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Level 1

2 points

Apple TV Optical Soundoutput not working with Sony Home Theater System

I just bought a new apple tv. The setup was pretty simple, with the exception that I cannot get the optical audio output to work with my Sony home theater.

If I switch tha optical sound cable from the apple tv to the cable tv converter box I get sound fine in the sound system, so I know the sound system works fine and is setup to take input thru the optical cable.

Any one experiencing the same problem?

Apple TV

Posted on Oct 1, 2010 3:51 PM

Best reply

Mikethekiwi

Level 1

5 points

Posted on Oct 1, 2010 7:18 PM

Try and see if there is a way of assigning inputs on your receiver. i've got a pioneer receiver and I had to make sure the optical input was assigned to a free component input....i.e. I use the CD input to accept optical audio from the Apple TV

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23 replies

Dec 8, 2010 7:25 PM in response to Maccaguy

Thank you! I was thinking about getting the digital optical cable when I saw the TV and the theater system both have that option. I will try your suggestion and let you know if it works.

Fingers crossed!

tgibbs

Level 1

70 points

Dec 8, 2010 10:17 PM in response to Maccaguy

A lot of low end systems being sold as "home theater systems" are essentially DVD players with speakers, and lack any provision to accept a signal from another source.

Onkyo makes some decent, low-priced receiver+speaker systems that include a real receiver with multiple audio and video inputs.

BB Tampa

Level 1

0 points

Dec 15, 2010 8:50 AM in response to newagemac

What if you want to be flexible and want to have either sound from TV or sound from Receiver? Sometimes I may not want the surround sound on as it "fills the whole house up!". If my kids want to watch something on Netflix or rent an iTunes TV show, I may want the sound to just come from the TV as opposed to the Receiver. Would the following setup work: HDMI from ATV to TV; Optical Audio from TV to Receiver. So, if I want sound just from TV would this work OR would it "always" try to send sound through the Receiver???

newagemac

Level 2

245 points

Dec 15, 2010 1:21 PM in response to BB Tampa

Yes you can do that if you have the right equipment that supports it. I have a Sony TV and Sony Receiver and the TV allows you to switch from the TV speakers to the external speakers and back. And if you turn off the receiver, it can automatically switch to the TV speakers and when you turn it back on again it can automatically switch back to the receiver.

Jan 25, 2011 10:17 AM in response to Cano44

Ok, its *END of Jan 2011*...
By brother got me the AppleTV for my birthday (ain't he sweet!)...
I have a high end Marantz receiver. This is a $4200 older SR-14ex model receiver. There is no receiver to this day that has the clean power in a amp/receiver unit. If you want better you will need to purchase seperate amps. Nuf said about it..BUT, its old-er. So I run HDMi from APTv direct to the LCD, and the Optical from the ATv to the Marantz optical input....This either gives sound only, or no sound, video only(doing reboot cycles to the ATv. The Apple TV looks like the limiting factor as it maybe forcing to pair sound and video via HDMI, or do I have some setting "off"(both def of the word)?

Thanks for any imput. I read the posts and there is nothing very clear. One guy did try to suggest doing what I do, but there is no feedback. HELP..do I just use this as a Hocky puck?! Oh, I also have a DLO HomeDocHD that is the og firmware and I get OPTICAL out direct from an iPod/phone device. It does have an Hdmi out, if that would solve something?

Jonesy74

Level 1

0 points

Aug 8, 2011 6:46 PM in response to Raffi_likecoffee

HI Everyone,

Here is my fix for this -

I had the same problem and then read on another site somewhere that changing to a short .5m optical cable fixes the problem. I've had a lot of experince in fibre optic termination commercially so I kinda doubted that the length would make too much of a difference especially over a metre or two - but guess what - it does.

The previous cable I was using was 2m and it works fine with other devices but not the Apple TV.

The only conclusion I can come to is that the optic output driver is low level or something strange like that.

FYI it's connected to an archaic Sony shelf system (with mini-disc player - just to prove how archaic) so all this chatter about compatibility and stream formats etc should go out the window as well 🙂.

Note that I have only used the ATV for playing music out of iTunes.

Good luck and I hope it fixes your problem as it did mine.

Regards,

Chris.

DomSmith

Level 1

0 points

Aug 27, 2011 5:57 PM in response to Mikethekiwi

"Try and see if there is a way of assigning inputs on your receiver. i've got a pioneer receiver and I had to make sure the optical input was assigned to a free component input....i.e. I use the CD input to accept optical audio from the Apple TV"

This solved my problem. Mikethekiwi, thanks for posting this suggestion. I've never gotten my Apple TV 2 to output sound until today. I had to assign my digital input on my Pioneer receiver to match the optical cable coming from the ATV.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Sep 22, 2013 10:44 AM in response to Cano44

I bought a basic Sony DVD/home theater system from Walmart, but soon noticed that I will only be able to use it with DVD's being played from the system. All fine and dandy, if i actually were to use DVD's still. I stream all my media content to my TV with my Apple TV2.

Buyer beware and do you research (dumb *** me). Make sure you read the tech specs of the device you are buying.

You live and you learn i guess. 🙂

Apple TV Optical Soundoutput not working with Sony Home Theater System