore this.