Apple Broke Dolby Digital 5.1 Output on Apple TV 4K

This is so frustrating I have been on the same iOS 18 broke two of my ATV audio as everyone else, but now my issues are nuanced even between the two!!!

ATV1 in living room, has finally been solved with an update. It uses eARC on an OLED with a 7.1.2 Atmos setup and everything works great… for now…

ATV2 in the bedroom had the same pcm/5.1 issues but now is fixed…. On the 5.1 side with movies ONLY lol. Wth?!?! Music app only sends 2.0 PCM stereo to my AVR.

ugh. Ticket created. The “it just works” tagline is now in jeopardy to me.

Called Apple support, they said they are aware of the problem and working on it, they opened a case with me so hoping the fix comes with next release 18.2 which seems to be expected in December. Btw I didn’t see anything in release notes for 18.1 addressing this particular issue, not sure how it worked for some people? Or maybe I missed something?

18.1 didn’t work for me, I have 1-st gen 4K. Did complete reset with update but still no 5.1 audio. My AppleTV is plugged to Samsung TV with HDMI, then the audio goes from the TV to AV Receiver with optical cable. Before v18 all worked well since 2019. Now it’s not…

I have a 1st gen 4K and I never got 5.1 audio unless I had change format on. Then when I updated to 18, I lost all ability to get 5.1 even with change format on except for YouTube. Then after updating to an 18.1 (but not the first version which didn't fix it), it is back to working like it did before where I get 5.1 if I have change format on.

OK, unfortunately this did not help me, even though I have the same Apple TV and also version 18.1. I use an optical cable from the Apple TV to my ONKYO receiver. I will try to connect the HDMI from the Apple TV to my receiver instead of to my Samsung TV. Maybe this helps. But I do not think so. Strange that it works for some.

It was compatible before os18, not sure what they did but I used optical cable from TV to AV Receiver and it was working for years and I had DD5.1

Switching from Auto to DD5.1 in ATV still doesn’t make any difference at least for me…I get PCM on Receiver.

Apple TV 4K Gen 1 > HDMI > LG OLED B3 > Optical > Sony HT-RT3

I am on 18.1 and only get 5.1 if I set Change Format to 5.1 whereas it used to work fine having it not change formats. I’d prefer it to just be pass through as it was rather than Apple re encode the audio. Please fix this!

I have the ATV plugged to the Samsung TV with HDMI, then from TV I have the optical cable going to the AV Receiver , with this setup I had DD5.1 on the AV Receiver for last 5 years or so and had 0 issues. So few weeks back, not sure exactly when the tvOS 18 was updated but I lost DD5.1 on Netflix initially. Meanwhile when I was playing some movies from NAS on Fusion player I was still getting DD5.1. But when I did complete reset and Update of tvOS everything stopped working, even the Fusion player isn’t pushing 5.1 anymore. I tried all combinations of audio settings both on ATV and on Samsung TV which btw doesn’t have pass through option. But I didn’t needed that before. So I don’t know what’s happening. Waiting for next tvOS release and hoping something will get fixed as Apple Support told me they are aware of the issue.

I updated to the 18.1 b*** , a while back, and that fixed the issue for me. Since then I've turned off auto updates..

Now I wonder if it's safe to go to the public 18.1, or will that re-instate the issue? (Having issues with Infuse and want to see if changing the OS will fix it.)

I have the Apple TV 4 HD.

I have 18.1 and only "stereo" produces any audio output. Output through Onkyo NR 727 receiver. It used to work (5.1 and dolby atmos) a while back (maybe over a year ago). TV+, Music, Netflix, Hulu and all other sources are broken. If I set mode to "auto", any 5.1 etc. source is totally silent.

I have same problem in tvOS 17.5 with logitech z906,Netflix contents not showing 5.1 while my xbox series s play netflix content in 5.1 audio just fine.

It doesn't matter which you use in the settings.. it only plays stereo pcm

Just manually updated to TVOS 18.1 (22J5543e) and the problem is still there.. I bought this trash because I thought apple were one of the best tech companies in the world hahahaha

”Octopussy” is an iTunes purchase. Apple TV box plays it in 2.0. TVs onboard app plays it in 5.1. Using airplay from iPhone to Apple TV box plays in 5.1. Makes no sense to me at all.

Interesting. I have a first gen model two and lost DTS 5.1 after upgrading to TvOS 18. Other users in this discussion group have reported that 2nd gen Apple TV also lost DTS.