tvOS 26 - Atmos upgrade broke legacy Dolby Digital Surround Sound

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tvOS 26 - Atmos upgrade broke legacy Dolby Digital Surround Sound

After tvOS 26 upgrade - all native audio moved to Dolby Atmos and broke legacy Dolby Digital stereo head end. Dialogue in Apple TV+ shows and other native Apple media player Atmos audio is gone now. The only way to get it back is to switch the audio to stereo only, which ruins the surround sound experience. The conversion 5.1 in audio settings does not work. Is Apple going to fix this? It's really ruining the audio experience and you can't downgrade to the previous tvOS. Making me want to cancel Apple TV+. Does anyone have a work around that doesn't kill my surround sound? Stereo is a Denon AVR-S570BT.

Posted on Dec 2, 2025 3:46 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

LJIndiana Author

Level 1

23 points

Jan 8, 2026 10:58 PM in response to aut0maticdan

I factory reset my entire stereo headend and reconfigured it, same with my TV, put both in passthrough mode and switched the Apple TV to 5.1 and suddenly it started working again. It was really weird because I did all those setting changes before and it never worked till I factory reset my stereo headend and TV. It was caused by tvOS26 upgrade, but once I factory reset and reconfigured all the connected pieces - it started working normally again. All the settings were returned to where they were before the factory reset, so not sure why it's working now. But hey, it's working again.

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Answer 2

Jgantes

Level 1

28 points

Jan 12, 2026 11:58 AM in response to Jgantes

UPDATE

Sharing in case it helps anyone else. Can’t explain why this fixed my issue (for now).

Set audio output on Apple TV to 5.1. Immediately my receiver picked that up.

Set audio output back to AUTOA on the Apple TV.

powered off receiver. Restarted Apple TV.

now it auto senses stereo vs 5.1 again.

so weird.

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Answer 3

Dec 2, 2025 8:23 AM in response to LJIndiana

Multichannel PCM 5.1 (best sound + restored dialog)

Disable Atmos only → keep DD5.1

As a last resort: Stereo only (functional, but kills surround)

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Answer 4

Jgantes

Level 1

28 points

Jan 12, 2026 8:48 AM in response to LJIndiana

doing some research sound like it may be explained by …

Audio passthrough changes in tvOS 26

2.Some users report that Apple TV now decodes bitstreams internally (LPCM) rather than passing them through unchanged, and that may confuse older TVs/receivers when relaying Dolby Digital via optical (which is limited by spec)

3.Optical (SPDIF) inherently cannot carry Dolby TrueHD, Atmos, or high-bitrate multichannel formats, and sometimes a device will fallback to stereo when it thinks the downstream chain won’t support it.

just some summary data for everyone to chew on…

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Answer 5

LJIndiana Author

Level 1

23 points

Jan 11, 2026 7:47 PM in response to Jgantes

Best I can tell, make sure all devices are in pass through and that the TV and any other device in line has Dolby Atmos off. Outside that, it’s a confounding issue.

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Answer 6

LJIndiana Author

Level 1

23 points

Dec 2, 2025 4:50 PM in response to azaksalmarzur28

That is not how it works since tvOS 26 was installed. Multichannel PCM (Auto mode) & DD5.1 both lose all dialogue and quiet sound overall - the only one that works is Stereo Only which kills the surround as you state. There is no option available to turn off Dolby Atmos on my Apple TV. That is the reason i created this inquiry. My stereo head end is compatible with Dolby Digital and before tvOS 26, DD5.1 worked just fine. Dolby Digital 5.1 compatibility is broken with tvOS26 - when is Apple going to fix this? I should not have buy a new head end unit when Apple has a DD5.1 compatibility mode.

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Answer 7

Rudegar

Level 10

180,396 points

Dec 30, 2025 3:15 AM in response to LJIndiana

we are not Apple, and know no more than you do, one would of course assume and or hope they fix stuff that breaks

you can try to reach out to their official support to get news

Get Support (apple.com)

And or

Contact - Official Apple Support

And or

Contact - How to Contact Us - Apple

and of cause give them feedback

Product Feedback - Apple

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Answer 8

Jan 5, 2026 12:42 PM in response to LJIndiana

I have a broken soundbar at my house and one at my parents related to this issue. Switching to stereo is the only thing that resolves it.

OP can you confidently say that it always outputs Atmos? 5.1 is still an option, however it no longer functions on my devices. I do not have an atmos device to confirm the signal that it is putting out. My pulse soundbar 2i just panics and power cycles.

At this point I cannot tell if the AppleTV is no longer putting out a 5.1 signal as OP suggests or if it broke/narrowed its ac-3 bitstream in a way that my device does not support.

does anyone have a 5.1 system without atmos support that is working?

Either way, we really need a legacy mode back. I’m very happy with my bedroom system and have no intention of going through the expense, hassle and environmental impact of throwing out perfectly good hardware that sounds amazing. My rear speakers are currently just decorations.

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Answer 9

LJIndiana Author

Level 1

23 points

Dec 29, 2025 9:32 PM in response to azaksalmarzur28

Is there any plans by Apple to fix this? Stereo only is a poor experience for such a high end streaming box.

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Answer 10

Jgantes

Level 1

28 points

Jan 11, 2026 7:41 PM in response to LJIndiana

Same issue since TVOS 26. So frustrating.

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