Stereo - no surround sound

I had the same problem, but just switched Dolby to on, rather than auto, and it works perfectly.

Hi, I was having same issues using only an HDMI Cable. I went to settings, and turned the 5.1 surround sound from "auto" to "on" position. Went back, and re-opened a different movie. The 5.1 surround came on right away!

I spent a couple hours on this tonite, because the "auto" to "on" suggestion wasn't working for me. I don't have a lot of surround content, as I haven't loaded my DVDs into iTunes yet. I downloaded a trailer for "I am Legend" that was HD (1080p) and AAC 5.1 (loaded into iTunes), but no luck. This *should* have worked. It was definitely a surround-sound video, so I spent some time figuring it out.

First, my setup: I have the optical running from ATV to receiver, but it's an older receiver. I can definitely decode DD signals (using the same optical cable and the same optical input on the receiver) from broadcast (OTA) HDTV and from a BD player playing a DD DVD.

But, then I started to read that AAC is different than AC-3 (I should have known this, but I didn't think of it). So, it turns out that my receiver's optical input can only decode DD/AC-3 surround sound - it can NOT decode AAC surround sound!

I don't think any of Apple's videos use AC-3 (they all seem to be AAC), so I need to upgrade my receiver. You can play AC-3 content thru 3rd-party ATV apps like Plex. So, if you have an older (picky) receiver that can't play Apple's AAC surround format on the optical input, you might want to give that a try.

A SOLUTION POST

This thread is an oldie but a goodie.

Below worked for me.

Problem: MKV to M4V via Handbrake ATV2 profile (1st channel AAC/DPL, 2nd channel AC3/DD). No audio when playing with ATV DD settings 'on' or 'auto'. ATV DD 'off' plays stereo.

Solution: Play M4V. Hold down select to select audio channel. Select other channel. Select original channel.

Viola, it works!

I don't know why and I've only tested with one file.

If I find a more automated solution like ripping options, I'll post.

An update.

I'm not exactly sure what is going on but it appears ATV2 remembers the previous audio track setting. If I use select to change to the DD track then it will continue to play the DD track for other files.

From this, I now know if the audio is silent I'll switch audio channels and it should work.

It is weird if I want to listen to the non-DD channel then I have to disable DD.

This seems like an ATV2 bug.

Thought I'd add my experience here too.

I was having trouble getting surround sound from Blu-ray rips converted in Handbrake and then played via ATV2. Following advice here, I switched the Dolby Digital setting from Auto to On and subsequently my receiver was able to recognize the DD audio track being passed through. On my rips, I encode a stereo AAC track (for playing on iDevices) and a 5.1 AC3 track (for the ATV). Sometimes I have to go and make sure I've picked the right track once the movie starts playing (hold down center select button on ATV remote during playback).

One more note for others to be aware of, because at first I thought it might have been my problem:

I wasn't sure if Handbrake would be able to convert the HD (lossless) audio track into a regular (lossy) Dobly Digital 5.1 track that ATV can then pass through. Apparently, Handbrake can indeed handle this, both from Dolby and DTS sources, if you simply select the AC3 codec and 6 Channel Discrete mixdown options. You can leave the bitrate at its highest setting.

As others have mentioned in this thread, depending on your AV setup, you may need to make sure you are passing the audio through the ATV's optical out and not HDMI -> TV -> receiver... if your TV is like mine, it can't pass along a 5.1 signal through its own optical audio output, so I pipe my sound directly from the ATV to the receiver itself.

I'm not exactly sure what is going on but it appears ATV2 remembers the previous audio track setting. If I use select to change to the DD track then it will continue to play the DD track for other files.

From this, I now know if the audio is silent I'll switch audio channels and it should work.

It is weird if I want to listen to the non-DD channel then I have to disable DD.

This seems like an ATV2 bug.

I had your issue until I found a solution.

Use a program called subler and open your movies with the program. If you see both audio tracks as "enabled" unselect one. I believe the ATV is being confused by having both tracks selected.

I'm still testing but I belive if you leave the AC3 track as selected (and the AAC track as unselected) than the ATV will default to the AC3 when auto is enabled in the audio settings.

However with Dobly Digital set to ON then which track is selected doesn't matter - but they both can't be selected.

Yes very frustrating ...

Can anyone help my problem please?

MY new apple tv 2nd gen , is connected to my tv via hdmi, and tv is connected to my surround sound via scary.

When I play something in apple tv the only audio I get is that of normal digital tv through my surround sound ...

I believe you need to route the HDMI to your surround receiver, and then to the TV. Or, you can use an optical audio cable straight to the receiver. There are not a lot of out-of-the-box ways to connect the ATV, so if your setup isn't one of these Apple-defined setups, you have to get more creative with splitters/converters/etc.

I have struggled with the surround sound issue on my Apple TV2 as well. Interestingly, a movie downloaded from iTunes says it has both Stereo and AAC 5.1 sound tracks. Neither of my receivers can decode that surround sound format (I suspect few can), and that seems to be the crux of the problem for itunes downloads. Surround sound does appear to be matrixed into the stereo track, and my receivers can decode that using Dolby Pro Logic II (I worry that what is actually happening is that the stereo is being upmixed to surround, but internet research suggests the surround sound in this case is being decoded from a matrixed stereo track).

What this does not solve is the lack of surround sound from netflix. I get 5.1 surround sound from netflix played on my PS3, but not for the same shows from my Apple TV2 (unless the surround sound is also matrixed into the stereo when it comes to netflix, which would surprise me). Very frustrating. It is what has lead me to not buy an Apple TV3 for my main TV, and rely instead on PS3's media streaming capabilities. The downside to that I cannot stream itunes movies to my main TV. I have installed a DLNA server on my Macs to stream photos and music from my Macs to the PS3, but DRM movies from iTunes cannot be.

More research has revealed that I was incorrect about Netflix. It is also matrixing the surround sound into the stereo feed. The PS3 automatically detects this and decodes it (gotta love the PS3), but the Apple TV does not, so I need to put my receiver on Dolby Pro Logic II to get the matrixed surround sound.

Had similar problem. I tried it with just hdmi but instead of my denon receiver I used my lower end Yamaha and it worked perfectly. Apparently it doesn't like high end receivers haha go figure.