Apple TV Optical Soundoutput not working with Sony Home Theater System

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

Did you try going into setup and taking it off ' auto ' ..... ? Maybe that will force the sony to see it...

hey buddy,

How old is your Sony receiver? You have to be careful here because receivers that were made about 2 years ago, a lot of the lower range one only does HDMI pass-through. This means that your receiver only passes both the video and audio signal onto the end points, i.e takes the signal from your apple TV and outputs them onto your TV. It does not split the video and audio stream and send the audio to your home theater speakers. So make sure you plug your hdmi and optical out into the same set of input ports. On most Sony receivers, this device is under the Blue Ray class of input, where it takes video from the hdmi and the audio from the optical. If you have them on two separate class, say, HDMI to the DVD in, and optical in to the blue ray, then certainly when you set your receiver to DVD, you get video and audio on your TV speakers. And when you set your receiver to blue ray, you only get audio but not video.

May be a silly reply, but, does your television have an optical output ? I run my optical line from the tv optical output directly to my home theater receiver and the sound comes out just fine.

Did you set the "Dolby Digital Out" setting to "on" in the Audio and video settings menu?

Message was edited by: Robert Farthing

AV-Receiver with HDMI cabability and the Pass-Trough VS. Switching story is a true thing on older equipment BUT:

What about connecting the Apple TV via HDMI to the Television (Set Volume to Zero) and the optical SPDIF Cable direct to a port on the Sony AV-System?

I couldn't belive that there is no option to play incoming digital audio signals.
This is Basic Stuff a lot of people are doing with the Sat & Cable Set Top Boxes or even Game Consoles since years... what i am saying at least ten years since the days of xbox 1 etc!

I'm having the Sony Receiver dilemma also. So, Apple TV > HDMI > Sony Receiver; then use an optical cable from my Sony TV (optical audio out) > Sony Revceiver. This will work?

If you have an HDMI input on your receiver, you don't need the optical cable at all. Just connect your Apple TV to the receiver with an HDMI cable and you are good to go.

However, to get the best out of my TV I still connect the optical cable from the TV to the receiver so when I'm watching regular TV through an antenna or anything I choose to plug into my TV's inputs, I can still get 5.1 surround through my receiver.

You were right. From Apple TV via HDMI to receiver then HDMI to TV and you can get surround sound. There is a setting in the receiver that lets you determine the mode of sound that you want for each input to the receiver, I picked the mode for my input and it was a done deal . Once cable does the trick. Thanks again.

I just received Apple TV as a gift, but I'm also having problems connecting it to my Sony Home Theater System. I have a Sony Bravia TV and the Sony Bravia DVD Home Theater System. My TV has two HDMI inputs, but the inexpensive home theater system only has one HDMI out jack. Before I received the Apple TV, I had the cable box plugged into HDMI 1, and the home theater in HDMI 2.

I did some research online and found what I thought I needed - an HDMI switch. So I got one, but it hasn't solved my problem...I still can't get the Apple TV to play through the home theater system. I've tried several different setup combinations. Should I just give up and buy a better receiver that has more than one HDMI output?

Your Home Theater system has an HDMI output but no HDMI inputs? I might be wrong but I don't think Sony makes any like that. You should have at least 2 HDMI inputs on your Sony Home Theater System. Connect the cable box and the Apple TV to those.

If you insist on connecting your two boxes directly to the TV, you will need to connect an optical cable from your TV to your receiver to get 5.1 surround sound.

I know, it sounds strange, but I swear there's only one HDMI output. I think it's because the receiver is also a DVD player. (Sony DVD Home Theater System - DAV-DAZ170).

Sounds like I'm SOL. 🙂

I found a manual for your Sony home theater system, and it looks like it's a 'closed' system, rather than one that allows additional components to be added.It looks like you could hook the theater system up to your tv via component cables, and hook the Apple TV and cable box to the tv with HDMI inputs. Then output the tv's audio to the home theater via optical cable.

At least that's one option. 😉

Message was edited by: Maccaguy